Last night, Comedy Central's dynamic duo of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert made it official. The comedians will host dueling rallies on the Washington Mall on Oct. 30, both of them poking fun at Fox News host Glenn Beck's own "Restoring Honor" rally to a greater and lesser degree.
Stewart's gathering will be titled the "Rally to Restore Sanity," which he hopes will be a "million moderate march," designed to wrest political discourse back from firebrand extremists who, to hear Stewart tell it, control too much airspace. Here's how he announced the rally Thursday night on "The Daily Show":
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rally to Restore Sanity | ||||
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Not to be outdone, Colbert, who often portrays Stewart's ideological foil, made his own announcement on "The Colbert Report" for what he is terming the "March to Keep Fear Alive." Colbert declared that his gathering was designed to fight "Jon Stewart's creeping reasonableness."
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| March to Keep Fear Alive | ||||
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So, the comedy hosts appear serious in their aim to hold dual, dueling satirical Washington protests. Just how many people will show up in D.C. on Oct. 30 to pay tribute to reasonableness and/or fear remains to be seen. The question of which, if either, of the rallies appeals to a person more, is, in some ways, a matter of the kind of humor one prefers. While Stewart's brand of laughter relies on earnestness with a heavy dose of irony, Colbert is all satire and put on.
Is it all just a PR stunt? Sure, but that same criticism was leveled at Beck. Tea party followers will rightly take the Comedy Central twosome's rallies as a poke in the eye, and might even be tempted to show up just to protests the two protests, which, in part, will be mocking their own ongoing protests.
Surge Desk is interested to hear what you think. If, by chance, you find yourself in D.C. on Oct. 30, whose rally would you be more likely to attend, or would you bother swinging by the mall at all?
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