review of It's Jerry Time

Produced by Ozone Inc. and created by brothers Orrin and Jerry Zucker, It’s Jerry Time has been an online phenomenon since the animated show launched in November 2005, notably winning the 2006 New Media Award at the Ottawa Animation Festival, receiving the first Emmy nomination for a video podcast and winning the 2007 Broadband Emmy for the Variety category.

During their free time, the Boston-based siblings post irregular updates on the life of the serial’s unfortunate main character, Jerry. Orrin animates and directs while Jerry takes care of the music and screenwriting.

A lovable, middle-aged schmo with a lack of restraint, a surplus of deadpan, and a bevy of bipolar tendencies, Jerry is like an animated Harvey Pekar or Larry David. His 3- to 5-minute misadventures range from the absurd (like going to a hypnotist to remove his food addiction) to the mundane (like getting hit by a taxi in Manhattan), but Jerry treats both with the same amount of distance and disinterest.

Orrin’s oddball animation has a quasi-realistic, photograph-enhanced “South Park” vibe, utilizing scissor-cut images and collages of altered pictures. Once you’ve run through all of JerryTime, hit up Jerry’s Shoebox page to see his prized possessions and his Myspace profile, where you’ll discover some more personal information about the man behind that perennially bored, distorted face of his. It’s a visage that will probably linger with you longer than you expect.

One well-deserved fan favorite is Jerry Strikes Back, which recounts his not-so-climactic battle with the meal moths that invade his apartment. When he tells of his bloodlust for a large, distressed moth he encounters outdoors, following his trials with the smaller variety that drove him so insane in his own home, viewers will commiserate in the way they often do with curmudgeonly characters who just can’t seem to catch a break.