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Year in review: 2004

Election is over, but cartoons play on

The brothers behind JibJab Media have been surprised by the bipartisan outpouring of goodwill (and publicity and dollars) generated by their Web cartoons, which poked fun at both sides.

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published December 14, 2004

	This Land, which poked fun at both sides, was an instant sensation.
	Related story:
	A vote for mirth Two brothers with ties to Clearwater are partisans only to comedy in their cartoon sendup of attack politics, scoring big with Web users. [July 27, 2004]

In the acrid depths of the presidential campaign, it was one of the few things Democrats and Republicans could agree on: This Land was hilarious.

The Web cartoon, featuring George W. Bush and John Kerry dancing and slinging outlandish insults to the tune of Woody Guthrie's classic song of American populism, was created by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis and JibJab Media, their animation company in Santa Monica, Calif.

Released July 9, This Land became an instant sensation. In an article in the St. Petersburg Times on July 27, the brothers' dad, Clearwater resident Nick Spiridellis, said he was talking to his sons several times a day just to stay updated on the media frenzy. "When they gave me the list this morning, they were about to be interviewed for Australian TV. It's gone worldwide," he said then.

In an e-mail interview last week, the brothers wrote that This Land and its sequel, Good to Be in D.C.! (written to the tune of Dixie, it premiered on The Tonight Show and featured John Edwards in a Speedo), have been viewed more than 80-million times online.

They wrote, "We had appearances on the Today Show, CBS Early Morning, NBC Nightly News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC and a host of others. Peter Jennings even named us "Persons of the Week,' and Jay Leno invited us to sit on the couch for a little late night chitchat."

So many people flocked to view This Land that JibJab.com crashed repeatedly, they say. "In July, we did three times the traffic of both presidential candidates' Web sites - combined!"

The Spiridellis brothers say the cartoon was a true grass roots phenomenon. "Much of This Land 's popularity came from our fans who forwarded it to friends and relatives, who in turn forwarded it to friends and relatives, and so on, and so on. It couldn't have had the wide-reaching effect it had without the Internet and support from our fans."

In July, Nick Spiridellis said, "Me being an old entrepreneur, I keep saying, "Why don't you have more advertising on the site?"' But his sons have always made their political cartoons (some of which have been shown at film festivals) as advertisements for their media company's services. JibJab's clients have included Sony, Kraft and Disney.

The This Land phenomenon has brought them plenty of new business, although they won't dish details. It "has opened up up a lot of doors in Hollywood, at which we were tirelessly knocking before. We're exploring numerous opportunities in television, film and online."

The brothers' Web site offers many of their cartoons, as well as such products as Harry the Hostile Christmas Wreath (currently sold out) and toys based on the brothers' children's book, Are You Grumpy, Santa?

An initial offering of a $9.99 DVD with This Land and Good to Be in D.C.! sold out in days, and a second batch is selling briskly.

Gregg, 33, who wrote the cartoons, and Evan, 30, who animated them (Evan's wife, Adrienne, did the music), say they plan to create more of them. "Political content has played very well for us. You can expect to see another political piece soon, around the time of the inauguration."

In the meantime, they're spending some of their windfall on a Christmas gift for their dad, whom they call "our entrepreneurial role model."

"He's always wanted a yacht, so we bought him one. Of course, it's a 12-inch model, but we're working on being able to afford the real thing."

The brothers say, "The wide-reaching impact of the two pieces is what really surprised us the most. ... The goal was to make people laugh, not to have an effect on the election, which is what many people were saying. If it did make an impact, then that's amazing, but it certainly wasn't what we set out to do."

Although they didn't hear from Bush or Kerry directly, they say, "We heard from representatives from both parties. ... Both sides seemed to enjoy This Land , which we were glad to hear.

"The best thing about the response to both cartoons was that people could laugh at them together."

[Last modified December 21, 2004, 12:13:29]