Local social media sensation bridges family generation gap
Before people started recognizing him at places like Home Depot, 18-year-old Briggor “Briggs” Mendenhall of southwest Bakersfield spent more than a year casting about for ideas for a TikTok show. He was about to give up, having decided “I’m not different from anyone else.”
Then his mother suggested he record himself asking questions of his dad, who at first refused because he envisioned himself sitting in an interrogation room. But six months later, prodded again by Mom, Briggs went ahead and ambushed his father in the garage asking for his thoughts about electric cars, millennials and Common Core math.
The response got more than 700,000 views on TikTok. On YouTube, it got 342,000 views. With that, father and son were on their way to becoming social media sensations as the stars of Gen X Talks.
Now the three of them run a cottage business out of a backyard shed outfitted as a digital recording and editing studio. People tune in from around the world — China, South Africa, England — to witness the dynamics of what the Mendenhalls now call “generational tension.”
The tone was set that day in January 2021 with the snappy answers provided by Briggs’ dad, 56-year-old former auto shop owner Mark
Mendenhall. Their shtick comes down to Briggs’ feigned naivete inciting Mark’s cranky, get-off-mylawn attitude.
“Every Gen-X dad has a kid like me, and every Gen-Z kid has a dad like him,” Briggs, fresh-faced in a ball cap, said over lunch Friday at Applebee’s on Ming Avenue.
His gray-bearded father, sticking that day to french fries and a Coke, summed it up this way: “They come to us because I’m an angry jerk . ... They stay because
I’m a nice guy.”
Mark’s politically incorrect response that first day three years ago was typical of the one-liners that have made the duo famous, winning them backstage invitations to exclusive “content creator” gatherings in Las Vegas, Anaheim and Long Beach. Wife and mother of eight Mary Mendenhall pitches in with podcasts, meme postings and production of merchandise including Gen X Talks T-shirts and coffee mugs.
Because Mark’s online persona involves cussing, that first, 60-second video on TikTok can’t be quoted here verbatim. But here’s a taste:
“What are your thoughts on electric cars?” Briggs asks.
“Who’d want a (expletive) electric car to save pollution when you have to (expletive) burn coal mines and natural gas into the air just to make electricity?” Mark answers. “What’s the (expletive) difference?”
“What about millennials?” Briggs asks.
“Other than the three that are already living in my basement in a onesie sipping lattes?” Mark shoots back. “(Expletive) snowflakes.”
“What about Common Core math?” his son comes back with.
“The? I don’t know,” Mark responds. “Common Core is two plus two is green and how do we all feel about it? Get outta here.”
Gen X Talks has won 2.6 million followers across platforms including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. On YouTube alone, the brand has some 400,000 subscribers.
For every YouTube view the family generates, the platform shares a majority of its direct ad revenue, which is small but adds up to large figures. The Mendenhalls wouldn’t disclose the show’s earnings but noted content creators of similar stature can take in $125,000 per year.
If it sounds easy, understand the time involved. Father, mother and child work together to make sure content goes online every single day, lest Get X Talks — GXT for short — loses interest and fades into irrelevance.
Mark, who has closed his shop but continues to receive rental property income, reckons he invests eight hours per day in GXT. Briggs puts in about six hours daily, and Mary generally puts in a little less than that.
Viewer engagement is their hallmark. The three of them try hard to respond to all fan email, and despite advice from bigger social media stars, they sometimes read viewer comments aloud during livestreams, even doing shoutouts for viewers willing to make a donation.
They’ve refined the show by learning from what works and what doesn’t, like promoting audience participation. One time, Mark and Briggs flew paper airplanes at the camera while viewers voted on whose plane flew closest to the target.
Other times they play a trick on viewers: They freeze midsentence and wait for a viewer to send in a comment notifying them their livestream has stalled — which it hasn’t, as longtime viewers know and get a kick out of.
It’s unclear where GXT goes from here now that Briggs has a new job and plans to attend college at Fresno State. A longtime participant in Future Farmers of America, he ultimately wants to become an ag teacher, which drew a characteristic quip from his father while they ate at Applebee’s.
“How could you not want me yelling at you for years?” Mark asked. “I thought we were close.”
One possible outcome is the show transforms into online radio. Mary has already done the work necessary to secure a digital radio license Mark talks about hosting. (The Mendenhalls asked that any contact be handled through Jacob Frost: jacob@bentpixels. com.)
The three of them reflected on how their experience with GXT has affected themselves and others. For example, Briggs said he has learned so much about editing and production work that he landed a part-time production gig with a popular podcast out of North Carolina.
Mary said she has forged a kind of pen-pal relationship with a woman who was looking for a friend and found her through the show. Mark told of being contacted by a man who thanked him for helping him connect with his own son.
“You help me realize I’m not alone in the world,” Mark recalled.
For all their exaggerated head-butting, Mark and Briggs have become closer through their work on GXT. A glimpse of that came through in one episode that has become popular with online followers.
Viewers saw Briggs grow sullen as he was getting ready to leave Bakersfield for an FFA event in Indiana. When Mark noticed his son’s emotional state, he came over and gave him a hug.
Viewers who pause the video can clearly make out Briggs wiping his eye afterward.
That affectionate display of support more or less contradicted the impression fans normally get on GXT. But Mark said it was actually a rare bit of behind-thescenes reality.
“This is how it really is,” he said.