''Odd Todd'' is a website owned and operated by Todd Rosenberg, who has created a series of humorous

Flash cartoon Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...

s depicting the world of

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

, after becoming unemployed himself. Rosenberg's first cartoon, ''Laid Off: A Day in the Life,'' humorously deals with frustration, despair, and boredom of an unemployed man in his 30s, a situation shared by many in the

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

after the

dot com crash The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

. After visitors contributed several thousand dollars through the website's "Tip Cup" link, the

New York State Department of Labor The New York State Department of Labor (DOL or NYSDOL) is the department of the New York state government that enforces labor law and administers unemployment benefits. The mission of the New York State Department of Labor is to protect workers ...

attempted to revoke Rosenberg's

unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...

on the grounds that the site constituted a business. In July 2002, a judge ruled that Rosenberg did not have to return the benefits he had received. His cartoon character was picked up for development at

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

for a half-hour television show but was downgraded to a web series. His book, ''The Odd Todd Handbook'' was published in 2003 by

Warner Books Grand Central Publishing is a book publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group, originally established in 1970 as Warner Books when Warner Communications acquired the Paperback Library. When Time Warner sold their book publishing business to Hachet ...

. Rosenberg now works as screenwriter.

References

External links

* American comedy websites Flash artists American animators {{entertainment-website-stub