JibJab's Political Satire Cracks Up Campaign

A new online satire teases both presidential candidates.

ByABC News
July 16, 2008, 7:04 PM

July 16, 2008— -- Though the presidential election may be months away, at JibJab studio in Los Angeles today, they're celebrating.

JibJab creators, brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis have put their latest satire online.

"Right now, it's everywhere. I hate to say it," Gregg said. "I don't want our servers to be slow, but we got some big equipment in that server farm, and it's struggling to keep up."

JibJab is best known for its video mocking President Bush and John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign to the tune of "This Land is Your Land."

The Spiridellis brothers have brought that same brand of satire to the 2008 political race, skewering John McCain and Barack Obama equally.

In their "Time for Some Campaignin'" video, sung to the tune of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a Changing," McCain rides on a tank, trying to run over Obama.

"McCain was easy," Gregg said. "Grizzled vet, definitely the hawk in the race, and then there was Obama. We took our cue from Bill Clinton, who said Obama is a fantasy land."

"A fairy tale," Evan said, correcting his brother's recollection of Clinton's remarks.

Obama rides a unicorn through a magical forest, surrounded by gentle-looking deer and rabbits, calling for nonsensical change.

The video, which was nearly two months in the making, trots out some of the best characters from JibJab's past successes. President Bush begins the video calling out to "Condi, Scooter and Rove" to pack up the White House.

Clinton sings, "You were so close, my darlin', alas, no cigar!" and Hillary Clinton responds by slamming a frying pan on his head.

"Our metrics for success is seeing liberal bloggers call us conservative and seeing conservative bloggers call us liberals," Gregg said. "As long as those two equations are balanced, we did our job."

JibJab is giving Americans something to laugh about when the candidates' flip-flopping and economic plans are taking center stage.