Quirky British Videos About Marshall Expose School To New Audience

If you’ve ever been on TikTok or Instagram and seen short, quirky videos of English people talking about Marshall University football, or in this case, soccer, those are the brainchild of independent British filmmaker Daniel Johnson.

His videos have received millions of views. 

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To find out the backstory, News Director Eric Douglas reached out and spoke to Johnson virtually. 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Douglas: Tell me a little about Daniel Johnson. 

Johnson: My name is Daniel Johnson. I’m from, I always say London, England, but I’m sort of from the Essex-London border, so I’m just slightly outside of London. I’m an independent writer and filmmaker, and that’s my background and my work.

Douglas: I assume also a huge football fan.

Johnson: Yes, and you used the right phrase by calling it football. I don’t always tell people on the internet, because they’re very territorial about their teams. But, yeah, big, big fan.

Douglas: The million dollar question is, how in the world did you get hooked up into Marshall? What attracted you to Marshall? 

Johnson: Good, good question. I’m going to give you the long version, and you can always cut that out if it’s too long. But going back nearly 20 years, I was making a short film, and I needed a song. I needed lots of songs for this film I was making, and I found this track by a singer-songwriter on MP3.com. I really loved it, was kind of like this Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen style song. I really wanted to get the rights to use it, but the guy who sang it, I couldn’t find his email. I couldn’t get any details for him, and I had no way of getting in touch with him, and I ended up, kind of stalking his family, messaging anyone I could to try and find this guy. 

His name is Jeremy Mayle, and he lives in West Virginia. And eventually, I think it was his mum or his dad, I reached and they put me in touch with him. And he was like, “Yeah, of course, you can use the track.” And he hadn’t played music, or he hadn’t recorded music in a few years, and he was really excited to sort of get involved with my film project, and we struck up a long distance friendship, and he happened to send me a gift in the mail. He actually sent me a West Virginia University (WVU) shirt years ago, and I still have it, and I didn’t even realize that it was WVU, it just said West Virginia, and it had their colors. So that’s my first interaction with West Virginia culture, and we’ve stayed friends to this day. 

And then about eight or nine years ago, I met a woman who was studying in the UK. Her name was Hannah. She’s now my wife, and she is from Barboursville, West Virginia. She went to Marshall, and that’s the beginning of the connection, through her and her family.

Douglas: The fact that for 20 years, West Virginia has been part of your life, is kind of astounding.

Johnson: Yeah, it’s crazy. Maybe I was just waiting to meet a woman who was from West Virginia as well, and that’s what I settled down with. In one way or another, I’ve had that link for many years. And then, of course, being with my wife and getting to know her family, lots of them went to Marshall and seeing people wearing the colors and all these T-shirts. And I got curious, like, “Who are these guys? Okay, they’re a university. What are the sports that they play?” And just got to know them through that.

Douglas: I figured it was the connection with the English coach at Marshall.

Johnson: That’s a good guess, but not quite the case. But, you know, after I started doing the sketches, people started reaching out to me, and one of them was Chris Grassie’s wife. She messaged me, and was like, “Who is this guy in England making all these sketches?” And they had showed it to all of the team and the coaches and they all loved it, and have always sort of supported what I’ve done. So, I’ve sort of had that connection with them now as well.

Douglas: How many of these sketches have you done now? Do you even know?

Johnson: You know, I don’t know. It’s funny because the first Marshall one that we did, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it was a bunch of guys sitting around talking about what teams they support and one guy says, “Oh, I support Manchester City.” Another guy supports Arsenal. And then you come to this guy who says Marshall. And all the guys are like, “What are you talking about? Who is Marshall?”

That video got a million views on TikTok, and then similar on Instagram. And then the videos we’ve done since, some of them don’t get as many views, it’s thousands rather than millions or whatever. But I just enjoy it. And I joke with Tom, the actor, I say, “We’re going to keep doing these, even if nobody’s watching,” because it’s for us, it’s just so much fun. 

But how many I’ve done, I’m gonna guess the Marshall ones, there’s maybe 10 of them at a guess. But I don’t know anymore.

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Douglas: What I love about them is they’re just so deadpan. Your actors are like, “Well, of course, I love Marshall. Why wouldn’t I?” I mean, it’s this exasperation that whoever they’re talking to doesn’t understand.

Johnson: 100% but I think that’s true, too, and this is why I think people relate to them. Because even though it’s comedy and it’s exaggerated, I think anyone that’s ever had an interest in anything, that’s how it works. And you could go on a trip. You know, you could go traveling to Spain. You could watch a random team play, and you enjoy it so much they become your team, and you become passionate about it. Likewise, if I saw Marshall in any sport against WVU or someone from another state, it means something to me, I’m going to support them. So, you know, the character is not that far from myself, or just how anyone is about sports. 

Douglas: Every time I watch these, I think, where does he get all of that gear? But now I know you got that direct connection with your family, but you know, the flags and the T-shirts and the hats and everything else is like, how does he get all of this stuff in London?

Johnson: People have been very generous as well, like my friend Austin, who works at Marshall, whenever I go there, if he can find me some merch to hand over, he does. And a lot of those things have come from guys directly at Marshall. And obviously I bought a few shirts and things the guys at Glenn’s Sporting Goods have hooked me up with a few T-shirts.

Douglas: Are there more Marshall stories in the works?

Johnson: I’ve written one or two Marshall sketches that we’re going to film at some point. But you know, it’s also the logistics of availability, of when the actors are available, and by the way, I just want to name Thomas Sansone, the actor who does the Marshall sketches. I get the credit because I write them and they come from me. But he’s really embodied the character. They’ve had longevity, because he puts a lot of heart into them, and he’s built a character, like you really sense, even though they’re like a 45-second sketch, he’s done great work. He’s a really good actor.

So, yeah, just to shout out to him, because he’s been a big part of the success of them.