Originally posted: May 30th, 2025 @ 3:26p EST
Updated: May 30th, 2025 @ 7:28p EST

Today, some of the creative minds behind the YouTube giant, “Smosh,” were interviewed by Good Day LA on Fox 11 Los Angeles.

The segment began at 7:57am Pacific Time, with Ian Hecox (co-founder and president) and Alessandra Catanese (CEO), discussing how Smosh started and how they’re continuing the company’s success.

Hecox responds during the interview, about Smosh’s growth, “Here we are now, uh, sixty-three employees and it’s been great, yeah.”

The company was established by Hecox and his best friend Anthony Padilla nearly 20 years ago, when they were just teenagers, bored and dreaming a dream that seemed unrealistic at the time.

“It wasn’t actually a career path at that time.” Hecox states.

At 8:46am, the segment returned with Shayne Topp and Courtney Miller, cast and comedians, to show the viewers around some of Smosh’s main sets.

Topp shared about the famous Saturday episodes of reading Reddit stories,saying, “We read, umm, anonymous stories submitted on the internet about dilemmas, relationships, …we talk about ’em, we laugh about ’em, we relate to ’em.”

In addition, Miller walked the audience through a newish show to the Smosh channel: Culinary Crimes. “Wherever there’s an online recipe, there’s always someone in the comments who replaces a bunch of ingredients… and then they, like, rate the recipe poorly, …so we investigate.”

The final segment aired on screen in the Smosh Games stage at 9:38am, where the reporter was recovering from a fit of laughter after meeting Angela Giarratana and Chanse McCrary, professional comedians who introduced themselves as each other just as a taste of their witty improv work.

The two confidently quipped their way through their tour of the Games stage, the Livestream area, and the Smosh Mouth table.

During the interview, when asked what the best part of working for the company was, McCrary said, “Umm, probably that you get to work with your best friends.”

Giarratana seconded McCrary’s statement and added, “Yeah, and we play games, …we play competitive board games, umm, all day, every day! Yeah. It’s very fun.” She also revealed that Smosh’s current favorite game is Moose Master, “It’s kind of a game for kids, but we have fun playing it.”

“But we are children.” McCrary cuts in humorously.

According to what her fans would call “on brand,” Angela also added, “We’re allowed to yell and stuff, so it’s very fun.”

During the tour, they stopped by a desk in front of a red chainlink wall background, where they record the livestream episodes that tens of thousands of fans tune into. You can also spot the chat screen setup, which Smosh has deprived a connection-driven Angela of for the past several months.

Finally at the Smoshcast table, McCrary remarks, “We’ll do funny little bits, we’ll do gags, we’ll do, like, pranks on people.” Giarratana added that the tabletop, also used for gameplay, can pop up to reveal a felt poker table.

Reporter Brooke Thomas meets back up with Ian for a final tour of the wigs and wardrobe section, where they find Chanse and Angela improving with puppets created by Smosh’s art department for a Bit City episode.

With the two comedians in the background, standing in front of Smosh’s prop bottle collection, Ian drops the impressive number of episodes that Smosh films each month, “We shoot forty pieces of content a month, something like that, so this stuff just kind of builds up, you never know when you’ll need, you know, another, uh, beer bottle.”

Finally, Brooke asks Ian the story behind the name “Smosh” and Ian lets her in on the lore: “It was just a total accident, you know? We, uh, my friend accidentally said ‘smosh pit’ instead of ‘mosh pit’ and it became an inside joke and then when we created the YouTube channel, we were like, ‘what should we call ourselves?’ and we just said, ‘Smosh.’”

Hecox also divulges that he never expected Smosh to be so successful. “No way!” He said, “…It was just boredom. We were just two guys havin’ fun with a camera.”

Concluding the segment, Giarratana and McCrary pretend to be surprised when attention is turned toward them, puppets still donned, and dropping some jokes to showcase the comedy that’s practiced everyday at Smosh studios. When Thomas complimented the puppets, the three of them said Smosh would be willing to make her her own.

“And back to the weather!” Giarratana quips as she and McCrary step forward.

Fulfilling her dream, Brooke actually lets her turn the news back over to the station. She and McCrary both announce together: “And back to you, Sandra and Araksya!”

(Full news interview here.)

Find Smosh most anywhere on the internet, but I recommend looking on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok for the best bits 🙂

Signing off for now!

-TomatoSmosh News 🍅