YouTube opened its doors in 2005 and made
way for a new kind of celebrity: the viral
star.
Some used their newfound stardom as a springboard
to bigger and better things, while others
faded away just as quickly as they arrived.
So how has your favorite YouTube obsession
fared over the years?
Here's a look at what happened to the first
viral YouTube stars.
Smosh
Anthony Padilla launched Smosh.com in 2002
as a place for him and his friends to hangout
together after school.
A few years later, with best friend Ian Hecox on board, he kicked off the budding
brand's YouTube channel by uploading a video
of himself dancing to the Power Rangers theme
song.
It went viral, and soon the duo were among
the world's first — and biggest — YouTube
stars.
Since then, Smosh's channels have amassed
more than 40 million subscribers, 11 billion
views, and a dedicated Wikia fan page, not
to mention their own movie.
But six years after the brand was purchased
by DefyMedia, Padilla dissolved his 12-year
partnership with Hecox to focus on his own
endeavors.
In a teary vlog, Padilla said,
"I had to come to terms with the fact that,
Smosh being part of a company, has put all
of my creative decisions through a filter
of what's appropriate for the Smosh brand
as deemed by the company.
I need to feel that happiness again."
What The Buck?
In the summer of 2006, Michael Buckley took
to YouTube to launch his public access style
show What the Buck?, rising to viral fame
after releasing a reaction to the Not Safe
For Work viral hit "Two Girls One Cup."
Oh My God!
AAAH!
Hold on!!"
At one point, Buckley had four of the top
ten most-viewed videos on YouTube.
So, where is he more than a decade later?
Though he still makes YouTube videos, his
current channel has just a tiny fraction of
the subscribers he once had.
Buckley told Ars Technica that viral fame
is a heady, but fleeting, thing.
"You start making money, and you think you've
tricked the world.
How did this happen?
I was doing this for fun, and for free, and
now I have thousands of dollars in my Adsense
account.
This is crazy.
It's nutty."
Still, Buckley has used his viral fame to
springboard into other media opportunities,
even co-hosting an episode of Live!
With Kelly during their search to replace
depearted host Michael Strahan.
Cool!
William Sledd
In 2006, Gap manager William Sledd launched
a YouTube channel featuring his wildly popular
series, "Ask A Gay Man."
By 2007 he had gained mainstream fame, even
inking a deal with NBC for a Bravo webseries.
But things never quite panned out.
Bravo ultimately shut down the channel hosting
his series, and in 2009, Sledd told C-Net
that he could see the writing on the wall
and had gotten a job at a bank.
"I'm not a spring chicken anymore.
I'm going to be 26 this year, so I'm like
'How long am I going to be sitting around
the house making YouTube videos from the bedroom?'"
He posted his last video in 2013.
EepyBird
If you've ever put a tube of Mentos in a 2-liter
bottle of Diet Coke to see what happens, you
can probably thank Fritz Grobe and Stephen
Volts for the idea.
Better known as the Coke and Mentos Guys,
the pair launched the EepyBird channel in
2006 and quickly rose to viral fame with their
"Extreme Mentos & Diet Coke" experiments.
Soon they were appearing on programs such
as The Late Show with David Letterman, Ellen,
and The Today Show, and in the video for Weezer's
Grammy Award-winning song "Pork and Beans."
They even scored two Emmy nominations and
four Webby Awards.
Following their success, the pair launched
their own social-media consulting firm, regularly
speaking at colleges and conventions around
the world, and writing books.
Now that's a successful experiment.
iJustine
Justine Ezarik started vlogging in 2006, but
first rose to YouTube fame a year later after
a video of herself reading through her 300-page
phone bill went viral.
Known online as iJustine, things got even
more real when she spent six months livestreaming
her life 24/7 for Justin.TV, an experience
that she said made her "anxious and paranoid."
These days, she's still going strong.
In 2015, she penned a memoir called iJustine,
an Analog Memoir, and her YouTube channel
boasts over 4.7 million subscribers.
"in the past couple of years I've started
doing more videos with my friends, and it's
just renewed my sense of enjoyment for YouTube."
Michelle Phan
Today's beauty community on YouTube is thriving
thanks in no small part to Michelle Phan,
one of the original YouTube beauty gurus.
Phan began posting easy-to-follow makeup tutorials
in 2006 and cultivated a massive following.
By 2009, she was a full-blown internet celebrity,
and her famous Barbie-inspired makeup tutorial
alone has amassed more than 67 million views!
That opened doors.
In 2010, Phan partnered with Lancome to become
the first YouTuber hired as a brand's official
video makeup artist.
Three years later, she landed a deal with
L'Oreal for her own line of cosmetics called
Em, which was later sold to Ipsy, a makeup
sampling startup co-founded by Phan that's
worth an estimated $500 million.
In 2016, Phan landed on the covers of Forbes
and Nylon.
But later that year, Phan suddenly disappeared
from YouTube, later revealing that she suffered
from depression.
She told Racked,
"You would think, 'This achievement is great.
You should be happy.'
But I wasn't.
I was waking up feeling so broken.
I didn't know why."
Keyboard Cat
Before Grumpy Cat, Lil Bub, and Nyan Cat,
there was the one and only Keyboard Cat.
This fluffy feline paved the way for his species'
massive YouTube success, and it all started
from a 2009 video posted by owner Charlie
Schmidt and tweeted by Ashton Kutcher.
Fame was instantaneous, and the original clip
has since amassed more than 50 million views.
Alas, the beloved cat — known as Bento to
his inner circle — passed away in 2018.
The tragic news rocked Keyboard Cat's more
than 800,000 Facebook fans, and the pretty
kitty even received a special tribute from
TV host Jimmy Kimmel, among others.
"People are remembering an internet icon."
"The so-called Keyboard cat, has died."
Keyboard Cat was just 9 years old.
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