Saturday, October 30, 2010 

As I always try to do on Saturdays, I started things off this morning with "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," the NPR news quiz. But at the end of the show when the news came on, I was reminded that the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was taking place today, and I immediately called it up online.

I'm a big fan of Stewart and Colbert—other than sports, their shows are the only TV shows that I watch. I'd even briefly considered attending the rally, especially since I have a week's break from teaching right now (classes at MSU are canceled on Election Day, so eat your heart out). But alas, ticket prices were really high and there's loads that I need to do here right now, so I was left with the online experience.

Predictably, there had been some bozos who'd tried to make news by condemning the rally. These people, like lots of other folks, generally ignore Stephen Colbert's role in the rally, referring simply to Stewart when they talk about the rally, which they call the "Rally to Restore Sanity."



The criticism of the rally has been weird. People have problems with the fact that the Huffington Post bussed in participants. Others said that the rally was somehow insidiously removing people from politics by making them think they were participating in politics when really they weren't...or something.

[Others, meanwhile, thought the rally was too political. Almost all of the major news media banned their employees from participating in the rally.]

I guess what bothered some people about the rally is that they think the political left is usurping the "moderate" mantle. They don't like the fact that the conservative side is parodied by Colbert. But in their criticism of the rally, they hardly even mention Colbert—it's all Stewart.


When Stephen Colbert couldn't get a permit, the two rallies were combined

But I think Colbert's presence is worth emphasizing, and not only because I think he's really funny. Colbert's role as the scare-monger who is himself terrified is, of course, meant to be satirical. But I still liked the fact that his "fear" side ended up taking up one-half of the rally's theme. Indeed, much of the rally ended up constituting a comedic dialogue between liberals (represented by Stewart) and conservatives (represented by Colbert).

And it was this dialogue that was cool. Yes, Colbert plays the conservative as a joke, and both shows appeal mainly, I think, to people who identify themselves as politically liberal. But nevertheless, it seems to me that the message behind the march was unity. All week long the Daily Show was broadcast from DC, where again and again the message was hammered home: the media is reflecting us "as if in a funhouse mirror," magnifying our differences beyond all recognition. This is a problem, they say, because it is complicating our politics.


I wish I'd heard more of "Crazy and/or Peace Train"

The only problem I had with the rally was that Yusuf Islam (and since when did he drop "Islam" from his name?) and Ozzy Osbourne weren't allowed to finish their respective "train" songs. What the hell?

Otherwise, I found the rally entertaining. Fake dialogue, I guess, is better than none at all.