Fans of The Daily Show are likely already aware that Jon Stewart is coming to Washington, D.C. in late October. As you may recall, tickets for four tapings of Stewart’s popular cable news show went on sale and quickly disappeared a few times back in August, and many Stewart-ites were left out in the cold.
Didn’t get tickets? Good news. It just got interesting, and you’ll now have a chance to see Mr. Stewart anyway.
One of the better memes of the end of the summer involved the Reddit community and their efforts to lampoon Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally that was held on the mall on August 28th. The internet jokesters were trying to convince Stephen Colbert (the former Daily Show correspondent turned self-parody host of The Colbert Report) that he should hold his own “Restoring Truthiness” event. To prove to Colbert that they had good intentions by wanting him involved, the community also spearheaded the most successful online charity campaign of all time in raising more than $100,000 for schools through DonorsChoose.org.
Last night on his show, Stewart announced that he would in fact be holding a rally – the Rally to Restore Sanity – designed to promote rationality, flooding the streets with reason (or at least until 6, as he said, people have sitters). He even admitted that the significance of the date was really no more than its convenience (after all, Stewart had set his dates at the Harman Center for the Arts in Chinatown seemingly before the Reddit community got their idea), but give credit to the powers that be at Comedy Central for following through on the idea.
As described on the Rally to Restore Sanity site:
Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement; the Million Man March, only a lot smaller, and a bit less of a sausage fest; or the Gathering of the Juggalos, but instead of throwing our feces at Tila Tequila, we’ll be actively *not* throwing our feces at Tila Tequila. Join us in the shadow of the Washington Monument. And bring your indoor voice.
Not to be outdone, Colbert’s in on the gimmick, with a “competing” “March to Keep Fear Alive.”
Sure, a lot of this is all “in on the joke” type humor, but it should definitely all be a lot of fun. Both events will be on October 30 down on the mall, and you can sign-up for more details at either of the two websites.
As of now the donations have topped $240,000. You can see the running total (and donate!) here:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=39361&max=10
Is it just me, or does that image of Jon Stewart look a LOT like Dave Levy? Hmmmm… [Insert Glenn Beck Chalkboard of Conspiracy demonstration here]
Freudian photo-slip?
@John and Rebecca – Convenient, I really just noticed. You’ll see the heads are different directions…not that I’m complaining about any confusion.
But I mean What does it all mean?!
@Ryan – thanks for that update, obviously it’s a worthy cause and some good is happening behind all of this. Glad you included the link!
Do they realize that this is the same day as the marine corps marathon? it’s gonna be a zoo.
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It just makes me think of this XKCD comic.
@Tim: The marathon’s on the 31st, not the 30th…
I don’t think the primary purpose of this event is humor, at all. Both Stewart and Colbert are very concerned about politics and activism. They both are heavily pro-Democrat, and I think they are now somewhat disillusioned that a 100% Democrat controlled government feels like a 100% Republican controlled one, or a split one. It doesn’t matter which, and I agree with the point, that the centrists need to be the ones government listens to and serves.
@Olap – Just as what Stewart does is only half-tongue-in-cheek versus, “No, this clusterf*ck is actually happening people,” I agree with you that there is some level of sincerity in the event.
As Stewart referred to it, we aren’t hearing from the “other 70-80 percent” in all of this craziness of the past years, and I’m sure it’s not just his comedic hope that they come to join him in October.
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