Political zombies with JibJab--oh, and CNN's involved
He's coming to get you.
(Credit: JibJab)I got a little bit obsessed with JibJab.com's "Starring You!" video creator when it allowed me to create videos of my co-workers dancing the Charleston in drag while horrifically bored on a slow news day. (Josh Lowensohn looks awesome in flapper garb.)
Now, as I've just learned, the site has created a politics-meets-Halloween gimmick so that you can edit a likeness of yourself into mini-movies called "Night of the Living Democrats" or "Night of the Living Republicans" and battle zombified versions of politicians from the political party you abhor the most. The new project, launched Tuesday, is in partnership with CNN Politics--why exactly, we're not sure. And zombies are a big deal, in case you couldn't tell.
Some of us are politically jaded enough so that we'd rather battle undead incarnations of our office-mates or in-laws (since we have to do that every day anyway), but hey, Bill Clinton and Trent Lott will have to do for now.
JibJab, created eight years ago by brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, made a name for itself by Photoshopping the heads of world leaders onto cartoon bodies and turning it all into elaborate song-and-dance numbers. The original "Starring You!" mashups launched over the summer, and the Spiridellis brothers gleefully cite the statistic that over one million of the custom JibJab avatars have been created.
I guess there are more than a few of us who are inclined to procrastinate sometimes.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
http://www.thetechbrief.com/2008/02/08/smashmash-versus-jibjab-comrades-competitors-or-kaput/
What do you think?