Jibjab
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Jibjab Media is a Flash animation studio that began in a garage in Brooklyn and graduated to a warehouse in Los Angeles. The creative energies behind Jibjab are Gregg Spiridellis, who writes the texts, and his brother Evan Spiridellis, who does the animation. As they tell it, in 1998, when Gregg was an MBA student at the Wharton School of Business and Evan was working as an animator, the brothers saw an animation of a dancing piece of dung that inspired them to change direction and collaborate in computer animation. In the years since, they have produced web-based animation and artwork for clients such as Disney, Cartoon Network, Sony, Kraft and Scholastic and their works have been accepted into film festivals including Sundance 2004. They have also published a children's book called Are you Grumpy, Santa? (Hyperion Press) and over a million dollars worth of their "Nasty Santa" toys have been sold at specialty stores.
In July 2004, Jibjab posted a political satire on the Internet in which photo animations of George W. Bush and John Kerry trade insults to the tune of Woody Guthrie's classic song "This Land is Your Land." Bush accuses Kerry of having more waffles than a house of pancakes; Kerry retorts that he finds Bush's inability to pronounce the word 'nuclear' to be scary. During its first week on the web, the clip was viewed over 5,000,000 times, completely overwhelming its server.
Previous satirical offering by Jibjab included a rap song featuring George Bush and Al Gore prior to the elections in 2000, and a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign for governor of California. A sequel to "This Land" called "Good to Be in D.C." premiered on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in early October.
As of October 1, 2004, Jibjab's spoof of Bush and Kerry had been viewed over 65 million times since it was first released.
Last updated: November 10, 2004.
