- "Hi, people, I'm NotSmirks, and I chew food."
- — NotSmirks
NotSmirks is a GoAnimate persona created by TheOmgwtfproductions (also known as Smirks, ironically). The channel is widely known across the community for his satirical and absurd approach to GoAnimate videos that parodied common tropes in other GoAnimate-related content (e.g., Grounded Videos). His inventive video-making style blends satire and surrealism together with his usage of complex scene building and inventive compositions that set him apart from other creators.
History[]
Earlier Years / Pre-NotSmirks[]
NotSmirks started on GoAnimate the same day he joined YouTube, on August 12, 2011, starting as TheOmgwtfproductions. He originally wanted to post clips of funny internet videos, but didn't know how to download or edit videos at that time. He came across YouTube's creators page, where he found a list of free to use video creating apps, one of which was GoAnimate. He uploaded his first GoAnimate video on August 15th, 2011. NotSmirks had first discovered Grounded videos in the same year, by coming across Mrlegofan404's channel, inspiring him to create his own grounded videos, the main one being The Steve series, Other titles he created included Amy and Jessica get grounded, and Memy9909 gets grounded.Sometime in early 2012, during the time of the Baxter v Memy9909 feud, NotSmirks had got himself involved in the discourse, and had a few run-ins with Memy. Like a lot of the users during this time, they would create videos out of one another. NotSmirks has spoken about his past many times since, and tends to look back on it all with humor. He has poked fun at his older content on the NotSmirks channel that would later be made a few years later.
Creative Awakening[]
He would continue with his usual style of content until summer of 2012. NotSmirks had grown tired of the content he was uploading, and was in need of inspiration. While looking up YouTube videos he found a video titled "100 Greatest Hits of YouTube", which inspired him to make something similar but with GoAnimate videos, knowing it had not been done before. He checked out the Animations page on GoAnimate's website, and binged through dozens of different videos that were considered "All time Top Animations". He would then upload a video titled "The Greatest GoAnimate Videos of All Time" later that day, which would bring lots of traffic to his GoAnimate page. He would get positive feedback from bigger creators, which inspired him to start exploring the website more. By doing so, he found a whole new community of users that made videos of many different variety. He learned about the many features the site had, such as the rewarding system, where you would get rewarded badges for completing a certain task done in a video or on the site itself (e.g., Logging on 5 days in a row, staff member promotes your video), as well as the Animator of The Month voting held every month on the Forums.
He discovered a whole landfill of videos being uploaded daily, with a majority of them being really well made. Having explored and finding new inspiration never had before, a strong surge of new found passion for the program was growing. It soon came to the point where he decided to discontinue making grounded videos with the announcement video "I am done with grounded videos". NotSmirks made a shift in his image and content and would end up changing his username on GoAnimate's website from "TheOmgwtfproductions" to "Smirks". He would start to create more ambiguous ideas in the videos prior to the announcement. A lot of them at the start of the changeup were mostly comedy related. Around the same time, he created the series "The Greatest GoAnimate Videos of the Week", where he would put together a list of several videos made during the week that he thought were deserving of more praise. He would showcase each video with a short review of them, followed by an interview with a rising/well known GoAnimator. Through the next 2 years, NotSmirks video making style evolved, as he would start to incorporate mood lighting and dynamic compositions in his scenes, which would become a staple of his work, and eventually became his own style that others would recognize. Some good examples of these effects being implemented back then can be seen in videos like "Wait", "Addict", and "The Giving Tree".
The Rise of NotSmirks[]
On September 30th of 2013, He had accidentally created a spare YouTube account through him changing email addresses. A year later he ended up renaming and using the spare account to what would now be known as "NotSmirks". By the end of 2014 and throughout 2015, NotSmirks would begin to upload a series of bizarre videos that people would later label as "random videos". To most people during the early years of the channel, the videos came off as chaotic and almost deranged. As time went on, more people would begin to understand the point of the uploads. NotSmirks took the concepts of the grounding videos he would see during this time and turn them into overexaggerated and distorted versions of what they once were. Many of these videos he would upload would be littered with little hints and secret messages that alluded to his overall disgust of the content that was taking over GoAnimate. The videos that made him feel inspired and pushed him to get better at what he did were suddenly replaced by grounded videos and other types of videos that would be copied amongst the majority of newer users of the time (e.g., Behavior Card Videos, Rant Videos). Ironically, the videos NotSmirks made would inevitably inspire others to make their own versions of his work. Some of them being scene for scene remakes, which NotSmirks himself would make light of in the video "Respecting of the Opinion".
Content Shift and Short Hiatus[]
By the end of 2015, he fell into an artist block, and his uploading schedule started to slow. Shortly after this, GoAnimate started making changes to its platform. downloading and exporting videos to youtube became harder to do, due to the Goplus subscription being discontinued. From late 2015 to around 2019, the content went into different directions as NotSmirks struggled to find the spark and passion he once had. He took a chance at creating various different forms of content, with all of them still having his charm. In late 2016, NotSmirks uploaded a video titled "NotSmirks Explained", where he would explain the meaning of his videos as well as share his overall feelings towards the attention and public opinion surrounding his channel, he would then announce his retirement from the channel and from GoAnimate. His decision for doing this was due to creative burnout, and for having a bit of an online identity crisis. The retirement only lasted for a year, making it only a hiatus. By late 2017, he would make his return and would end up unlisting the explanation video. Shortly after, He created the first "Out of Context GoAnimate" video that would end up sparking a whole new style of videos to come for years prior.
Return To GoAnimate Type Content[]
Near the end of 2020, NotSmirks uploaded "Aphex Twin makes Crazy Scary music" created with Wrapper Offline, which would begin a return to the style of his older work that he was known for. As his recent content has brought back the humor and absurdity of his older videos, NotSmirks manages to add a much different and more surreal approach than before. After uploading "Tiny Caillou gets in trouble" and leaving it on a cliffhanger, the videos posted prior started showing a much more mysterious and darker tone to them. The content was masked and made to be viewed as if it were another absurd NotSmirks video, but once viewing it to around the middle section of each video, they start to glitch out, and suddenly, the usual bright GoAnimate backgrounds have turned much darker and at times almost pitch black. The pacing gets slower, and shows Caillou wandering through empty liminal spaces making it seem like he's alone in an empty world. Throughout the rest of the length of each video besides the endings, ominous ambient music can be heard howling through each scene, all being composed and created by NotSmirks himself. By the end of each video, another glitch happens and everything suddenly goes back to the way it was, and the nonsensical humor continues like nothing had happened. Although there is no explanation or background given to his recent videos, NotSmirks has simultaneously been putting out his own music around the same time of the videos being uploaded, and has spliced up and added snippets of different sounds that all come from his musical work into his recent videos. To this day, NotSmirks's uploading schedule seems almost obsolete, but it's been made clear by NotSmirks himself that he has not quit and still plans to keep making videos when the time is right.
Trivia[]
- He was often disliked by some users of the community during earlier years of the NotSmirks channel, because they did not understand the true irony behind the videos that were uploaded on his channel.
- notsmirk puss a goanimate person and got fired since 2016 (This is a joke, and is an example of people disliking them back then.)
- Speaking of his videos being misunderstood, many Goanimators to this day cannot grasp the entire point of Notsmirks' channel and think it is "random = funny" humor.
- NotSmirks had achieved 4 Staff picks on GoAnimate, as well as winning Animator of the Month of October 2012
- He had a strong following on the smaller related site known as "Domo Animate" which was active from 2009 - 2014
- NotSmirks makes music under the same name and has been producing since 2014, and as of 2023, he has released 3 albums on all streaming platforms. His genre is electronic music and could be described as experimental/leftfield
- The name NotSmirks was a purposefully tacky joke, and is a play on his original name "Smirks".