Meet the Man Behind the Viral 'Kronies' Cartoon That Takes Aim at Cronyism and Big Government

John Papola is the CEO and co-founder of Emergent Order, an "integrated creative company that brings complex and provocative ideas to life with world-class storytelling and production."

The company recently made a series of videos mocking cronyism and big government, but approached the concept with a completely fresh perspective. Instead of using graphs and charts, Emergent Order created an 80's-style cartoon with action figures representing the banking, defense and labor sectors, among others.

But in this story, the superhero "Kronies" are fighting to take down their small business rivals - the entrepreneur.

"Heads they win, tails you lose, forget the rulebook, they make the rules!" the upbeat theme song begins. "Wanna compete? You'll be rejected. Get the Kronies! They're connected!"

Though Emergent Order wasn't immediately identified as having created the video, after it was revealed, Papola appeared on the Glenn Beck Program to discuss their motivations.

"What we were really trying to do is get at an issue that I think actually spans across the left and the right, which is, whatever you think the role of government should be, you certainly don't want it to be corrupt," he said.

Papola added that he has noticed that "when you take the labels away" and "just start to interact with people," it often seems like those on the left and the right have more "common ground" than expected.

John Papola of Emergent Order speaks with Glenn Beck on Jan. 27, 2014. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

"The fact of the matter is, unless you literally are crony, you want the world to be a better place and be a better place for the least of us," he said. "And I happen to think that freedom and free markets does that. And I think the bigger you make government, the bigger a target it becomes for people who are politically connected. And that is the story of the Kronies. That power. That ability to concentrate benefits on the people who have access."

Beck repeatedly said how impressed he was by what Papola and his team are doing, saying nobody has been able to "hit it" like they have.

"I have 70,000 square feet of studio space. We will help you any way we can," he told Papola sincerely. "Anything you need, because I don't know a lot of people that are actually doing this, and we need to find more people like you."

More from the interview, below:

Complimentary Clip from TheBlaze TV

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Papola also appeared on TheBlaze TV's "Wilkow!" and further expanded on his new creative series. Watch Papola's sit-down with host Andrew Wilkow here.

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