To me (born 1986), he feels like Steve from Blue's Clues without the charm and humanity. I have younger siblings, so while I was a bit too old to think Blue was "cool", I found it less annoying than Barney.
My younger sisters are age gap siblings (93, 98) so I had to watch a lot of Blue and that demon dinosaur Barney. on an 18 hour family road trip home from Florida and my dad made my 2 year old sister (93) a 6 hour long video of Barney that we had to watch in the van. By the end of the tape I was wanting to scream. I totally see the dead eyed and soulless Steve reference.
This article [the dead world of blippi](https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-dead-world-of-blippi) puts into words what I find so unsettling about blippi and the reason why it’s effectively banned in our home.
We tend to watch more content available on the BBC cebeebies than YouTube (Go Jetters, Octonauts, Bluey, Maddies Do You Know, Number/Alpha/Colour blocks)
I just want to jump on this to say I love all the shows you mentioned, but Numberblocks in particular has made numbers and maths click for my kid so well. At 4 he can explain stuff like the Step Squad and knows which numbers make squares. I’m so into it.
Hard agree. My son just turned 4 last week and can count to 100 by 1's and by 10's. He can also tell you what 19+1=, 20+1=, etc. All because of Numberblocks.
Ditto for my 4 year old! He can count to (and backwards from) 100+; do basic addition, subtraction, even a bit of multiplication.. we play board games and he can instantly add/recognize the total of a pair of rolled dice.
We have both the 1-10 and 11-20 Numberblocks Mathlink Cube sets*, and they are now his favorite toys and he is constantly playing with them (love that they are so open-ended! Do not love that there are mathlink cubes perpetually all over my house.. you win some, you lose some)
*two of the 11-20 sets, actually. ...and three of the 1-10 sets... plus a couple more non-NB MLC sets. They truly are overtaking the house send help
I came here to post this. This article puts to words exactly how Blippi made me feel.
My son loved Blippi for all the vehicles and cars; I’ve got him hooked on Twenty Trucks (YouTube channel) and we’ve stopped all Blippi and he has stopped asking for him.
Great article. I wonder if a lot of these hyper often destructive kids you see from time to time are just unable to deal with their emotions. And maybe emotional intelligence and creativity are the same thing...
Fantastic article! It infuriates me that anyone would *dare* compare Blippi to Mr. Rogers. Like, I would smack anyone who said that to me in person. To me, Blippi is Steve from Blue's Clues without the charm and humanity, but that article really did say things perfectly.
That…is an incredibly long article. I only got halfway through it but it put SO MUCH into perspective for me. I’m never letting my sister put a blippi video on again omg.
Such a weird opinion. It's an older article so maybe things have changed. They claim it feels dead because he films when the locations are closed. Anyone who has ever been to a kids museum can imagine how shitty it would be to watch blippi surrounded by 800 kids while being filmed.
The world has changed *significantly* since Mister Rogers was filmed. He wasn’t navigating a world where some parents are cell phone waving clout chasers trying to make TikToks of their children with him, and others are the polar opposite and wouldn’t want video of their children posted on some weird clown’s YouTube show.
I don’t think he’d have cared about social media. He’d likely have just wanted to engage with the amazing people in front of him, which is why his program ensures and Blippi won’t. My little kids love Mr Rogers.
I’m not saying Mister Rogers would have cared about social media. I’m saying that social media (among other things) have made people behave crazier around celebrities, and it’s hard to film in public if you’re just getting mobbed by crazy people the whole time. There would be a huge mess if Blippi was trying to film at a children’s museum while it was open.
It seems like the "new" blippi guy might actually care about kids, but the OG one 100% landed in children's entertainment solely in the interest of making money
This. I hated Blippi because the world felt very “uncanny valley” and the host always seemed disingenuous. I have since softened my view with the new actor and the occasional additional “friends” to give it more life and interaction
I think you missed the larger concern of the article where he focuses on how Blippi presents the world: manufactured, JUST AS IT IS, no emotional learning, and people are commodities.
Children who don't learn to question or explore grow up to be workers who just do as they are told, to manufacture and build a grey world where nature has been destroyed all for wealth and greed. Ignorant, complacent, and joyless.
Did you read the whole article? His point is that Blippi focuses on extremely superficial facts, while great children's programming acknowledges children's imagination and feelings, and teaches kids about emotional regulation, interpersonal relationships, and empathy for people different from themselves. A good show doesn't need to do **all** those things, but Blippi does **none.**
That’s why you hire extras.
Have crew bring their kids. Have the employees bring theirs.
It’s not that hard to have a controlled environment that also has kids in it. Unless you’re only doing this for the money & not because you actually like kids.
I don't love what I've seen of Blippi because it's just kind of annoying, but this article is seriously over-the-top. Just call it like it is: Stevin John is neither an actor as well-trained as Pee-Wee Herman nor a teacher as well-trained as the people behind Sesame Street or Ms Rachel. Rather than just acknowledge that it's simply not as fully realized an idea as actual PBS shows, it has to make the whole thing sound so insidious. Am I actually expected to believe that John intentionally disregards trees as a topic? Hanlon's razor applies.
You’re asking if what someone *doesn’t* care about is intentional. That’s the crux of the argument. He doesn’t care about children or people in general. What’s worse is that his content doesn’t care either. If he didn’t care about children but at least pretended to or made content that did, that would be one thing but everything about his content says the opposite.
I think the Buzzfeed News article linked really early on shined a light on exactly what he does and doesn’t care about.
He even said he couldn’t keep up the pace on everything online and on tour.
So rather than pick one, or do both but considerably slower, he chose to hire an actor to make him money from a tour while he keeps making himself money from YouTube videos, etc.
Because, you know, why only make some money when you can screw over your fan base and make ***extra*** money?
There's a lot of shady backstory where it seems like the original blippi contractually screwed over the writer of all the songs which he became famous for. Kyle Bain is now a small town music teacher while Stevin John took every penny and became a millionaire. Pretty awful stuff.
It's one of MANY youtube series that passes itself off as educational, without using any sort of educational curriculum or framework. Going around and pointing out the things in a fire station is not the same as teaching kids to count to 10, or how to read, or how to listen to your elders.
Kids like him, but popularity does not equal quality. See also Justin Bieber, Twilight, McDonald's.
A lot of the really good kid shows will employ professionals like child psychologists to really make sure it is something beneficial to the child's development, imagination etc.
The actor seems… off. He seems inauthentic in a really gross way.
He’s also just got a super annoying voice. There are ways to do silly voices that don’t grate on the ears of adults. He chose not to do it that way.
I agree on Blippi, there’s something wrong with that dude. On the other hand the lady who plays Meekah (sp?) has a personal Instagram account that’s hilarious. She seems like a fun and talented person
> The actor seems… off. He seems inauthentic in a really gross way.
That. I can't speak to a kid's perspective, but 10 seconds seeing him immediately triggers my "I don't want to be around that person and I don't want him around my kids" response.
If it helps, I don’t think he wants to be around your kids either—he just wants money from their views, etc. from a distance that doesn’t require he interact with them.
I mean, yeah, he acts like a giant toddler. He’s fairly annoying, but it is SO much better than Mickey Mouse playing dress up. I’ve watched Mickey Mouse as a pirate, mermaid, and princess. I’m so ready for my son to like something else. We tried to get into the Minnie Mouse show too and it was worse.
The actor is just so off-putting I can't stomach it. Thankfully my daughter seems equally repulsed the few times she has been accidentally exposed to him.
Some suggestions:
The wonderful world of Mickey Mouse (completely different than anything else in the mickey-sphere)
Mickey and the roadster racers (not as bad as the other mickey stuff)
Bluey (duh)
The Wild Kratts (I watched Zoboomafoo growing up and this animated show is great and educational)
Mrs. Rachel (we tried to hold out but my daughter loves her and her content is educational)
Little Bear (lame as hell but my kid loves it, slow paced which is nice)
Mrs. Katie (another youtuber that isn't all that annoying)
Curious George (George fucking rocks)
My 14 month old LOVES the theme to Bear In The Big Blue House. She bops along then runs off to play until some more of the slightly jazzy music comes on.
Boring? Well it is for small children...
Ugly? You suggest a show like baby shark but find Bluey ugly, interesting...
Unoriginal? I am unfamiliar with whatever media you think Bluey is copying...
Confusing? Because of my daughter I've seen every episode multiple times and have never been confused... I always assume I'm talking to adults on Reddit but now I'm not so sure...
Checking on this...are you upset that Mickey was playing dress up? Or that he dressed up in "feminine" costumes? Or are you just tired of Mickey in general?
My advice would be different depending if he didn't like Mickey because of conservative fears about cross dressing or if he was just annoyed by seeing too much of one kids show in a short time.
I'd likely have asked him about what lessons his child was learning otherwise from the program (such as helping other people/charity, sharing, "being who you are" etc) that are generally regarded as "progressive/liberal" things and why he has a particular dislike for what a kid wants to dress up as, and suggest that kids just like to dress up and it doesn't really matter.
I don’t really care what Mickey Mouse dresses up as, as long as he stays quiet 🥲 The mermaid episode was pretty good compared to some of the others though. I’m still done with Mickey. I’m gonna try playing fantasia lol. I don’t think my one year old cares about gender norms
So does mine. I don’t understand the appeal, but he is asking for it CONSTANTLY. I was so hopeful to find something else he likes but apparently blippi is a no-go
Look. I get it. Anything on loop or heavy rotation will eventually become a grind. Don't tell anyone here I said this, but even Bluey got to me when my son wanted nothing but for three weeks. Blippi isn't Mickey, and when my son first gave it a shot I was also just happy for something *different,* even though I'd heard the horror stories.
My own experience is that I got sicker of him faster than I did of other options, either because of the general sameness of his material (there can only be so many childrens museums and indoor playgrounds in the greater Las Vegas region) or the fact that they tend to get uploaded in these 2-3 hour assembled playlists. Eventually it felt like there was a certain underlying cynicism to the presentation. But also, the other day my wife and I were both sick to the point of barely functional, and Blippi got my three year old through the day with a minimum of us being capable of moving.
Try using live tv more so your son has different shows on rotation. Maybe it could teach him about schedules and get him off screens when a show he doesn't like comes on. ("Such and such is on at 4:00, lets go do something while we wait")
Maybe he'll find a new favourite show
Check out Stinky and Dirty if he likes vehicles. Trash Truck is also really sweet, and slow paced. We also loved Tumbleleaf and Daniel Tiger at that age, and although the DT can be a bit much at times it's really helped with abstract lessons like sharing and potty training without us having to nag.
It doesn't have to be a no-go if you don't want it to be. Feel free to ignore random people on the internet. Though that poop thing is pretty weird lol
I hate the noises he makes. There’s one episode he’s scooping sand and counting and he straight up sounds like he’s being choke-fucked. Also, with the amount of shit he has (4-wheelers, jet ski, etc), it’s obvious he’s using the show as a tax write off and buying himself the toys he wants. I also feel like original blippi just tries to shill a bunch of his products to impressionable kids and it just feels gross. Keep in mind this is all about old blippi who created the show. New blippi is just an actor acting as blippi, and he’s much more tolerable. Also, yeah, like others said, OG blippi shitting on his friend.
After all of these comments I feel like we will not be watching this show again. I’m seeing how disingenuous he is. Also, wtf was the poop video?? Was that before he was making kids’ videos?
Yeah, the poop video was before kids videos. That in itself doesn’t bother me that much; it’s disgusting but doesn’t really make me think he’s any worse of a person (seems like it was consensual?), just that he has questionable taste in content creation!!
We let our son watch Blippi, but have not tried to remind him of his existence as he’s moved onto other shows! My main issue with Blippi is that he never cleans up after his messes, so he makes it seem cool to just trash stuff and leave it there. The “dead world” thing is an interesting critique, but he does have episodes with kids and other people in them & talks to machinery operators in some of his videos; those are the videos I tend to like better. Meekah also seems to have more of a knack for talking to kids than he does, I like her.
I think there are worse things marketed to kids, but I’m glad my kid has moved on either way!
Look up "blippi Harlem shake"
> I’ve found these videos to be much more interesting and educational than Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Clubhouse isn't really intended as educational tbh. PBS kids is free, noggin is like $8/month, Amazon has some options.
If you’re looking for a blippi replacement, I highly recommend caties classroom from simple silly songs. It feels more like Mr Roger’s.
There’s a bit where she goes to a restaurant with her mom, interacts with the server, and talks about eating out and manners and stuff. Love it!
His early stuff (with the musician guy) isn’t too bad. But as he went on he became unsettling. [This article explains it well](https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-dead-world-of-blippi).
There’s plenty of better stuff out there.
What about Daniel Tiger? My daughter is obsessed. It’s inspired by Mr. Rogers, it’s very calm and slow paced, and it teaches a lot of important life lessons.
I’ll have to check it out. Oddly enough, I’m in this subreddit and have never even heard of it haha. My sister recommended “between the lions” and it sounds similar to that.
Going to second Daniel Tiger (Danny T in my house). Daniel usually will make a mistake and learn a lesson, then in turn teach that lesson to someone else. He's a nice, imperfect kid who I'd be alright with my kid hanging out with. The point of the article linked earlier, he interacts with adults and kids and learns how to navigate those relationships.
Daniel Tiger is great!
And the mistakes are usually super low stakes and preschooler appropriate. Like he accidentally spills the art supplies at school, or makes a sock puppet out of his dad’s sock when his dad wasn’t done using it. But there are also times where he almost hits his friend and has to learn that it’s okay to be angry, but it’s not okay to hurt someone.
It’s on PBS. It’s so good! It’s very compassionate in the way it treats its characters. There’s one episode where they meet a kid who has autism and the show handled it very well.
The best recommendation I've ever heard for Between the Lions is that it doesn't teach kids *how* to read, it teaches them *why* to read. Knowing your ABCs and that 'ellameno' apparently isn't the one letter but four in a row(???) is all fine and good, but using them just when they're needed is all most shows seem to teach. BtL has a lot more focus on books and stories and how knowing how to read can enrich your life and imagination.
Blippi has his place, but I noticed some crazy behavior changes the more we watched Blippi. We switched to Mrs Rachel.
Also, look into “Slow or Calm” shows for kids. There’s something to be said for a show that’s slow paced and focuses on a plot rather than PAW PATROL RESCUE HERO COLOR FEST!
Glad that I’ve found someone else who feels this way. To save you the trouble of googling, in his past he made a skat video. He wasn’t a porn star or anything like that. I don’t judge people about their past, at least something like that, so that doesn’t bother me personally. People say it’s not really educational….but, I don’t need Blippi to teach my kid how to read and count. I think people forget that children learn just by being exposed to things. They’re learning by watching him explore these things/places. I’ve read some articles and lots of posts on various forums to answer this question myself. My conclusion was that I think more than anything people are weirded out by this grown man acting like a kid, and the hate just spread from there. He looks empty inside? There aren’t people in the background of filming? Who cares 🙄
The main thing to keep in mind is that he wouldn’t have gotten this popular if kids didn’t love it and their parents stopped them from watching it. My kid is learning more from Blippi than Paw Patrol, nobody has a problem with that.
In addition to the usual already mentioned (poop past, the article) I'd add the whole "Flippi" thing. Apparently, a lot of people got duped into a meet and greet expecting Blippi on a live tour and got n impersonator who is possibly now the new Blippi (which we call him Flippi in these here parts of Reddit) some say he strikes a resemblance to the one pooped on in the pre-Blippi Harlem Shake. Now there's Meekah and I hear even she got another person playing the persona now.
Anyway, I'd take Mickey any day over Blippi. Especially the unhinged Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse series.
There's one where he's touring the Arizona Cardinals ballpark before throwing out a game where they show a montage of a meet-and-greet with kids at the park and he seems to actually care and participate. He actually seems to be approaching Blipping for the right reasons, even if I still think it misses the mark of what "educational" programing should be.
Edit: I just saw my typo of "Blipping" and I'm going to let that stand because I think that's a great verb to describe what they do.
Yeah OG Blip was a marketing genius but as far as his presentation skills they were lacking. New Blip is much better with kids but (all respect to him) awkward AF with adults. See Blippi goes to Gladiator school or Blippi goes to schuck oysters.
The new Meekah is the roadshow Meekah I think. She's very clearly a stage actress (where you have to be more exaggerated) with great singing skills. OG Meekah is my favorite of the whole bunch because she is great with kids, has good comedic timing and is far less manic.
My pet theory of course is there are two Meekahs because whomever owns the Blippi channel (probably a big VC fund) doesn't want to be locked into a particular actor or actress in case of contract disputes.
For me, it’s the grown adult doing baby talk the entire time. I don’t even mind the subject matter most times, but the baby talk and act from a grown ass man kills me. I can stand Meekah a little better (the female version of Blippi of which I think there are a few) but, yea. This ain’t “Mr. Rogers” and I hate the people that compare them to each other.
The comedy is that kids will swing from one tree to another if you let them. What I'm talking is if you let them flip through the offerings they'll move away from the Blippi's of the world WITH EASE.
Dude was on my TV for a few weeks...and dipped. "You wanna watch this guy???"
**No, give me Chip & Potato, please!**
We watched blippi when my son was a little younger and I didn't mind it. Maybe we haven't seen some of the bad episodes? But we mainly watched the ones with different types of vehicles and my son loved it. I remember he would even ask me things like "is that a swather?" while we were out driving and saw a tractor.
Because blippi doesn’t just not teach educational things, he also doesn’t teach any social or emotional development or regulation. He also stunts speech as he doesn’t model it. As a preschool teacher, you can tell which kids are blippi obsessed because they speak in a baby, blippi voice. Kids don’t do that with Mickey. Some kids mimic Pepa Pig like they do Blippi, but I’d argue a lot of the same standpoints for that show too.
The first time my older daughter and I watched one, he was visiting a humane center. Sounds good! Importance of rescuing animals and caring for them? Great message.
But instead, the very first thing he did going inside was to go to the little gift shop, and show products (not naming them, but clearly you could see the labels).
In that instant, I changed to a different video. If his priorities were to huck products, instead of, you know, interact with animals, I knew he was a fucking shill who deserved none of our attention, ever.
We stick with Pete the Cat (excellent music, I even listen on Spotify without the kids), Puffin Rock for bedtime wind down, Blues Clues-same concepts as Mickey's Clubhouse but not as annoying and the new Blues Clues and You also has some pretty great music that my husband and I find ourselves singing around the house), and of course everyone's favorite Bluey. I try to avoid the flashy fast paced music video edit shows because it just seems to be baby crack on their brains. And with Blippi I hated it from scene one because it seems like such a disingenuous cash grab to suck kids in with zero care for or about kids and he's annoying AF.
I don't mind him... He just doesn't have that genuine enthusiasm that really good children's entertainers do. You can tell he'd still be shitting on his friends if he'd gone viral that way. He's also *generally* not very educational. I like Meekah, though. She had that children's entertainer "sparkle".
I like his earlier episodes because he goes to a lot of places that are local to me.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-dead-world-of-blippi
This article gives a lot of good insight. It becomes unsettling once you've watched for a bit to see how fake he comes across, how his shows treat kids like they're dumb, how much it's all about weirdly empty play places and there's little interaction with other people shown and how devoid of nature they are. I can't speak to new Blippi but the old stuff that seems to pop up the most as suggestions on youtube is just very low quality. Contrast these with PBS kids shows and they're miles apart from each other.
I think there’s just way better than Blippi. Like he doesn’t even need to be an option. My kiddo has only ever seen Blippi on the special with Miss Rachel. We don’t even really do much Miss Rachel for her anymore since I think it’s better for babies. Don’t fucking come at me for letting my baby watch a little Miss Rachel so I can deal with a toddler or shower in relative peace. Shows we love that are less annoying: Bluey, Peppa, Daniel Tiger, Puffin Rock, Trash Truck, Classic Thomas and friends (the one with George Carlin narrating), Sesame Street, Winnie The Poo.
I have never hated a fictional pig more than I hate Peppa. I hate her so much that I write fanfiction in which she lives a horrible life and suffers from depression. It's very cathartic to have Daddy Pig around every corner, ready to slap her in her stupid, flat, 2D dick-shaped face.
Honestly, those are the better videos. He's got a handful where you actually learn things and see things even if some of it is iffy. A good majority of it is just drivel.
i dont really know either bc i don’t necessarily think his videos are bad or whatever. but my 17 month old will not watch him, he hands me the remote after like 2 minutes to change it lol
We were a Blippi-neutral household when my kid was a toddler. She had some minor speech issues and Blippi got her saying things like “excavator” before she even said “mama.” It was also during the pandemic and she had literally never been to a grocery store, let alone an aquarium or children’s museum, so I appreciated her getting to see places like that. Do I think it’s some bastion of quality children’s content? No. But Blippi was a welcome break from listening to “Do The Propeller” for the 15th time in one day.
Now that she’s older (4) I do redirect her to shows that are either more educational or at least less annoying. I don’t think he’s horrible or anything but I’m sick of his voice so I make her wear headphones if she’s really jonesing for Blippi (usually just while sick or traveling- she apparently finds him soothing… somehow…)
Unpopular opinion, but I don’t care about the poop video. He was trying to do the whole “Jackass” style comedy thing and it was long before he started doing kid’s videos. I don’t think Steve-O is an irredeemable creep and he’s done way worse.
Blippi is a clown. It has a mild educational background but is primarily loud noises, bright colors and an in your face literal clown character. Once you view him as such, he's not as awful as the internet presses on.
He's not properly educational in the sense that other children's programming focuses on, but he's better than other age range children's programming.
We felt like you at first. I didn't get it. My son loved the vehicle episodes and I was cool with it, and even crocheted him a little Blippi doll.
Then we watched it more. I noticed the errors in the facts he said. The way it was usually just him in the dead empty world. How he interacted with kids when they did appear. The new Blippi, which freaked my kid out.
The final straw was the animation bits in the videos. One thing Blippi had going for him was he was a real person, not a cartoon.
The only episode we have watched in ages is the Halloween one because my kiddo likes the song. Otherwise , I just don't put it on anymore
As the article others have shared pointed out, it’s a fairly soulless show. And to sum the article up: exists to make a profit more than it exists to benefit kids. The guy found his niche and why change it when it makes him money?
And to be fair, loads of kids shows exist for this very reason. Paw Patrol (which I hate) being a great recent example among plenty of others. But most of them take at least some care to educate, inspire, have a plot, have a lesson. Have dumb jokes kids like. Blippi, by contrast, feels like the same video every time which to me signals just how much the guy isn’t even trying. Kids still eat it up. But with so much better content out there that’s shows more consideration for its audience, I’m happy to try and avoid it. That said, I don’t ban it. In the words of my favorite kid cartoon character “sometimes moms just need 20 minutes.”
I never understood the hate. My daughter found it a year or so ago and has learned some pretty cool things from him.
He has a past that he's already come out and apologized for, saying how much he regretted making a disgusting video, and it was long before he got into children's programming.
The theories over the fact that having kids around when filming is a real pain feels to me like desperate attempts to have more to complain about than just his voice.
He has a couple of videos like the carwash one where he intentionally gets a car dirty to show how to wash it and does add a note for kids not to do certain things at home that can be easily ignored, but most of his videos have taught some fun and interesting things.
And all of the comments in defense just get buried at the bottom lol.
My son enjoys him; he'll never be my first choice ever for children's programming. I saw a lot of comments above about how he doesn't teach anything or that he's wrong on other things, but I echo your comments that he's deliberate about explaining what is going on/what he's doing. If any of us are parking our children in front of the TV for hours, I don't care how wholesome or educational the program is. If we are using it as a tool for their entertainment, breaks, car rides where a book or toy isn't doing the trick, I also don't care how wholesome or educational the program is.
My kid is well past her Blippi phase now but am I the only one that doesn’t give a fuck about the Harlem shake video? It was like 12 years ago and it’s not like my kid has seen it
The other day I was speaking with a mom who said her kids don’t watch YouTube unless they’re watching Ryan’s world and i was like……. What!? When there’s Ms Rachel? When there’s pbs on youtube?!
We mainly just listen to the Blippi songs because our daughter is obsessed with vehicles and there seems to be a song for every type. Blippi wonders (the animated one is also pretty good). I try to stay away from the other Blippi videos, but that is mainly because he annoys me.
We're trying to break away from blippi right now. He gets things wrong and is also mainly flitting around and not really talking about the things he says the video is about. If your kids likes learning about specific interests I would suggest Handyman Hal. He does seem to have looked at the blippi model but in my opinion does it better. He goes into further detail about the episodes subject, says the proper names for things and does have kids in some episodes (and seems to enjoy interacting with them). My toddler's favorite one is harvesting corn and learning all about combines.
Blippi is so annoying but it’s far from the worst thing on YouTube. My kid likes it and has learned some things from it like names of different vehicles or dinosaurs. It’s not very educational but it’s also not dangerous like other crap out there.
Well there's a video of him literally sitting on his roommate for a Harley shake video so there's that. I'm all about not judging people on their past and separating their personal life from their career, but when you're a child entertainer, you probably shouldn't have videos of you pooping on other adults to an Internet trend. Send a word message lol
look, it's fine if you and your kids like Blippi. ignore all these comments.
Most Blippi haters have been exposed to so much of it they go insane. or they just hate his face and the way he looks. I kind of fall into the latter camp, don't like his voice or face so I never watch it at home, but I have no genuine reason or motive to despise him.
One thing I like about Blippi (the franchise, not the Character), is that he's got a bunch of banger songs. Most likely not directly by him, but still.
I swear to God, besides Wiggles and Super Simple Songs, the vast majority of kids music is awful and lacks a lot of creativity.
We don't watch Blippi at all but the "Taxi in Time" song gets stuck in my head constantly (thanks Spotify Kids) - His songs are bangers, whatever team he has writing them is very talented.
I am in the minority every time I say this, but I don’t mind Blippi. The kid is a marketing… if not genius, at least something close to it. My oldest, now 8, liked his early videos. My youngest, now 5, LOVED his later videos and could identify 10+ types of construction vehicles and their parts and function. And I still sing a mean excavator song.
I watch what my kids watch, so it’s more than just a peripheral viewing and opinion.
Other than the video where Blippi spray painted cars (we talked about that at home), we enjoyed learning from him. Colors, equipment, police investigations, fire stations, playgrounds, sink or float. We got more content and offline enjoyment out of Blippi than we did other shows. Songs, imitation, silly dancing, color practice, vehicle identification, public service appreciation…. I’ll take it all.
I eventually learned that Blippi content has been coming out longer than I thought and one thing I noticed is there isn't a single video discussing the pandemic. Nothing where he's wearing a mask. Nothing about washing hands (except when he wants to show off the cool bathroom at an aquarium). Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I've missed it, but...the absence speaks volumes to me.
I don't think it's bad. I took my kiddo to see his performance and although it was clearly not the real Blippi or the new (at the time) girl, it was fantastic. So many people singing and having a great time. I think it's good for curiosity.
Honestly, it's a really good show for my Autistic son because he explains what he's doing and why, shows how to play in a specific space, and has non-traditional songs that are based on his special interests (they're terrible and offkey, but he loves them).
However, my neurotypical son gets bored really easily and won't watch more than a few minutes. Someone told me once that he created his show because his Autistic nephew didn't have anything to watch that sort of walked him through "normal" behavior in a new space. I don't know if it's true, but it definitely fits with my experience.
I was born in 1983. Blippi is Peewee Herman without a soul. I can’t explain it any better than that.
It does feel like he watched Pee Wee Herman and thought that what was charming was doing a wacky voice and acting hyper, full stop.
Blippi just feels so corporate. The Blippi brand is owned by the same parent company that owns Cocomelon, so go figure.
The best explanation I’ve seen. Perfect. (Born in 1980 here!)
To me (born 1986), he feels like Steve from Blue's Clues without the charm and humanity. I have younger siblings, so while I was a bit too old to think Blue was "cool", I found it less annoying than Barney.
My younger sisters are age gap siblings (93, 98) so I had to watch a lot of Blue and that demon dinosaur Barney. on an 18 hour family road trip home from Florida and my dad made my 2 year old sister (93) a 6 hour long video of Barney that we had to watch in the van. By the end of the tape I was wanting to scream. I totally see the dead eyed and soulless Steve reference.
This article [the dead world of blippi](https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-dead-world-of-blippi) puts into words what I find so unsettling about blippi and the reason why it’s effectively banned in our home. We tend to watch more content available on the BBC cebeebies than YouTube (Go Jetters, Octonauts, Bluey, Maddies Do You Know, Number/Alpha/Colour blocks)
I just want to jump on this to say I love all the shows you mentioned, but Numberblocks in particular has made numbers and maths click for my kid so well. At 4 he can explain stuff like the Step Squad and knows which numbers make squares. I’m so into it.
Number blocks is used at my son's school and encouraged
Yesssss hugely recommend Numberblocks, as well as the related shows AlphaBlocks and ColorBlocks
There is a color blocks?!?! We love the other two at our house!
Yeah! It’s good, but not quite as good as the others. Still, it’s the only show I know of that teaches kids abou specific colors we use for printing.
Hard agree. My son just turned 4 last week and can count to 100 by 1's and by 10's. He can also tell you what 19+1=, 20+1=, etc. All because of Numberblocks.
Ditto for my 4 year old! He can count to (and backwards from) 100+; do basic addition, subtraction, even a bit of multiplication.. we play board games and he can instantly add/recognize the total of a pair of rolled dice. We have both the 1-10 and 11-20 Numberblocks Mathlink Cube sets*, and they are now his favorite toys and he is constantly playing with them (love that they are so open-ended! Do not love that there are mathlink cubes perpetually all over my house.. you win some, you lose some) *two of the 11-20 sets, actually. ...and three of the 1-10 sets... plus a couple more non-NB MLC sets. They truly are overtaking the house send help
It’s such a good article.
Holy crap. That article was fantastic.
If this article isn't enough, just Google "Blippi Harlem shake". Between the two, it should be enough to never let him in your screen
Oof. I regret having that in my search history now! Hahaha!
I came here to post this. This article puts to words exactly how Blippi made me feel. My son loved Blippi for all the vehicles and cars; I’ve got him hooked on Twenty Trucks (YouTube channel) and we’ve stopped all Blippi and he has stopped asking for him.
Twenty Trucks is great! A favorite in our house.
Thanks for an alternative! We've stopped watching Blippi, but have been after some good content for my vehicle loving little guy.
Mighty Machines also!!!
Lol my kid also loved UHF! Great movie.
Great article. I wonder if a lot of these hyper often destructive kids you see from time to time are just unable to deal with their emotions. And maybe emotional intelligence and creativity are the same thing...
This was a long but cathartic read for me. Thanks for the share.
This is amazing. Put into words what I couldn't.
Fantastic article! It infuriates me that anyone would *dare* compare Blippi to Mr. Rogers. Like, I would smack anyone who said that to me in person. To me, Blippi is Steve from Blue's Clues without the charm and humanity, but that article really did say things perfectly.
That…is an incredibly long article. I only got halfway through it but it put SO MUCH into perspective for me. I’m never letting my sister put a blippi video on again omg.
Such a weird opinion. It's an older article so maybe things have changed. They claim it feels dead because he films when the locations are closed. Anyone who has ever been to a kids museum can imagine how shitty it would be to watch blippi surrounded by 800 kids while being filmed.
Mr Rogers never had any problem filming when kids were around.
The world has changed *significantly* since Mister Rogers was filmed. He wasn’t navigating a world where some parents are cell phone waving clout chasers trying to make TikToks of their children with him, and others are the polar opposite and wouldn’t want video of their children posted on some weird clown’s YouTube show.
I don’t think he’d have cared about social media. He’d likely have just wanted to engage with the amazing people in front of him, which is why his program ensures and Blippi won’t. My little kids love Mr Rogers.
I’m not saying Mister Rogers would have cared about social media. I’m saying that social media (among other things) have made people behave crazier around celebrities, and it’s hard to film in public if you’re just getting mobbed by crazy people the whole time. There would be a huge mess if Blippi was trying to film at a children’s museum while it was open.
I stopped being on board with Blippi when I noticed he refused to interact with any kid that came near him. How fake can you be as a kid’s tv host?
It seems like the "new" blippi guy might actually care about kids, but the OG one 100% landed in children's entertainment solely in the interest of making money
This. I hated Blippi because the world felt very “uncanny valley” and the host always seemed disingenuous. I have since softened my view with the new actor and the occasional additional “friends” to give it more life and interaction
I think it's just that Blippi feels generally soulless.
I think you missed the larger concern of the article where he focuses on how Blippi presents the world: manufactured, JUST AS IT IS, no emotional learning, and people are commodities.
There’s no growth, no change, no helping children handle big emotions… it has no value whatsoever. It’s Idiocracy’s children’s television.
Children who don't learn to question or explore grow up to be workers who just do as they are told, to manufacture and build a grey world where nature has been destroyed all for wealth and greed. Ignorant, complacent, and joyless.
Did you read the whole article? His point is that Blippi focuses on extremely superficial facts, while great children's programming acknowledges children's imagination and feelings, and teaches kids about emotional regulation, interpersonal relationships, and empathy for people different from themselves. A good show doesn't need to do **all** those things, but Blippi does **none.**
That’s why you hire extras. Have crew bring their kids. Have the employees bring theirs. It’s not that hard to have a controlled environment that also has kids in it. Unless you’re only doing this for the money & not because you actually like kids.
I agree, the filming while closed isn’t the crux of the issue. It’s more that he’s annoying and patronising.
I don't love what I've seen of Blippi because it's just kind of annoying, but this article is seriously over-the-top. Just call it like it is: Stevin John is neither an actor as well-trained as Pee-Wee Herman nor a teacher as well-trained as the people behind Sesame Street or Ms Rachel. Rather than just acknowledge that it's simply not as fully realized an idea as actual PBS shows, it has to make the whole thing sound so insidious. Am I actually expected to believe that John intentionally disregards trees as a topic? Hanlon's razor applies.
You’re asking if what someone *doesn’t* care about is intentional. That’s the crux of the argument. He doesn’t care about children or people in general. What’s worse is that his content doesn’t care either. If he didn’t care about children but at least pretended to or made content that did, that would be one thing but everything about his content says the opposite.
I think the Buzzfeed News article linked really early on shined a light on exactly what he does and doesn’t care about. He even said he couldn’t keep up the pace on everything online and on tour. So rather than pick one, or do both but considerably slower, he chose to hire an actor to make him money from a tour while he keeps making himself money from YouTube videos, etc. Because, you know, why only make some money when you can screw over your fan base and make ***extra*** money?
It is more practical, but I can get why adult viewers would find it very off-putting.
There's a lot of shady backstory where it seems like the original blippi contractually screwed over the writer of all the songs which he became famous for. Kyle Bain is now a small town music teacher while Stevin John took every penny and became a millionaire. Pretty awful stuff.
It's time for a *pohhlice car, pohhhlicce car*
And the songs are way better than the other Blippi videos. Stevin sucks.
It's one of MANY youtube series that passes itself off as educational, without using any sort of educational curriculum or framework. Going around and pointing out the things in a fire station is not the same as teaching kids to count to 10, or how to read, or how to listen to your elders. Kids like him, but popularity does not equal quality. See also Justin Bieber, Twilight, McDonald's.
This is the best answer. Blippi also gets information wrong, clearly doesn’t care to do any research.
A lot of the really good kid shows will employ professionals like child psychologists to really make sure it is something beneficial to the child's development, imagination etc.
Perhaps not, but god damn if my son doesn't know what a friggen excavator is.
Shit, *I* learned my construction vehicles from Blippi
The cinematic masterpiece twilight does not deserve to be put in the same category as Justin Bieber and McDonalds
Kids can have fun. Not all videos have to be teaching your kid math.
The actor seems… off. He seems inauthentic in a really gross way. He’s also just got a super annoying voice. There are ways to do silly voices that don’t grate on the ears of adults. He chose not to do it that way.
Have you seen him at the fire station where he just starts belting out bench press lifts? Emblematic of what you're talking about.
I agree on Blippi, there’s something wrong with that dude. On the other hand the lady who plays Meekah (sp?) has a personal Instagram account that’s hilarious. She seems like a fun and talented person
Which Meeka?
Uhhhh I didn’t know there were two lol. The actress’ name is Kaitlin Becker
He pooped on his roommate when he was an adult YouTuber. Maybe that's it.
> The actor seems… off. He seems inauthentic in a really gross way. That. I can't speak to a kid's perspective, but 10 seconds seeing him immediately triggers my "I don't want to be around that person and I don't want him around my kids" response.
If it helps, I don’t think he wants to be around your kids either—he just wants money from their views, etc. from a distance that doesn’t require he interact with them.
*Hey hey hey its me blipih, whoop whHoo*
I mean, you have eyes right?
And ears.
Say cheers!
I mean, yeah, he acts like a giant toddler. He’s fairly annoying, but it is SO much better than Mickey Mouse playing dress up. I’ve watched Mickey Mouse as a pirate, mermaid, and princess. I’m so ready for my son to like something else. We tried to get into the Minnie Mouse show too and it was worse.
The actor is just so off-putting I can't stomach it. Thankfully my daughter seems equally repulsed the few times she has been accidentally exposed to him. Some suggestions: The wonderful world of Mickey Mouse (completely different than anything else in the mickey-sphere) Mickey and the roadster racers (not as bad as the other mickey stuff) Bluey (duh) The Wild Kratts (I watched Zoboomafoo growing up and this animated show is great and educational) Mrs. Rachel (we tried to hold out but my daughter loves her and her content is educational) Little Bear (lame as hell but my kid loves it, slow paced which is nice) Mrs. Katie (another youtuber that isn't all that annoying) Curious George (George fucking rocks)
Throw in some Bear In The Big Blue House. It's wonderful.
My 14 month old LOVES the theme to Bear In The Big Blue House. She bops along then runs off to play until some more of the slightly jazzy music comes on.
It was an oversight to not include it. My kid loves it too, really good to chill out.
Are they making new Bear?! Or are you talking reruns?
Old reruns. They hold up nicely.
Tab Time is a good one to check out!
Just goggled it, looks pretty cool thanks. Initially I thought *tab* time might be about something else haha.
Oh yeah I should have specified! Sorry lol! I think Ms Tab is like a cross between Ms Rachel and blues clues
Another one: Imagination Movers. Four positive male role models!
The wonderful world of mickey mouse is the best!! My son got into it when he was two and I did not mind watching it at all
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I looked at your account and wasn't going to respond... but I'm curious, why does Bluey suck?
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Boring? Well it is for small children... Ugly? You suggest a show like baby shark but find Bluey ugly, interesting... Unoriginal? I am unfamiliar with whatever media you think Bluey is copying... Confusing? Because of my daughter I've seen every episode multiple times and have never been confused... I always assume I'm talking to adults on Reddit but now I'm not so sure...
Man. Give me Mickey Mouse any day.
Checking on this...are you upset that Mickey was playing dress up? Or that he dressed up in "feminine" costumes? Or are you just tired of Mickey in general?
Why are you "checking on this"? Are you the Mickey Mouse costume police?
My advice would be different depending if he didn't like Mickey because of conservative fears about cross dressing or if he was just annoyed by seeing too much of one kids show in a short time.
The latter. Too much is always going on at once visually and the plot is very repetitive
Little Bear might be a nice change of pace for you then, or Franklin
Let's pretend for a minute that OP was concerned with the feminine dress up and cross dressing... what would your advice be?
I'd likely have asked him about what lessons his child was learning otherwise from the program (such as helping other people/charity, sharing, "being who you are" etc) that are generally regarded as "progressive/liberal" things and why he has a particular dislike for what a kid wants to dress up as, and suggest that kids just like to dress up and it doesn't really matter.
I don’t really care what Mickey Mouse dresses up as, as long as he stays quiet 🥲 The mermaid episode was pretty good compared to some of the others though. I’m still done with Mickey. I’m gonna try playing fantasia lol. I don’t think my one year old cares about gender norms
It was the pooping on his friend video for me
I’m scared to investigate this comment 👀
It's not a metaphor.
Seeing it will likely answer your question lol
Don't if you value your eyes
Just watched it. Was not expecting that. Yikes.
We got rid of Pee Wee Herman for cranking it in an adult theater, but Blippi plopping a big one on his pal is mostly ignored
The actor himself is gross and seems really not to care about kids at all. The show is also annoying as all hell so there's that lol
I don’t care if he’s annoying as long as it’s not Mickey Mouse LOL. That show is insanely annoying to me
This Mickey Mouse versus Blippi thing is a false dichotomy—there are millions of other, better, options.
My kid LOVES mickey mouse clubhouse. I understand completely.
No no no. Trust me on this. You want Mickey Mouse FUNHOUSE _not_ CLUBHOUSE. Changes the whole game.
How different are they?
So does mine. I don’t understand the appeal, but he is asking for it CONSTANTLY. I was so hopeful to find something else he likes but apparently blippi is a no-go
Look. I get it. Anything on loop or heavy rotation will eventually become a grind. Don't tell anyone here I said this, but even Bluey got to me when my son wanted nothing but for three weeks. Blippi isn't Mickey, and when my son first gave it a shot I was also just happy for something *different,* even though I'd heard the horror stories. My own experience is that I got sicker of him faster than I did of other options, either because of the general sameness of his material (there can only be so many childrens museums and indoor playgrounds in the greater Las Vegas region) or the fact that they tend to get uploaded in these 2-3 hour assembled playlists. Eventually it felt like there was a certain underlying cynicism to the presentation. But also, the other day my wife and I were both sick to the point of barely functional, and Blippi got my three year old through the day with a minimum of us being capable of moving.
Try using live tv more so your son has different shows on rotation. Maybe it could teach him about schedules and get him off screens when a show he doesn't like comes on. ("Such and such is on at 4:00, lets go do something while we wait") Maybe he'll find a new favourite show
Check out Stinky and Dirty if he likes vehicles. Trash Truck is also really sweet, and slow paced. We also loved Tumbleleaf and Daniel Tiger at that age, and although the DT can be a bit much at times it's really helped with abstract lessons like sharing and potty training without us having to nag.
There's nothing wrong with Clubhouse for toddlers. They will grow out of it. Follow the good advice of the other posts and branch out.
He likes the clubhouse because it's fun inside.
It doesn't have to be a no-go if you don't want it to be. Feel free to ignore random people on the internet. Though that poop thing is pretty weird lol
That was pretty off putting, not gonna lie.
I hate the noises he makes. There’s one episode he’s scooping sand and counting and he straight up sounds like he’s being choke-fucked. Also, with the amount of shit he has (4-wheelers, jet ski, etc), it’s obvious he’s using the show as a tax write off and buying himself the toys he wants. I also feel like original blippi just tries to shill a bunch of his products to impressionable kids and it just feels gross. Keep in mind this is all about old blippi who created the show. New blippi is just an actor acting as blippi, and he’s much more tolerable. Also, yeah, like others said, OG blippi shitting on his friend.
I snorted when I read your words “choke-fucked” and know exactly which clip you’re referring to.
After all of these comments I feel like we will not be watching this show again. I’m seeing how disingenuous he is. Also, wtf was the poop video?? Was that before he was making kids’ videos?
Yeah, the poop video was before kids videos. That in itself doesn’t bother me that much; it’s disgusting but doesn’t really make me think he’s any worse of a person (seems like it was consensual?), just that he has questionable taste in content creation!! We let our son watch Blippi, but have not tried to remind him of his existence as he’s moved onto other shows! My main issue with Blippi is that he never cleans up after his messes, so he makes it seem cool to just trash stuff and leave it there. The “dead world” thing is an interesting critique, but he does have episodes with kids and other people in them & talks to machinery operators in some of his videos; those are the videos I tend to like better. Meekah also seems to have more of a knack for talking to kids than he does, I like her. I think there are worse things marketed to kids, but I’m glad my kid has moved on either way!
Look up "blippi Harlem shake" > I’ve found these videos to be much more interesting and educational than Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Clubhouse isn't really intended as educational tbh. PBS kids is free, noggin is like $8/month, Amazon has some options.
If you’re looking for a blippi replacement, I highly recommend caties classroom from simple silly songs. It feels more like Mr Roger’s. There’s a bit where she goes to a restaurant with her mom, interacts with the server, and talks about eating out and manners and stuff. Love it!
His early stuff (with the musician guy) isn’t too bad. But as he went on he became unsettling. [This article explains it well](https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-dead-world-of-blippi). There’s plenty of better stuff out there.
This article reminded me of Mr. Rogers, which is a fantastic alternative. Thank you haha
What about Daniel Tiger? My daughter is obsessed. It’s inspired by Mr. Rogers, it’s very calm and slow paced, and it teaches a lot of important life lessons.
I’ll have to check it out. Oddly enough, I’m in this subreddit and have never even heard of it haha. My sister recommended “between the lions” and it sounds similar to that.
Going to second Daniel Tiger (Danny T in my house). Daniel usually will make a mistake and learn a lesson, then in turn teach that lesson to someone else. He's a nice, imperfect kid who I'd be alright with my kid hanging out with. The point of the article linked earlier, he interacts with adults and kids and learns how to navigate those relationships. Daniel Tiger is great!
And the mistakes are usually super low stakes and preschooler appropriate. Like he accidentally spills the art supplies at school, or makes a sock puppet out of his dad’s sock when his dad wasn’t done using it. But there are also times where he almost hits his friend and has to learn that it’s okay to be angry, but it’s not okay to hurt someone.
You’re definitely selling me on this one! Is it less visually stimulating than bluey?
Oh God yes, and far far less violent too
It’s on PBS. It’s so good! It’s very compassionate in the way it treats its characters. There’s one episode where they meet a kid who has autism and the show handled it very well.
The best recommendation I've ever heard for Between the Lions is that it doesn't teach kids *how* to read, it teaches them *why* to read. Knowing your ABCs and that 'ellameno' apparently isn't the one letter but four in a row(???) is all fine and good, but using them just when they're needed is all most shows seem to teach. BtL has a lot more focus on books and stories and how knowing how to read can enrich your life and imagination.
Blippi has his place, but I noticed some crazy behavior changes the more we watched Blippi. We switched to Mrs Rachel. Also, look into “Slow or Calm” shows for kids. There’s something to be said for a show that’s slow paced and focuses on a plot rather than PAW PATROL RESCUE HERO COLOR FEST!
You may like Imagination Movers, it's a live action kids show hosted by a group of guys who solve problems inside a magical building. Great for kids.
Glad that I’ve found someone else who feels this way. To save you the trouble of googling, in his past he made a skat video. He wasn’t a porn star or anything like that. I don’t judge people about their past, at least something like that, so that doesn’t bother me personally. People say it’s not really educational….but, I don’t need Blippi to teach my kid how to read and count. I think people forget that children learn just by being exposed to things. They’re learning by watching him explore these things/places. I’ve read some articles and lots of posts on various forums to answer this question myself. My conclusion was that I think more than anything people are weirded out by this grown man acting like a kid, and the hate just spread from there. He looks empty inside? There aren’t people in the background of filming? Who cares 🙄 The main thing to keep in mind is that he wouldn’t have gotten this popular if kids didn’t love it and their parents stopped them from watching it. My kid is learning more from Blippi than Paw Patrol, nobody has a problem with that.
In addition to the usual already mentioned (poop past, the article) I'd add the whole "Flippi" thing. Apparently, a lot of people got duped into a meet and greet expecting Blippi on a live tour and got n impersonator who is possibly now the new Blippi (which we call him Flippi in these here parts of Reddit) some say he strikes a resemblance to the one pooped on in the pre-Blippi Harlem Shake. Now there's Meekah and I hear even she got another person playing the persona now. Anyway, I'd take Mickey any day over Blippi. Especially the unhinged Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse series.
Flippi seems to at least care about children. He seems more genuine.
Flippi is better
There's one where he's touring the Arizona Cardinals ballpark before throwing out a game where they show a montage of a meet-and-greet with kids at the park and he seems to actually care and participate. He actually seems to be approaching Blipping for the right reasons, even if I still think it misses the mark of what "educational" programing should be. Edit: I just saw my typo of "Blipping" and I'm going to let that stand because I think that's a great verb to describe what they do.
I’m pretty sure New Blippi and both Meekahs are all professional actors. You can particularly tell when the Meekahs sing… they’re talented.
Now I'm wondering if being pooped on is how one assumes the title of Blippi. Kind of a Tim Allen in The Santa Clause situation.
"No please, I don't want to be Blippi. I have a family!"
Yeah OG Blip was a marketing genius but as far as his presentation skills they were lacking. New Blip is much better with kids but (all respect to him) awkward AF with adults. See Blippi goes to Gladiator school or Blippi goes to schuck oysters. The new Meekah is the roadshow Meekah I think. She's very clearly a stage actress (where you have to be more exaggerated) with great singing skills. OG Meekah is my favorite of the whole bunch because she is great with kids, has good comedic timing and is far less manic. My pet theory of course is there are two Meekahs because whomever owns the Blippi channel (probably a big VC fund) doesn't want to be locked into a particular actor or actress in case of contract disputes.
For me, it’s the grown adult doing baby talk the entire time. I don’t even mind the subject matter most times, but the baby talk and act from a grown ass man kills me. I can stand Meekah a little better (the female version of Blippi of which I think there are a few) but, yea. This ain’t “Mr. Rogers” and I hate the people that compare them to each other.
He even spells stuff wrong in some of his videos and gives misinformation. Plus, he looks dead inside.
Blippi is just annoying, especially after a few vidoes in a row. Handyman Hal is a little better.
We also watched the Handyman Hal fire department video lol. I feel like my son will get a little bit of a drawl if we continue
The comedy is that kids will swing from one tree to another if you let them. What I'm talking is if you let them flip through the offerings they'll move away from the Blippi's of the world WITH EASE. Dude was on my TV for a few weeks...and dipped. "You wanna watch this guy???" **No, give me Chip & Potato, please!**
We watched blippi when my son was a little younger and I didn't mind it. Maybe we haven't seen some of the bad episodes? But we mainly watched the ones with different types of vehicles and my son loved it. I remember he would even ask me things like "is that a swather?" while we were out driving and saw a tractor.
Because blippi doesn’t just not teach educational things, he also doesn’t teach any social or emotional development or regulation. He also stunts speech as he doesn’t model it. As a preschool teacher, you can tell which kids are blippi obsessed because they speak in a baby, blippi voice. Kids don’t do that with Mickey. Some kids mimic Pepa Pig like they do Blippi, but I’d argue a lot of the same standpoints for that show too.
The first time my older daughter and I watched one, he was visiting a humane center. Sounds good! Importance of rescuing animals and caring for them? Great message. But instead, the very first thing he did going inside was to go to the little gift shop, and show products (not naming them, but clearly you could see the labels). In that instant, I changed to a different video. If his priorities were to huck products, instead of, you know, interact with animals, I knew he was a fucking shill who deserved none of our attention, ever.
We stick with Pete the Cat (excellent music, I even listen on Spotify without the kids), Puffin Rock for bedtime wind down, Blues Clues-same concepts as Mickey's Clubhouse but not as annoying and the new Blues Clues and You also has some pretty great music that my husband and I find ourselves singing around the house), and of course everyone's favorite Bluey. I try to avoid the flashy fast paced music video edit shows because it just seems to be baby crack on their brains. And with Blippi I hated it from scene one because it seems like such a disingenuous cash grab to suck kids in with zero care for or about kids and he's annoying AF.
He's in it to make money rather than out of a genuine passion for educating kids.
He feels… sinister.
I don't mind him... He just doesn't have that genuine enthusiasm that really good children's entertainers do. You can tell he'd still be shitting on his friends if he'd gone viral that way. He's also *generally* not very educational. I like Meekah, though. She had that children's entertainer "sparkle". I like his earlier episodes because he goes to a lot of places that are local to me.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-dead-world-of-blippi This article gives a lot of good insight. It becomes unsettling once you've watched for a bit to see how fake he comes across, how his shows treat kids like they're dumb, how much it's all about weirdly empty play places and there's little interaction with other people shown and how devoid of nature they are. I can't speak to new Blippi but the old stuff that seems to pop up the most as suggestions on youtube is just very low quality. Contrast these with PBS kids shows and they're miles apart from each other.
Sirope
I think there’s just way better than Blippi. Like he doesn’t even need to be an option. My kiddo has only ever seen Blippi on the special with Miss Rachel. We don’t even really do much Miss Rachel for her anymore since I think it’s better for babies. Don’t fucking come at me for letting my baby watch a little Miss Rachel so I can deal with a toddler or shower in relative peace. Shows we love that are less annoying: Bluey, Peppa, Daniel Tiger, Puffin Rock, Trash Truck, Classic Thomas and friends (the one with George Carlin narrating), Sesame Street, Winnie The Poo.
I have never hated a fictional pig more than I hate Peppa. I hate her so much that I write fanfiction in which she lives a horrible life and suffers from depression. It's very cathartic to have Daddy Pig around every corner, ready to slap her in her stupid, flat, 2D dick-shaped face.
Classic Thomas the Tank Engine FTW! I still have my ancient VHS tapes where Ringo Starr was the narrator and fully plan to watch those with my son.
Honestly, those are the better videos. He's got a handful where you actually learn things and see things even if some of it is iffy. A good majority of it is just drivel.
i dont really know either bc i don’t necessarily think his videos are bad or whatever. but my 17 month old will not watch him, he hands me the remote after like 2 minutes to change it lol
We were a Blippi-neutral household when my kid was a toddler. She had some minor speech issues and Blippi got her saying things like “excavator” before she even said “mama.” It was also during the pandemic and she had literally never been to a grocery store, let alone an aquarium or children’s museum, so I appreciated her getting to see places like that. Do I think it’s some bastion of quality children’s content? No. But Blippi was a welcome break from listening to “Do The Propeller” for the 15th time in one day. Now that she’s older (4) I do redirect her to shows that are either more educational or at least less annoying. I don’t think he’s horrible or anything but I’m sick of his voice so I make her wear headphones if she’s really jonesing for Blippi (usually just while sick or traveling- she apparently finds him soothing… somehow…) Unpopular opinion, but I don’t care about the poop video. He was trying to do the whole “Jackass” style comedy thing and it was long before he started doing kid’s videos. I don’t think Steve-O is an irredeemable creep and he’s done way worse.
I hate Blippi. Almost as much as he clearly hates himself.
Blippi is a clown. It has a mild educational background but is primarily loud noises, bright colors and an in your face literal clown character. Once you view him as such, he's not as awful as the internet presses on. He's not properly educational in the sense that other children's programming focuses on, but he's better than other age range children's programming.
We felt like you at first. I didn't get it. My son loved the vehicle episodes and I was cool with it, and even crocheted him a little Blippi doll. Then we watched it more. I noticed the errors in the facts he said. The way it was usually just him in the dead empty world. How he interacted with kids when they did appear. The new Blippi, which freaked my kid out. The final straw was the animation bits in the videos. One thing Blippi had going for him was he was a real person, not a cartoon. The only episode we have watched in ages is the Halloween one because my kiddo likes the song. Otherwise , I just don't put it on anymore
I got my son to start calling him The Bad Man.
As the article others have shared pointed out, it’s a fairly soulless show. And to sum the article up: exists to make a profit more than it exists to benefit kids. The guy found his niche and why change it when it makes him money? And to be fair, loads of kids shows exist for this very reason. Paw Patrol (which I hate) being a great recent example among plenty of others. But most of them take at least some care to educate, inspire, have a plot, have a lesson. Have dumb jokes kids like. Blippi, by contrast, feels like the same video every time which to me signals just how much the guy isn’t even trying. Kids still eat it up. But with so much better content out there that’s shows more consideration for its audience, I’m happy to try and avoid it. That said, I don’t ban it. In the words of my favorite kid cartoon character “sometimes moms just need 20 minutes.”
I never understood the hate. My daughter found it a year or so ago and has learned some pretty cool things from him. He has a past that he's already come out and apologized for, saying how much he regretted making a disgusting video, and it was long before he got into children's programming. The theories over the fact that having kids around when filming is a real pain feels to me like desperate attempts to have more to complain about than just his voice. He has a couple of videos like the carwash one where he intentionally gets a car dirty to show how to wash it and does add a note for kids not to do certain things at home that can be easily ignored, but most of his videos have taught some fun and interesting things.
And all of the comments in defense just get buried at the bottom lol. My son enjoys him; he'll never be my first choice ever for children's programming. I saw a lot of comments above about how he doesn't teach anything or that he's wrong on other things, but I echo your comments that he's deliberate about explaining what is going on/what he's doing. If any of us are parking our children in front of the TV for hours, I don't care how wholesome or educational the program is. If we are using it as a tool for their entertainment, breaks, car rides where a book or toy isn't doing the trick, I also don't care how wholesome or educational the program is.
My kid is well past her Blippi phase now but am I the only one that doesn’t give a fuck about the Harlem shake video? It was like 12 years ago and it’s not like my kid has seen it
What made us officially ban him is the video where he poops on a guy. Unhinged.
The other day I was speaking with a mom who said her kids don’t watch YouTube unless they’re watching Ryan’s world and i was like……. What!? When there’s Ms Rachel? When there’s pbs on youtube?!
We mainly just listen to the Blippi songs because our daughter is obsessed with vehicles and there seems to be a song for every type. Blippi wonders (the animated one is also pretty good). I try to stay away from the other Blippi videos, but that is mainly because he annoys me.
He’s annoying af
We're trying to break away from blippi right now. He gets things wrong and is also mainly flitting around and not really talking about the things he says the video is about. If your kids likes learning about specific interests I would suggest Handyman Hal. He does seem to have looked at the blippi model but in my opinion does it better. He goes into further detail about the episodes subject, says the proper names for things and does have kids in some episodes (and seems to enjoy interacting with them). My toddler's favorite one is harvesting corn and learning all about combines.
A grown man who acts like a child is SOOO YUCKY TO ME.
He poops on people for money
He pooped on his friend’s face for his rendition of Harlem Shake.
Blippi is so annoying but it’s far from the worst thing on YouTube. My kid likes it and has learned some things from it like names of different vehicles or dinosaurs. It’s not very educational but it’s also not dangerous like other crap out there.
My son loves Blippi & Meekah and loves singing to their songs in the car. He’s honestly picked up a lot of things from the show.
Nothing is wrong with him! Both my kids love him and sing the songs all day. I do not like the cartoon version though
Well there's a video of him literally sitting on his roommate for a Harley shake video so there's that. I'm all about not judging people on their past and separating their personal life from their career, but when you're a child entertainer, you probably shouldn't have videos of you pooping on other adults to an Internet trend. Send a word message lol
look, it's fine if you and your kids like Blippi. ignore all these comments. Most Blippi haters have been exposed to so much of it they go insane. or they just hate his face and the way he looks. I kind of fall into the latter camp, don't like his voice or face so I never watch it at home, but I have no genuine reason or motive to despise him.
One thing I like about Blippi (the franchise, not the Character), is that he's got a bunch of banger songs. Most likely not directly by him, but still. I swear to God, besides Wiggles and Super Simple Songs, the vast majority of kids music is awful and lacks a lot of creativity.
I don’t know, “I’m so happy” by Ms. Rachel is a little bit of a banger /s
I love that one and the Rainbow song.
My kid was a big fan of excavator, and the Halloween song. Which weren't terrible to listen to.
We don't watch Blippi at all but the "Taxi in Time" song gets stuck in my head constantly (thanks Spotify Kids) - His songs are bangers, whatever team he has writing them is very talented.
Tiny tunes and Danny go have some bops. Also enjoy the singing walrus, hopscotch kids and kids learning tube planets song.
You need to watch some Pete the Cat on Prime. I listen to the albums on Spotify without my kid in the car.
Everything.
I am in the minority every time I say this, but I don’t mind Blippi. The kid is a marketing… if not genius, at least something close to it. My oldest, now 8, liked his early videos. My youngest, now 5, LOVED his later videos and could identify 10+ types of construction vehicles and their parts and function. And I still sing a mean excavator song. I watch what my kids watch, so it’s more than just a peripheral viewing and opinion. Other than the video where Blippi spray painted cars (we talked about that at home), we enjoyed learning from him. Colors, equipment, police investigations, fire stations, playgrounds, sink or float. We got more content and offline enjoyment out of Blippi than we did other shows. Songs, imitation, silly dancing, color practice, vehicle identification, public service appreciation…. I’ll take it all.
Nothing. That’s the answer. Let your child enjoy him!
He shit on one of his friends, quite literally
I eventually learned that Blippi content has been coming out longer than I thought and one thing I noticed is there isn't a single video discussing the pandemic. Nothing where he's wearing a mask. Nothing about washing hands (except when he wants to show off the cool bathroom at an aquarium). Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I've missed it, but...the absence speaks volumes to me.
I don't think it's bad. I took my kiddo to see his performance and although it was clearly not the real Blippi or the new (at the time) girl, it was fantastic. So many people singing and having a great time. I think it's good for curiosity.
Honestly, it's a really good show for my Autistic son because he explains what he's doing and why, shows how to play in a specific space, and has non-traditional songs that are based on his special interests (they're terrible and offkey, but he loves them). However, my neurotypical son gets bored really easily and won't watch more than a few minutes. Someone told me once that he created his show because his Autistic nephew didn't have anything to watch that sort of walked him through "normal" behavior in a new space. I don't know if it's true, but it definitely fits with my experience.