Should My Child Be Watching Blippi? The Workin’ Parent Reviews

If you’re a new parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or babysitter, you may be wondering who the heck this Blippi guy is.  First, I’d say I’m jealous that you don’t know who he is because I would love the power to unknow a person…. just kidding…kind of. 

Blippi, whose real name is Stevin John…yes Stevin with an “I” has a net worth of $40 million dollars according to wealthygorilla.com.  I lead with that because it’s important to have that number in your head when I explain to you who Blippi is.  Blippi, is a children’s YouTube personality, who is basically the equivalent of Pee Wee Herman…who is probably rolling over in his grave…if he’s dead…knowing that Blippi is worth $40 million dollars. 

If you don’t know who Pee Wee Herman is, well, again, you’re lucky.  But basically, Pee Wee Herman was a silly (and creepy) children’s TV character who was around in the 80’s and 90’s.  He wore a weird suit and bow tie and for some reason was popular.  Blippi doesn’t wear a weird suit but he does have signature suspenders, a hat and glasses and a bow tie.

Now that you have a little background on who Blippi is, the real question is, what does he do and should you let your child watch his stuff…. if they aren’t already.  I’ll get in to his YouTube videos, his music, and some of his controversy and make the case for whether you should allow him into your world.

And if you already made up your mind and are pro Blippi, click here to buy the Blippi toys I would recommend. **I receive commissions for purchases made through links on this post**

Blippi’ s YouTube Channel and TV

If you allow your child to watch YouTube, I’d bet a good chunk of money that you’ve probably come across Blippi.  The guy’s videos are attached to basically all other children’s videos on YouTube.  I’m exaggerating a little, but you could be watching garbage trucks driving around and then the next video to autoplay will be Blippi…. Thanks YouTube.

So, what is Blippi’ s channel about?  Well, when you watch it for the first time, you see him going to indoor playgrounds, supermarkets, zoos…. basically, anywhere a child would find exciting, Blippi has been there.  He also explores construction sites, garbage trucks, firehouses, and aquariums.  He has long episodes that could last up to 45 or 50 minutes but somehow keeps kids engaged for most of the time.

If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can even catch his stuff on Prime Video.  If you aren’t, you can click HERE to become a prime video member.

As a parent, watching Blippi walk around a firehouse and talk with firefighters and put on the fire suit and go to a fire seems silly, but I promise you, your child will be amazed.  He has a way of talking to kids that is either hypnotizing them or teaching them things.  I’m still not sure which one it is.

Allow or Don’t Allow: I know saying that there’s a ton of junk on YouTube isn’t a good reason to allow your child to watch Blippi, but there is a LOT of junk on YouTube.  Initially, you might think Blippi is just a silly obnoxious guy, and I can’t blame you for that.  But he does have a lot of educational moments if you comb through the hours and hours of content.

Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s not Albert Einstein teaching the Theory of Everything.  I think that was Stephen Hawking and I’m not sure if the Theory of Everything was a Theory or just a movie but hopefully you get my point.  He’s not a world-renowned child instructor teaching core principle.  But he does teach little things that your child could pick up on that may help them in their development.  Again, I’m not saying you should have them spend 8 hours a day watching Blippi, but a half hour or an hour of watching Blippi isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Blippi’ s Music

In my professional opinion, the best thing about Blippi is his music.  Now, with, it’s important to mention Nicky Notes when you mention Blippi’ s music.  You probably don’t know who Nicky Notes is if you’re new to Blippi and if you do, you should already know what I’m going to say next.

Without Nicky Notes, Blippi has no music, and his net worth is reduced dramatically.  That’s because the guy writing and singing most of Blippi’s songs is…. you guessed it…Nicky Notes.  I don’t want to use the word genius, but if you listen to Blippi Tunes, there are a ton of amazing songs on the album.  Maybe you’ll get a deep dive comparison between Nicky Notes and Raffi in another post, but the guy is up there with the greats.

“The Excavator Song”, “Garbage Trucks” and “Tractors” are just a few songs off the album that jump out at me and Nicky Notes really stands out.  Blippi on the other hand is more of the Lil John or Ringo Starr of the group (I bet you’d never thing you’d see those 3 names in the same paragraph, or blog post).  Nicky Notes will be singing his heart out and Blippi will chime in with a word or a sentence.  Then at the end of the album he’ll do the Wheels on the Bus.

So, having a section for Blippi’s music does come with a caveat that without Nicky Notes, this may not even be its own section.  Sure, Blippi does some music without Notes, and you can tell.  If you hear a bad song from Blippi, it’s probably because Nicky Notes wasn’t involved.  Now I know I’m making Nicky Notes sound like the greatest song writer and performer of a generation and that’s probably because he is…. okay I exaggerated that one a little.

Allow or Don’t Allow: Blippi’s music is for me, the best part about Blippi.  The songs will get stuck in your head for days, and your child will even be able to sing along after a while.  My son gets just as exciting for “Garbage Trucks” as I do for “Lose Yourself”.  So yes, don’t deprive your child of getting to hear the beautiful music of Blippi…and more importantly Nicky Notes.

Blippi Controversy

Unfortunately, the Blippi controversy isn’t anything too juicy, but if you are a Blippi fan, it is interesting.  So, after becoming popular on YouTube, Blippi decided to start doing live shows.  How exciting, now you can bring your child to see Blippi live and in the flesh.

Well, hold your horses a minute.  Before you buy your tickets, beware, Blippi at the live events isn’t the Blippi your child sees on TV.  Stevin, aka the real Blippi, decided to dress some other guys upon Blippi outfits, have them go to the shows and perform, while he sits and home and relaxes.

Now, however Blippi wants to make money s fine by me, but if I ever bought tickets to go to a Blippi live show and saw a fake Blippi, I would probably be madder than my son.  So, as you can imagine, Blippi took some heat for the bogus Blippi.  I’m not sure why he would think this was a good idea, but now if a fake Blippi is going to be at a show, it’s announced way ahead of time.

Final Thoughts on Blippi

While Blippi may seem like a wacko when you first stumble on him, if you’re stuck watching him for a long enough time you realize, he’s not the worst thing on the internet.  He is kind of educational, entertaining and has a lot of great songs…thanks again to Nicky Notes.

Like with everything on TV, too many nonstop hours of Blippi are probably not good for developing minds, but a little bit of Blippi here and there probably isn’t a bad thing.

So, if you hear the dreaded song start “So much to learn about, it’ll make you wanna shout, BLIPPI” don’t throw your tv or phone out the window.  It’ll be okay.