I hope Smosh isn't missing the point
2023 ж. 29 Мау.
62 599 Рет қаралды
A lil ramble about Smosh and creative shortform content on KZhead.
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I love movies
A few comments are taking issue with my saying that I could “dominate” the commentary space if I wanted. These videos are off the cuff and that’s important to me, but that also means I won’t always phrase stuff the best or most intentionally. My real goal was to say that I could “succeed in” the commentary space, which would’ve come across as less aggressive. There are numerous commentary creators who are super creative and I state this in the video as well! Regardless, my frustrations are less with creators and more with the kinds of content KZhead incentivizes over others through their obsession with watch time. That was one of the most important things I wanted to communicate in this video and I don’t want that getting overshadowed by a choice of words. Thanks for watching!
okay 👍👍
Relax, man, we love your stuff, nobody's perfect and we sometimes come off as a bit whiny or preachy, it's all just positive criticism. Nobody can escape the fact that, in entertainment, you gotta adapt with the times, artists also grow older and what was just "fun" once becomes more professional. Same with music, people say some band soldout, when in reality, they probably grew up and realized they've to be professional to survive
Ah dude, a very common turn of phrase, for instance: "I dominated those cookies last night. After that murdering spree."
Some people are gonna whine about each and every opinion you hold, simply because you’re famous now. IMO, people in your position really need to stop apologizing for every single opinion you share, regardless of how much people may agree or disagree with it, or even if it’s taken out of context from what you intended, because that’s how you let the worst of humanity take YOU over. People love talking garbage while lazily sitting at home, but you’re putting yourself out there and succeeding like crazy, and that should earn you respect and some admiration, idc how humble you want to be about it. That being said, I love all of your stuff man, the shorts, animations, and feature films (almost every single one, def. miss island lol). Don’t let people beat you up over little things like this, you’re better than that
@@SpaceTedit’s like, “Last night, I beat my meat like it owed me money “
just watched their first skit. they definitly have production value, but its not over the top with it I think they did a good job :)
I agree! I think it struck a good balance!
And in the members only broadcast, they talked about how they felt it looked “too good” at times - so it’s definitely on their mind!
What I like about their skit is how “Smosh-y” it felt… They could’ve went to a more trendy route and use the humour that is more appreciated nowadays, instead they kept it like it should. Watching it felt like I went back to elementary school watching their videos from my mum’s Samsung smartphone; and I know it doesn’t sound like a compliment, but it just shows that they don’t care about what others will think about their content as long as it is what they wanted their work to be like. Obviously though, the joke in the skit still stands and I genuinely laughed.
@@hilovidsI mean of course it’ll have better quality last time they made a classic Ian and Anthony skit was a while ago
same here, thought it going back those fun days.
Welp, their newest skit just dropped and they absolutely nailed it as if nothing ever happened
Joel mentioned Charlie the Unicorn at one point. The guy who made it, Jason Steele, still uploads roughly one animation a month. He just completed his most recent series: Fall of Shadowstone Park. It only takes a couple hours to watch it all in one sitting, and it’s some of the best stuff I’ve seen on KZhead!! Definitely recommend to anyone reading this comment
Love Jason, just rewatched Detective Heart Of America the other day with some friends lol
Have you seen The Big Lez Show?
Dude what the fuck, your comment about Jason steele led me to look him up for the first time in forever, then decided to check out Robert Benfer again for a bit, and only after coming back to this video again am I noticing your Klay world picture🤯 Gotta respect the legends of old internet
Jason Steele mentioned 🙌🗣️ Nick: the feature film goes hard
@@diccmctwist I can't say I have! What's that about? Is it worth checking out?
Francis Fukuyama was right, history ended with the Assassins Creed Smosh Rap.
i've been laughing at this all day
I don’t understand this, but I really want to be in on the joke. Can someone explain?
@@MichaelMan2000Francis Fukuyama is a political philosopher who wrote “The End of History” to extol the post-Cold War world, when it seemed like western political values had won over socialist dictatorships. He was very influential on the “Neocons” who shaped George W Bush’s foreign policy.
@@MarcosElMalo2 thx dawg
@@MarcosElMalo2 Basically "we won the cold war and so liberal democracy is the best and ultimate and final state of society and politics with no flaws whatsoever"?
Just watched their newest video, the first minute or so I wasn't feeling it, BUT- I ended up actually laughing at the skit as a 22 year old man. It felt very "achievable" as you talk about in this video. It didn't disappoint
I agree! Good start! Definitely still backed by a team but also a skit that could’ve been achieved by two pals goofing around
i had a chuckle when Ian brought the movie to torture
Same
But I’m not 22
If anyone here has seen the Smosh "Reunion" series, I feel like those have been a great example of what the new cast has been able to accomplish not with some massive budget but with just some cheap costumes and a bit of creativity. I hope that isn't lost in this new era of Smosh
THIS!!!! all these fuckin nostalgia viewers aren't even willing to give that stuff a chance, it's so annoying. The Teletubbies reunion is my favorite.
They stuck to the conventions of a Classic Smosh video but with higher production value. Kept it short and sweet
Smoshs only mistake was trusting a shady company like defy. Not trusting a company itself. Through mythicals ownership they’ve shown that they can still create meaningful content with heart (although definitely in a different vibe and style than what they originally started as) even with a big investor company backing them up. I believe in Ian and Anthony, they’ve been able to truly step up and manage two separate brands successfully for years and I believe that they know it’s futile to try to appeal to nostalgia and revert back to their old cringey teenager ways. Just looking at how grown up they look you could tell their dynamics have fully changed. Anthony has become completely blinged out and really went for the goth vibe and Ian has become the single divorced dad type. I’m comparison to the hot one and funny one
their new sketch is amazing already
I do miss old smosh stuff but honestly lately I’ve started watching more smosh because it’s just dumb fun vs most other KZhead stuff I was watching being everyone being negative about everything for content
I wouldn't say that video essays/commentary etc are low effort, I think it takes a lot to talk about something for that long and still keep people interested and engaged
I think as the channel grew from corporate era then fell after anthony leaving, they still had a crew and the crew is still there today so i think when they say thousands of dollars its not as much about props and materials but paying there editors, producers, cast, reasonable and responsable wages. I started watching smosh again a year or so ago and i think Ian feels responsable for the well being of his cast and crew and to remove them/reduce there part in the company would hurt him. Also i dont want them going back to screaming curses or using women barely dress as thumbnails for attention. I've enjoyed there growth but still worry about what "bring back old smosh" might do.
agreed
I very much hope the more recent Smosh is not lost completely. Their recurring series are fantastic and I will be very sad if things like the funerals disappear.
Would you prefer something unique or something that plays safely within the rules and rarely explores the boundaries? Unique is random. Unique is weird. Unique is controversial and often disliked, but it's unique. It changes things. Sometimes it sucks ass sometimes its amazing. But something that merely satisfies an urge? That's consistent and scheduled? Those are a corporate's qualities. That is how you get incentivized into following the status quo and merely consume.
I fully agree and understand! I do not intend to say they should fire or neglect their employees, moreso that they can be deliberate and contagious with their vibe and how they talk about creating on KZhead in a way that will encourage younger audiences like they used to. Their production needs are their own, but as someone who grew up encouraged by them I’d love to see them continue to spread that infectious energy and put the fun and creativity at the forefront. I think their first video today struck a good balance and bodes well!
@@ralek592 Why not both? I don't quite understand the decision to make the main channel only Ian and Anthony skits. But hey, if it pans out for them then that's great and I wish them the best. First skit released today and has the feel of Old Smosh, but it sits in a weird place with me. I think it is because we have seen the two of them mature from Old Smosh. Maybe I just need time to adjust back to the format.
fairbairn films is a great example of "low production" short skits done incredibly well.
they are easily one of my favorites, they are brilliant
The video that makes me laugh the hardest from them is possibly one of the cheapest where they argue about cooking toast
I have spent the last 2 months animating something I am really passionate about and having a ton of fun in the process. Your words about creating over the past few months have been really inspiring and helped keep me going when it has gotten hard and I wanted to give up on it. I just wanted to say thank you for that! I am so close to finishing this masterpiece haha!
That’s amazing!! Congrats on dedicating yourself to something like that, it isn’t easy. Happy to help inspire in any way I could! Make sure to comment on this channel when it’s done, I’ll be much more likely to see it. Can’t wait!
Too bad you'll probably only get a few dozen views and if someone decides to react to it in [your video length] minutes and they are popular, they'll get thousands of views over a few minutes worth of "effort". Effort is in quotes since they'll probably make a few simple comments while you animated the entire video in 2 months. Hopefully it'll go viral and you get many views!
i think the state of smosh still being a company with a cast and crew means they cant truly go back to "old smosh". i believe the heart of classic smosh comes down to the fact that ian and anthony feel excited to write and direct skits together again, and if they have the money to pay for editors, nice cameras, sets, and costumes to enhance their ideas they should just use it. lord knows they already have all that stuff from their anthony-left phase
"I love KZhead despite everything" - I feel this way every time I release a skit...
If Smosh goes back to making videos that are inspirational and homely over going back to their corporatized Era i think we can all agree, would feel like a microcosm of the internet healing again. Can't wait to see what they make!
Just want to say, I just saw the first new Smosh skit... I'm pretty excited. Them going back to their over the top goofy ways is an artform finally returning.
They havnt been in the "corporate era" for a while now. They had creative control with Ritt and Link and truly got along. Their new cast are also genuinly great and i feel it would be unfair to dismiss them
@@herz5159 i don't think anybody has an issue with the new Smosh cast. I love their try no to laugh series. The point I'm trying to make is that there was era where their skits didn't feel like what they wanted to create, they became a little heartless. Even before the newer cast joined.
I started watching Smosh when they did You Posted That, which was after Anthony had already left. So I don't know the Anthony era, and I still liked Smosh. I'm happy for Ian and Anthony but will the channel be better? We'll see.
@@Unsatisfaction yes but that was 4 years ago.....
I think Smosh's Try not to Laugh series is a great example of the "grab a camera and goof around" idea because it's just them doing improv and goofing around and trying to make eachother laugh. They've had so many characters come from that that get turned into full skits like Dumpster Wizard or The Chosen. I just think it's interesting that their lowest production value series has been their most successful and entertaining content.
Yeah but apparently those folks are the "corporate actors". 🙄
It really shows that at the core, Smosh has very funny people
this is what I love about Fairbairn Films Lachlan and Jaxon consistently keep the low--budget feel that they started with, despite being a pretty big channel now its the stuff I subscribed for when I found them at 10k subs, and its the stuff I still love
Innovative in their own right as well, the powerpoint sketches were a genius idea. They definitely knew it because they did it a few times but they've never milked it which is refreshing to see.
That’s one of those channels that felt like they could’ve changed and gone more corporate but they actively chose to not change it because they fully understand why people liked them. They still feel like simple little sketches made with friends and that’s what is so good about it.
@@VoltageFilms Actually true respect to those madlads
Well now that I've seen the skit I can say their production quality is similar to their death note skit (which is peak smosh imo) and current era smosh of ian old smosh skit.
First 30 seconds and you mentioned Ryan Higa. I remember when I was younger my cousins and I would basically recreate his videos on whatever cameras we could find- usually one of their phones. Idk I almost forgot about that memory until you said that haha.
rohanimations spotted in the wild 👀
My friends and I did the same hahaha! I think that speaks to how achievable his stuff truly felt.
@@12chasepatt omg whattt i just saw sher this week actually and you came up in conversation when we were talking about hp class debates hahahaaa hope you’re doing well dude!!
@@joeltalksaboutmovies there’s a whole cinematic universe of bootleg “how to be a ninja” videos out there somewhere
@@rohanimationsa universe that might be best left unexplored for all of our career’s sake hahaha
I just hope they do not ignore the new Smosh team that had been created throughout the years. They have made been phenomenal and have made their own audience and plus is also very diverse and great representation in the content creator space.
Yes 100%
Meh, scabs. Anyone who tries to profit off the success of others is not cool in my book.
Yeah. From all the talk I heard until now it looks like they blindsided the rest of the team. A lot of those people are integral for smosh to still be a thing today.
@@TheCynicalJayThey kept Smosh alive. They were hired. They aren’t some random leeches that just showed up at the studio.
@@TheCynicalJay You should keep your trap shut.
I think people like you, Cherdleys, Fairbairn, Wizards with Guns, and mayyybe even AlmostFridayTV (they're a little higher effort higher produced at times) are the kings of this happy medium between high quality and quick to produce skits. A few props/costumes, a good idea, and a good script (or good improv) is the best way to still be successful with short-form content without losing the beauty and charm of short-form content.
Smosh was my childhood, but it was a different formula for a different time- I wonder what sort of content they'll make now.
ugh yeah so many good points in this vid. a bit ago i was talking to a friend about the death of the “mid length ~5min video”. which i feel like was so fundamental to youtube up until a few years ago. and now theres a place for
Daniel Thrasher does great mid- length comedy videos
Joel, you're such an artist's artist. I always come to this channel to learn something new about not just film, but art in general, and you always deliver. I call myself a musician but I'm certainly trying to tap into my true artistic self, getting all perspectives in multiple artistic mediums. I have such a massive respect and admiration for you as an artist because you remind me why I started my channel, and why I do what I do outside of it. Thank you. (P.S. I saw the new SMOSH vid. It's a really promising direction.)
Thank you for the kind words, I’m happy you feel that way! Thanks for watching and keep making music and art! PS: I agree!
For me I liked Smosh when I was a kid, then grew out of it. Found them a couple years ago through their try not to laugh improv series with the wider cast and it’s become one of my favourite things on KZhead, just to see them make each other laugh unrehearsed, and the skits they put more effort into now don’t really resonate as much
You are a true Jedi, Joel. You fight on a bright side. Thank you for that.
This video came as just the right time man. I'm getting so inspired to start working on my creative endeavors again. Thank you Joel, I greatly appreciate your candor and kindness
I wish only the best to Anthony, Ian and their whole crew no matter which approach they end up taking. Now, even if we don't get to see the Smosh we remember, we now have you pushing for this kinda content having its place here. It's great to see a creator who has figured out the charm of this kinda content. It's great you have been teaming up with creators like Trent, Mitsy, Dimitri, Ben and many more, being just friends working on genuinely fun videos together. Love y'all, love Smosh.
My main thought after hearing the news and getting into the backlog of improv stuff with various guests was that I'd love to see Joel and Trent on TNTL and generally Anthony and Ian getting in touch with this new wave of skit channels for some collaboration and inspiration.
When people say they want to see "old Smosh," they are usually talking about _golden age_ Smosh, which is generally considered to be around 2011-2014. Videos from around that time mostly take up the "Classic Smosh" playlist on their channel, and I think that style of video is what they're going for.
I used to watch Julian Smith skits when I was younger and I was always amazed at the quality.
They were also saying they wouldn't be able to make money if they started a new sketch channel because there would be no backlog. Which tbh kinda makes sense especially considering how your channel took off when you had already secured a hefty backlog. Anyway Smosh pays employees
Honestly, I like your work because it has that early youtube do it yourself feel and it's so refreshing and inspiring
Genuinely you're the #1 person who's take on this I wanted to see, because I felt very similar when they were talking about spending 1000s of dollars on a single skit
I disagree, simply because I think you’re forgetting that they do have a team that they would probably feel bad about laying off. They have a lot of people on their payroll, so they’re going to use them, which is going to make each sketch very expensive for them.
You're so heartfelt. What a great message to just put out there
Thank you for mentioning Cyriak!!! I still look forward to his yearly upload!
Seeing Joel come in doing what made us all love KZhead in the first place has been amazing; that’s why we watch his channel. Thank you Joel.
Joel, your awesome and an inspiration to many. Much love
YES! I would love to see a return of the high effort short skit on KZhead. I'm not sure if there's so few channels doing it or if they're just hard to find, but I miss them. Thank you for being one of the few to preserve that.
I really appreciate the way you do things
And talk about things
That antartica animation you were just in is a really good example of this. Such a good looking stop motion animation which takes much more work than much more popular stuff. Sadly I dont think a large a company as smosh could suddenly make really spontaneous skits, but maybe. Kinda weird how the goal of a company is to make money but they also feel they need to spend more.
You know when I was watching that video, I immediately thought of you. Great commentary, and love you and your friends’/partners’ content
I dream of the day an animated video of istock poop can make 10 billion dollars.
I had never heard of smosh and saw that thumbnail pop up a bunch of times in my feed. Thanks for taking the time to explain it for me Joel
I love your random rambles 😁
i guess what ur saying but i disagree to a level. like sure the sketches dont need to be super produced but like when they say theyre going back to "old" smosh, aroubd the AC3 rap is def what people think tho. cause like if they go back to just them doing whatever they have limits to their creativity. like i dont see how paying more to get the art you wanna make is bad? if they wanna have a skit in a party for example, the cost is already going up a lot. especially if its what they hope the main channel to be, they have to have some sort of budget and production so the channel doesnt stay stale. like, do people actually wanna see ian & anthony improv-ing a half baked skit?
That video was def a vibe. It was even better for me to watch, since i also share the POV as you, Joel. What made me fall in love with KZhead was the beauty of "anyone can do it", and i'm glad you brought this up. Seeing you talking about OG KZheadrs was def the highlight for me, especially MysteryGuitarMan, since he's Brazilian and i'm also from there, which makes me proud of my country even more. Anyway bro, great video
It's interesting, I'm about Joel's age and i loved the era of "you could do it too" KZhead but I was never interested in KZhead writing until after id written my first couple pilot scripts and realized i had no way to get them in front of people who could help make them happen. So I've been working on starting a new KZhead channel (this one just has songs I couldn't find on KZhead already and some little videogame moments I wanted to send to friends, not really a channel I can use for anything serious) for sketch comedy, and i have to say that Joel's channel is one of the channels that makes me believe that maybe I actually could do this. Thanks, bud, for keeping the "you could do it too!" dream alive.
Joel is a great voice of reason
I love this man
I appreciate Joel so much for this. for the last year or two, I jokinly have said "JOEL HAVER IS SINGLE HANDEDLY SAVING SKETCH COMEDY!" Of couse he's not the only one, but he actually is a big part of keeping it alive. He sees both sides and isn't a jerk as say things like "I don't like this, they shouldn't do it" but insted offers his outside perspectibe with resonable recomendations to help save time and money.
Making short-form fun, creative content is so much more freeing and I really wish it was more prominent on KZhead like back in the day. It sucks when you need to cater to the algorithm, but if money isn't your goal you can make some really damn good stuff. There are still some up and coming creators making great stuff that It took me WAY too long to figure this out, but I feel like I'm finally starting my creative journey and loving every step. Thank you for being a genuine inspiration :)
It definitely seems like they understand they need to stick to their roots. Just cause they have a lot more money now doesn't mean they have to go crazy
After seeing this video I will say, I think they did a great job on this first skit. It does have a certain amount of production, but it's nothing too insane
I love how Mega64 have survived on youtube since the start in 2006 with short form skits without changing the formula too much. They still do longform podcasts and make merch but the skits are as good as they were back in the day
Ironically i hope they make stuff more along the lines of your films and other KZhead filmmakers
As always really good thoughts you are sharing! And I also noticed the high amount of commentary KZheadrs and it's interesting to hear some insights into that!
I think it's an issue of time. Could they technically shoot and edit everything themselves or with an extra friend? Sure. But Anthony has his own channel and projects, so does Ian. So to gear switch between these staffed, budgeted companies to something completely the opposite for the feel of it to be more authentic? I don't know, it sounded from the interview that they're having fun with it and they're putting that first. Creators change, I'm just happy for them.
I miss old KZhead. I remember when 10 minutes was the limit. Now it's either: KZhead: 20+ minutes, or Shorts/TikTok: 1 minute. I don't want either of those options. I just want a sold 6-minute video. Dude, Joel, I just found this channel today, and I love your passion for film and good KZhead shit.. I'm no movie buff, but once upon a time, I was so into filmmaking. I was like 13-years-old, trying to learn Blender for the CGI shots in my movies that I edited on Windows Movie Maker, or trying to learn how to animate on Flash. I lost it somewhere... But you didn't, and that's a beautiful thing. Your videos have brought me so much joy, and you've definitely got the vision and the gift. When you're up on the Oscars stage, remember to thank Alec, for always believing in you 😂
"grab your camera again and goof around". Why would we need this from them. Theres so many other people doing this on KZhead that it seems foolish to expect this from a channel that is a company. This all feels like nostalgia, and i like your sketches joel, but i also really enjoyed mythical era smosh and "people being added to the team" isnt what made it corporate, them becoming a company is, and that was a choice ian and anthony made. Even if defy hadnt coerced them into basically selling it for free, they still wouldve done it.
Joel/Smosh (Josh??) collab would be big-time, because it'd be small-time like the good-times.
Funny to hear that because they stated in their stream that they feel like the production value of the first video was too high an they wanted to make it feel less professional with the next few videos.
Smosh is a KZhead channel.
Facts!!
I am excited for the growth of short-form videos like with Tik Tok or KZhead shorts, but I also hate how limiting in format they are. Portrait video is way harder to work with. Hopefully these companies eventually breakaway from these limitations and short form has a place to thrive. Smosh's return is cool to see but you're absolutely right about the approach. I grew up influenced by all of the same things and was hanging around KZhead in it's super early days. Let's get back to the wild west of internet comedy videos!
Well this was am amazing break from today's fast-paced KZhead. Joel, I love the simple beauty of your videos, it's rare these days. Subscribing!
Yo I was just thinking about mystery guitar man on my walk yesterday !! That era of KZhead was so inspiring and fun. I loved the time where there weren't many professional KZheadrs, and everything was being created by people doing it for the fun of it.
Did you know he works at Stability AI (Stable Diffusion) now? What a renaissance man.
KZhead is such a weird ever changing landscape but I really appreciate its ability to have all of these “corners” and cliques for niche content. There’s totally achievable, as I’ve seen other people call it, channels out there that put out content that’s so much more laidback and “hey I can do that-able” I just wish that those people were rewarded more. One of my favorite favorite channels is just some guy who plays the games I like while he talks about his work day or what he has planned for the weekend. There’s just something so charming about watching someone who is “normal” (I’m not sure how else to put it but I don’t mean that in a mean way!)
Joel did not forget to be awesome
It is pretty frustrating when you start to imagine the insane level of shorts and animation we would probably have on KZhead by now if they didn’t choose to optimize for watch time way back when. I’d love it so much if it was an actual feasible goal to make the kind of animation I want to and profit from it on KZhead. A few people like Felix colgrave manage it but it’s so much more rare than it should be
You talk about shorts costing no money, but things are different when you aren’t just making a skit starring in each other’s videos as friends. You have to, at the very least, pay for the labor of every person who works on it, and that just becomes a reality once you’re a company. Not everyone can work for a pizza and a six pack when it’s a company product
I watched their first new skit recently and I was pretty happy with it. Aside from the higher production value, it does remind me a lot of their golden era; great chemistry and funny ridiculous plot. It does look like it has a budget with a full armored demon costume, HD camera, and some pretty good cinematic shots. But I don't think it missed the mark. It feels like a slightly matured (but still plenty goofy) version of the Smosh I loved, and it made me happy.
As they just uploaded a new video, I say it's back to old form!
i don't think making videos with no budgets is "the point". the You in KZhead is for you, and people are now willing to put money & effort into their videos and i love that. meanwhile there's tik tok for what you are describing. Even if we share nostalgic feelings for that old YT era, I wouldn't stick around for new webcam theme song lip sync videos on smosh and i doubt you would
After watching the actual skit, I kind of think it follows classic smosh to a fault. Like the awkward disney channel-level acting is less endearing and more distracting when it's coming from two 35 year olds. Hopefully once they get back into the swing of things the new videos can develop their own personalities and grow and change with ian and anthony instead of being stuck in 2009 forever.
Dom Fera (a friend of Film Cow - creator of Charlie the unicorn haha) is literally one of my biggest film inspirations, and he's literally the man that made the laser collection LOL which was not only extremely influential on my 8 year old sense of humor, but he's made plenty of amazing skits & short films since his earliest days online - and he's always really reached me. The guy "deserves" (whatever that means) the spotlight like a smosh because he's insanely talented, but the fact that all of his films are fully him, it's far more personable. Definitely intrigued by what smosh may do going forward, I share your feelings here for sure.
I totality agree with you, Joel. Very well said. I love smosh also and am thankful to Rhett and Link for keeping it alive.
100% agree, I find the best content everyone watches comes from the heart like a GEM in the rough. You don’t need thousands of dollars just drive and creativity, write and preform around the budget .
They're running a company of ~30 people that they don't want to overwork and pay fairly (by California entertainment standards), but also make use of to make skits. I genuinely believe that there's no way to manage that without either paying thousands of dollars per shoot or firing 75% of their staff, and the latter would be a PR disaster that would tank their image and bomb their chances of succeeding. One can argue that they never should have reached this point, but from here I see no good way forward that involves casual silly comedy.
I don't think downsizing crew would bomb their chances of success ESPECIALLY if they're gonna rely on crowdfunding. CollegeHumor fired most of their staff, borderline left YT and still have an active site with a large audience.
@@dxaviorsith5603against popular belief, Smosh gained a sizable, loyal(!!) audience during mythical era that absolutely would not stand for them just dropping cast and crew members to pursue nostalgia viewers
mystery guitar man! I haven’t heard that name in so long
So true I've been waiting for someone to say it
I got to say that when I found you and kind of the other Cherdleys adjacent folks, I was really stoked because the skits reminded me of what it was like when I watched Smosh back in the early days. Not that your comedic tone is the same or anything, but just like the vibes of it felt familiar. You guys play recurring characters, you shoot most of your videos near and at places you live, and you're not some part of giant content house / wannabe production company that's producing skids along with 17 different gaming channels and eight podcasts week.
This is the first video I’ve seen of yours. I enjoyed hearing your opinion on short videos and KZhead. I definitely think you should do a follow up video since Smosh released their first new skit. I’d love to hear your opinion on it. I was never worried about it though because the whole reason Anthony left was because he didn’t enjoy not having creative freedom and wanted to just enjoy making skits with his friend like it used to be so I’m pretty sure that was their plan and it wasn’t about the money. If it was about the money Anthony wouldn’t have came back as he does plenty good on his personal channel.
3:02 totally get where you’re coming from and i mostly agree; but it’s important to remember that it isn’t just two guys w a camera anymore and it never will be. there’s a staff. they have an office with 20 or so employees. there’s production staff and HR. they are going to have to strike a balance, and i don’t think going back to goofing off in an apartment(dorm) is going to work. maybe it will idk. i know you’re kind of just thinking out loud and so am i right now. maybe you’ll address this in your next sentence but just my immediate thought here. love your work, so glad i found this channel.
just finished the video. totally 100% agree with the meat of what you’re saying. i really hope they are able to capture that feeling that they once had. not sure it will be possible tho just because of like, linear time. frankly man i think you’re the one doing what they used to do. i think it’s fair to say you picked up that torch and ran with it. not to blow smoke up your ass, but when i think of a youtube channel that inspires me to create it’s yours, not Smosh. and i think that’s okay. how many people make “smosh style videos” these days? not many. how many people make “joel haver style videos” these days? quite a few. just saying.
I love cyriak. I've watched his work since 2010 and I always revisit beast enders from time to time.
I think the new smosh did a very good job with the return their writing and producing the videos themselves and it’s very old smosh style with a new twist
I think they're talking about paying actors to be in their videos. Sure, they can find people who would do it for free, but it's better to pay people.
MGM throwback was a wave of nostalgia
Nah they didn't miss the point I think
I thought the same thing when I watched Anthony’s vid
Joel you’ve said everything how I’ve exactly been feeling about the genre of short form skit content for these past 17 years being on this website. I grew up watching smosh and Ryan Higa as a kid and they’re the reason why I said screw it and picked up my families camcorder to make my own comedy skits on KZhead. The early days of KZhead have always inspired me more to be a story teller and just make something that could make myself and hopefully others laugh. As Smosh and Ryan Higa made their presence on the platform, more creatives followed after by pushing the boundaries of creativity. Some of my favorites that came after were Brandon Roger’s, Filthy Frank, JKFilms, and some of the new grounds animators like psychic pebbles and oney who brought new blends and spices to the genre while still keeping to that formula of just having fun with your friends and yourself by making something spectacular. When the emergence of vlogs came around and soon after the family channels, commentary channels, and the “Mr Beast Esque” videos as the years go by the decrease of short form skits began to occur. The algorithm started to favor the long form content and honestly it made me feel pretty sad to see the genre start to die out. Some of my favorite channels that influenced that genre started to either leave or conform to the new ways. Even though the site was changing its preference for what genre to promote more, I held on with my head high to create more skits because this was the thing that I loved the most making and I didn’t want to let go of it. I’m glad I still held on with my love of the genre because I was able to find channels like yours, Cherdleys, Trevor Wallace, Caleb City, RDCWorld and others all creating skits around the same time bringing a revitalization to what I thought would be a dead genre. I like to think that the time all you guys began to come out in popularity was the “Renaissance Era” of KZhead Skits :) Seeing smosh make their announcement that they were returning to making their classic skit content brought me so much joy. Not only was I happy that the content I grew up loving was making a comeback but it also gave me a sort of joy that like you said could be a new influence to other creators saying “hey we don’t need to conform to this longer form of content, we can just have fun making something as small as a skit and making each other laugh” I hope this does jumpstart the algorithm to new eyes to creators or even shed light to the genre. It’s been such a amazing ride these past couple of years to see the genre slowly make its way back to the light and for myself to continue making short skits, while making friends online with similar passions. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to meet Blake , you , Spence and the others and create videos with y’all that I never thought I would be able to do but here we are now ! This train is still chugging and I’m not letting go of it!
Joel you're the best. There's very very very few people / creators who I am confident will never have terrible news come out about them, but you are one of them. Totally genuine and artist at heart. Thanks for your endless laughs and inspiration, and discussions as well.
Between the gap of skit based channels that Smosh left, Wizards with Guns was the first channel that gave me big Smosh vibe but still giving it's own unique identity. Just friends goofing around but still amazing production value. I highly recommend it.
I've thought a lot about this and what I don't think Joel realizes is that he's kind of a genius in a way that affords him the capacity to produce everything on his own without stress. Even Joel's low production stuff has a massive sheen of quality that just comes from Joel's intuition about what to do with so little. That's a crazy rare skill. I think for most people the burden of handling every part of the production process is just too much so you can't really compare Joel's style of creative output to others because Joel has the capacity to just sit down for a month an edit a movie on his own. Joel also has this genuine kindness that makes people want to work with him for fun. And when it comes down to it, he's talented enough I want to see what he can do with a budget because he's going to make it stretch ten times further than anyone else. I really like hearing into his thought processes though about this. They make sense.
Really hoping high effort short form content is making a comeback. You, Almost Friday, hopefully me eventually. I'm in the same boat growing up inspired by that stuff and it's the kind of thing I want to make an impact in the space with
I love movies too.
I strongly disagree with your stance on commentary being this super quick and easy thing to create. I’ve heard a number of “commentary” KZheadrs (even a couple that you have worked with in the past) talk extensively about the incredibly long hours they spend working on their videos. People like Drew (who you even mentioned) spend weeks researching, scripting, editing those videos. Eddy Burback takes months in between videos because of the work he puts in. Scott Cramer consistently pumps out exciting, high quality videos that clearly take loads of time to make. Kurtis Conner’s editing alone must take 50+ hours for a single 25 minute video. It just seems incredibly dismissive to think of commentary as this simple thing to do that anybody could dominate. If that was the case, we’d all be millionaires doing it. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume you may have been thinking about “reaction” content instead. But there’s absolutely no way you can watch Ted’s Rainforest Cafe video, or Scott’s Enchanted Highway video, or Danny’s haunted hotel video, or Kurtis’s world record speed run video, or COUNTLESS others by these creators and still come away with the opinion that it’s so easy and not time-consuming that literally anybody could do it well.
If you didn't know, he is referencing the collab video he did with Drew Gooden about the content he's talking about, which leads me to believe you are in fact talking about different things. I have not watched anything you mentioned by specifics, so I can't be for sure. Also he said he could do it, not anybody. He already has a channel with over a million subs so yes, he could probably swap to making react content and make more money.
I mean, it's pretty clear now that Joel and Drew are friends, or at least acquaintances, so I don't think he was talking about him and those others you mentioned. He's talking about the youtubers who don't put all the time into editing and scripting and researching as the ones you mentioned
Those videos don't necessarily have the best effort to reward ratio either though. The amount of stuff you can put out more consistently for lesser numbers but higher pay is the true meta of youtube. Any type of video can have endless effort poured in. That's not the point.
As mentioned in the video, there are commentary creators I enjoy and appreciate their work, Drew definitely being one of them. When the work is clear and feels crafted by a singular voice that’s great. The channels that crank out overlong, simply edited videos on any and all the latest drama and trends, are more groan worthy to me. But in general I’m moreso frustrated that the KZhead infrastructure is so biased towards watch time. It makes no sense to spend hours and hours on a minute of usable editing, when just sitting and talking for 40 minutes and pumping your video full of midrolls will pay off tenfold much faster. You truly have to just have love for the work you do, which luckily I do, but I think the systems in place encourage drawn out, churnable content far before they encourage high effort, creative work. The work per minute ratio is way off for different forms of content, and I don’t know a solution, but I’d like to see one explored. Animation especially is getting shafted in this battle and that stinks!