Blippi blip
February 14, 2019 7:36 AM Subscribe
OK, so I have some questions:
1) What the hell did I just read?
2) Is any of this real? Because I have no frame of reference in which any of these things are even slightly familiar.
3) Is Buzzfeed doing okay? Like, in an emotional/spiritual sense?
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:49 AM on February 14, 2019 [23 favorites]
1) What the hell did I just read?
2) Is any of this real? Because I have no frame of reference in which any of these things are even slightly familiar.
3) Is Buzzfeed doing okay? Like, in an emotional/spiritual sense?
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:49 AM on February 14, 2019 [23 favorites]
😍😍😍
Needs FecalFebruary and KeepMeFiClassy tags
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:50 AM on February 14, 2019 [8 favorites]
Needs FecalFebruary and KeepMeFiClassy tags
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:50 AM on February 14, 2019 [8 favorites]
Guess he's not going to be #1 anymore.
posted by praemunire at 7:52 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 7:52 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
POOP MONTH IS OVER!!!
Save it for next POOP MONTH!!!!
Do not encourage the Nega-Wallflower!!!!
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:58 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
Save it for next POOP MONTH!!!!
Do not encourage the Nega-Wallflower!!!!
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:58 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
How is that even a sentence.
posted by mhoye at 8:08 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 8:08 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
My son went through a brief Blippi phase at around 2 before we decided that even if Blippi was fairly unobjectionable, YouTube itself was not fit for human consumtion. I don't know if this revelation really makes me feel any different about Blippi--it was 100% obvious that the show was calculated to be easily consumable for his very specific target market, and I don't mean that in a particularly bad way. He just seemed like someone who was willing/able to do anything to capture people's attention. If you did even slightly deeper with someone like that in an era when people's triumph's and mistakes are recordable and irrevocably retrievable, you'll get results like this.
posted by skewed at 8:10 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by skewed at 8:10 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
Hey, if posting this kind of shit dilutes the front page from being a miasma of despair and outrage, I'm fully in support of it! #TeamPoopPost
posted by hippybear at 8:24 AM on February 14, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 8:24 AM on February 14, 2019 [15 favorites]
Tiny Croft has no idea YouTube exists, and we mean to keep it that way. I'm perfectly happy to have her video universe consist entirely of Bubble Guppies, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Creative Galaxy, the occasional Octonauts episode, Mutt and Stuff (though Jesus is that some weird shit right there, but she loves the dogs), and Peppa Pig
Especially Peppa Pig because Peppa Pig is actually pretty awesome for adults too.
unless you're a high-ranking member of the Chinese communist party, obviously
posted by Naberius at 8:25 AM on February 14, 2019
Especially Peppa Pig because Peppa Pig is actually pretty awesome for adults too.
unless you're a high-ranking member of the Chinese communist party, obviously
posted by Naberius at 8:25 AM on February 14, 2019
Even thinking about the bit where Peppa calmly and purposefully hangs up on Suzy Sheep makes me laugh. A case when the limited range of expressions improves the joke.
posted by phearlez at 8:35 AM on February 14, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by phearlez at 8:35 AM on February 14, 2019 [15 favorites]
Don't let her Peppa Pig watching get into the horrid deliberately kid-scarring shit like the Peppa/Dentist bullshit.
posted by hippybear at 8:37 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 8:37 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Blippi is mostly harmless, compared to the nether reaches of the children's YouTube wilderness, but I sure was glad that despite being prime target age when they came across one of his videos, the kid didn't take to him. We managed to divert back to Daniel Tiger and Peppa Pig, at any rate, which are much better for adult sanity.
(These days, it's all Octonauts, Wild Kratts, and Power Rangers. I'll take two out of three.)
posted by Quasirandom at 8:43 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
(These days, it's all Octonauts, Wild Kratts, and Power Rangers. I'll take two out of three.)
posted by Quasirandom at 8:43 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
This isn’t your normal lapse in judgement, this is making bad decisions like it’s your job.
A pro lapse, as it were.
posted by VeritableSaintOfBrevity at 8:43 AM on February 14, 2019 [24 favorites]
A pro lapse, as it were.
posted by VeritableSaintOfBrevity at 8:43 AM on February 14, 2019 [24 favorites]
> Is Buzzfeed doing okay? Like, in an emotional/spiritual sense?
Alternately, Buzzfeed is achieving their highest self.
posted by cirgue at 8:54 AM on February 14, 2019
Alternately, Buzzfeed is achieving their highest self.
posted by cirgue at 8:54 AM on February 14, 2019
It is undeniably, unequivocally, fucking hilarious.
No. No, it isn‘t.
posted by Omnomnom at 9:14 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
No. No, it isn‘t.
posted by Omnomnom at 9:14 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
BTW, there's a browser extension I've been using recently called Unrecommender that removes unrelated (i.e. not from the same creator or channel) recommendations from a YouTube video's page. It's really nice to watch a video without seeing the garbage the ML software dredges up displayed next to it.
</derail>
posted by suetanvil at 9:23 AM on February 14, 2019 [9 favorites]
</derail>
posted by suetanvil at 9:23 AM on February 14, 2019 [9 favorites]
I have a three year old and already hated Blippi. I thought the videos were ok, if a little inane. But then she started singing the theme song and spelling his name. I just knew there was something creepy about him. Now I've got a good reason to block him.
She'll never know.
posted by Catblack at 9:28 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
She'll never know.
posted by Catblack at 9:28 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
a uniquely millennial hybrid of Mister Rogers and Jake Paul.
aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhh#$&%#(#(##
posted by JamesBay at 9:28 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhh#$&%#(#(##
posted by JamesBay at 9:28 AM on February 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
My child has occasionally enjoyed Blippi (Toothbrushing videos are serious youtube gateway drugs) and to be fair, he's ok. Broadly educational and not all that salesy.
However if the child remembers YouTube is a thing they also remember that Ryan is a thing, and that is something that I will not abide! Ryan is adverts interspersed with adverts wrapped in horror.
Peppa Pig is also pretty appalling and so has also been banned. George likes dinosaurs OKAY Peppa, live with it! Let him like what he likes and quite fucking whining about it.
I think staying away from YouTube almost entirely will be the new rule. Thankfully we have Cbeebies on iPlayer as a backstop. Very little on youtube can compete with Sarah and Duck.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 9:33 AM on February 14, 2019
However if the child remembers YouTube is a thing they also remember that Ryan is a thing, and that is something that I will not abide! Ryan is adverts interspersed with adverts wrapped in horror.
Peppa Pig is also pretty appalling and so has also been banned. George likes dinosaurs OKAY Peppa, live with it! Let him like what he likes and quite fucking whining about it.
I think staying away from YouTube almost entirely will be the new rule. Thankfully we have Cbeebies on iPlayer as a backstop. Very little on youtube can compete with Sarah and Duck.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 9:33 AM on February 14, 2019
> Is Buzzfeed doing okay? Like, in an emotional/spiritual sense?
Hi, BuzzFeed News sf bureau chief here. Katie was at a spiritual peak on this. It was a story she was born to report out and write. She even made her own art - which I can honestly, if regretfully for the experience that led me to know this, say is a very faithful reproduction of the original.
posted by emptyage at 9:35 AM on February 14, 2019 [54 favorites]
Hi, BuzzFeed News sf bureau chief here. Katie was at a spiritual peak on this. It was a story she was born to report out and write. She even made her own art - which I can honestly, if regretfully for the experience that led me to know this, say is a very faithful reproduction of the original.
posted by emptyage at 9:35 AM on February 14, 2019 [54 favorites]
Honor to Katie, honor to Katie's cow.
posted by rewil at 9:40 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by rewil at 9:40 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
oh my god, I just got to the "artist's rendition" and I am dying
posted by BungaDunga at 9:43 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by BungaDunga at 9:43 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Is Buzzfeed doing okay? Like, in an emotional/spiritual sense?
It's, uh, complicated
posted by BungaDunga at 9:44 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
It's, uh, complicated
posted by BungaDunga at 9:44 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've made some choices in life that, in retrospect, were not wise. I'd probably do things differently if I had a second chance. But my two-year-old daughter has never seen a single YouTube video, and has never watched a minute of television that wasn't sports or music. And by music, I mean the PBS specials with reunited groups from the 50s. We've watched a couple of films together (mostly Charlie Brown holiday specials), but otherwise, she's a media-free kid. And damn, that was one GOOD decision I've made.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:51 AM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 9:51 AM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
Because I'm an idiot I went looking for the video. And let's just say there are a lot of Harlem Shake videos on the theme of "shitting". Fortunately I didn't find The One.
posted by Nelson at 9:56 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 9:56 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Hippybear: Hey, if posting this kind of shit dilutes the front page from being a miasma of despair and outrage, I'm fully in support of it! #TeamPoopPost
Agreed, but even on whimsical posts like this, I still make a point to check my shite privilege.
posted by zaixfeep at 10:19 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Agreed, but even on whimsical posts like this, I still make a point to check my shite privilege.
posted by zaixfeep at 10:19 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
"Everyone has a past — Blippi’s just happens to involve a widely viewed, comedic video of him taking a deuce on another man. It seems that even in his former incarnation, Stevin John was destined for viral fame, but no one could have foreseen the dancing poop guy’s pivot to mainstream children’s entertainment."
Could no one though? I mean, no one?
posted by whimsicalnymph at 10:20 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
Could no one though? I mean, no one?
posted by whimsicalnymph at 10:20 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]
Here we see someone degrading themselves in a base and vile fashion to draw attention and clicks with Internet content.
Also some guy did some real gross shit humor.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 10:22 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
Also some guy did some real gross shit humor.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 10:22 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
Ugh. Beyond the poop stuff, this isn't like Mister Rogers at all. He wasn't a manic babytalker. This is like 21st century Pinky Lee. Boo. No.
posted by queensissy at 11:01 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by queensissy at 11:01 AM on February 14, 2019 [6 favorites]
It always seemed to me that Mr. Rogers took people seriously. No matter what age.
posted by Omnomnom at 11:21 AM on February 14, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by Omnomnom at 11:21 AM on February 14, 2019 [11 favorites]
However if the child remembers YouTube is a thing they also remember that Ryan is a thing, and that is something that I will not abide! Ryan is adverts interspersed with adverts wrapped in horror. I'm assuming by Ryan you mean Ryan's Toy Review or Family Review or whatever. Did you know that Ryan is now a branded commodity available at Target?
posted by cottoncandybeard at 11:22 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by cottoncandybeard at 11:22 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Guess he's not going to be #1 anymore
Shitshake duck.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:24 AM on February 14, 2019
Shitshake duck.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:24 AM on February 14, 2019
I have a friend with a 2.5 year-old who doesn't watch any YouTube but is obsessed with The Andy Griffith Show which she watches with her grandmother every night just before bedtime. It's a wonderful sight to see.
Funnily enough, that show began as a spinoff of The Danny Thomas Show, and according to old-time showbiz lore, Danny Thomas himself was no slouch when it came to participating in shit-related shenanigans (though for him it was for pleasure rather than business.) The more things change...
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:25 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Funnily enough, that show began as a spinoff of The Danny Thomas Show, and according to old-time showbiz lore, Danny Thomas himself was no slouch when it came to participating in shit-related shenanigans (though for him it was for pleasure rather than business.) The more things change...
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:25 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
This article is a work of art. Great writing, and some really interesting insights about the future of media (the future already being here of course).
posted by JamesBay at 11:50 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by JamesBay at 11:50 AM on February 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Great article. But you're going on the shit list.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:58 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:58 AM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Did you know that Ryan is now a branded commodity available at Target?
I just saw an entire clearance table of Ryan-branded stuff at my local Meijer store (similar to Target, but regional to the Midwest) and had no idea who the kid was or why all of his random junk was crowding up the same table as the 50% bedsheets and towels. I think Youtube personalities are my line in the sand WRT feeling old.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:44 PM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I just saw an entire clearance table of Ryan-branded stuff at my local Meijer store (similar to Target, but regional to the Midwest) and had no idea who the kid was or why all of his random junk was crowding up the same table as the 50% bedsheets and towels. I think Youtube personalities are my line in the sand WRT feeling old.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:44 PM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
Toothbrushing videos are serious youtube gateway drugsI hope they don't run into THAT toothbrush scene.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:45 PM on February 14, 2019
I'm at work currently, but please tell me the original pooping video in question is still available online?
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:53 PM on February 14, 2019
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:53 PM on February 14, 2019
Nothing makes me feel more like an antique than YouTube “stars” and the associated “scandals.”
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 1:52 PM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 1:52 PM on February 14, 2019 [3 favorites]
My kid is a fan of Blippi. I find the songs done by Nicky Notes to be a lot of fun.
I’ve been caught singing the excavator song more than once.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:08 PM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
I’ve been caught singing the excavator song more than once.
posted by sciencegeek at 5:08 PM on February 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
EXcavatoooor... see you laterrrr!!!
Same. And as mentioned the toothbrushing song which was how the child discovered Blippi in the first place.
We've since moved on to this one, by Laurie Berkner. Which the child refers to as "The state of Maine". It is (as these things tend to be, ridiculously catchy.
I can only hope that there is no similar horrific revelation for Ms. Berkner waiting to come to light.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:10 AM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
Same. And as mentioned the toothbrushing song which was how the child discovered Blippi in the first place.
We've since moved on to this one, by Laurie Berkner. Which the child refers to as "The state of Maine". It is (as these things tend to be, ridiculously catchy.
I can only hope that there is no similar horrific revelation for Ms. Berkner waiting to come to light.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:10 AM on February 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
Blippi update from Motherboard (yes, this story now requires multiple outlets to investigate it for some reason): How Kids YouTube Star Blippi Used Copyright Law to Hide His Harlem Shake Poop Video
BuzzFeed isn’t the only company that got a legal notice about the video’s copyright. In early January, someone claiming to represent Blippi filed a copyright takedown request with Google, which previously had linked to a Russian website that host the so-called “Harlem Shake Poop” video.posted by zachlipton at 11:41 AM on February 15, 2019
“The copywritten work of ‘Harlem Shake Poop’ is of a NSFW video of one man defecating on another,” the takedown request reads. “This video was not authorized for use on the links provided. This Russian site is illegally storing the videos on their servers and your search results have indexed them. The information in this notice is accurate. I swear under penalty of perjury I am authorized to act on behalf of the owner that holds the exclusive right of the Harlem Shake Poop video that allegedly infringed.”
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posted by Halloween Jack at 7:39 AM on February 14, 2019 [4 favorites]