Their first video brought them considerable visibility, but their second? Faded from the scene as quickly as it debuted. Who am I talking about? Not some MTV rock group, but the Jibjab guys. In just a couple of day’s time, their second video, “Good To Be In Dixie,” appears to have disappeared from the airwaves. Print media said nothing beyond the debut moment itself and, this week, a mention of the website’s hit soaring a whopping 439% percent.

Certainly Good To Be In Dixie isn’t as well-conceived a video as the Spiridellis’ first, but the brotherly team grabbed the headlines as they saw them at the time of the video’s conception, which made the video broadly topical rather than broadly caricatured. Nothing was sacred, especially in its “in your face” gay news. Let’s see: The media and pundits jumped all over Kerry’s and Edwards’ chumminess with homoerotic comments? Check. McGreevy coming out? Check. McCain going both ways? Check — and priceless! Every lefty’s inner naughty dream of comeuppance: That Ashcroft would come out? Check. And bonus points for that last one.

But does its quick fall from visibility lie therein? I’m certainly wondering and I’m close to concluding that America doesn’t appreciate “in your face” expressed humorously.

Sheesh. Get over it, America.

I found the whole send-up hilarious, but I like queer humor. (And I didn’t see the Jibjab presentation as a queer-face minstrel show, but I’m willing to listen to any GLBT folks who did. Tell me why you found it offensive.) However, I watched enough straight people not laugh as much as they did at the first video, some even growing somber as the queer jokes mounted, to realize we have a ways to go before you can tolerate fag jokes slapped upside your head. And however prescient it might’ve been, it’s good that the Jibjab guys got this video out* before the whole Mary Cheney flap happened.

Personally, I want a t-shirt with Ashcroft yelling “I’m gay!” I can’t think of a more hopeful expression for the future and a finer way to show my appreciation for the Spirdellis’s broad parodies.

* Pun optional