I got into Smosh SUPER recently after Zac Oyama showed up in one of their Try Not to Laugh videos. I checked it out because I love Zac Oyama on Dropout, and wound up really enjoying the other comedians in the episodes, and that was that!
Haven't watched much on the main Smosh channel -- most of what I have been watching is the Smosh Pit content, and some of the Smosh Games videos. I'm a big fan of the Try Not to Laugh and Smosh Pit Theater series; I'm definitely more interested in improv comedy than sketch comedy in a general sense lol. I never really watched any of the original Smosh content when I was younger; I was too busy on Waarior Cats/Maximum Ride forums lmao.
I think the cast is super fun -- I love all the different styles of humor that they bring to the table, and the way they bounce off of each other's energy in really exciting/chaotic ways. They're so much fun to watch; the fact that they put out such a huge variety of content just makes it even better.
The Chosen
You know I am always willing to go all in on a character with an unusual intensity about shit no one else cares about, deep-set "cringy" interests, and unusual voice modulation, demeanor, and fashion sense. Especially when they're weird about wolves in particular (as you might be able to tell from this page's decor, I vibe with it hard).
The intensity he tends towards is kind of the punchline to his character, and its combination with him being a guy who is like, painfully uncool is very fun to me. Autistic to me, even. Spencer described capturing the Chosen character as "You just kind of follow whatever you're most passionate about, and what's also nerdy... and it's like, well, yeah, you're the expert on whatever you're an expert on, and you just talk about whatever, and then you just Yes, And it." The pretention that most people bring into that is equally important to my enjoyment of the character -- I love it when a character is allowed to be unabashedly 'annoying' or 'obnoxious' about the things they love, smug superiority included.
On the sort of flip side, Shayne saying in the Behind the Scenes of Legacy video, "Something that I think is really, like, kind of sad about the Chosen, is that in this [Legacy:Betrayal] universe, he was legitimately chosen. Like he was the chosen, to fight and end this evil. 'Cause in this universe, the universe that I play him in all our other videos, he's "the chosen", but he's living in a fantasy. But I like to think that in every other universe, the Chosen is legitimately the chosen, and in this one he's like "I am the Chosen", because there's something innate there that's like, 'Yes, but not here'." So intriguing to me; I'm obsessed.
Anyway, I also think it's fun that it's been canonized that he wears sunglasses all the time because he has a sensory aversion to bright light. I think him having a really dorky 'katana' as a comfort item is a really interesting character trait. I really like the different character dynamics we see him have with Augustus, Brianna, and the other versions of himself that we see in like, the Chosen Multiverse videos.
Angela's take on the character in the Moose Masters vid in particular is so much fun for me -- Weird Girl Chosen my Beloved. Love how combative and pedantic she is; the fact that I can choose to take her BoyGenius "You guys are the straightest people in the room" line as her being a lesbian just makes me love her that much more. I love Cringe Dykes and Strange and Off-Putting Autistics, and Angela's Chosen gives me both combined into one character -- what's not to love?
Sword AF
I am about 3/4's of the way through the first season of Sword AF so far and I am very much enjoying it. I feel like you can't really go wrong throwing a bunch of comedians into a TTRPG -- I love the blend of comedic beats combined with genuinely earnest storytelling, and I think the Smosh table is pulling it off really well.
Fernie in particular is a favorite of mine, because you know I'm a soft-touch for autistic-coded robots. Robotic constructs in general, honestly -- the fact that they're a Druid really compounds that for me, it's like tailoring a weird little guy just for me. I haven't gotten much spoilers for the campaign yet, but I did stumble into the season two character art and so I'm very eager to see where that is going :3c
Delores is also particularly fascinating to me. I love a character whose skills/abilities are in direct aesthetic contrast to the person they Present themselves as, so Dolores's Mom Archetype holding her back because she's worried that her fiendish powers will make her seem scary or off-putting is just *chefs kiss*. I'm also very excited to see how her backstory is going to continue to develop her character; Monkey Paw Wishes are a lot of fun, especially in DND settings. I can't wait to learn more about her patron!
Board AF Legacy
This series is so exciting to me; I hadn't heard of this style of board game before seeing it here, and it's such an interesting concept! In general, my favorite family lines are the Brawnes, O'Briens, and Whitmores! My favorite individual characters from each player would probably be Carolyn Brawne, Armadeous Whitmore, Sadie O'Brien, Beck Poppy, and Butch Bootles.
I've heard a couple people say that the first episode of the series drags the most, but I think the first one is an incredible introduction to the series -- the absolute chaos of the characters just tearing through the combat is so much fun to watch lol. I do think that episodes 5, 12, 13, and 14 are my favorites, though. I loved the character interactions between Carolyn and Mama in ep.12 and then Carolyn and Sadie in ep.13; Shayne, Amanda, and Angela's characters in episode 5 were so funny; and I thought they did Such a great job with the finale. Like, the random nature of the game's plot and roles doesn't always set up for 'traditionally well-developed' cohesive narratives, but I think the finale really pulls it off in a very fun way despite it.
I do find myself wishing that the story elements could be teased out some more, but I think that's just me having more experience with looser TTRPG's than one with so many concrete pre-organized elements. Like, the random nature of the setting and the Traitor role means that character's motivations don't always get concretely set-up or defined. I'm not sure I'd call that a genuine flaw in the game play, though, I think it might just be a matter of differing expectations with different game systems. Still, I think having this table play a Candela Obscura campaign would be absolutely Insanely good lmao. The tension between Horror and Comedy is such a fun line to dance on -- it'd be interesting to see what they'd do with a table weighted heavier on the 'horror' side of things >:3c
I think the characters are what makes this series genuinely excel -- the nature of the gameplay is very well-suited to a bunch of improvisors stringing together really off-the-wall characters, because each character needs to be punchy enough to be interesting for only one episode, and also messy enough to be able to pick up the mantle of the traitor without any warning. I love it when the improv manages to set up actual cohesion with the random narrative -- like in episode 10 when the character introduction actually did manage to align super well with the later assignment of the traitor role; and really liked some of the rapid but genuine character dynamics that unfolded over the short length of the episodes. Again, I loved Carolyn's one-on-one friendships she developed in both her episodes, the Beatle/Sandy pair-up in episode 5 was terrific, and even the brief Poppy/O'Brien romance that developed was very fun. The voice work alone is absolutely top-tier lmao; I truly can't get enough of the sheer variety of off-the-wall voices/accents they reach for here.
IDK what else to say, dude! Improvisational storytelling is one of my favorite things in the world, and the Smosh cast did a great job with it. I'd really love to see more gameplay videos with this kind of character work from them; I still don't know a lot about the Betrayal/Legacy games in themselves, so I'm not sure if there are other storylines for them to play through or not? But really any TTRPG from them would be top tier <3.