Sminky creator is ‘awful happy’ with new animation show

A year after his cartoons hit the web, Jason Sullivan has big career plans, he tells Carl Dixon.

IT is remarkable, given the huge attention they have received, that the first Sminky animated short, ‘Awful Sad’, was only released in May 2012. Since then, Jason Sullivan’s short cartoons have received 18m hits on YouTube and become an Irish cultural phenomenon. To celebrate this anniversary, there will be a screening of Sullivan’s work, and a question-and-answer session, at the 5th Corona Fastnet Film Festival, in Schull in West Cork, this week.

The internet may bring instant fame, but it doesn’t always bring great riches. “I make some money from online advertising and from merchandise, such as T-Shirts,” he says. “But, really, I am hoping it forms a stepping stone to something more permanent. I have been working for the last two months on a treatment for a new show called ‘Where The Sun Don’t Shine’, with Sidelines Productions. We are now talking to a number of broadcasters and it looks like it will definitely be made.”