'Potty Humor and Politics'

So you have no interest in influencing voters?
In the 2004 election people said, "How do you feel that your video had maybe impacted the way people voted?" and the answer was "Terrified." If our videos are informing the way people are voting, then they should turn off the Internet and pick up NEWSWEEK.

But given that you know that you have this audience watching your videos, do you feel some obligation to use that as a way to get information out?
No, that's not our mission at all. Our mission is to make people laugh. Where I do feel responsibility is to make sure there is no political message—that it stays 100 percent about the fun and the absurdity. The responsibility is not to inform. In my mind there are lots of other sources for information.

Do you think there's some value in comedic delivery of actual informative news or should humor and news be kept separate?
I think there's a lot of value as long as the line is clear. If someone is using comedy as a vehicle to indoctrinate other people with their political views, I think that's scary. If what's comedy is comedy and what's news is news is clear, I think that's perfectly fine. Ultimately it's the viewer's responsibility to draw that line. But you know, who doesn't love Jon Stewart? Who doesn't love Jay Leno's monologues in political season?

It seems like that you're sort of selling yourself short saying that JibJab is only about humor, though. Your videos do cram in a lot of information.
There are a lot of jokes that are gonna resonate with people who are more informed than less informed, but our goal is not to inform. It's to have fun with the information that people have already picked up elsewhere.

Are there certain themes that tend to be more successful than others?
I'm giving away the secrets to our success, but it's all about potty humor and politics.

Which does better, potty humor or politics?
The thing about politics is it's highly relevant to everybody all at the same time. Everyone in the whole world is focused on the presidential election at the same time, so when we create a political video, we're going to get a massive amount of traffic in a very short time. But take something like our birthday e-cards: not everyone has a friend who has a birthday today, but over the next three to five years, that video will take a different trajectory and accumulate a lot of views.