Ian is often portrayed as dim-witted, ignorant, gullible, happy-go-lucky, and/or childish. He constantly demonstrates a lack of knowledge of the world. He is usually seen as less mature than Anthony, often going into temper tantrums or crying fits. Even though Ian is usually shown as intellectually inferior to Anthony, there have been instances where he has been expressed as smarter than Anthony: For example, in "Anthony is Mexican," Ian spoke fluent Spanish while Anthony couldn't, forcing the latter to rely on a dictionary (resulting in him saying "My donkey is river waffle big sausage fat."). Another example is shown when he clearly understands the instincts of surviving a horror movie much better than Anthony, and acts more seriously in the situation as shown in Molester Moon. But despite all of this, polls have shown that Ian's more popular amongst Smosh fans than any other character.
Ian portrays most of the duplicating cast in the Smosh Productions in contrast to Anthony, as he has appeared as around 50 different duplicate persona's, for example Dr. Drew Peacock and George Zazz. As revealed in a Lunchtime with Smosh episode, when he's hungry, if he tries to say "animal," he'll say "mammal" instead. He also thinks that Jeeps are trucks for some unknown reason. In his Smosh Pit profile, he claims that he stands for truth, justice, and the "peanut butter cup way".
Ian has been shown to be even more in to girls and their breasts/asses EXT. than Anthony. In the episode "MY MAGICAL TAPEWORM!", when Anthony grew breasts, he was completely upset about the situation. Ian however took advantage and played with the wonders that we call boobs on Anthony's chest, claiming that he has never felt "real ones before".