Things to remember and think about.
As an OG Smosh fan, I understand where people are struggling to feel like the new stuff is hitting the right spot. I’m not a fan of everything new coming from smosh. I’ve honestly never watched a full bit city video, and I’ve not watched a smosh main sketch in years. I stick to Pit and Games. However, I feel like lately a lot of people are complaining that the cast doesn’t feel genuine.
Now let me say, I agree to some extent in some videos, but I wouldn’t say it’s a constant thing. My example I’ll give is TNTL. I feel like when they started it, it was just some random video to fill up space in the shoot week and to cover Antony’s absence. Then it progressively turned into what it is today. But half the people that work on that show have been with smosh for 10+ years, through Defy, the unknown, Mythical, and now Ian and Anthony. They’ve seen what works and what doesn’t.
But at some point, they have to want to do this for themselves. If they pander to the audience and only do what the audience likes, then we will lose all the good things Smosh are doing. I love seeing the inside jokes even if I don’t get them because to me, that shows that they aren’t just robots programmed to entertain us but actually human beings.
A great example of this was the wavelength episode with Emily. I personally don’t find her funny and she wasn’t one of the ones I wanted to keep. But she jumped into the lore and inside jokes and genuinely had a good time and made Shayne, Tommy and Angela actually laugh which is hard to do. Also, Tommy was injured in that video and yet he used it as comedic timing rather than just complaining. As someone who didn’t know how it happened (I heard he pulled it during a sketch on Smosh main but don’t have proof), I like that it was used as a buffer for them all even if I didn’t understand it.
All in all, I do agree that smosh has changed, but I think it’s a good change as it seems like they are doing things more for themselves than just the audience which makes it feel more authentic.