Jon Bois
Jon Bois | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Writer |
Employer | SB Nation |
Notable work | 17776 The History of the Seattle Mariners The Bob Emergency |
Website | sbnation |
Jon Bois (.
Early life and education
Bois was born on September 24, 1982, in
Career
Bois started blogging in 2003 on the website ProgressiveBoink.com, which he co-founded along with a group of other writers,[10] and first rose to online prominence co-writing the baseball-themed webcomic The Dugout with Brandon Stroud and Nick Dallamora.[11] He started as an editor at SB Nation in 2009.[12] From 2013 to 2015, Bois published "Breaking Madden," a series of articles in which he created unusual football scenarios in the Madden NFL video games.[13] In August 2014, he published "The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles," a sports story based on the fictional premise that NFL quarterback Tim Tebow had joined the Canadian Football League.[14][15]
In May 2015, Bois published the first episode of a documentary video series called "Pretty Good." The series told true stories of unusual events, often related to sports, such as the career path of baseball player
In 2016, Bois began another documentary video series called "Chart Party," in which he used statistical analysis to explore and understand sports stories. Of particular note, Bois published an episode in December 2016 called "Every NFL Score Ever," in which he discussed how football's scoring system makes some final game scores very unlikely, and coined the term "scorigami" to describe the act of achieving a never-before-seen final result.[17] The video led one viewer to create a website to track new scorigami instances, and the term has seen usage in other sports publications.[18][19][20] The series has also discussed topics such as the saddest punt in the world, how Barry Bonds’ 2004 season would have looked like if he had played without a bat, the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, and the career of Jeff Francoeur, who Bois describes as his “favorite worst baseball player”.[21]
In July 2017, Bois published a serialized multimedia narrative called
A chapter of Upon Further Review, a collection of sports what-if scenarios compiled by editor Mike Pesca published in 2018, was written by Bois, with his scenario being "What If Basketball Rims Were Smaller Than Basketballs?"[27]
In April 2018, Bois and fellow SB Nation personality Alex Rubenstein began the series "Dorktown", which followed a similar format and style as his prior series "Pretty Good", showcasing unusual events, statistics, and personalities from sports history. In 2020, Bois and Rubenstein released a 6-part special mini-series of Dorktown chronicling the history of the
In 2018, Bois collaborated with Felix Biederman of
In 2019, Bois released a two-part series on professional athletes named Bob.[39][40] Its title, "The Bob Emergency," refers to the dwindling numbers of such athletes, with Bois only tallying 10 active athletes named Bob at the series' end on May 21, 2019. Bois has previously written on this topic, referring to it as "The Bob Famine" in a 2012 article about Bob Sanders, believed to be the last Bob in major American sports.[41]
On September 17, 2019, Bois and SB Nation video producer Kofie Yeboah started a video series called "Fumble Dimension".[42] Similar to Bois's earlier "Breaking Madden", it consists of using in-game mechanics of sports video games to create unusual scenarios, usually with fan input.[43][44]
Style
Bois has a very distinctive audiovisual style, heavily utilizing Google Earth as a medium in which to place various visuals, making heavy use of newspaper articles, charts, and timelines to create a collage that builds over the runtime of a video.[3]
His videos often make use of smooth jazz, from artists like Keith Mansfield and Alan Hawkshaw, as background music.[45] Elaborating on his musical leanings, Bois says, "I have a love in particular for smooth, hyper-produced saxophone, from older stuff like Steely Dan and "The Captain of Her Heart" by Double, to newer stuff like Destroyer's "Kaputt," which I think is probably my favorite song."[46]
Bois's work often centers various
Bois's work has been noted to cover less successful teams.[47] Speaking to the "History of..." Dorktown series, Bois has said, "With the Mariners, the Falcons, and the Vikings, the obvious through line between the three is that none of them have ever won a chip, right? To an extent, that is part of the allure to us. We think the stories of teams that haven’t won it all are sometimes underappreciated or underreported."[48]
Personal life
Bois is a Kansas City Chiefs fan.[49] He got married in June 2021.[50]
Bibliography
- 2014: The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles
- 2017: 17776
- 2018: "What If Basketball Rims Were Smaller Than Basketballs?" (part of Upon Further Review)
- 2018: "The Stallion" (part of SB Nation's Forest of Fright)
- 2020: 20020
Filmography
Documentaries
Year | Title | Director | Producer | Writer | Narrator | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Fighting in the Age of Loneliness | Yes | Yes | No | No | Written and narrated by Felix Biederman.[51] |
2019 | The Bob Emergency | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Released in two parts.[52] |
2020 | The History of the Seattle Mariners | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Produced, written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein.[53] |
2021 | The History of the Atlanta Falcons | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Released in seven parts. Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein. |
2022 | Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Released in four parts. Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein.[33] |
Section 1 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein. | |
The People You're Paying to Be in Shorts | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein, Seth Rosenthal and Kofie Yeboah. Produced by Rubenstein. | |
2023 | The History of the Minnesota Vikings | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Released in seven parts. Written and narrated with Alex Rubenstein. Produced by Rubenstein. |
Video series
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2015–2017 | Pretty Good | 13 episodes[54] |
2015–2019 | Chart Party | 16 episodes[55] |
2018–present | Dorktown | 31 episodes[56] |
2019–present | Fumble Dimension | 15 episodes[57] |
References
- ^ "We destroyed the NBA's future with a video game | Fumble Dimension Episode 1". SB Nation. September 18, 2019. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
- ^ "Masthead". SB Nation. April 28, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Marsh, Calum (December 30, 2022). "Turning Sports Statistics Into Riveting Cinema". The New York Times. Retrieved January 1, 2023.
- ^ "https://twitter.com/jon_bois/status/1700006773384458599?s=20". X (formerly Twitter). Retrieved September 8, 2023.
{{cite web}}
: External link in
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- ^ Bois, Jon (September 25, 2012). "What It Feels Like To Be 30". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ a b Bois, Jon (May 1, 2013). "Go to Homeschool". Vice. Retrieved November 17, 2020.
- ^ Bois, Jon (November 26, 2014). "A eulogy for RadioShack, the panicked and half-dead retail empire". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Bois, Jon (November 5, 2020). "The ballpoint pen". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Bois, Jon (February 19, 2015). "The end of RadioShack, through the eyes of a store manager". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Bois, Jon (September 9, 2013). "Happy 10th birthday, Progressive Boink". Progressive Boink. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
- ^ "The Dugout • Archives". Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
- ^ Colon, David (August 3, 2015). "How'd you get that cool job: Jon Bois editor at SB Nation". Brokelyn. Retrieved July 7, 2019.
- ^ Bois, Jon. "Breaking Madden". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ Bois, Jon (August 18, 2014). "The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ a b Crouch, Ian (July 12, 2017). "The Experimental Fiction That Imagines Football-Obsessed Americans in the Extremely Distant Future". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ Bois, Jon. "Pretty Good". SB Nation. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ Mattingly, Dave. "NFL Scorigami". NFL Scorigami. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ Musgrove, Kole (December 3, 2018). "Seahawks continue bizarre 'Scorigami' streak under Pete Carroll". Seahawks Wire. USA Today. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ Roeder, Oliver (September 17, 2018). "Significant Digits For Monday, Sept. 17, 2018". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
- ^ "Scorigami origins and how it works in the NFL". NBC Sports Philadelphia. January 11, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ^ Bois, Jon (September 7, 2016). "Jeff Francoeur, my favorite worst baseball player". SBNation.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (July 19, 2017). "over the last two weeks, 17776 got four million pageviews and 700,000 unique visitors. people stuck around for an average of 11 minutes" (Tweet). Retrieved July 25, 2017 – via Twitter.
- ^ @ASME1963 (March 13, 2018). "Ellies 2018: @SBNation wins Digital Innovation category for '17776: An American Football Story'" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "20020". Secret Base. SB Nation. Retrieved October 2, 2020.[permanent dead link]
- ^ MacAree, Graham; Bois, Jon (September 28, 2020). "20020 Open Thread". Secret Base. SB Nation. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
- ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (October 14, 2020). "PROBLEM: the giant football game in 20020 is way too large, there are 111 teams and 134,000 miles of field, we'll never be able to talk about this entire thing in just 12 parts SOLUTION: https://t.co/5WF7wlVPnA" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Roberts, Stephen V. (June 29, 2018). "What if Nixon had excelled in college football? What if Ali hadn't been banished?". The Washington Post.
- ^ Bois, Jon (March 25, 2020). "Why we're making a 3-hour documentary series on the Seattle Mariners". SBNation.com. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
- ^ ""Nomadland" Named Best Picture of 2020 by Seattle Film Critics Society". Seattle Film Critics Society. February 15, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (August 11, 2021). "me and alex are so stoked. after working on this all year, we're finally gonna drop the first episode one week from today. @JoeAli shows up in almost every episode too, including this one" (Tweet). Retrieved August 15, 2021 – via Twitter.
- ^ Greene, Steve (September 23, 2021). "Secret Base Has Reinvented the Sports Docuseries for the Internet Age". IndieWire. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ^ a b "Meet Dave Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb, Part 1". YouTube. Secret Base. March 1, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2022.
- ^ Section 1: A short film from Dorktown, retrieved July 1, 2022
- ^ "Secret Base - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Shachat, Sarah (September 14, 2023). "'The History of the Minnesota Vikings' Pushes Documentaries — and Google Earth — to New Storytelling Heights". IndieWire. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ^ Bois, Jon (December 29, 2020). "MMA and American empire: a conversation with Felix Biederman and Jon Bois". SBNation.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- ^ "Fighting in the Age of Loneliness: Supercut edition". YouTube. Secret Base. December 29, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Bois, Jon (April 29, 2019). "The Bob Emergency: a study of athletes named Bob, Part I". Retrieved April 26, 2020 – via YouTube.
- ^ Bois, Jon (May 21, 2019). "The Bob Emergency: a study of athletes named Bob, Part II". Retrieved April 26, 2020 – via YouTube.
- ^ Bois, Jon (January 18, 2012). "The Bob Famine: Athletes Aren't Named 'Bob' Anymore And There's Nothing We Can Do About It". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
- ^ Yeboah, Kofie (September 25, 2020). "Fumble Dimension #1: One year later". SBNation.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- ^ "We destroyed the NBA's future with a video game | Fumble Dimension Episode 1". Retrieved October 26, 2020 – via YouTube.
- ^ Hickey, Walter. "Numlock Sunday: Kofie Yeboah on The Fumble Dimension". www.numlock.com. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ^ Smith, Dan E. (April 7, 2022). "The Significance of the Insignificant: The Works of Jon Bois and the Objective Spectacle of Global…". Medium. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
- ^ Swen, Ryan (March 1, 2023). ""We Aren't Simply Trying to Appeal to Nostalgia": Jon Bois on the Art of Sports Docs". Filmmaker Magazine | Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
- ^ ""The History of the Minnesota Vikings": Jon Bois, Secret Base tackle team's glorious, groanworthy saga - CBS Minnesota". www.cbsnews.com. July 31, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ^ "Jon Bois Keeps Finding Beauty in Miserable Sports Teams". GQ. August 1, 2023. Retrieved September 16, 2023.
- ^ Bois, Jon (October 6, 2015). "CHART PARTY: THE CHIEFS KICKED SEVEN FIELD GOALS AND LOST". Retrieved February 16, 2020 – via YouTube.
- ^ Bois, Jon [@jon_bois] (June 21, 2021). "got married https://t.co/weTMzUjLLk" (Tweet). Retrieved May 29, 2022 – via Twitter.
- ^ Bois, Jon; Biederman, Felix (November 26, 2018). "Fighting in the Age of Loneliness". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Bois, Jon (April 30, 2019). "The Bob Emergency, Part I". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Bois, Jon; Rubenstein, Alex (August 31, 2020). "The History of the Seattle Mariners: Supercut Edition". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Bois, Jon. "Pretty Good". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Bois, Jon (October 6, 2015). "Chart Party: The Chiefs kicked 7 field goals and lost". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Bois, Jon. "Dorktown". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Bois, Jon; Yeboah, Kofie (September 26, 2019). "Fumble Dimension, episode 1: director's commentary". SB Nation. Retrieved November 2, 2022.