#Smosh discourse

[hamcakevaletguy]

My thoughts on the Damien situation, from the POV of someone who’s relatively uninvolved with posting on social media:

As a newer fan of Smosh myself (I watched some videos in 2012, but haven’t really kept up since, and only started regularly watching the last year or so), I went through the backlog of content that they have because I enjoyed their more recent videos. Zayna, a newer Palestinian fan, did the same and found this joke in an old TNTL disappointing and wanted him to address it firsthand and make his stance clear.

For anyone saying Damien has already made it clear that he is in support of Palestine: it’s not a given that the fan who brought up the clip would have already known about Damien’s stance on Palestine. Yes, he’s talked about it in a couple of his streams and posted Insta stories about it, but a newer fan of Smosh, not necessarily Damien himself, wouldn’t know about those unless they were looking for it because they are:

temporary (IG stories only have a lifespan of 24 hours unless you take screenshots) or

a few minutes hidden under several hours of game streams on a separate platform (he talked about Palestine several months ago and has streamed a lot since, unless you know the specific Twitch stream and the timestamp when he talked about it or had clips of it, most casual fans wouldn’t know either)

In his defense, Damien himself has recently said that more fandom stuff has reached his timeline than he would like, so maybe he thinks more people know about his activism because of that. However, even if Zayna did know, wanting a straightforward statement apologizing for the insensitive joke (because bringing up the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" [as it was called back in 2019, not accurate to what has been going on for 70+ years and counting, which is an ethnic cleansing] for shock value, as he himself said, is insensitive) is not an unreasonable request.

More under the cut

When all you have is 240 characters per reply, the things that you do choose to say matter even more. When you parse out everything in Damien's replies, he doesn't come out looking too good. Yes, he did apologize for the original joke. In his replies, he said:

using it as shock value was in poor taste and naive of him,

it was in poor taste back in 2019 and he wouldn't make it now

(in response to his first couple of replies) he is sorry for reacting in frustration and he'll learn from it,

and, in his final reply, his parting words were "With all my heart, I hope for safety for your loved ones. Be well."

However, he also says and does things that undermine his apology in the same replies:

questioning why the clip was brought up in the first place, as if bringing up old content wasn't something fans regularly do with things they're interested about and as if it's not still a public video fans can easily find,

bringing up that the fan in question had 19K followers, a fraction of the followers he has as a public figure,

saying that this conversation could have been done in private, as if an initial DM request wouldn't be buried in his other requests as a public figure, and as if he doesn't have the capability to start a DM himself to clarify things after the initial reply/post,

saying that the original tweets tagging him should have been deleted after his first response when he never asked for that, and just assumed it would happen for some reason,

deleting his replies a couple of hours later,

and blocking Zayna and several others who were only interacting with Damien through quote tweets (I'm not sure how quote tweets work, do they notify the OP?), some who don't even say anything remotely critical of him - in his defense, blocking is not inherently a bad thing, it just means that he doesn't want any further interactions from them for whatever reason. However, silencing any Palestinian voice isn't good, to say the least.

Damien has always been a proponent of “trying to understand and see from different perspectives” so his response here surprised me, personally. I get that he has a fear of being misunderstood, but jumping to the conclusion that the other party is purposefully trying to be incendiary is the opposite of that.

I'm not going to try to make excuses for him. He knows better. He's been a content creator for years. He knows he has more influence than any normal fan would. His autism is not a part of this conversation either. Mental illness is an explanation for behavior, it doesn't absolve you of the consequences of it. If you're citing Damien's autism as an excuse for his behavior, you have to also account for Zayna's autism.

People are also bringing up the possibility of Damien getting death threats as a result of this, which we have no proof of and won't have proof of unless Damien himself decides to disclose that. He has only stated that he is taking a social media break, which has been a long time coming, not necessarily only because of this, because he has been busy and tired in recent months. What we do know has happened is that Zayna has received death threats (weird of people to want the death of a Palestinian when the original argument they're defending Damien for is that he is in support of Palestinian liberation).

This isn’t an issue of cancel culture, it’s an issue of accountability and frankly, hero worship of Damien in the part of people attacking Zayna and other people on Twitter.

When the only people who had spoken about their support of Palestine in their own words, however briefly, are two or three cast members, some people are naturally going to put them on pedestals. This hero worship of Damien has been exacerbated by his image as the most politically correct member of Smosh, and Smosh’s (until recently) silence about the issue.

While we're at it, for people saying Smosh's sudden outward support for Palestine and joining Creators for Palestine is in response to backlash about Damien, or only in response to the block list going around:

It's only been a few days since the Damien's whole ordeal. Smosh is not that fast, and historically, their response to backlash would have been either complete radio silence or unlisting or privating the TNTL that the clip is from, combined with silence.

I’m sure Shayne, Ian and Courtney have been working on it for more than a few days, based on their liked posts, to get everything straightened out with the organization themselves and adding their names to the list of creators.

People have been asking for Smosh to be more public about their views on Palestine. Some of the cast members have said their piece on their personal social media, but their views could have changed. Those posts were made shortly after the events of October 7 brought even more media attention on Palestine and the Gaza Strip, which was not necessarily in favor of Palestine because of the effects of U.S. propaganda. It's been several months since then and people have a lot more information now, and more clarity.

Up until now, the only indication of Palestinian support not from social media is a brief statement from Ian who said something along the lines of "travel watermelon", while they were talking about their rejected roasts during Anthony's Funeral After Show in December, which are codewords that were used in TikTok for Free Palestine. However, this is heavily censored, behind a paywall, and temporary, because of the nature of their live shows. This support of CFP is the bare minimum of what Smosh could do, but the bare minimum is more than they were doing before.

They listed Smosh as the name under their $15,000 donation to CFP, not just Shayne, Courtney and Ian, which could be intentional, referring to Smosh as a whole company, or just referring to the three that have posted about it as a collective. Unless Smosh makes a full statement about it, themselves, it's still up in the air.

The timing of it is unfortunate. Damien has been silent about it so far, making his original posts about Palestine seem performative to some. However, it’s only been a few hours and he is on a social media break. The only thing he has briefly gone back online for is to promote something he's doing with Nintendo, which he could have been contractually obligated to do. He may or may not say something when he fully comes back from his social media break, but for now, that's everything we know. People can make their own conclusions based on all of this.

I am being very intentional with every single word I say on here, as to not be misconstrued in any way, however, if I missed anything or anyone else has anything to add (constructively, like images of either the actual conversation had by Damien and Zayna, or the cast and crew's support of Palestine prior to CFP, not outright anger and disagreement), please do. If anyone has any genuine questions about the situation, please feel free to message me directly and not bring it into this post, which is supposed to be a civil discussion surrounding more facts and events, less speculation. If I feel those questions have relevant points to add on here, I will add on in reblogs.

[totallynotmeems]

smosh in the hunger games

notes: (in order of rows)

i am not wrong

fight me on this

tommy asked, it wasn't malicious

sorrry ian, but y'all know it's true

iykyk bitches (non-derogatory)

[okiankeno]

Ofc most people who think damien is a monster are under 25. Their view of morality is skewed. Also can you even explain how he was being passive agressive? Cuz i read all his tweets and dont see it. But i am a stupid autist so what do i know..

Ok, I got two of these asks so I'm going to answer from my POV what I'm seeing. First of all, a shot at my age is very mature for introducing your argument (this is sarcasm). I never said that Damien is a monster. I am not demonizing him. Damien is admittedly one of my favourites on Smosh, and I think as fans, we are allowed to identify when someone you are a fan of does something wrong. I stated in my previous reblog that how he handled his interactions with Zayna was poor. You are putting words in my mouth, but I digress. My long-winded explanation of Damien's interactions being passive-aggressive is under the cut.

I'm going to straight up pull the Google search of 'passive aggressive' here.

Expressing negative feelings indirectly instead of openly talking about them. There are multiple instances of it in the interactions with Zayna and others in my opinion. However, I feel that people have different takes on passive-aggressiveness, so feel free to share with me what you think being passive-aggressive looks like. The points I will describe below are my interpretations of situation.

1) I think the most abundant example of passive-aggressiveness is Damien blocking multiple accounts, escpecially Zayna after he had apologized. Blocking someone implies you do not want to hear or see someone's thoughts on your timeline, literally blocking them out (until you choose to unblock them). He is not open to communicating further with people or does not want to communicate with them at all. I understand how this can be seen as him looking out for himself, but generally, blocking is considered a negative action, thus the action is passive-aggressive. Damien blocked some people on Twitter who have not even interacted with Damien nor even said anything remotely negative about him. Here is one such example:

I call this passive-aggressiveness due to the lack of communication with Damien and the negative context of blocking multiple accounts. It is providing more tension and confusion to others without explaining anything. We see the result of this lack of communication with the Twitter user above as it leaves something to be explained, the other party wondering, "What did I do wrong?" This is especially upsetting in the case of Zayna as reaching an apology with someone should not result in another person blocking another. I will expand on this idea below.

2) In Damien's interactions with Zayna, the passive-aggressiveness is much worse. Anon, I want you to imagine you are in a situation where someone has apologized to you. An apology is reached when one party realizes they have done wrong and acknowledges that the other party is correct in some way. It is an agreement.

Here is an interaction chain between Zayna and Damien, after their initial confrontation. It appears they have reached a common ground or the agreement I aforentioned. Unfortunately, the original reaction from Damien and the original post that Zayna had requested Damien for an apology are deleted, and I do not have that screenshotted, so we will go with what evidence I have here.

First tweet with an apology, third sentence: "While I'll never understand looking to old content to somehow negate the present, I do apologize, plain and simple."

Here, his apology is mixed - there's tension. If he truly understands the need for an apology, why mention the quote I highlighted above? In an apology, would you appreciate it if the other party apologized, but stated that they don't quite understand why they are apologizing? No. I wouldn't be satisfied with that, and you shouldn't either if you are expecting an apology. He could have ended the apology with the first few sentences. To me, it feels like a half-hearted apology given his choice of words in his third and fourth sentences.

Compare the previous apology to the second image on the right. Damien agrees that he is in the wrong here and essentially will learn from his mistakes. This is an apology with no conflict or passive-aggressiveness. There are no conflicting ideas within this tweet, unlike the previous apology on the left.

By this point, it seems that Zayna and Damien have reached a common ground and the conversation is over. This changes with the next tweet Damien sends on the left image:

Here, Zayna is replying to the deleted tweet on the left. I think this, above all, is a good example of Damien being passive aggressive because:

3) it's a direct display of miscommunication, where Damien outlines his unmet expectations of the interaction post-apology. This tweet contains a critique towards Zayna "If that wasn't your goal [depicting Damien as a bad person], your methods confuse me tbh" followed by a positive end note that comes off as strange given his opening statement. It feels like a backhanded compliment. Zayna got what she requested (an apology) but Damien is questioning her methods and even requesting something from her (Damien implies he wants tweets to be deleted after apologizing). And then he wishes her family and herself well? Do you see how this doesn't quite add up?

This could be genuine confusion on Damien's side, but given that both parties before this appeared to have reached a consensus of some sort, I don't think this is the case. Damien prolongs the conflict; he continues the conversation with Zayna, having expectations for what he envisions the resolution of the argument to be. This was not communicated to Zayna as demonstrated in her reply and she is rightfully confused. This is very weird – why is Damien, who has apologized, now provoking Zayna again if the conversation has ended? If Damien wanted to resolve this more directly, he could have also reached out in direct messages rather than continuing this publicly on Twitter just as he states in his tweet.

4) this is more about the dramatic irony of the situation, but I think it is also Damien being passive-aggressive – the 19k followers comment. This really puzzled me. Damien pointing out the follower count of Zayna and stating that she is depicting him as a bad person is exactly what Damien is doing as well by continuing the conversation in the way he did. He adds fuel back to the fire implying this conversation is not over as Zayna did not resolve his apology (... but shouldn't he take responsibility for this issue if he is apologizing for it?) to his liking. Damien has 266k followers on Twitter as of the last time I checked, and (I want to believe this) unknowingly has depicted Zayna in the wrong by exposing his followers to this. Additionally, In a previous tweet, Damien said he would learn from reacting in frustration. I think this again is him doing exactly that, reacting in frustration with this tweet but then deleting the tweet after. His actions are backtracking upon himself.

Now, to address something else but on the same topic: I'm not sure if you are aware, but Zayna has said she received death threats from Damien / Smosh fans. See below.

I bring this up because you mentioned that my view of morality is skewed. At what point in any of the arguments in this post or what I reblogged, have I earned the title of broken moral compass? Again, I have not once stated he is a monster in my posts. This is you interpreting my words, Anon.

I am trying to defend my opinion on how I see that Damien's interactions with Zayna have been handled poorly and that he was passive-aggressive, and it has resulted in this – death threats and a whole lot of controversy on multiple social media platforms. There's a lot of collateral damage that has been done within the Smosh community.

If death threats and Damien needing to take a Twitter break from an this interaction are not a great indication of a situation spiraling out of control as a result of Damien's responses, I'm not sure what else I can tell you, Anon. I hope I have made myself clear.

As a side note, I did not appreciate you coming into my asks, and insulting me without providing any arguments to your cause. If you continue to speak to me in the same manner, come off anon and let me block you (or vice-versa, block me). We will not see eye to eye with each other and never will if we cannot present our words without malice. It will be beneficial for both of us to not aggravate each other.

Before I end my answer, I want to reiterate that I do like Damien (personally less now given the situation at hand, but I digress), and I think you and I share this opinion at least. You are allowed to like something and be disappointed in it in tandem. I want him to come out of his break with a good answer for his actions. I hope he comes out of his Twitter detox with a clear mind and learns from this experience.

Anon(s) that sent this in, I hope that this answers your questions.

[juztscrollingthrough]

man...thoughts on the information that we got from lunchtime:

The sentiments of most of the fans that came back for Ian/Anthony or Ianthony are valid..but as sad as it is, we can't force them to do something that they look so done with, so what's the point to even ask for that anymore? and this was the first time their explanation felt so tele-advertisement to me, the whole segment of them talking about it was like: Bit city: GOOD 😇 Sketches: BAD 👿

Trying to sell the idea of how short form videos aren't clickable, long form videos good, yada yada, like it was all so business-y and stuff. And kudos to them for creating a good environment for their employees and providing opportunities but last year the moto was about sketches being their passion project and how much they love making it and this is why we as fans should invest in them and yeah sure things change, but you know I would appreciate this a lot more if they are straight up and say that these decisions are good for the company and their business rather than sugarcoat this whole ordeal. And we know that smosh isn't JUST "Ian and Anthony" but to say that smosh isn't that at all kinda gave the answer to all the recent worries and questions of "will we see Ian and Anthony content?" (the answer is no.) and that lowkey (highkey) hurt....maybe just cus I miss the authenticity of it all but it is what they want now. The only thing that made this unsettling to me was the flip of script from last year but that's what business is about lol. I'd be lying if I said this didn't disappoint me but I still am rooting for them as company leaders/content creators/comedians, but as a business they might have lost me a lil bit (a lot) but as a fan, I would always support Smosh/Ian/Anthony because they have genuinely made me smile during some of the saddest days and I am looking forward for the next Bit City episode which features them...it's a rarity now :)

[readthephible]

smosh i love you but pleeeease address issues and let your problematic people go. if certain things were addressed differently or much sooner they would not be this bad. what is up with their pr / hr team. like i’m not saying there should be a call to action to harass people but like a cordial resolution ?????

[cherryaire]

seeing multiple people completely disregard what anthony said he's comfortable with right now to try and push him back into the limelight where he specifically said he does not want to be right now is honestly really selfish. they know we want to see him and ian in stuff. they've mentioned it on LWS. but he was very clear where he's comfortable right now and to talk about essentially spamming everywhere they can see to try and get him to do what you want to see isn't cool.

a lot of people are making this about themselves when it has nothing to do with you. how anthony feels about himself and where he feels most comfortable is what's important. ya'll need to realize this is a hell of a lot of adjustment in just a year's time on top of the end of a three to four year relationship back around december. his life has changed a fuck ton in the past year. leave him be.

"Being at a company where there's so many dynamics of people, on camera, off camera, I feel like when I first thought of buying smosh back I just didn't realize how many people were behind the scenes contributing in the way that they are. "It's been a learning process and I've learned that I like to be in the background and look out at the zoomed out picture of this company and it's also really cool to know that confirmation that it doesn't need me to thrive. I thought for a long time it would need me, or it would fail, if I took like, a single step back so now it gives me enough freedom to take a step back and empower everyone to do what they do best." -Anthony Padilla

[meet-me-in-the-pouringrain]

Thank god someone finally said it! I cannot deal with the sudden spencer stans. It’s the over sexualising and infantilising that makes me so uncomfortable. The babygirlification is so scary and so is rpf. It is okay to be a fan of someone but the whole spencer situation is parasocial imo and it’s not just fans stanning their fave. It’s turning into such a herd mentality here and on smoshtwt as well. the anon about Shayne-ification of spencer is also true. As a long time lurker on all things smosh, the spencer thingy BOOMED after the April 1st announcement. It’s like they needed a new single guy to coddle. It wasn’t right when it was done to Shayne nor is it right when done to spencer.

also it feels like spencer is a more online person than Shayne ever was and I actually feel like this parasocial behaviour of his ‘fans’ might actually end up being a complete nuisance for him.

Literally nothing to add you’ve summed it up perfectly.

Spencer ‘stans’ pls take a step back and realise what’s happening.

[courtivia-livia]

So after listening to the first episode of Sword AF season 2 I can say this: it was fun and I'm sure the story will be awesome. I'm confident that Damien and the cast will put their all into making it a great continuation of season 1.

However, there were definitely moments where I did feel like I really wanted to see their faces/gestures. I could for example picture Angela's faces and movements as she was telling us what Bug was doing, but its not the same as seeing it on video. The audio format is better than nothing I guess but I still think video format is the best way to do the show. It is as someone else pointed out a few days ago here on tumblr, even if they just had one stationary camera it would be better than having nothing. That said, I'll keep listning and I hope they listen to us and make it into video format for season 3!

[lilac-hecox]

Are you actually serious rn? Chanse is a black gay man and if that's the sort of humor he uses to cope with what is going on right now, who tf are you to judge him for it? The right is absolutely planning on taking away all of his rights, for the one thing or the other, but most likely both. If anyone is allowed to make jokes like that coping with the absolute hell hole we all slid into not even a week ago it's a black gay man. Get off your high horse and have some god damn compassion.

From what he said we have no idea if it's a joke is the thing. He talked about this date and making a second date. He's actively dating this Trump supporter.

Because he is a gay and black man he should know exactly why he shouldn't be saying that shit? It's very "the leopard would never eat my face!" Of him.

Additionally in the recording he made a point to talk about how the man he went on a date with has money and voted for Trump because of it and very "get that bag" attitude.

You can assume it's a joke but I think Chanse is being straightforward here. And a week after the election when his co-workers are posting messages of support and crisis lines he's out here actively dating someone who voted for a man who wants to strip the rights of people just like him?

Okay. 😬

[ianthoni]

I'm so glad that finally shayne posted a donation link. I did notice this pattern but hope its just me being cynical and not the reality, when Noah was being called out, Shayne started liking tweets supporting palestine. and now when Damien was being called out he posted a story. It is still way better than other cast members who are silent but I just hope it wasn't solely the cancellations that prompted him.

So yeah Shayne finally post a donation link for Palestine! LFG! This far i seen Nicole, Mallory, Vida and Damien talk and share links about this.

Honestly ngl i think people calling Smosh out in this subject definitely has an impact on them, i myself tagged him and others in chad chad's post about this but i wanna believe he's genuine in his support. I saw Courtney and him liking stuff but them not sharing something till now is unfortunate :/ but also it's their friends joining in the project so they might be educated on this subject. Again idk but I wanna believe it's the case. Also still it's so much better than what others do (nothing really) so I'm happy he did share it. THAT IS SOMETHING. I'm honestly upset Ian, Anthony, Courtney which has much more followers and HAS SO MUCH MORE IMPACT than Shayne or the crew that shared the links, didn't share anything at all. It's so weird to me that Anthony and Ian is friends with people like Hasan, Jarvis, Chad Chad that is working hard to donate/help Palestinians and they don't do anything? Sorry they don't *need* to share anything but it's the human decency to help people in need. *imo* like Chad Chad literally lives on Anthony's channel atp and he still doesn't speak about this? Idk I'm disappointed.

[heart-of-the-card]

I completely agree about Amanda today. She was giving off some weird vibes around her opinions of men. It’s absolutely okay to like “manly” men, but a man being concerned about a woman’s safety isn’t lame. It’s actually a green flag in my book. At least Arasha and Shayne gave her a little pushback.

Exactly, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions

[bean-there-before]

Now that I’ve had time to think over chanse going on dates with a trump supporter here’s what I have to say:

First, out of everything that’s happened with smosh cast members this is like the least problematic

second, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him going on dates or dating a trump supporter for himself because that’s his choice. If he wants to date him for the money and looks go for it. But I think the idea of him being safe from trump because he’s dating a trump supporter is wrong. I don’t think that because he is dating a trump supporter means he is safe. I also don’t think that gay trump supporter is safe.

I think the problem is that he is saying that he’s going to be safe with this trump supporter and it came across like he’s disregarding other people. Like he doesn’t care what’s going to happen with everyone else because he’s safe (which obvi he isn’t)

the other issue is the joke he made about Chappell roan the other week and how she refused to endorse anyone because she doesn’t agree with Kamala Harris’ stance on Palestine.

these are both kinda contradicting each other and it makes it confusing to think about.

[smloshie]

Unsure if the tumblr fandom was aware of what’s going on with smoshtwt and tiktok right now, but basically there’s a fan who is claiming to be Damien’s cousin and Shayne’s girlfriend. While we, as fans, know that she is lying about this- it’s unclear if she is lying in order to gain attention, or if she is dealing with a form of delusion. Of course, speculating on the mental state of an internet stranger is frowned upon, but this situation is bigger than that at this point.

This is now about the safety of Smosh cast and crew.

She has posted cryptic messages about going out to LA soon and seeing them in person. This kind of behavior is absolutely that of a stalker’s and should be taken seriously regardless of whether or not she’s just doing this for attention. The safety of Shayne, Courtney, Damien, and the rest of the Smosh cast/crew is being endangered right now.

According to the Twitter user that originally posted about this, Rachel (Smosh cast/crew member) is aware of what’s happening, and they are taking this situation seriously.

This post is not in any way, shape, or form a way for me to “rally the fandom” and attack this girl. It is purely to raise awareness to the situation, and remind everyone:

Do not, under ANY circumstances, EVER visit a content creators (or anyone affiliated with the content creator’s) home, place of work, or location that you think they frequent.

Do not, under ANY circumstances, EVER send death threats to anyone participating in these activities. Their mental state is likely not in a position to be receiving these. Threats don’t help, they harm.

[juztscrollingthrough]

Redditors expecting them to acknowledge their marriage on the smosh pit video...like are they fr?? firstly the shoot is probably gonna be a month old and also I genuinely don't think anything is gonna change drastically atleast on smosh channels, considering shayne always alludes to being a private person on smosh mouth and at the end of the day smosh is a job and when co-workers are together, they still maintain a professional image but yeah we'll definitely see more openness, cutesy comfortable vibes because this time they announced it on their own accord and were not outed by any weird stalker idk

[readthephible]

MANIFESTING TREVOR REPLACING NOAH🙏🏻

[jbdforspence]

Not sure who’s gonna care abt this but remember that truth or yeet vid with Spencer where he talks abt how he once had to edit out the start of a full-on physical fight between two former cast members from the defy era?

I FOUND THE VIDEO!!

Oh yeah, and the fight was between the people in the thumbnail ^

If you’re lazy coz the majority of the vid isn’t funny, skip to when Joven joins Sohinki in the goals at 8:20 😘