You are probably thinking about the short animated film In 2007, by the zany guys at JibJab (www.jibjab.com), a true Internet success story. You may also remember some of their political parodies, such as This Land and Good to be in DC. Despite goofy lyrics and crude animation, or perhaps because of them, these videos are incredibly funny. Especially to PropellerHeads like us.

Since their beginnings in 1999, JibJab has become one of the most popular producers of animated comedy on the World Wide Web. And it all started in a Brooklyn basement. Brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis were so inspired by an early computer-animated video of dancing dung that they decided to produce their own animation and distribute it over the Internet.

It was the right idea at the right time. Animation software called “Flash” provided a fairly easy method for creating animated video, and the Internet provided an inexpensive way to reach a broad audience. Armed with just a Macintosh computer and dung-inspired dreams of entertainment success, the brothers created JibJab and began producing short animated videos. The videos were a success, and by 2004, were being featured on The Tonight Show by Jay Leno.

Humor is a very subjective thing, as we PropellerHeads like to remind our editors, but the Spiridellis brothers have managed to produce comedic works that have an almost universal appeal, while remaining a mostly PG or PG-13 act. One of their secrets is to tap into national events that most Americans recognize, like political elections and celebrity misbehavior. They are also admirably non-partisan. In their political parodies, both sides receive an equal dose of good-natured jabs.

Their latest project is a series of animated clips that you can customize. If you thought the videos were funny before, imagine them with your head and the heads of your friends and co-workers. We recently created one of these for our boss, and he was impressed enough to show it at our staff meeting. It was explosively funny. The videos are free to create, but you’ll have to pay a small fee (currently $3), to send them to e-mail recipients. That’s less than the price of a traditional birthday card, and it’s a great deal funnier. You can get the details at the JibJab site.

I cannot close an article about Internet video sites without mentioning Atom Films (www.atomfilms.com). Unlike JibJab, Atom Films is more of a central distribution site for amateur produced videos of all types. Some of these, like Rockfish, are professional-quality animation. Others, like Ninjai: The Little Ninja, have looser animation standards but a rich and creative story line. Chances are you will find something that will interest you in the thousands of videos featured at Atom Films. And who knows? Your own life-changing inspiration may be just a dancing cow-chip away.