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.