They Jib, They Jab, We Laugh

The Los Angeles Times covers the satirical web videos that helped keep us political junkies sane during this long, long campaign:

In what analysts say is the future of campaigning, merciless Web videos — both sober and silly, some produced independently, others with partisan backing — played the role of provocateur in an election that has cemented the power of the Internet.

"Without question, ["This Land" has] been singularly the most widely viewed political ad in 2004," says Larry Purpuro, the Republican National Committee's deputy chief of staff and Internet strategist in 2000. "Any time you have a single communication watched by an estimated 50 million people, you're talking about serious influential impact."

These cartoons are "incredibly funny, they push the creative edge, and they didn't have to go through 10 layers of focus groups and lowest common denominator lawyering," Purpuro says. And thanks to broadband Internet access and Web cartooning tools, cutting and pasting your own political missive is increasingly easy. Many of these Web videos target a young, Internet-savvy audience that looks beyond cable news spinners for their news.

"Campaigns ignore these new animation videos at their peril," Purpuro says.

My favorite graph:

Bloggers such as Dan Spencer helped spread the word about JibJab and its online cousins. Spencer, 52, of Norwalk, Conn., linked to the "This Land" video from his site. "I thought it was so cool that it could be funny and pick on both sides equally," says the lawyer, who plans to vote for Bush.

Such profundity.