Sounds like an IE8 compatibility error with jQuery -
from jQuery site:
The 1.x branch, this time 1.11.0, adds support for the older versions of Internet Explorer (IE6, 7, and 8). The 2.x branch, today played by 2.1.0, adds support for non-traditional web environments like node.js and browser plugins for Chrome and Firefox.
try using 1.11.0 instead of 2.1.0