Jerkass Clothing Interview – The Man Behind the Humor

Jerkass Clothing Company offers a vast smorgasbord of hilarious to knee-slapping t-shirt designs geared towards anyone from the college-aged crowd to those who never really left college. The site is broken down into four categories: Too Cool for School, National Lampoon, Coast to Coast State Slogans and Vintage Tavern & Bar T-Shirts. That means you can get anything from a lederhosen-wearing, bier-stein holding Hans Solo shirt to fictitious and suggestive vintage bar shirts, while dissing your (least) favorite state along the way. Jerkass even has a page dedicated to Milwaukee-based shirts, based on the site’s Brew City-born creators and their takes on regional sports.

Jerkass does a great job mixing in current pop-culture themes you might have seen on SNL or in an 80s movie with witty, original designs. Their use of both Digital Direct and plot print designs highlights the advantages of our different printing techniques. The “Founder and Lead Dance Instructor”, Richard, introduces his story on his site, but I thought there were some questions left unanswered. Richard’s interview:

Where are you from and where do you live now? What’s the weather like there?

Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The city recently erected a bronze statue of the Fonz. So that’s pretty exciting. The weather is mostly miserable.

What do you do, other than t-shirts and dance instruction?

I enjoy reading ‘missed connections’ on Craigslist. I’m also co-founder of an online greeting card company called GroupCard. Select a free card… sign the card… invite lots of other people to sign. GroupCard.com – try it today! [end of shameless plug]

What’s the story behind Jerkass? Since 1956, you say?

1956… um… sure… something like that. We’re not mathematicians and historians over here. The Jerkass name comes from my silver-tongued son. My lovely wife ‘affectionately’ calls me a jackass around the house. As a toddler, my son tried to repeat that. I’ve been a jerkass ever since.

Have you achieved your dream “to create stupid, reasonably priced t-shirts and share them with the world”?

A wise man once said: “I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.” I have no idea what that means. Next question…

How would you describe your shirts in 5 words or less?

Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo.

I co-created a website called ZingFu that we sold to National Lampoon a few years ago. During those conversations we all agreed that there was an opportunity to use Jerkass Clothing to promote National Lampoon merchandise. A magical partnership was formed. And as Dean Wormer from ANIMAL HOUSE would say: “The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me.” Never mind.

What do you like about Spreadshirt and what could we do better?

We like Temple Williams. She is the best. We’ve thrown some fairly ridiculous requests her way over the years and she’s never flinched. You should double her salary and move her into a corner office adorned with many leather-bound books.

What’s your favorite shirt of all time?

In second grade I had an orange MORK & MINDY tee that got me some serious tail. Sadly, I peaked in grade school.

Where are are the other 23 State Slogans? The rest of us would like to be insulted, too!

I only create slogans for states I have visited. I don’t think it would be fair to pass judgment on an entire state of rednecks, hillbillies or cow-kissers without first experiencing their unique culture and traditions.

Have you ever seen a stranger wearing one of your shirts? What did you do?

That reminds me of a funny story.

Are you working on any other new designs? How about a sneak peek?

Stay tuned. We’re patiently waiting for Spreadshirt to finish development of their direct-to-fishnet printing process. The future is going to be bright (and sexy)!