With this year's presidential contest already turning hysterically angry and bitter, it makes sense that Americans would rely on humor to help crank the rhetoric down a notch or two.

Perhaps that explains why a two-minute animated video lampooning President Bush and John Kerry is all the rage on the Web. "This Land" has gotten millions of hits in recent days, CBS News reported, jamming the Web site of Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, brothers who run the Los Angeles media firm JibJab.

The two took Woody Guthrie's song "This Land is Your Land," wrote new lyrics, and put them into the marionette-hinged mouths of Bush and Kerry.

The video, at www.jibjab.com, may not be appropriate for younger children. (If the site is too busy, try accessing it through www.atomfilms.com.) But it is the epitome of Fair and Balanced, taking equal jabs at both sides - and, more important, exposing just how ludicrous the distortions and name-calling have become, both from "liberal sissy" Kerry's camp and "right-wing nut job" Bush's.

As Gregg Spiridellis told CBS, "There's enough silliness on both sides. No one's had a monopoly on stupidity." Indeed:

"I'm a Texas tiger, you're a liberal wiener," twangs Bush. "You offer flip-flops, I offer tax breaks."

"You can't say 'nuclear,' that really scares me," hoots Kerry. "Sometimes a brain can come in quite handy."

The video also takes swipes at Howard Dean, Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Most important, Guthrie's original message comes through: Despite our varied backgrounds and ideologies, this land and its tradition of liberty belong to all of us. Nice thought.

During a time in which political rhetoric almost seems to be turning into a form of hate speech, humor can provide a valuable tool to help Americans put matters in better perspective. This spring, for example, the Web sprouted dozens of song parodies that used the audio of Howard Dean's infamous scream in their mix.

With luck, plenty of political parodists as creative as the Spiridellis brothers will step up during the campaign. We welcome them. Or, as one of the candidates might put it, bring 'em on.