Misstropolis

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Jib Jab

by Robin Hauck

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It’s not easy writing about Jib Jab. What can I say that would be more entertaining than their brilliantly conceived, painstakingly executed, virally distributed and humbly promoted animations?

I could chronicle their history, acknowledged as a string of start-up clichés by founders Evan and Gregg Spiridellis - the meager yet passionate beginnings in 1999 in a Brooklyn garage, the near collapse of the company following the dot com bust in 2001, the piling of all belongings into a UHaul and hoping for a fresh start in Los Angeles.

I could list the prestigious media outlets that have covered their meteoric rise up and out of the Brooklyn garage, a list even the creators of Tea Partay would envy: The Today Show, ABC News, CNN, FOX, CNBC, MSNBC, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Variety, Los Angeles Times (and of course now MISSTROPOLIS!) the premiering of a new short on Jay Leno, the fact that ABC named them People of the Year in 2004.

I could tell you that their parody “This Land” was viewed online over 80 million times during the 2004 election; that Robert Redford came to them to ask them to create shorts focusing on Sundance’s theme of independence to play between all the films at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival ("I admire their brave, incisive sense of humor and the ways they’re getting their work out there. They live ‘Independent.’” said Sundance’s Jan Fleming of the brothers); or that “It’s What They Call the News” was commissioned to open the White House Correspondence dinner this year.

“This Land”

And that the founders of this now formidable media company are some of the nicest guys I’ve met in the business, (Evan says they “owe everything to their audience,” and they even return emails) and some of the smartest, ("The web IS social media”, says Evan. “Everything we consume in our lives comes from referrals whether it’s a friend telling you about a great book or movie or a TV commercial that says ‘try this, you’ll like it’. The web just allows us to be a bit more selective about who we accept referrals from… but also to create wider and wider circles of friends.")

But I won’t. Because now that you know about Jib Jab there is only one way to experience it. Play with it. The latest Jib Jab phenom is a do it yourself feature called “Starring You!” Possibly the “Greatest Office Time Waster in History,” “Starring You” lets you cast your own Jib Jab movie. Upload photos of yourself, your mother-in-law, your boss or your dog, cut out the head with a custom built flash application and put them into a cheesy Hula, Charleston, Disco, Cucaracha or La Chiquita dance clip. And voila! you’ve wasted 15 minutes and you have something hilarious to send to all your friends! Here’s one I did yesterday, as you can see, the possibilities are endless.

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