Daily Show & Colbert Report to hold rallies on 10/30

On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart announced The Rally to Restore Sanity to be held at the National Mall on October 30th.

Not to be outdone and, in fact, in an attempt to outdo, Stephen Colbert announced The March to Keep Fear Alive on his show, The Colbert Report.

I really, really want to go. However, I currently do not have a job, so it makes it tough. I'm pretty sure I can get up there ok, but the hotel rooms are a bit on the pricey side.

Anyone else planning on going? Want to go? Live in the DC area and will let me crash on their couch?

I wish!! Tell you what... if this lottery ticket's a winner I'll float the cost for both of us!

Deal

Well, I reserved my spot on a bus today. Not sure of the details, but I'm sure that will be sorted out soon.

Well, I may be the only one here that gives a damn, but if you want to go and are worried about a ride, you can get a spot on a bus: http://www.dcrallybus.com/RallyToRestoreSanity

No hotel required as the buses will aim to arrive at 9am on Saturday and then leave again at 6pm the same day. I'd love to meet up with anyone else that is going.

I give a damn, I just can't go.

Have fun for me?

Will do. I'll take a camera with me for piccies. Also, watch Comedy Central that day, 12-3 and see if you can spot me.

I'll be the one that looks like this:

D'aww, turn that frown upside down! It's Stewart and Colbert after all!

ok...

Much better!


Might want to do something about those crazy eyes, though...

oh balls!
I'd totally take the bus to washington for this but it's on the 30th.
I got a halloween party thing to do. =/

natch, I'd be all about keeping fear alive!
I'd prolly wave a Kneel before Zod poster too.

it's noon to 3pm, Zod. And Colbert is urging people to dress up for his side of the rally, so you wouldn't stand out if you came to this in costume.

Just sayin'

I think you two should meet up there, dressed for opposing sides.

The pictures/video would be epic.

it would be epic!

But I gotta' go to this party.

Else I'd "SO" friggin be there!

Hell, I"d try to get a pleather suit made for the occasion

Huffington Post is also supposed to be offering free buses from NY, not sure how it'd work though.

meh, I could grab the 20 dollar round trip bus from Chinatown to Wa.
Prolly less of a crowd that way.

Tell them to change the date!! WTF!?

I'm back from the rally. Was a fun time, but was too far back from the stage to see it/be seen. I've still got my signs, so may post them later. Tired now, go sleep.

I demand a proper update, mister.

Ok, I left home on Friday at about 2pm. I had to get to Atlanta by 8pm. i wanted to make sure I could find the station we were leaving from, but also wanted to avoid rush hour if at all possible. I did manage to find the station without much trouble, but I was 3 hours early. So, I went and got a bite to eat, then roamed around the area trying to find the spot where everyone was congregating. It took me a bit, but I did find it and hung out with other people waiting to go. When the buses arrived, I boarded one and settled into the seat. It was ok, not very comfy, but good enough.

We got under way around 9pm and had rest stops every 2 hours. I tried to sleep, but the movement and noise of the bus kept me from getting anything more than a couple of hours. We made it into DC around 10am. We departed the bus and made our way down to the National Mall where the rally was being held. By then, it was already quite packed and I made my way into the crowd somewhere in the middle.

Here is a satellite view of the turn out:



Here is an approximation of where I was:



Any way, the rally started around noon. The Roots & John Legend came out and sang some songs I wasn't really interested in. Then, the Mythbuster's Jamie and Adam came out to run some experiments with us. That was fun. They had us doing the wave from the front of the audience all the way to the back. Took about a minute to get all the way back. It was pretty cool to see them.

Then out came Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert. Colbert did a bit where he was scared no one would come to the rally and so had ensconced himself in a "Fear Bunker" below the stage. He then had to be rescued from it in the same manner as the Chilean Miners. The fun really started at that point with the two bickering back & forth about who the rallyers were really supporting.

They then also were taking stock of everyone and wanted to get an official count and so they were going to have us count off, one by one, to see exactly how many people were here. However, that came to a quick stop as they realized how long that would actually take.

Then a few surprise guests made it out. I was really surprised to see them and thought the little bit they did was great. This is what I'm talking about:



I've got a few things I need to do, so will come back to this later on.

Back, so here we continue.

I forgot to mention earlier that Father Guido Sarduchi came out and gave a benediction where he asked God for a sign on which religion was the correct one. No sign was given, sadly. So we still don't know the answer to that one.

After the songs by Yusuf, Ozzy, and the O'Jays, they had a few more bits where the correspondents for the Daily Show made a few jokes and Stephen and Jon sang a song as well. They then had a debate between Stephen and Jon on what was really important Sanity v Fear. Stephen brought out a giant puppet of himself and claimed to have killed Jon, thus "winning" only to have John Oliver pop out in a Peter Pan outfit and try to bring Stewart back to life via clapping. Only Stewart was not playing along. He wasn't dead and was trying to get them to stop. However, Oliver continued to try and help and found that chanting caused Colbert and his giant puppet to "die."

They were removed from the stage and Stewart was then allowed to give his closing statement which really underlined exactly what the rally was for. It can be seen here: http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=363864&title=jon-stewart-moment-of-sincerity

Tony Bennet then sang America the Beautiful and we all dispersed after that. I walked back to where my bus was, picking up some supper along the way. I had a few hours to go before we left to come back, but my feet really hurt and my head was pounding as well, which kinda contradicts the whole "you can't hurt in two places at once" thing. I just sat and rested on the bus until everyone else trickled in and we got back underway. We got back to Atlanta around 6am. I seriously thought about getting a hotel room in Atlanta and crashing for a bit. But I felt better after getting some caffeine in me and some breakfast as well. So, I drove home and got in around 10:30. Then I did crash before unpacking and such.

As promised, my 2 signs:






One last thing as well, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vETTB3g7D0#t=1m1

Thank you for the update and video linkage.

I think I see you in the aerial footage!

I did find a replay of all the parts Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert were in:
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/10/30/HP/R/40153/Rally+to+Restore+Sanity+andor+Fear+Today+in+Washington.aspx

The first hour w/ the Roots & Mythbusters is not included.