The writing process is normally difficult but coming out of the inauguration of Barack Obama, it seemed damn near impossible. His approval ratings were sky high and comedians everywhere were lamenting that there was no “angle” on the guy. He was too smooth! Our problem was compounded because of the long production cycles involved in animation. We had to find something funny about him that would still be funny 3 months later.
Finally, we had a break through. Rather then try to predict what would be funny about Barack Obama in 3 months, we thought it would be funny to satire the unrealistic expectations surrounding his presidency and portray him as a superhero solving impossibly difficult problems with a wiggle of his super ears. After two weeks of brainstorming, we wrote the first verse on March 1, 2009 to the tune of the American Civil War song, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”:
Barack came marching to DC,
Horah! Horah!
And proved we weren’t racist, see-
We’re not! (white people)
You are! (black people)
He’s a man of might,
No known Kryptonite,
Smooth as glass,
Born to kick some ass.
He’s Barack Obama,
He’s come to save the day!
While the verse did not make it into the final lyrics, my brother and I felt confident enough in the ‘hook’ (He’s Barack Obama; He’s come to save the day!) to start the process of producing the music track.
7 Comments
This was JibJab’s greatest film yet……….so creative. I know that Obama must have been flattered though it is a satire. Keep it up, JibJab, you always make me laugh!
I think the original lyrics should have stayed. I almost fell off my chair laughing at it:
Barack came marching to DC,
Horah! Horah!
And proved we weren’t racist, see-
We’re not! (white people)
You are! (black people)
I have always loved your work, but the fact that you put all this time and effort to show us the background and ‘making of’ stuff is really appreciated. You guys are just incredible.
Whether you like Obama or not, I think this is your best work to date. This is funny stuff and very well animated. I am a flash developer, so I think I know what I’m talking about.
how about this for something to write about?
“there once was a guy from chicago,
who sold chrysler to FIAT-o,
he said to the chinese,
‘take GM, if you please,’
and now the US is in debt-o.”
lol
how do I go to work for Jib Jab?
try to get a “hes barack obama” Halloween costume ready for Halloween 2010.