Online Satirists Seek Help From Fans

June 17, 2005 &#151 -- In this week's "Cybershake," we look at what the Internet's most popular pair of satirical artists plan to do to further their humorous work. Plus, we note some high-tech gadgets geeky dads might appreciate this Father's Day.

Evan and Gregg Spiridellis aren't likely to be on the top of your list of "famous Hollywood entertainment producers." But it's more than likely you know their creative works.

Brothers Spiridellis are the founders of JibJab Internet Media and the creative minds behind last year's hit online animation, "This Land." The parody of the U.S. presidential election campaign, preformed to the tune of "This Land Is Your Land," was seen millions of times over the Internet -- and on television when news networks caught wind of it last year.

JibJab's success in lampooning both President Bush (the "Texas tiger") and Senator John Kerry (an "intellectual" and "liberal wiener") brought on other satires that were widely shared online.

The follow-up to "This Land," spoofed Bush's election victory with "Second Term," where an online caricature of Bush sang, "Yes, I'm coming back to serve a second term," to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain."

Gregg Spiridellis says JibJab's cartoons are hits because the brothers noticed -- and capitalized on -- the silliness of actual American political discourse last year.

"The humor in 'This Land' probably came from the absurdity of the dialogue in the election," says Gregg. "It was something we both responded to and kind of decided that was what we were going to do -- and to stick a finger in the eye of the political system."

And both Spiridellises are quick to note that they wouldn't be as successful today if their faithful core audience -- a mere 160,000 viewers when JibJab started five years ago -- didn't help spread the word of their hillarious work.

"The power of 160,000 people turning our work into 80 million [page] views, really opened our eyes to how powerful our audience can be," says Gregg.