Persons of the Week: Spiridellis Brothers
July 23, 2004 -- Evan and Gregg Spiridellis — think of Gregg as the tycoon and Evan as the artist — designed and released via the Internet a funny parody of the 2004 presidential campaign.
Called This Land, the animated cartoon has garnered a substantial amount of attention for the brothers this week, with appearances and mentions on hundreds of news outlets.
"We could have never expected this," Gregg said. "There is such divisiveness, and it was just so pent up, and I think the first bit of humor to tackle it gets the golden ring."
The "golden ring" has turned into success on the Internet. The brothers' cartoon, presented to the tune of the patriotic song "This Land Is Your Land," lampoons President Bush, Sen. John Kerry, and even former President Bill Clinton.
It has been downloaded and played at least 8 million times since Monday. Earlier this week, so many people tried to watch it at one time that the brothers' company's computers crashed.
To their credit, the abuse doled out in the cartoon is very even-handed, portraying Bush as an inept, macho simpleton and Kerry as a dull, aristocratic flip-flopper.
"We'd be frightened if someone looked at our animation and made a decision about voting one way or the other. We'd be terrified actually," Gregg said.
Cartoonists have been lampooning American politicians for ages. Benjamin Franklin used political cartoons in his newspaper, The Philadelphia Gazette, to attract readers.
The Spiridellis brothers have attracted viewers from all over the world.
"We've got e-mails coming in from Jordan, Germany, Prague, and Brazil. We got an e-mail from a gentleman in Cameroon," Evan said.
He added: "We got a letter from a guy who [watched the cartoon and] said 'I'm a right-wing nut job and I sent this to my dad who's a liberal whacko, and the two of us laughed and talked about politics with a smile for the first time in years.' "
But the outpouring from viewers comes with a disadvantage.
Related Stories
ABC News Live