Blimey Cow

Blimey Cow
Genre Comedy, short film, video blog, commentary, talk show
Created by Josh Taylor
Jordan Taylor
Written by Josh Taylor
Jordan Taylor
Kelli Taylor
Directed by Josh Taylor
Jordan Taylor
Kelli Taylor
Amy Bonham
Sarah Bonham
Starring Josh Taylor
Jordan Taylor
Kelli Taylor
Amy Bonham
Theme music composer Blimey Cow
David Paul Newell
Garrett Vandenburg
Composer(s) Garrett Vandenburg
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Editor(s) Josh Taylor
Kelli Taylor
Kevin McCreary
Production company(s) Blimey Cow
Release
Original network YouTube, Google Videos
Original release 2005
Chronology
Related shows Blimey Cow Vlog
The Blimey Cow Audio Network
External links
YouTube channel
Production website

Blimey Cow is an internet comedy channel based in Nashville, Tennessee, created in 2005 by brothers Josh and Jordan Taylor. Produced by and starring the Taylor brothers and Josh's wife Kelli, the channel usually targets the idiosyncrasies of conservative Christianity, church, family, and romantic relationships. Originally Josh and Jordan created videos in a mockumentary format, featuring skits and other exploits by the brothers and their friends and family. In 2011 the channel re-launched under a more structured form, debuting the series Messy Mondays, which features short sketches based on the satirical musings of Jordan Taylor on a variety of topics. Jordan's critiques include subjects such as homeschooling, romantic relationships, music, and social networking. With this new format, Blimey Cow started attracting more viewers, and experienced a major surge in popularity after the video "Seven Lies About Homeschoolers" went viral. Musician Derek Webb, Colin Kimble of As Cities Burn, and the band Pompton Lakes have all made appearances on Blimey Cow after discovering the channel. In addition to these appearances, the channel has received attention from musician Michael Gungor, authors Lew Rockwell and Thomas Woods, and various media outlets and programs such as The 700 Club, The Christian Post, The Huffington Post, Metro, Today, and WKRN-TV.

In addition to the main channel, Blimey Cow, the Taylors run a vlog channel and in March 2013 launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a new podcast. The campaign raised nearly $17,000, over ten times more than the original goal. Blimey Cow therefore expanded the podcast idea into a larger audio production called the Blimey Cow Audio Network. The Blimey Cow Audio Network launched in 2013 and features two separate podcasts; the "Blimey Cow Audio Podcast", in which Josh, Jordan and Kelli discuss topical matters, and later on Josh's individual podcast "The Fellowship Gamer", in which he discusses popular board games. They also launched a Patreon page in mid 2014, so their community of viewers could support them on a monthly basis.

History

Early history

The brothers began filming videos in 2005. In an interview with Scott McCausey from the podcast Christian Devotions Speak UP!, Josh said that he no longer recalls the initial motivation of he and his brother Jordan to create videos.[1] However, he did recall an incident their father taught them how to shoot videos and use special effects in an effort to demonstrate that movie violence, which had frightened the brothers, was fake.[1] The brothers initially filmed using a simple home video camera, and posted their videos on Google Video, which eventually merged with YouTube when Google acquired the latter.[1][2] According to Josh, Jordan's favorite word at the time was "cow", and the brothers had a friend who frequently said "blimey", so the words were merged to create "Blimey Cow".[3] Josh later conceded that "Brain fart is a great way of putting it."[4] Influenced by The Office, Napoleon Dynamite, and Christopher Guest, the Taylor brothers adopted a mockumentary style.[1][2] According to Kelli Taylor, these early videos were not as "Christian-themed" as the brothers' later content.[1] In 2007, Colin Cimble of the band As Cities Burn appeared in an episode of the show Jordan's Messyges, after taking notice the show due to Jordan's labeling of As Cities Burn as "God's Chosen."[5][6] The activity by the brothers declined once Josh started college and met his future wife Kelli, and Jordan finished up high school.

Re-launch and early popularity

In 2011, a few years after their activity on the channel declined, Josh had married Kelli and Jordan entered college. Josh decided to resume filming videos for the channel, and convinced Jordan to create one video every week.[1][2] They launched this new series, featuring Jordan addressing various topics, under the title of "Messy Mondays", modeled after a previous series, Jordan's Messyges. According to Josh, although their videos at the time maintained a very limited audience, the Jordan's Messyges videos were most popular of those videos.[1] While he does not recall any specific motivation to his decision to restart filming, he did state that he noticed a similarity between the lyrical focus of rapper John Reuben and the topics covered by Blimey Cow, and said that this similarity did provide some inspiration for him to restart the channel.[1] Messy Mondays debuted on August 29, 2011 with the video "New School Year".[1] A few minor hits emerged, specifically "The One About Mission Trips", "3 Types of Churches", "10 Ways to Get a Girl to Like You", and "The Truth About Youth Group".[2] The video "The One About Mission Trips" critiqued short-term missions and suggested that the money raised could fund longer-term missions.[2] Josh stated that while it generated some negative feedback from state-side viewers, missionaries in other countries praised the video for addressing this issue.[2] The videos "3 Types of Churches", "10 Ways to Get a Girl to Like You", and "The Truth About Youth Group" each brought in about 3,000 views per week.[4]

Viral breakthrough

Following the success of the videos "3 Types of Churches", "10 Ways to Get a Girl to Like You", and "The Truth About Youth Group", many fans asked the brothers why their show was not more popular, to which Josh responded that the show targets "conservative evangelical lifers", an audience he speculated was not that large.[4] However, two weeks later, on January 16, 2012, Blimey Cow released the Messy Mondays video "Seven Lies About Homeschoolers", in which Jordan attempted to debunk misconceptions about homeschooling. The video soon went viral, receiving over one million views in under a week.[4] Josh later stated to WKRN-TV that "we really thought we were just doing a very kind of niche thing and it's surprising to us how many people it's resonated with."[7] In February, the Christian Broadcasting Network picked up the video, interviewing Jordan Taylor on The 700 Club during a segment on homeschooling.[8] On April 24, 2012, historian and author Thomas Woods interviewed Josh Taylor while guest hosting The Peter Schiff Show and appreciated that the brothers are "Rothbardians and Ron Paulians".[9][10] Two days later, author and former Congressional staffer Lew Rockwell posted the homeschooling video on his website LewRockwell.com,[11] and in July he interviewed Josh Taylor on his podcast The Lew Rockwell Show.[2] Following the success of the homeschooling video, Blimey Cow formed a YouTube partnership and signed up for Google advertising to generate revenue.[2]

Subsequent success

On August 2, 2012, the Korean edition of Christian Today noted the Messy Mondays video "10 Ways to Get the Right Guy to Like You", uploaded on January 23, 2012, in an online article on Christian dating.[12] The following year, on February 3, Blimey Cow released another highly successful Messy Mondays video, "How to Write a Worship Song (In 5 Minutes or Less)". In the video, Jordan critiques contemporary Christian music in the form of a spoof tutorial on how to write a worship song in five minutes. By the next day, February 4, the video surged to the top five most popular currently watched videos on YouTube, and by February 7, the video garnered 213,000 views.[13] According to Josh Taylor, Canadian musician Garrett Vandenburg approached Josh with the concept, and after a few weeks delivered the music and a working script for the video.[13] The video received highly positive feedback, including Twitter shout-outs from individuals in the music industry. Jeff Cruz of 89.7 WMHK said the video was "remarkably accurate and incredibly sad at same time."[13] Post-rock musician Michael Gungor called the video "brilliant" and said he would have to see more of Blimey Cow's material.[13] Singer-songwriter Derek Webb stated that the video "is as funny as it is true. Which makes it not funny."[13] This flurry of Twitter activity caught the attention of The Christian Post, which published a story about the video on February 7, 2013.[13] On March 24, Derek Webb made a guest appearance in the video "The Top 15 Christian Cliches". The following day, WKRN-TV posted an article about the Taylors and their success.[7]

On April 29, 2013, Blimey Cow released the video "Why I Hate Going to Graduations", about which The Huffington Post posted a short article the following day.[14] Also on April 30, Blimey Cow jokingly passed the title of "God's Chosen Band" from As Cities Burn to Pompton Lakes, with whom the Taylors had become good friends.[6][15] The next week, the members of Pompton Lakes appeared in the opening and closing scenes for the video "Ten Things You Should Never Say to a Guy".[16] This video emerged as the most popular YouTube video for 13-17 year old females in May 2013, according to TheBlaze.[17]

The video "I Like You in Real Life (But Not on the Internet)", uploaded on May 26, dealing with the annoying online activity of real-life friends, attracted the attention of several media outlets. Mashable posted a short story on the video on May 28,[18] and on May 30, Today host Willie Geist mentioned the channel while discussing social media etiquette with business woman Randi Zuckerberg.[19] On June 5, 2013, Metro based an article on the video, which it called a "viral hit", and interviewed Josh on the issue of internet behavior.[20] Josh explained that "I think a lot of the ways we interact online are bleeding into our everyday communications and, for the most part, that isn’t really a good thing."[20]

Kickstarter campaign and BCAN

In March and April 2013, Blimey Cow ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for equipment to begin an audio podcast. The project's original goal was to raise $1,700 to begin one podcast for the group. That goal was reached in 40 minutes.[7] By the end of the campaign, nearly $17,000 had been raised and the plan evolved in a full audio network, which has been named the Blimey Cow Audio Network, or BCAN. Financial supporters of the Kickstarter received Blimey Cow merchandise, such as T-shirts, stickers and special recordings. In response to the project's success, Josh Taylor said, "Kickstarter is fantastic. It’s this website that basically is all about crowd funding."[21] In a post on her blog, Kelli stated that BCAN would begin in summer of 2013, as part of the annual "Summer of Blimey Cow" event.[22]

Show creation

Topical themes

Typically, the topics of Blimey Cow's videos are based on the life experiences of Josh and Jordan, such as homeschooling, church, and youth group.[8] Other topics such as music, relationships, and social media are explored as well. Concerning the critiques of Christianity in the show Messy Mondays, Josh stated that it has become an unofficial motto of the show to ask questions more than present answers. Josh said that he, Jordan, and Kelli try not to overtly state their opinions on the show but rather present a problem for their viewers to ponder.[1] In response to accusations of the channel being facetious toward Christianity, Kelli Taylor told WKRN-TV that they themselves are Christians, stating the "People think we're poking fun without any reason. We like to take a poke at it and say this is how we are, think about it. It's funny right?"[7] The channel also has been noted for its sarcastic and edgy satirical approach.[23][24] As some viewers have expressed concern over this approach, Jordan Taylor uploaded a video on his personal channel where he explains that satire has been used to express concepts for thousands of years, and, since Blimey Cow is clearly overt in its use of satire, he does not feel personally responsible if some individuals cannot understand the intent behind the channel's videos.[25]

Writing and concept development

Under the channel's current format, Josh serves as the primary writer. After developing a concept, he will present it to his wife Kelli for her input. He then drafts the script with help from Kelli, though some of the dialogue he will leave for his brother Jordan to fill in.[1] In particular, Josh said that he does not write much at all for the character Big Head Kid. Instead, Jordan creates most of the dialogue for that character.[1]

Production equipment

For Messy Mondays, Josh's filming gear currently consists of a Canon 7D camera, Zoom H4N recorder, and Rode NT2 microphone.[26] He formerly edited videos with Final Cut Pro, but in 2015 switched to Adobe Premiere Pro.[26][27] He syncs the audio to the video footage using Plural Eyes.[26] The videos for Messy Mondays are usually shot in Josh's basement,[28] having previously been shot in Jordan's bedroom in his parents' house.[7]

Personal biographies

Jordan Taylor

Jordan grew up attending small churches with his family, and he and Josh involved themselves in youth groups and Vacation Bible School, experiences which inspire much of the content on their channel.[1] After homeschooling through highschool, Jordan attended Cumberland University before transferring to Trevecca Nazarene University, where he majored in English with a creative writing minor. While at Cumberland, he rode in the University cycling team, and now cycles as a hobby. His extracurricular activities include playing guitar, camping, writing, and playing the Infection mode on Halo.[1]

Josh Taylor

Josh and his brother Jordan and sister Amy grew up in a strongly Christian home. Josh says that he got saved at 5 years old, but similar to his wife Kelli, he did not know what the Kingdom of Heaven entailed until he was 13 or 14.[1] He first met Kelli at a mutual friend's birthday party, and heard that she was part of a home-school co-op which he knew about. Their friendship developed, and Josh says that "pretty early on" he decided that she was the person he would eventually marry, though it took longer for Kelli to come to this conclusion.[1] Josh holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mass communications with a focus in television and radio. From 2009 to 2010 while in college, he hosted a nightly radio show The Evening Blend on the now defunct 89.1 FM WNAZ. Upon graduating, he worked as a master control operator for WHTN before taking on a job, helping his father as a patent artist for local attorneys.[1][4] He now works full-time at Blimey Cow. He has also worked as a writer and photographer for the Christian music website Jesus Freak Hideout.[29] In addition to his writing and photo work on the website, he and the website founder, John DiBiase, created a mockumentary series entitled "The Hideout", which fictionally portrayed the office life at Jesus Freak Hideout.[30] Josh has also collaborated YouTube comedian Julian Smith, appearing in the video "Techno Jeep" as a percussionist,[31] and as Derek in "Awkward Moments: Chocolate Milk".[32]

Kelli Taylor

Kelli grew up in a family of five and was homeschooled from third grade on. Her father was a youth minister until she was 9, and though her family moved a lot, she was always in the Church. Kelli claims that she accepted Christ at 7 or 8 years old, but it was not until her mid-teens that it "really clicked" with her. Around this time she met Jordan and Josh, who she says encouraged her in following Christ.[1] When she first met Josh, Kelli says that he acted "very dorky" and gave her one of the joke CDs that he and Jordan made.[1] Kelli stated that during her childhood, she and her siblings engaged in outdoor activities and did not work with videos.[1] In addition to her work with Blimey Cow, Kelli enjoys writing, photography, cooking, planning, movies, friends, and food, and maintains a blog, "She Learns as She Goes".[1][33]

Personnel

Supporting personnel

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Presenter: Scott McCausey with Cindy Sprouls, interviewing Josh, Jordan, and Kelli Taylor. (July 3, 2012). "Christian Devotions Speak UP! with Blimey Cow". Christian Devotions Speak UP!. 11:02 minutes in. BlogTalkRadio.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Presenter: Lew Rockwell, interviewing Josh Taylor. Uploader: egarris. (July 14, 2012). "Blimey Cow!". The Lew Rockwell Show. Episode 292. LewRockwell.com.
  3. ↑ "Anonymous asked: How did y'all come up with the "Blimey Cow" name? :)". Blimey Cow Tumblr. Tumblr. May 2, 2012. Retrieved June 8, 2013. delete character in |title= at position 68 (help)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Batten, Chelsea (May 17, 2013). "Everybody Watch! // BlimeyCow". Converge. Converge Magazine. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  5. ↑ BlimeyCow (August 19, 2007). "Jordan's Messyges: "Listen to God's Chosen"" (Web/Video). Blimey Cow. YouTube. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  6. 1 2 Taylor, Josh (May 1, 2013). "Concerning the "God's Chosen Band" Controversy" (Web/Video). BlimeyCowVlog. YouTube. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Tucker, Jamey (March 25, 2013). "Hermitage trio becomes YouTube star". WKRN-TV. Young Broadcasting. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  8. 1 2 CBN (February 27, 2012). "700 Club Interactive -- Jordan Taylor - February 27, 2012 - CBN.com" (Web/Video). CBNOnline. YouTube. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  9. ↑ Presenter: Thomas Woods, interviewing Josh Taylor (April 24, 2012). "Tom Woods Hosts the Peter Schiff Show, 4/24/12". The Peter Schiff Show. 41:48 minutes in. SchiffRadio.com.
  10. ↑ Woods, Thomas (April 27, 2012). "Blimey Cow". LewRockwell.com. Lew Rockwell and Burton Blumert.
  11. ↑ Rockwell, Lew (April 26, 2012). "7 Lies About Homeschoolers". LewRockwell.com. Lew Rockwell and Burton Blumert. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  12. ↑ 크리스찬투데이 (August 2, 2012). 밸런타인 맞아 교회 젊은이 위한 행사들 풍성. 크리스찬투데이 (in Korean). Christian Today Limited. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Menzie, Nicola (February 7, 2013). "'How to Write a Worship Song' Spoof Strikes a Chord; Called 'Sad, But True'". The Christian Post. The Christian Post Company. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  14. ↑ "WATCH: Why He Hates Going To Graduation (And You Should, Too)". The Huffington Post. AOL. April 30, 2013. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  15. ↑ "OFFICIAL STATEMENT: It is our...". Blimey Cow. Twitter. April 30, 2013. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  16. ↑ "Ten Things You Should Never Say to a Guy" (Web/Video). Blimey Cow. YouTube. May 5, 2013. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  17. ↑ Klimas, Liz (May 7, 2013). "See What's Trending on YouTube Based on Your Age". TheBlaze. Mercury Radio Arts/Glenn Beck. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  18. ↑ Li, Anita (May 28, 2013). "Do Your Real-Life Friends Bug You With Their Online Personas?". Mashable. Mashable Inc. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  19. ↑ Presenter: Willie Geist, with guest Randi Zuckerberg (May 30, 2013). "How many hashtags in a tweet is too many?". Today. 4:16 minutes in. NBC.
  20. 1 2 McGuiness, Ross (June 5, 2013). "Online persona non grata… Are you an annoying friend on Twitter and Facebook?". Metro. Associated Newspapers. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  21. ↑ Tucker, Jamey (April 26, 2013). "Kickstarter.com gives users the opportunity to raise money online". WAAY-TV. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  22. ↑ Taylor, Kelli (May 29, 2013). "Summer Bucket List". She Learns As She Goes. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  23. ↑ "Blimey Cow: satirische comedy met een christelijk randje". BEAM (in Dutch). Evangelische Omroep. March 23, 2014. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  24. ↑ Childs, Bradley (March 1, 2014). "The Pope and a Parrot". Presbyterian Record. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  25. ↑ Taylor, Jordan (December 3, 2015). "Is Blimey Cow TOO Sarcastic? | #AskJordan". YouTube. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  26. 1 2 3 Taylor, Josh (April 6, 2013). "What We Use to Shoot and Edit." (Web/Video). BlimeyCowVlog. YouTube. Retrieved June 7, 2013.
  27. ↑ Taylor, Josh (December 7, 2015). "Three Things I Learned by Making My First Video Game". Dear Future Josh. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  28. ↑ "the new home of messy mondays". Josh Taylor. Twitter. February 22, 2014. Retrieved April 27, 2014.
  29. ↑ "Staff: Josh Taylor". Jesus Freak Hideout. John DiBiase. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  30. ↑ "The Hideout". Jesus Freak Hideout. John DiBiase. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  31. ↑ Smith, Julian (December 13, 2009). "JULIAN SMITH - Techno Jeep". YouTube. Google Inc. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
  32. ↑ Smith, Julian (April 16, 2009). "JULIAN SMITH - Awkward Moments: Chocolate Milk". YouTube. Google, Inc. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  33. ↑ Taylor, Kelli. "About Me". She Learns As She Goes. Blogger. Retrieved May 30, 2013.

External links

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