A Brief History of SMG4 and It’s Role in Creating GLITCH

It’s crazy to think about it, but GLITCH Productions is everywhere these days. Whether it’s taking the internet by storm with hit shows or merch at Hot Topics and GameStop’s, GLITCH has become a powerhouse of indie animation. But they didn’t just hit it big with the rise of Murder Drones four years ago. The story of Glitch’s success can be traced all the way back to 2011, when co-founder Luke Lerdwichagul uploaded a video to another channel. A little channel known as SMG4.

SMG4 is the bedrock upon which GLITCH was built, and for the last eleven years, it’s entertained millions. To my shame, though, I never even heard of SMG4 until the news broke that it would be ending on December 27th, 2025. Which, in all likelihood, means that it’s ended by the time this goes up. Given how Glitch has become a bastion of indie animation in a time when that is needed most, that makes it a big deal. Thus, like many things I consider a big deal, I feel compelled to write about it after binging hundreds of videos. Plus, this happens to be some of the dumbest, funniest, memeable stuff I’ve ever seen on YouTube. That alone makes me want to gush about it.

From Humble Beginnings

The origins of SMG4 can be traced back to a genre of videos known as Super Mario 64 Bloopers. The short version: they’re a genre of machinima videos filmed using Super Mario 64 to film, often on an emulator of some kind. And like many fan-made parodies, they’re often incredibly silly and stupid. Luke wasn’t the first to make them, and when he started posting in 2011, he didn’t stand out that much. As time went on, though, his videos would grow more complex. He started to push the game engine for Super Mario 64 further. When that no longer cut it, he started to use Gary’s Mod. Eventually, his videos would be a combination of multiple game engines and original animation made using things like Blender.

What really sets SMG4 apart from the crowd, though, isn’t the animation. It’s the memes.

MEME THIS! MEME THIS! MEMEMEMEME THIS!

At its core, SMG4 is a series built on, and focusing on, memes. That means that it uses a lot, and I mean, a lot of pop culture references. Besides memes and characters that physically appear in the show, it uses a lot of sound effects for the sake of comedy. Most often, that means it uses audio clips found in movies, games, and other YouTubers channels. It’s an easy to allow the characters to communicate without having to overly rely on voice acting or pantomiming. It still uses them, but it’s just funnier this way.

But what, exactly, is SMG4? In a nutshell, insanity and stupid fun, mostly involving memes and memes versions of popular characters.

Who Let the Chomp Out?

As a show, SMG4 primarily focuses on an ensemble cast of characters known as SMG4’s Crew or the Glitchy Gang. Its membership has varied over the years, but at its heart are the main characters, Mario and SMG4. Unlike his game counterpart, the SMG4 version of Mario is an utter moron who can’t even count, is obsessed with spaghetti, and is often the cause of most problems as he is the solution. As for SMG4, he serves as Luke’s in-universe avatar using a reskin of Mario, but he eventually got a redesign. He often has to rein in Mario and the others when stupidity gets too much, but given how his main role is to make funny memes, that’s not saying much.

As for the rest of the cast, it largely consists of three main categories. Firstly, there are parodies of video game characters. They made up the bulk of the cast at first, but gradually lost focus as the show went on. Secondly, there are the OC’s, original characters not based on anything from other media. They gained more attention in the latter half of the show. Lastly, we have the redesigned characters. They were initially portrayed using models from video games, but would get original designs so they could be used without fear of Nintendo breathing down the show’s neck, and sell merch of said characters.

Which brings us to the part where the story of GLITCH formally begins.

GLITCH is Born

In 2017, buoyed by the success of his channel, Luke and his older brother, Kevin, took a chance and founded their own animation studio, Glitchy Boy, later renamed Glitch Productions. This would allow the brothers and their growing team to work on original projects not based on existing IP like Nintendo. At the same time, they were able to use SMG4’s existing fanbase to get Glitch off the ground, using the series to promote GLITCH. The first instance being the introduction of Tari, an OC whose counterpart would become the star of GLITCH’s first original series, Meta Runner, premiering in 2019. In addition, the studio’s second series, Sunset Paradise, would serve as a spin-off from SMG4 in the spring and summer of 2021.

It was the time that Tari was introduced that SMG4 began to change. Several of the older characters based on existing IP would gradually lose importance in favor of the OCs. The ones who stuck around would either continue to be parodies of their IPs or redesigned into OCs. More importantly, though, the show started to incorporate serialization. Story arcs spanning multiple episodes became a recurring part of the show, with the arcs growing more complex and high-stakes as time passed. It would ultimately hit its peak in the Cosmology Saga, a trilogy of arcs running from 2020-2022 that helped celebrate the channel’s 10th anniversary while also providing an overarching mythos. And I have to admit, it was a pretty creative way of explaining why the cast of SMG4 acts so differently from the games. Sadly, once you hit your peak, it’s hard to keep things up afterwards.

SMG4 Has Reached the End

I’m still watching through the remainder of the series, but from what I’ve seen and heard, SMG4 started to lose steam after the Cosmology Saga. The next arc involved a lawsuit with Nintendo, but it was really an excuse to justify redesigning the main character to better resemble his IRL counterpart. The arc after that would see the cast move out of their main setting altogether in favor of an original one, and things kept going from there. And maybe it was because of the changes, because Luke and Kevin were focusing more on Glitch itself, or the increasing focus on serialization, but the show wasn’t as funny as it used to be. So, Luke had a choice: keeping running the show past the point where it was good, or bow out? On October 29th, he made his decision: SMG4 would be ending before the year was out.

The announcement that SMG4 would be ending seems to have been big new. Considering how GLITCH, the company it laid the groundwork for, has become so prominent in the 2020s, that’s understandable. As I’ve often said on The Game of Nerds, though, all good things must come to an end, lest they end up like The Simpsons. If Luke wants to retire so he can focus on Glitch, he has the right to do so. SMG4’s legacy will live on in Glitch, and the channel itself will remain up for posterity, so it’s not like it’s going anywhere. If you haven’t seen the channel yet but are a fan of Glitch, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s hilarious, and I can see why it was able to create a bastion of indie animation.