The Pied Pipers of Production: For Its Next Trick, Alloy, Inc. Will Corner the Online Young Adult Market
Two of the most popular stars on YouTube are Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, a couple of overgrown teens with potty mouths and boy-band haircuts. You likely wouldn’t recognize them in a lineup, but their YouTube channel, Smosh, has more subscribers—eight million-plus—than any other on the platform.
The Smosh boys have been churning out installments since 2005, and in any given video, you can tag along as the 25-year-olds bound wide-eyed through a world of their own pointless creation, hamming it up for the camera. And kids these days just love it.
“What’s this?” Mr. Padilla says in a video posted late last month, titled “My Stupid Dying Grandpa!” “It’s my stupid grandpa,” Mr. Hecox replies, shoving his old relation through the kitchen on a gurney. “I have to take care of his dying ass.”
Other videos include such gems as “Pokemon in Real Life!” (32 million views) and “Stuck in a Toilet!” (nearly 13 million views). Read More
