Has the Web become the best medium for political parodies like this?
For us, it's been great. The best thing about it is, the only things you'll know about are the pieces that are really good. It's sort of like the audience is your filter. If it's good it gets passed around, and if it's not, it doesn't. It's a very Darwinian medium. You're not waiting for some creative executive at some studio to say it's good or should be seen. We don't advertise at all. We just send it out on the newsletter, and if people think it's good, they pass it along. If they think it's junk, it doesn't go anywhere.
Both candidates' sites now feature animated content. Bush has a Kerry flip-flop meter, and Kerry has a cartoon for viewing the world through Bush's rose-colored lenses. What's your take on that? Are they just trying to tap into what JibJab has achieved?
Obviously, when "This Land" took off the way it did -- and you're talking about an audience of tens of millions of people and going on the "Today" show -- people take notice. There are a lot of well-paid political consultants in Washington who can look at that and say, "Hey, we could do this for ourselves relatively cheaply and get some good bang for the buck out of it." So I'm not surprised. But I'm not sure how well those have done for them. I think if it's on one side or the other, you're narrowing the audience.
Have the Bush or Kerry campaigns contacted you at all?
No, we haven't heard back from either of the campaigns. But we have seen some things in the press. People seemed to think it was funny and had a good sense of humour about it.
Any third-party candidates upset not to be involved?
We've gotten some emails from Ralph Nader supporters who were mad that he wasn't in there. But it's not our job to promote him. If he would have made himself relevant, then he would have been in there. We get emails from interesting people all the time. Fans suggested that we should include (New Jersey Gov. James) McGreevey and (CBS News anchorman) Dan Rather in "DC".
So what's next for JibJab? Are the phones ringing more now?
They are. From the beginning, the premise was to build the brand online and use the leverage of the direct connection with fans to go places where the business models exist. So now, we're in discussions with television and film companies about doing projects, and we're also exploring the idea of taking a children's book that we did last year for Disney and producing an independent animated feature.
