Conflicted feelings over the Ian stunt on the main channel - while I’m relieved it was nothing serious and I understand that Ian likes to troll people, the way this was handled wasn’t okay.
Given things that have come to light about the channel and the way the higher-ups at Smosh have treated former members of the cast lineup, making it seem like something actually serious happened or that those things are going to be addressed before once again pushing them aside is insensitive and is more likely to further isolate fans than it is draw positive attention to the channel.
I get that Smosh is a comedy channel at heart, but there’s got to be a line in the sand somewhere with respect to how a long-standing brand like Smosh treats its fans. For me, this toed that line. If you want people to talk about your channel and draw views in, you have to keep your audience in mind.
There’s a lot of Smosh fans that deal with things like anxiety, depression, or other forms of neurodivergence like autism or ADHD; using marketing tactics that spike people’s feelings and lead to panic is effective (seeing that there’s been a number of posts about it already today) but it’s a bad move to do something like that without clarification. I did see that Ian technically apologized for causing the panic, but the fact that it lead to that level of panic in the first place isn’t okay.
In short, just because it gets a creator buzz or clicks or views doesn’t mean it’s an ethical tactic to use on your fans.
Shouting into the void of the Internet making yet another blog on here since I recently learned Smosh’s Tumblr fandom is a thing.
A few quick bits about me:
I share a home state with at least three former (and one current) members of the Smosh roster
Like Shayne, I also majored in psychology as an undergraduate (looking to go to grad school eventually this blog may or may not be a coping mechanism for getting my first rejection letter yesterday oops)
My current cast faves are everyone except Ratt Maub (with Damien, Tommy, Kimmy, and Jackie in a four-way tie for the top spot)
My favorite former cast member is Lasercorn with Mari right behind him in second and Boze in third
My Hogwarts house is Hufflepuff, my astrological sign is Taurus (my birthday is three days after Lasercorn’s which I straight up forgot about until recently), and my brain’s an ADHD disaster of bisexual trainwreck and snippets of songs and random facts about anything except what I need to focus on
Lastly, I’ve been watching Smosh on-and-off since 2018 and started watching more regularly about a month ago given I finished college and job hunting has yet to be fruitful
I’ll stop running my mouth now but I’m here to make friends and vibe while bonding over the Smosh gang - if y’all have song or artist recommendations shoot them my way.
