JibJab

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The JibJab logo, with its Victorian era appearance, illustrates the influence of Terry Gilliam on the duo's animation
The JibJab logo, with its Victorian era appearance, illustrates the influence of Terry Gilliam on the duo's animation

JibJab is a website featuring Flash cartoons. It is run by two Greek Americans, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, who call themselves "The JibJab Brothers". When they are credited together (such as when they are co-directors), they call themselves Grevan Spiridellis, which is an amalgamation of Gregg and Evan.

Contents

[edit] Prior to 2004 Election

JibJab was started in 1999. The brothers had made several short films prior to the 2004 presidential election, including several Rumple sketches (Rumple was the President's fictional three-inch tall imaginary friend) even though the website was not as well-known as it became when the "This Land" video was released. Some of these movies involved politics, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor in California's 2003 recall election, and another one involved the 2000 presidential election.

A few of the non-political cartoons are as follows:

  • Breedin' in Eden
  • Nasty Santa
  • Geezers
  • Sandbox
  • Raps!
  • Exit 109
  • Nookie & Wheels
  • Hoola Boy
  • Riddle King

Jibjab also featured a few extras on their site as well:

  • The Dick Johnson Show
  • Turkey Baseball
  • The History of Jibjab
  • Fart Waffle

Cartoons made for various companies:

[edit] Election 2004

[edit] "This Land"

Ending of "This Land"
Ending of "This Land"

For the 2004 presidential election, JibJab created a Flash movie entitled This Land, which featured a parody of Woody Guthrie's song "This Land Is Your Land", sung by animated caricatures of George W. Bush and John Kerry.

This animation was an instant hit. Visits to the site skyrocketed, and the site was listed number one on Alexa's "Movers and Shakers" list. The traffic surge forced JibJab's server to be shut down after one day, and the clip was placed on AtomFilms, where it got more than 1 million hits in 24 hours.[1]

After being linked to on thousands of websites, the song was featured several times in the printed media and on television, including NBC Nightly News and ABC World News Tonight. On July 26, 2004, the creators appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The popularity of the animation has resulted in The Richmond Organization, a music publisher that owns the copyright to Guthrie's tune through its Ludlow Music Unit, threatening legal action. JibJab and Ludlow Music reached a settlement after JibJab's attorneys unearthed evidence that the song had passed into the public domain in 1973. The terms of the settlement allowed for the continued distribution of This Land. Jim Meskimen voiced almost all the characters. Minor characters include Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney.

[edit] "Good to be in DC"

Due to the popularity of This Land a second parody, Good to be in D.C. featuring President George W. Bush, Former Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates John Kerry, John Edwards, Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman was made to the tune of Dixie. Also featured were Dan Rather, John Ashcroft, Michael Moore, Rush Limbaugh, and John McCain. It also poked fun at Vice President Cheney's ties to Halliburton and former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey's coming out as a homosexual, Former President Bill Clinton in the arms of two women while his wife Hillary smacks him, and actress Jane Fonda dressed as a 1960s hippie protesting the Vietnam War and being set on fire. The cartoon was shown on The Tonight Show, The Today Show, and many other news programs. Jim Meskimen voiced most of the characters again.

[edit] "Second Term"

For the inauguration in January 2005, a third parody, Second Term, featuring most of the political figures already mentioned, was made to the tune of "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain." The cartoon premiered on The Tonight Show. It dealt with the reactions to Bush's 2004 electoral victory, both in the US and around the world. Jim Meskimen voiced almost all the characters once more.

[edit] Post-Election 2004

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[edit] Santa Claus!

This cartoon is about Santa ranting about Christmas. As of now, this cartoon was the last in the "Nasty Santa" canon as there has yet to be another one.

[edit] Matzah!

Matzah features a Hebrew hip-hop artist, Smooth-E, rapping about matzah, the unleavened bread observant Jews eat during Passover. The main character is reminiscent of rapper Eminem, and appears in front of rap-video clichés. It also features a burning bush -- part of the story of Exodus, which is told at Passover. It was aired on The Tonight Show on Thursday, April 21, 2005.

[edit] Big Box Mart

Another criticizing cartoon, "Big Box Mart" follows Jibjab's tradition of lampooning big retailers. It premiered October 13, 2005 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It follows a man, representing the typical American consumer, who shops and purchases "crap" with "a wallet full of credit cards" at a fictional store called Big-Box Mart; partly based on Wal-Mart, to fulfill his "needs". Later the man's factory job is outsourced to China, as it's cheaper to sell merchandise to retailers by using cheap foreign labor. He ends up as an employee at the big-box store he regularly shopped at, Big Box Mart, an obvious caricature of Wal-Mart. The cartoon is notable for containing the faces of approximately one thousand JibJab fans.

The video is sung to the tune of Oh! Susanna.


[edit] "2-0-5"

This cartoon, which premiered on the Tonight Show on December 15, 2005, is sung to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne" and "Turkey in the Straw". It depicts President George W. Bush singing about the many setbacks and issues he has faced and allegedly caused during 2005 and how he is hoping that 2006 will be better. Jim Meskimen provided the voices. The cartoon competed in the Internet category of the 2006 Ottawa International Animation Festival.

[edit] Jokebox

Jibjab introduced a new feature which allows members (who can sign up for free) to compile and view written, video, audio or photo "jokes" and store them in their own "JokeBox". JibJabbers have uploaded more than 100,000 jokes, creating what many believe is the largest online joke database.

[edit] Weird Al - Do I Creep You Out

JibJab has released a video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody song "Do I Creep You Out?", taken from his Straight Outta Lynwood album. The video can be watched on the site. It involves the song's character (played by Weird Al himself, looking similar to Taylor Hicks, the artist who sings the original song "Do I Make You Proud") stalking the object of his affection until he is violently beaten and arrested by the police. The song ends with him at the prison's talent show, and the object of affection for one of the larger inmates.

[edit] Deck the Halls

A relatively unknown post-2004 elections piece by JibJab is "Deck the Halls." It isn't an animation, but more an amalgamation of President Bush's and other press conferences with Bush's voice timed to sound like the Christmas carol Deck the Halls. The song is very high-paced and very jumpy with its clips, where some are also stopped and replayed to keep its high-paced mood going.

[edit] Nuckin' Futs- A Jib Jab Year In Review

This Jib Jab music video features kids in a "school play" singing a song about things that happened in 2006. It is sung to the tune of Jingle Bells. It was shown on December 13, 2006 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

[edit] What We Call the News

This music video criticizes the sensationalism, punditry, and gossip in modern TV news shows. It is sung to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. The characters tend to use a different style of talking animation, with separated heads that are similar to the depiction of Canadians on South Park (literally a 'talking head'). It was shown on March 28, 2007 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

[edit] Star Spangled Banner

The same concept as the Deck the Halls video, with video clips of U.S. presidents speaking the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner.

[edit] In 2007- A Jib Jab Year In Review

This music video involves angels compiling an annual report on humanity, but they realize that the report is dismal enough to deserve another flood, and so attempt to sugarcoat it by putting it to song. The tune is We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel. It appeared on the Tonight Show on January 3rd, 2008.

[edit] Uncle Globey and Friends

A parody of a children's show, starring a claymation Earth with a face. It revolves around the "Secret Box", which contains the secrets that adult try to hide from children, namely that "the world is quite a fucked up place."

[edit] Parodies of Companies

[edit] References

  1. ^ Maney, Kevin. "This Net was made for you and me and the rest of the world", USA Today, 2004-07-27. [1]

[edit] External links

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