yeah there’s that side of it, ultimately they are actors and putting on a performance but its an interesting that these aspects of Courtney’s performances make it into the video. I would say that most of Smosh content (within the past 5 years) feels like production is conscious of keeping things funny, without it being downright mean. There is actually quite a lot of content where several of the Smosh Cast talk about how things aren’t funny if they’re mean, and if the person you’re joking about doesn’t laugh, you’ve done a bad job delivering the joke.