• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 7, 2004

A follow-up to JibJab's hit Web animation political parody "This Land Is Your Land," debuted late Thursday night on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

The new spot, "It's Good to be in DC," which is set to the tune of Daniel Decatur Emmett's "Dixie," spoofs a cast of characters playing roles in the current political season, including Dan Rather, the Supreme Court judges, and soon-to-be-ex-New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, in addition to the presidential candidates.

Created by 33-year-old former investment banker Gregg Spiridellis and his 30-year-old brother Evan Spiridellis, "This Land" became an instant cultural sensation after its July 9 launch on the JibJab Web site. More than 50 million viewers visited the site to see the candidate-mocking animation, which was set to the Woody Guthrie tune "This Land is Your Land." In fact, the site drew so many unanticipated viewers this summer that it experienced outages.

After five years of creating online content, the children's book "Are You Grumpy, Santa," and a line of novelty toys based on the Grumpy Santa character, the brothers found a widespread audience this summer with the release of "This Land." In fact, the new animation springs from a previous appearance on "The Tonight Show." "Jay asked us to produce one to air on the show, and we said 'Yes,'" said Evan Spiridellis.

The 80-second "It's Good" animation went live on the Web at 11:40 p.m. (ET), immediately after airing on national television. JibJab is also selling a DVD with both "This Land," and "It's Good."

Distributor AtomFilms, based in San Francisco, is hosting the Web animation and selling ads for "It's Good." Microsoft's Windows Media Player 10 is on board as an advertiser. Scott Roesch, AtomFilms' vice president for marketing, said that movie studios and car manufacturers have also expressed an interest in running ads. Roesch expected between several hundred thousand and one million visitors last night, and several million today.