I spent a day with IAN HECOX

🎙THE PODCAST

🧨HUGE thank you to Ian:

🗯MORE EPISODES…

🎥Crew
▸ Creator, Director, Writer, etc - Anthony Padilla
▸ Executive Producer - Alessandra Catanese
▸ Senior Producer, Co-writer - Elise Felber
▸ Director of Photography/Gaffer - Kathy Sue Holtorf
▸ Camera Operator - Amber Steele
▸ Sound Mixing - Major Latimer
▸ Social Media Manager - Mallory Myers
▸ Post Supervisor - Mike Criscimagna AKA Mork Crispy
▸ Head Editor - Patrick Horba
▸ Editor - Ash Duckworth
▸ Editor - Nikki Blacklock
▸ Sound Supervisor - Gareth Hird
▸ Sound Editor - Jandre van Heerden
▸ Assistant Editor - Levi Villalpando
▸ Social Media Editor - Cassie Korn
▸ Production Assistant - Joshua Dozier
▸ Captions - Davy Gerichten

🎵Theme Music Composer - Matt Good AKA The King of Emo

📢BE ON THE SHOW

0:00 INTRODUCTION
4:24 DEFY BUYS SMOSH
12:15 IAN & ANTHONY'S FRIENDSHIP
18:11 ANTHONY LEAVES SMOSH
26:10 WHAT WAS SMOSH?
28:29 DEFY SHUTS DOWN & MYTHICAL BUYS
33:57 RECONNECTING AS FRIENDS
46:07 SPONSOR
47:11 RECONNECTING AS FRIENDS
50:09 THE CREATIVE PROCESS
1:02:53 BUYING BACK SMOSH FROM MYTHICAL
1:06:17 THE FUTURE OF SMOSH
1:12:00 BLOOPER

[sgbarron]

I will say, I don’t think Ian gets enough credit for stepping up, holding down the fort, and keeping Smosh alive over the years. It shows how much he loves Smosh and it’s his baby and he’ll keep it going.

[jawbe]

Whoever was that teacher who paired these two deserves to be praised.

[Zach-rvix]

Mad respect for Ian. Let it be known that Smosh would have never made it this far if not for his resilience. He really believed in this project and he’s held on long enough to see it come back to fruition. That takes immense strength and patience.

[spencers]

to everyone saying that Ian was emotionally distant in this video: i really don't think he was. As someone who is uncomfortable showing emotions (let alone on camera) i know how hard it is to even just talk about these things. And you can see in the way he talks about their friendship that he's clearly spent a lot of time reflecting on it, and it shows great emotional intelligence.
Not everyone wants to be completely vulnerable on camera for millions of people to see, and that's fine.

[VGInterviews]

Hearing how Ian was so sure that there would be a bunch of collabs between Smosh and Anthony's Channel after the initial departure and him realizing how that would probably never happen makes me feel like all the "Where's Anthony?" bits must've stung much more than we realized since Ian must've been wondering the same thing for all those years

[middreco]

I wanna recognize how cool rhett and link are for being supportive to their creative freedom. They have always seemed to be genuinely good guys.

[chief_mourner]

Having male friendships where you're allowed to be vulnerable with each other is so so important. Glad you guys made it.

[happykttn]

this is a "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it's yours. If not, it was never meant to be" type of friendship

[nutstobuttsgaming]

My respect to Rhett & Link will forever be infinite, what a fucking moment.

[RJAnSo]

This feels more like a couples therapy session rather than an interview and I'm living for it

[catffiend]

The collaboration everyone was dying for

[carolinerottkamp]

Don't know if anyone else has said it but props to Ian's friend Diana for pushing for them to talk again

[clintonmott]

Ian not fully expressing but essentially saying that he would never give up on Smosh. My fucking heart.

[StormDatIsApproaching]

Almost 20 years, man. Smosh isn't just a channel, it's a whole story that changed the internet forever. Salutations, gentlemen

[Zinoba_]

"Even if it doesn't do well, I know this was the right thing. And if we burn it to the ground, I am happy to do that with you."
what a raw line, straight from the heart

[drakevick]

From a business standpoint, let’s talk about how impressive what Ian did actually was. He was handed a failing business after stripping all of its resources, and told to make it work, or else his whole livelihood is ruined, and he somehow kept them afloat. That’s some extremely impressive work by Ian

[PixieLovesItAll]

Rhett and Link are truly the dads of early YouTube culture. Through every issue, every financial struggle, they truly support the actual talent born from this site. So much respect.

[tristanlambert]

I love how awesome Mythical has been with this. They bought SMOSH when it was at its all time low and they helped it out, Rhett and Link are basically older versions of Ian and Anthony so I feel like they really sympathized with the situation and it’s so cool how willing they were to let SMOSH go. They literally took in a baby bird and freed it once it’s broken wing healed.

[SirPlaysAlotYT]

When Anthony said “my best friend that I grew up with is still here” really hit hard. I love seeing you two together again

[That_Random_British_Dude]

This is less of an interview, but more of two friends finally passing the final milestone in repairing their friendship. A truly beautiful moment...