Stevin John

Stevin John (born May 27, 1988 as Stephen J. Grossman), better known by his alias Blippi, is an American children's entertainer and educator on YouTube, Hulu, and Amazon Video. The Blippi character that John portrays has a childlike, energetic and curious persona and is always dressed in a blue and orange beanie cap, blue shirt, orange suspenders, and a bow tie.[1]

Stevin John
Photo of Stevin John - Regular clothing & in character
Personal information
BornStephen J. Grossman
(1988-05-27) May 27, 1988
Ellensburg, Washington, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
OccupationChildren's entertainer, educator
Websiteblippi.com
YouTube information
Also known asBlippi, Steezy Grossman
Channel
Years active2014–present
Subscribers11.3 million+
Total views8 billion+

Early life

Stevin John grew up "surrounded by tractors, cows and horses", in Ellensburg, Washington, and has stated that as a child he wished to be a limousine driver and a fighter pilot.[1]

Military service

Stevin John served active duty in the United States Air Force as a loadmaster for the C-17 Globemaster airplane at the 4th Airlift Squadron and is a military veteran. His duties were to perform the calculations and planning cargo placement to keep the aircraft within permissible center of gravity limits throughout the flight.[2]

Blippi

The idea for Blippi came to Stevin 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".[3] The first Blippi video was published on January 27, 2014, 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.[4]

Popularity

The videos would eventually garner a large following with over a billion views on YouTube and the production staff expanding. The Blippi team would begin producing videos in Spanish, establish Blippi Toys, and begin offering DVDs and digital downloads from the Blippi website. Although Blippi's childlike demeanor has met with much success from children, some parents have questioned the simplistic nature of the character in regard to his tone and repetitive songs about things such as garbage trucks, fire trucks, and pizza.[5]

Criticism

In 2019, John was criticized for a "bait and switch" in which a Blippi tour was advertised, with parents paying high sums for tickets, but the actual performance was by a Blippi impersonator.[6] The producer and promoter of the Blippi Live show stated that the announcements and advertisements clearly indicated that John would not be on the tour; a refund was offered to ticket holders.[7]

Steezy Grossman

Stevin John started making gross out videos in 2013 under the persona of Steezy Grossman, a boy who was born as poop after his parents had anal sex.[8] Under his Steezy Grossman alias, John developed videos such as "Turdboy" and "Underwear Man". In a 2013 video John performed the Harlem shake on a toilet and defecated on a naked friend.[8][3] When the video was unearthed by Buzzfeed in 2019, John said, "at the time, I thought this sort of thing was funny, but really it was stupid and tasteless, and I regret having ever done it."[9] John used DMCA takedown notices to remove the video from social media and internet search engines.[10]

References
  1. "Who Is Blippi?". blippi.com. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  2. "Security Verification". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  3. Heritage, Stuart (17 July 2019). "YouTube Is Destroying My Child's Mind (And One Person Is To Blame)". Esquire.
  4. Cuming, Emma (2018-08-22). "Who the fluff is Blippi??". thespinoff.co.nz. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  5. Brockes, Emma (2017-05-04). "I was trapped by a YouTube clown – but the Wizard of Oz saved me". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  6. "Viral influencer Blippi is so fake, he hired an impersonator". 2019-10-10.
  7. "Angry Parents Are Demanding Refunds For YouTube Star Blippi's Live Show". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2020-09-29.
  8. "Kids' YouTube star Blippi once pooped all over naked friend in Harlem Shake vid". Metro. 14 February 2019.
  9. "Kids YouTube Star Blippi "Regrets" The Viral Video In Which He Poops All Over His Friend". BuzzFeed News.
  10. Koebler, Jason; Maiberg, Emanuel (15 February 2019). "How Kids YouTube Star Blippi Used Copyright Law to Hide His Harlem Shake Poop Video". Motherboard.
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