JibJabbing at US politics

The California based company JibJab took the Web by storm with its first animated satire about the 2004 US presidential race, called "This Land" and garnered additional praise for a second short film, "Good to be in DC", released to the public last week. The Flash animation filmmakers launched their online assault on the political scene with the hopes of raising their company's visibility.

With close to 60 million combined viewings of the two animated satires thus far, the filmmakers appear to have achieved that goal.

JibJab front man Gregg Spiridellis, 30, who founded the company with his brother Evan, recently spoke with ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com to discuss his company's rise to Web fame and the Internet's burgeoning potential as a tool for creative minds.

Q. How did you choose the Web as your medium for making films and political spoofs?
A. In 1998, I was doing my MBA at Wharton, and my brother Evan was doing some independent animation and developing a TV show. Over a 56.6k modem, we saw John Kricfalusi (the creator of the "Ren & Stimpy" cartoon series) streaming full-motion, full-sound animation.

It kind of opened our eyes to the possibility of having our own distribution channel and the possibility of building a brand and intellectual properties without anyone between us and the people who liked our work. So when I graduated, we set up shop in a converted garage in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and started putting online content on a Web site.

That was October of 1999, and the next thing you know, all the big guys started showing up, like Digital Entertainment Network, Pop.com, Z.com, etc. There was that whole group of super-funded online entertainment destination sites.

Kricfalusi essentially inspired you guys to go for it?
He was one of the first guys do be doing online animation, and we saw it at Shockwave.com. It was a dancing doodle. It was amazing to us that with a 56.6k modem with Flash, you could create great animation.

Why is it important that the Web removes those layers you mention between the creative people and their potential audience?
It's a question of leverage. If you're two creators trying to break into the system, there are all kinds of gatekeepers. These people don't necessarily know what is good, in terms of entertainment, more than anyone. The number of stories you could find about Hollywood development hell are probably endless.

What the Web lets us do is not just walk in the door with a pitch, it lets us show people a tangible product and to be able to say, "We've got 500,000 people who signed up for our newsletter, 10 million people who sent this, 20 percent sent it to a friend, 15 percent downloaded it, and 5 percent bought merchandise from our Web site." That's the kind of leverage creators have never had before the Internet.