'This Land' satirists offer up a sequel

NEW YORK - From the creators of the political satire sensation “This Land” at JibJab.com comes a sequel set to the tune of “Dixie.”

The online animation “Good To Be in DC!” features the presidential and vice presidential candidates along with Attorney General John Ashcroft, CBS News anchor Dan Rather, filmmaker Michael Moore, talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Jane Fonda.

“In ‘This Land,’ you had basically (President) Bush and (John) Kerry,” said Evan Spiridellis, who co-produced the JibJab cartoons with his brother, Gregg. “This piece is more about the whole town, the whole system.”

“This Land,” in which Bush and Kerry took shots at each other to the tune of “This Land is Your Land,” quickly became an Internet hit, viewed more than 65 million times since its July release as people e-mailed links to friends around the world, including Antarctica.

The success led to an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” during which Leno asked if the brothers would consider a sequel.

“We eagerly accepted,” Spiridellis recalled. “Once we did, we came back to the studio and panicked.”

Spiridellis said he is well aware expectations are high.

“‘This Land’ turned out to be lightning in a bottle,” he said. “You can’t do that every time.”

Running at 80 seconds, or about 30 seconds shorter than “This Land,” the sequel was to debut on the Leno show Thursday and be available afterward at JibJab.com and AtomFilms.com.

Spiridellis said “The Tonight Show” is paying an undisclosed amount for premiere rights.

Mika Salmi, chief executive of AtomShockwave Corp., said the company is preparing for an onslaught of traffic by arranging for more bandwidth and trying to sell more ads.

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