Refreshing
Colbert, Stewart to rally in D.C. Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert may be the masters of fake news, but there’s nothing to indicate they’re kidding around this time. The two have announced that they plan to hold competing rallies Oct. 30 in Washington, D.C.
Stewart and Colbert, who host “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report,” applied for a single permit to gather 25,000 people on the Washington Monument grounds, according to National Park Service spokesman Bill Line.
Will 25,000 people actually show up? We tend to think they will. In fact, it might be a rally that people who don’t normally like rallies – or crowds – will attend, just because of who the hosts are.
Some people may scoff at the duo’s methods of “reporting” the news, but it’s hard to deny that their programs have created a whole new generation of young people who are actually interested in current events.
C’mon, who can resist admitting that politics is funny and the people who practice politics – or want to practice politics – are sometimes more hilarious than the star of the latest HBO comedy special? We count ourselves among Stewart and Colbert fans.
Sometimes the language gets a little rough, but even Comedy Central knows how to use the “bleep” machine.
Stewart’s rally, “for people too busy with their normal lives to go to other political rallies,” is titled the “Rally to Restore Sanity.”
Colbert, who said the United States is “built on three bedrock principles: freedom, liberty and fear that someone might take our freedom and liberty,” is calling his the “March to Keep Fear Alive.”
Of course, they’re on the Web. There’s not much there, other than what on any other political site might be called “guiding principles.”
Stewart’s message: “We’re looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn’t be the only ones that get heard and who believe that the only time it’s appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles. . . . Join us in the shadow of the Washington Monument. And bring your indoor voice.”
And Colbert’s: “There are dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our fear – forces with salt and pepper hair and way more Emmys than they need. They want to replace our fear with reason. But never forget – ‘reason’ is just one letter away from ‘treason.’ Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it is, but America can’t afford to take that chance.”
At least with Stewart and Colbert, you know they’re spoofing something.
With some politicians – and political commentators – you’re never really sure.
Scripps Howard News Service