Blimey Cow is an internet comedy channel based in Nashville, Tennessee, created in 2005 by brothers Josh and Jordan Taylor, most famous for the series Messy Mondays. Produced by and starring the Taylor brothers, Josh's wife Kelli, and Jordan's wife Sara, the channel targets the idiosyncrasies of conservative Christianity, youth group, romantic relationships, homeschooling, politics, and social media. Blimey Cow 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 John Reuben 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.
History
Early history
The brothers began filming videos in 2005. At a young age, 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. 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. 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". Influenced by The Office, Napoleon Dynamite, and Christopher Guest, the Taylor brothers adopted a mockumentary style. In 2007, Colin Cimble of the band As Cities Burn appeared in an episode of the show Jordan's Messyges. 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, Josh had married Kelli and Jordan entered college. Josh convinced Jordan to create one video every week. They launched this new series, featuring Jordan addressing various topics, under the title of "Messy Mondays", modeled after a previous series, Jordan's Messyges. Messy Mondays debuted on August 29, 2011 with the video "New School Year". 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". The video "The One About Mission Trips" critiqued short-term missions and suggested that the money raised could fund longer-term missions. Josh stated that while it generated some negative feedback from state-side viewers, missionaries in other countries praised the video for addressing this issue. 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.
Viral breakthrough
On January 16, 2012, Blimey Cow released the Messy Mondays video "Seven Lies About Homeschoolers". The video received over one million views in under a week. It is currently at 2.3 million views. In February, the Christian Broadcasting Network picked up the video, interviewing Jordan Taylor on The 700 Club during a segment on homeschooling. On April 24, 2012, historian and author Thomas Woods interviewed Josh Taylor while guest hosting The Peter Schiff Show. Two days later, author, former Congressional staffer Lew Rockwell posted the homeschooling video on his website LewRockwell.com, and in July he interviewed Josh Taylor on his podcast The Lew Rockwell Show. Following the success of the homeschooling video, Blimey Cow formed a YouTube partnership and signed up for Google advertising to generate revenue.
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.