In “Soap in the City,” a playful short video that not so subtly encourages people to wash their hands, Ben Lounsbury cast his daughter as Typhoid Mary, his wife as one of Mary’s victims and himself as the female voice for a talking hand.

“Soap” is the Lewiston ear, nose and throat doctor’s follow-up to “Why Don’t We Do It In Our Sleeves?” a cough-in-the-right-spot short that sold 32,000 copies.

The new film has talking hands, a deadly Typhoid Mary re-enactment and a Sarah Jessica Parker-esque character having nightmares over how quickly germs spread. Its message: Wash well and wash often.

“Some people don’t realize they need to wash their hands after you clean the cat box,” Lounsbury said. “We need to be a little paranoid. We need to be thinking, ‘Where have my hands been? What have I done?'”

Lounsbury spent more than 200 hours editing and filming “Soap,” starting in April 2007. He planned it as a spoof on “Sex in the City” and didn’t realize the popular HBO series had a new film coming out.

So far, the new DVD is “not selling like ‘Sleeves.’ I think an Internet storm is going to hit pretty soon,” Lounsbury said.

His first film went from 20 hits a day to 5,000, he said, after word got out. The Web site has logged almost half-a-million views.

“Soap” was filmed locally, with Typhoid Mary (Natalie Lounsbury) banished to live on an island in Lake Auburn after sickening 47 people and killing three. The New York cook was a persistent non-hand-washer, and part of the film shows – with orange dye – how she spread typhoid fever through food.

Lounsbury’s wife, Bonnie, is in the scene “when all the ladies are dying around the table,” Lounsbury said. “She had a blast.”

He expects to screen the film at several conferences this year.

On Monday, he was at work on a prop for his third film, this one on dental hygiene, due out in September. His only tease: “It’s the best title yet.”

The doctor of 29 years said his father always went the extra mile on home movies. He got his own start about 10 years ago, putting together films for the joint Central Maine Medical Center-St. Mary’s Hospital operating rooms Christmas parties with titles like “Thoracic Park.”

To watch the new video, go to soapincity.com