In 2004, amid the blitz of political news, journalists were jubilant reporting on JibJab, a small digital entertainment company, and its presidential election animation “This Land.” The video, a sort of stop-animation using cutouts of George W. Bush and John Kerry, had the two presidential candidates jumping and moving as they sang a parody of the standard, “This Land is Your Land.” The satirical duo had the two politicians shouting melodically at each other over some of the milder grievances the United States had with them both. It was a eureka moment for the press, always trying to find “the lighter side” of politics. It was monumental for JibJab, who had now staked his claim on the land of online political parody.
The 2008 presidential election saw a rush of would-be content providers trying to be reported as “the lighter side”. Many online Flash developers created games to parody or protest candidates. The games capitalized on the angst and frustration during the force-feeding of the media with political stories. One game, Election Smackdown 2008, literally had the player punch multiple White House players. The game required very little strategy to play, yet players came back for their fill. It just became fun to beat them all up and not worry about the score.
A less violent game from 2008, Battleground States 2008, gamified the Electoral College and had its players try to win over delegates and turn as many states red or blue (other parties were also represented in the game). Delegates were spread out across a map much more like the armies in Risk. Simulated rolls of the dice at the end of turns determined whether the delegates were successful. Most likely, this battlefield concept will be resurrected at the next race in 2012.
The intervening election years brought other political parody flash games to the world. Between 2004 and 2008, the World Wide Web saw a large number of Bush dance games. The genre continued after 2008 with a Hillary dance game. Flash dress-up games, usually popular with tween girls, entered the mix once the fashionable ex-governor of Alaska entered the 2008 race. A popular President Obama dress-up game was created after 2008. It was completed with African, Rastafarian and Black Panther costumes, among others.
Now, along with the eager press, game developers and online video creators are eagerly awaiting the results of the 2012 Republican primary. Who will be a bigger draw? JibJab has already hinted at his next fun in the Buh-Bye video from 2011 now running on his site. As for online Flash games, do we really want to dress up any of these Republicans?
