All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
JibJab writers Adam Mutterperl, left, and Andy Ochiltree flaunt their press-on moustaches during ROFLCon.
- - -
In Behind the Memes, Underwire introduces you to web celebs who have created some of the internet's biggest buzzes. The cewebrities profiled have gathered at ROFLCon, an event billed as "group dissection of internet culture." ROFLCon runs through Saturday in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
As in-house producers for online comedy network JibJab, Adam Mutterperl and Andy Ochiltree have free range to lampoon almost anything in their animated shorts. "We'll take whatever is popular and skewer it," said Ochiltree, who began working for the humor site in 2004. "Within reason."
The animation studio first shot into the memosphere a few years ago when creators Gregg and Evan Spiridellis produced the Bush vs. Kerry political satireThis Land, which was eventually viewed more than 80 million times (and landed JibJab in a legal fight over their use of a classic Woody Guthrie tune).
Since then, JibJab's operators have gone on to produce a bevy of wildly popular videos that weave in live-action figurines, puppetry and shorts using vintage footage of public service announcements.
What's JibJab's secret to internet longevity? "It's all about the moustache," said Mutterperl with a straight face. Ochiltree chimed in, citing the wealth of material in the everchanging landscape of popular culture. "It's a very adaptable model, and we don't have a singular focus," said Ochiltree. "So we can do whatever we want, in a way."
__Names: __Adam Mutterperl* *and Andy Ochiltree
__Ages: __33, 27
__Location: __Santa Monica and Venice Beach, California
__Day job: __Working on all things JibJab-related
__You know them from: __JibJab
__Memestruck over ROFLCon attendee: __"It's hard to pin down, but we did meet the Tron Guy," said Mutterperl. "Which was awesome," said Ochiltree.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com____
See also:
