Photo of Greg & Evan Spiridalis © JibJab Media

GREG & EVAN
SPIRIDELLIS:
Animated Presidential
Parodies Jump from
Web to TV Screens
Across This Land

by J.C. Johnson / Comedy Profiles Editor T a l k i n g C o m e d y . c o m

Can two brothers, armed with only their creative ideas, talents, a Mac G5 computer and Flash MX software, compete with the big boys in the world of entertainment? If the success of their two Flash animated political parodies this past Bush-Kerry election is any indicator … it appears they can!

JibJab Media, has had it’s share of success in the 5 years it’s been in business. But none of the success the 'JibJab' brothers had seen before could prepare them for what was in store for the company this year. The word of mouth buzz about their political parody, This Land, snowballed larger and faster then anyone could have imagined. The TV publicity showered on the tiny studio, first by the news media then by members of the entertainment media, like Jay Leno, drove more viewers to see their animation then ever before.

'This Land' Animated Parody © JibJab Media

Fifty million people had already seen JibJab's first Bush-Kerry animated parody, This Land by the time Jay Leno asked the brothers to create another parody that he could exclusively premiere on TV on The Tonight Show. That’s two to three times as many people than had viewed either the Democrat or Republican national conventions this year. By the time the election rolled around it was up to about 80 million. Since the success of the Bush-Kerry animation the brothers have been asked to create animation for various television show like MadTV and are in talks with several major TV studios about bigger projects in the future. But the route the Spiridellis brothers took in order to be able to come onto the big screen TVs of homes all across America and beyond … started on small screens across this land … computer screens to be exact. Oh and those fifty million people that had already seen This Land before Leno premiered their follow up, Good to Be in D.C., those fifty million had all seen it on small computer screens via the web.

So how did these talented brothers get their start in web animation? The story goes something like this … Back in 1998 brothers Greg and Evan Spiridellis were watching a piece of dung, created by John Kricfalusi ( creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show) dance across their computer screen. Others watching the same animation, all across the World Wide Web, saw just that a dancing piece of dung, but the Spiridellis brothers saw something much, much more … they saw the opportunity to become pioneers in a brave new world of entertainment. “It opened our eyes to the possibility of distributing our own work without anyone between us and the audience,” says older brother Greg Spiridellis. At the time younger brother Evan had been doing independent animation for a few years on the independent animation festival circuit. And Greg had been working in investment banking and had just finished his MBA.

The following year Greg left the field of investment banking and the two brothers launched JibJab Media from a garage in Brooklyn. Two brothers working out of a garage … sounds a bit like the Disney boys' modest beginnings, doesn't it? “There were very few people doing online animation,” says Greg of the web landscape of creative talent producing animation back in 1999. “We were very early … It was definitely a new field.”

JibJab Logo © JibJab Media

Armed with an early edition of Flash software and a Mac computer the two boys ‘hung up their shingle’ out on the web … JibJab.com. “We wanted a short, easy to remember, fun sounding name,” recalls Greg. “Something that didn’t mean anything but what we made it mean. The internet was changing real fast. We didn’t know what we were going to be. We just wanted to make sure our name gave us the flexibility to do different things in the future.”

Once they settled on a name, they set out to design a logo. Evan created ‘Jib’ and ‘Jab’ using their faces with old style mustaches, hairdos and clothes … to add a touch of the past to their image as the two set out to chart a course across this vast new media. Then they began creating their first short pieces of Flash animation for the web. They experimented with many different looks and styles of animation but each piece they worked on from the very beginning had one thing in common … "the comedy angle was always something we were doing," says Greg.

JibJab has seen a steady climb in success in the five years its been creating Flash animation for the web. Slowly people began finding them on the web. Visitors to their site would shoot off a quick email to a friend and tack on the JibJab.com link. As time passed the JibJab name made it into more and more email inboxes. Eventually it would find it’s way to someone over at an ad agency and the boys would get an offer for work. Not long after starting the company they began creating several short, funny animations, such as rap parodies of the founding fathers that created a following of web surfers. Some of JibJab’s original animations began to be featured on AtomFilms, a site dedicated to distributing visual entertainment over the Internet. The History Channel licensed their rapping founding fathers for their own site to promote a miniseries on the founding fathers. Another piece of theirs was sub-licensed to Mad TV for the web. And Capitol Ill, a Bush/Gore rap, created during the last presidential election, was used in an Altoids commercial.

Rapping 'Founding Fathers' Animation © JibJab Media

A paying web animation job here, a paying web animation job there … and with the profits from these jobs they funded their own creative projects. Many of which have been accepted into festivals across the US and around the world, including Sundance 2004.

Although quite a few had seen their work, on the web, before this past election almost everyone in America seems to know of, or have heard of, their work these days. And all this success from two boys working out of a garage in Brooklyn. Well not quite … they moved out to California three years ago to be closer to the large entertainment studios.

“We were trying to survive after the dotcom boom and crash. And we just kind of asked ourselves … What are we doing?” recalls brother Greg. They wanted more time to work on their own creative projects and not to have to spend as much time producing advertising and promotional animation to pay the bills. “We got into this to create original work not to serve as a production house for other people’s ideas. So we packed up all of our belongings in a truck and moved out here.”

They may have moved all the way across the country but they haven't moved all that far from their small beginnings. The company JibJab Media is run out of a warehouse in Santa Monica, California these days instead of a garage in Brooklyn. But it's still a small operation. The two block buster successes parodying the past political Bush-Kerry campaign were created by the two brothers with only a standard Flash MX animation software program on a consumer-grade Apple Macintosh G5 computer. Up until This Land came out they were still a two person firm who would supplement with outside talent when needed. Although, since the success of This Land and Good to Be in D.C., they now have some more folks, in house, helping them out.

'Good to Be in DC' Animated Parody © JibJab Media

But the two smash hit political parodies were created by just the two brothers and two additional talents brought in to round out the talent pool … Adrienne Spiridellis (www.spellermusic.com) handled all the musical arrangements and recordings, and Jim Meskimen (www.appliedsilliness.com) contributed all the impersonations/voice-work/acting.

Older brother Greg wrote most of the humorous lyrics to the two tunes … the American standards, This Land is Your Land and Dixie. While younger brother Evan, who has no formal training as an animator, created most of the high-energy animation using, as building blocks, images of President Bush and Senator Kerry and other political figures gleaned from approved government web sites. The choice of subject matter came from the fact that under American libel and slander laws, public figures are generally fair game for commentary or parody. Their hope was that the heat and attention that the political election was generating would bring some attention to their animated creations and if what they created was good enough, the initial attention sparked by the subject matter they were parodying would build momentum.

To complete This Land they worked for 8 weeks on the project, often pulling 14 to 18 hour days. As quick as that time schedule was they didn’t have the same luxury, time wise, for the second parody … Leno wanted the sequel in less than 6 weeks. “He invited us to do it. It was hard to turn that opportunity down,”says Greg, of Leno’s offer. “We weren’t planning on doing a second election piece. But Jay said … Hey, do you guys want to do one for the show? And we said… You bet we do.” Then they went back to their warehouse, the home of JibJab Media, and they panicked about it. “How the heck were we ever going to follow up on the success of This Land?”

'Are You Grumpy, Santa?' Childrens Book © JibJab Media

With a shorter deadline the second time and the pressure of trying to live up to the quality of their previous success they tried to calm their nerves and focus on just making sure they worked as hard as they could in the time they were given. And, in the end, they were very pleased with what they came up with. And happy to have taken Jay Leno up on his offer.
“You know we just kind of did the best we could and it turned out to be … I would say traffic wise and brand exposure wise, just as successful as the first one.”

Both shorts are now available for sale on DVD at JibJab.com. You can also view past animation work online at JibJab.com as well. The status of the political satires has raised the small company's profile immensely and resulted in opportunities to pitch original ideas to major studios. The brothers created a children’s book together that was published in 2003 called, Are You Grumpy, Santa? An opportunity to use their animation and creative talents to bring that story to life for either television or the big screen would be a delightful outcome of all the attention they have gotten these past few months.

Greg Spiridellis says “Right now our main concern is trying to keep the work on the web going but at the same time we’ve got a number of TV and film discussions going on.” They are working on a new Christmas animation that will be added to the site for the holiday season and there is also going to be an inaugural piece coming out as well. “We just want to keep building JibJab into an entertainment brand.” adds Greg feeling that the most important thing now is to keep continuing to put out quality projects that will live up to the expectation for quality they’ve already established with their Bush-Kerry pieces. “Hopefully people will hear the name JibJab and they’ll say … Oh, that’s something I want to see because I know it will make me laugh.”

Animated political parodies "This Land"& "Good to Be in D.C."
are available for purchase on DVD or for online viewing at their web site.
A Selection for earlier animation (including the
Rapping Founding Fathers & Ahrnuld for Governor) is also available for online viewing,
as well as the book "Are You Grumpy, Santa?" and other holiday items … visit www.JibJab.com

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