Exclusive: The (Lehrer) Boys Are Back In Town

“CARTOONS FOR THE DISCERNING IDIOT…”

Identical twins, Daniel and Jeremy Lehrer recently accomplished a feat that a lot of us can relate to. The duo attended their very first San Diego Comic Con, however, it sounds like if it this wasn’t a work-related affair they probably would not have attended, “we love the level of enthusiasm” says Daniel, “however we’ve figured out the difference between the terms “nerd” and “geek”. The nerd privately enjoys something whereas a geek wants everyone to know how much they are interested in something by dressing up, like, I loved Woody Allen growing up but I would never wear a mask of Woody Allen to show it.” Next year, Jeremy promises, the duo will be in Hall H hosting a “WoodyCon” panel, “it’s gonna take the place by storm!”

Yes, Daniel and Jeremy are very much stereotypical identical twins. Over the course of my conversation with them, the two definitely have fun playing volleyball with their thoughts and seeing what the other serves up. Admittedly, the duo notes that personality-wise, there’s not much difference between the two. They both can draw and write, and were raised in Los Angeles, California (sorry kids, no Sister Sister “long lost relative” premise to be had here) where Daniel would eventually go off to Columbia University and Jeremy would head off to Columbia Law. Daniel’s post collegiate career was at Ducati motorcycles in Italy where as he put it, “I could give a shit about motorcycles, I was miserable” while his brother Jeremy would have a rather impressive resume of defendants as a defense attorney for such high-profile cases as the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, Enron, and the Girls Gone Wild Guy, “my colleagues kept telling me that they were going to get out after one more bonus but never did and I couldn’t live like that.” The duo engaged in a half-decade of the usual post-graduation soul-crushing work, before deciding to “Voltron” together to pursue their dreams of drawing and writing.

While in the early production stages for one of their projects, Daniel and Jeremy decided to be creative and launched an Instagram inspired by their horrible childhood fights over the Sunday Funnies and who got to read “The Far Side” first. Their satirical and biting single-panel cartoons comment on everything from Kim Kardashian and “selfie etiquette” to gender-neutral toilets and masturbation in high-tech times.  The Lehrer Boys bring an outsider perspective to their work, “that’s why I like animation so much”, says Jeremy, “because when you’re producing The Simpsons or anime you have to conform to someone else’s artistic voice, I want my audience to align with MY vision!”

Because of this, the boys are actually thankful that they didn’t get into a cartooning at a young age as they would’ve certainly had career paths that would’ve ended up at CalArts where their collective originality would have been eroded to that of conformity of what is perceived as “industry standards”. The two “class clowns and idiots” as they referred themselves as were enrolled into highly gifted school programs where they were introduced to ballet, theater, and art classes where they did sketches of “normal” things like the still artwork of fruit. Fast forward to today, Daniel & Jeremy Lehrer produce original hand-drawn cartoons about life, the universe, and jerking off via their Instagram account where they have amassed over 107k+ Followers (all via their posts and friends posting about them) and have posted 700+ original daily comic posts since they began.

You’d think anyone can duplicate the inroads that these guys have set forth in their one-panel diatribes, but Instagram actually has some limitations and policies in regards to content that make posting originals more precarious than first thought, “We built an audience and are thankful to Instagram”,says Jeremy,”some pitfalls you have to watch out for is that there’s an overload of data. You (as a creator) can look at these cartoons and get instant insight on who is reading them. It’s cool getting that info, but can be corrupting to your voice because you can become like McDonald’s and just feed cartoons for a too specific an audience” adds Daniel with a bit more elaboration on the technical side, “we looked at Instagram as a platform but decided not to panelize 2×2 squares and decided on the single panel format and usually start by us sitting in a room talking about something that goes back and forth until one of us says, “that would make a great cartoon”.

The popularity of the Lehrer Boys Instagram profile parlayed into impending success for other mediums as well. They have created, sold, and developed numerous shows with studios including Fox, Adult Swim, Maker, and Amazon, and have been privileged to collaborate with talent like Paul Feig and Mila Kunis. Coming soon to a distributor near you is Highly Gifted,” a series of animated shorts with Maker Studios, based on their socially-challenged high school years and starring comedian Ron Funches, Josh Brener of “Silicon Valley,” Oscar-winner Nat Faxon, and pop-icon Kesha, “Highly Gifted is about our early life.” says Jeremy, “at ages 13-15 your friends realize you’re an outsider. At elementary school, you can be a little different and no one says anything but at a certain point, people start to notice that you don’t fit in. When you’re older like we are, we accept we’re outsiders.” The two are also working with a “comedic icon of ours” for an upcoming adult animated series still in the development stage as well as a new VR project with Mila Kunis (Family Guy) inspired by the Sarcastic Rover Twitter handle.

I won’t give specifics, but the Lehrer Boys are NOT done in satirizing the norms of conventional cartooning. During our conversation, Doonesbury, The New Yorker, Family Circus, and even Cathy all got it right in the ass, and for those thinking these guys are going into the “attack President Donald Trump” political cartoon industry that is already stagnating (the brothers note that their father is a big fan of the Trump-toons while their mother prefers the more cultural hits), will be happy to learn that while politics is an important part of the conversation they are trying to have with their fans, it’s not the canvas.  “If you are doing good comedy, it SHOULD offend. If you’re offended about something we post, that’s your problem. We don’t have a political point of view, we have OUR point of view.                                                                                                                    We tailor make our cartoons to OURSELVES.”