YouTube comedic duo Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla announced Wednesday (Manila time) that they have bought back their channel Smosh after a year’s worth of ownership woes.

The announcement came in the form of a four-minute video which detailed how co-founder Padilla, who is of Filipino descent, is back after leaving Smosh in 2017.

This time, both he and Hecox fully own their channel once again.

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The duo created the channel in 2005, even before YouTube launched their monetization program.

Their channel, initially containing lip-syncs and short sketches, rose to fame after being one the most subscribed channels from 2007 to 2009. After a brief period off the top spot, they returned to being the most subscribed YouTube channel from 2013 to 2014.

“Anthony and I created Smosh as a way to make each other laugh and have fun,” Hecox said in the video.

Due to higher demands of generating content on YouTube, the duo decided to sell their company to Defy Media, an American digital media company that produced original online content, in 2011.

“We were approached by a company who offered to buy Smosh and they promised to turn it into everything we ever dreamed of,” Padilla shared.

However, after more than a decade of being in Smosh, Padilla announced his departure, saying that the “company’s goals were just too different from my own”.

Smosh remained under Defy Media’s ownership until 2018 when the digital media company announced it was shutting down operations effective immediately and laying off all employees at its Beverly Hills production office. Popular YouTube channels, including Smosh, were left without a company.

In 2019, Mythical Entertainment, owned independently by YouTube content creator duo Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, acquired Smosh, saving the channel and all of its employees.

Smosh remained under Mythical’s care for almost four years, allowing Hecox to take on full creative control and fulfill the leadership role for the channel he co-founded.

Hecox and Padilla shared that upon reconnecting in 2022, they came up with the idea of buying Smosh back, making them owners of the channel they once founded.

“We can’t believe we’re living in the reality where we own Smosh and making classic Smosh sketches once again,” they said in a tweet.

We can’t believe we’re living in the reality where we own Smosh and making classic smosh sketches once again. We’re beyond ecstatic to show you all the fun stuff we’ve got planned for you across all three Smosh channels. Thank you all so much for supporting us for almost 18 years…

— Smosh (@smosh) June 21, 2023

Support immediately started to pour in as the duo made their announcement on their now independent YouTube channel which garnered 3 million views as of writing.

Their former owners at Mythical Entertainment also tweeted in support of their new journey.

“We couldn’t think of a more perfect outcome on our investment than selling Smosh back to the internet's other iconic best-friend duo,” McLaughlin and Neal said in a tweet.

Hecox assured their fans that their other channels, Smosh Pit and Smosh Games, will remain as is --- unscripted. Their main channel, however, will bring back their iconic comedy sketches, one of the foundations of the duo.

“Classic Smosh is back,” Padilla said.