| Company name | JibJab Media Inc. |
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| Company slogan | Share the Laughs! |
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| Company logo | |
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| Company type | Private |
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| Foundation | 1999 |
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| Location city | Venice, California |
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| Location country | U.S. |
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| Key people | Evan Spiridellis, FounderGregg Spridellis, Founder & CEO |
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| Num employees | 35 |
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| Url | JibJab.com |
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| Website type | Humor |
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| Language | English, Spanish, Japanese, French, Portuguese, Dutch |
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| Registration | Optional |
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| Cancellation | difficult, via toll call |
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| Launch date | 1999 |
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| Current status | Active |
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| Screenshot | |
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| Caption | Main Page as of 24 July 2009}} |
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JibJab is a digital entertainment studio based in
Venice, California. Founded in 1999 by Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, it was noticed during the
2004 US presidential election when their video of
George W. Bush and
John Kerry singing "
This Land is Your Land" became a hit. The company creates, produces and distributes original content. It has three main sections on the website - 1.) eCards 2.) 'Everyday Fun Sendables' such as funny videos and 3.) Originals including "This Land", "Time for Some Campaign'," "Big Box Mart" and more.
Election 2004
"This Land"
For the
2004 presidential election, JibJab created a Flash movie entitled
This Land, which featured
George W. Bush and
John Kerry singing a
parody of
Woody Guthrie's song "
This Land Is Your Land."
This animation was an instant success, and the site was listed number one on Alexa's "Movers and Shakers" list. The video was so popular, it was viewed on every continent (including Antarctica) as well as the International Space Station. The traffic surge forced JibJab's server to be shut down after one day, and the clip was placed on AtomFilms, where it got more than 1 million hits in 24 hours.
After being linked to on thousands of websites, the song was featured several times in the printed media and on television, including NBC Nightly News, Fox News and ABC World News Tonight. On July 26, 2004, the creators appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In December 2004 the brothers were named People of the Year by Peter Jennings.
The Richmond Organization, a music publisher that owns the copyright to Guthrie's tune through its Ludlow Music Unit, threatened legal action. JibJab responded with a lawsuit in a California federal court, claiming the song was protected under a fair use exemption for parodies. JibJab and Ludlow Music reached a settlement after JibJab's attorneys unearthed evidence that the song had passed into the public domain in 1973. The terms of the settlement allowed for the continued distribution of This Land. Jim Meskimen voiced almost all the characters.
E-Cards
In 2007, JibJab made an option to put photographs of people's faces in some animated JibJab videos, and the option to send them to other people as
e-cards or "sendables". This option is included in a video site "Elf Yourself" by
OfficeMax, where an uploaded photo is put onto a singing/dancing elf. JibJab has let people "star" in many movies, such as renditions of
Star Wars in honor of the 30th anniversary of
The Empire Strikes Back and
Mad Men.
Year in Review
JibJab is arguably most famous for its "Year in Review" videos, which are released usually sometime in December.
"2-0-5" - 2005 Year In Review
2-0-5 is the year in review video for the year 2005, it reflects the songs
Auld Lang Syne and
Turkey in the Straw. 2-0-5 is sung in the perspective of
George W. Bush and reflecting on the years downpoints such as
Avian Flu,
Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
Piracy in Somalia,
Stem cells,
Scooter Libby,
Tom DeLay, and his own steadily dropping approval rating.
Nuckin' Futs! - The JibJab Year In Review 2006
This Year in Review portrays a Christmas concert with the kids singing about the past year. Topics include
Iraq,
Afghanistan,
Osama bin Laden,
Britney Spears, the
Execution of Saddam Hussein, the
Dick Cheney hunting incident,
2006 Thai coup d'état,
Mel Gibson's DUI incident,
Fidel Castro's health crisis,
Ariel Sharon's stroke,
Google buying
YouTube,
Paris Hilton,
Kim Jong-il,
Kenneth Lay,
Escherichia coli in food,
Israel,
Hezbollah, and
Iran's nuclear program. It is sung to the tune of
Jingle Bells, and states at the end that the way that things are going, armageddon won't be long.
In 2007 - 2007 Year In Review
The tune "
We Didn't Start The Fire" by
Billy Joel was used in this Year in Review. The theme is the 2007 Annual Humanity Report arriving and a group of
Angels do not want to anger God so they "sugar coat" it in a song. Topics such as
Global warming,
Lindsay Lohan's cocaine bust,
Alberto Gonzales, the
War in Darfur, the
Don Imus Rutgers University women's basketball team Controversy,
Blackwater USA,
Facebook, the
Wii, the
Malibu forest fires, and the
iPhone were used in this Year in Review.
2008 Year In Review
In this Year in Review
Baby New Year is seen singing about the past years events to the next Baby New Year for 2009, telling him the year was bad. The song used in this is "
Miss Susie Had a Steamboat". Some topics in this videos were the
Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bankruptcy of
Lehman Brothers, the liquidity crisis of the
American International Group, the
Big Three (automobile manufacturers),
David Duchovny going to rehab,
Daniel Radcliffe performing in
Equus,
Miley Cyrus,
Sarah Palin, the
2008 South Ossetia war, the
United States presidential election, 2008, and
Hurricane Ike. In the end of the video, the future Baby New Year leaves, making Baby New Year 2008 stay to chronicle another year.
Never A Year Like 09
Sung to the tune of
The Entertainer, it chronicles the year's past events.
Barack Obama,
Afghan presidential election, 2009,
2009–2010 Iranian election protests, the
Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy, the
Resignation of Sarah Palin,
Swine influenza, the
water landing of
US Airways Flight 1549,
Octomom,
Brett Favre,
Joe Wilson yelling "You Lie!" during
Barack Obama speech to joint session of Congress, September 2009,
Balloon Boy,
Carrie Prejean,
Sonia Sotomayor,
Michael Jackson's death, and
Tiger Woods are such topics. The animation style is notably different from past years.
So Long To Ya, 2010
The 2010 Year in Review aired on December 19, 2010 on
CBS News Sunday Morning. It featured puppets of Obama and Biden singing about what happened in the year 2010; the song was set to the tune of "
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze". The review focused mainly on Barack Obama, as well on other political events such as the
Tea Party movement,
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
2010 Haiti earthquake, the eruption of
Eyjafjallajökull, in
Iceland, the
Greece's Debt Crisis,
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the
Mosque at Ground Zero,
WikiLeaks,
Campaign finance reform in the United States,
Charles B. Rangel,
Stanley A. McChrystal,
Hamid Karzai,
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the
United States elections, 2010. This video ends with a basketball being thrown at President Obama, knocking him through the first "0" of "2010" and Biden stating that it will need stitches.
Logo
The logo of JibJab depicts two men from the Victorian era, which was temporarily changed in So Long To Ya, 2010 to puppets.
References
External links
JibJab.com
Category:Comedy websites
Category:Flash cartoons
Category:Internet memes
Category:Internet properties established in 1999
Category:Lists of flash cartoon episodes
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