Artist's Statement
In working on Jerry and Jimmy one of the priorities of the story that we wanted to highlight specifically was historical accuracy. This fairly mundane, humorous event is complete true. My grandfather still takes great pride in telling it, knowing full well how idiotic it makes him sound. While a few events have been modified slightly, including Glen being an amalgamation of two people that Jerry was actually there with, and some of the more humorous signs, the majority of the story, like Jimmy Carter’s visit, the botched handshake, the sign “Not Just Peanuts”, and Carter’s interview with Playboy (including the praying 25 times a day), is accurate. Unfortunately, Jimmy Carter and my grandpa never made a 1980 run at the White House together, which is probably a good thing.
While the story is already inherently funny, one of the reasons we went all-out in regard to comedy in the piece, something we both feel is an asset here, is because of a historical source found in preparing to pitch Jerry and Jimmy. A 1976 article found talked about three farmers trying to go to meet Jimmy Carter, whose likeness they had captured in an oversized papier mache peanut. Ultimately, they failed, but the bizarre nature of the story inspired our own, hopefully positively.
The story itself features some pretty interesting commentary on the way that we perceive celebrity. The chaos of the crowd, plus the extremely embarrassed reaction that Jerry has to the mishap, is heightened by the presence of Jimmy Carter. We see Jerry is elated to speak with Jimmy Carter, envisioning a bright, if wholly unrealistic, future with the man. Upon realizing he’s speaking and shaking hands with Glen, he’s mortified. Furthermore, we’re constantly seeing how different people perceive the politician. We see signs that support Carter and signs that don’t. Jerry seems to be more interested in meeting Jimmy Carter than Glen is. Celebrity, like history, is just as much influenced by perception as it is by fact. Jerry and Glen, our protagonists, represent this ideal fairly well. Their behavior and actions are influenced considerably by the context of the situation.
Writing Jerry and Jimmy, we started out with the desire to write something that was true and funny. As we wrote, we were pleased with the interesting ideas presented that we were able to work in between the humor and truth of the subject matter. While we could have written the script to be more focused on further examination of how context impacts action, we are pleased with the good balance we were able to work out in Jerry and Jimmy.
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