It’s All in the Family Farm

Gatlin Didier, Darrell Bibbins and comedy fame

BY JULIE PARTIN | PHOTOS BY CHARLIE NEUENSCHWANDER

THERE WAS

A Time When Ranch Life

didn’t lead to fame. Thanks to the internet and social media, even farmers can now have a platform of millions.

Like so many, when COVID shut the world down, Gatlin Didier saw his dreams imploding. He had moved out to Los Angeles to be an actor, but the work dried up, so he left the land of swimming pools and movie stars and returned to help out on his family’s 120-year-old ranch in Fay, Oklahoma. But creators are going to create, no matter the circumstances.

Didier began making humorous videos of life on the farm — at first putting them on YouTube, then expanding into TikTok. The first videos were “Farm Talk with Darrell,” humorous skits where he explained things around the farm in the character of Darrell Bibbins. Then he brought his cousin and grandmother in on the action. The additional characters were developed and added in gradually, and that’s when the big numbers started hitting.

“Darrell Bibbins skits took off, and eventually a whole world was created; The Bibbins Farm Universe,” he laughed, “like the Marvel Universe.”

Jarrett Sitton, Didier’s cousin, drives a UPS truck at his day job and plays Gate Bart in the series. "Tips with Granny,” a simple series where Granny (Kay Didier) is asked a question and gives life advice, regularly garners millions of views. When asked how she felt about all those people following her and enjoying her advice, she said,

“It’s pretty fun.” Fun fact: Snoop Dogg follows Granny on Instagram (and he only follows about 6,000 people).

The trio is honored to give a glimpse into their rural world. “There are cowboys on social media that are popular, but we’re not cowboys,” Didier said. “We grew up with cattle; we’re farm boys. We’re trying to highlight the farming aspect of it and make farm boys cool. There are cowboys and rednecks and farm boys — there’s a lot of different categories in this country Western subset of the internet.”

The videos now have sponsorships with large brands including Dot’s, Casey’s, NASCAR and the Oklahoma Beef Council. With 1.7 million followers on TikTok, 215,000 followers on Instagram and 109,000 subscribers on YouTube, it makes you wonder if we will one day see the fictional Bibbins family on the big screen. In the meantime, the real-life Oklahoma family is enjoying this season. Didier concludes, “Bibbins Farm may not always be what we do, but we always want to promote this way of life. We have so much fun getting to do it together.”