The idea for Blippi came to John after moving back to
Ellensburg and witnessing his then two-year-old nephew viewing low-quality videos on YouTube. Blippi has been described as "an adult human man who dresses up in bright clothes and dances around America's deserted soft play centres for the benefit of YouTube". with John starring as Blippi and doing all of the filming, editing and graphics himself on the initial videos. Taking inspiration from children's educators and entertainers before him, such as
Mr. Rogers, John wished to portray Blippi as educational but also as thinking and acting as a child would. The videos garnered a large following with over a billion views on YouTube, and the production staff was expanded to produce videos in Spanish, establish Blippi Toys, and begin offering DVDs and digital downloads. Some parents have criticized the simplistic nature of the character's tone and repetitive songs about things such as garbage trucks, fire trucks, and pizza. Some social commentators have criticized Blippi. Writing for the magazine
Current Affairs,
Nathan Robinson criticized the videos for their lack of depth, calling his universe "thin and dull". He contrasted the show's themes and lessons to
Mr. Rogers and
Sesame Street, preferring the latter two shows. Meanwhile, Stuart Heritage of
Esquire wrote that the character fascinates him, writing "He has no children. He doesn’t seem to like children". Heritage also brought up John's infamous defecation video. Stevin John had a son, in 2022, with his fiancée, Alyssa Ingham. ==References==