A crowd estimated at more than 250,000 turned up in Washington, D.C., today to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert host the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, but that doesn’t mean the hosts have developed big heads. During a press conference following the event at the National Press Building, Stewart insisted that though they inspired hundreds of thousands to travel to the nation’s capital to engage in rational dialogue, they hardly consider themselves significant political figures. “We’re not running for anything,” Stewart told reporters. “We do television shows for people that like them. And we hope people continue to like them so Comedy Central can continue to sell beer to young people.” Read on for the highlights from the press conference:
- Stewart and Colbert have been planning the rally since March. Not that they expected it to actually happen. “The number of scripts we generated, the number of ideas, the number of people we talked to — to have it all coalesce and funnel through this three-hour window and for it to happen is just [an] incredible joy,” Colbert said.
- Many watched the rally — at the Mall and at home. According to a rep from Comedy Central, 4 million streamed the rally on computers from home, while more than 250,000 people were in attendance. And a good chunk of those 250,000 people rode to the rally in one of Arianna Huffington’s free buses: At the press conference, she said she had 200 buses carrying 10,000 people.
- Stewart wrote his keynote address one night before the rally. “I stayed up late last night until I was done…. I just wanted to speak a little bit from the heart,” Stewart said. Colbert, on the other hand, claimed he took even less time to write his own address: “I improvised everything I did.”
- The rally wasn’t seamless. Though it was certainly tough for Stewart to hit that high note during his duet with Colbert — as the Colbert Report host was eager to point out — the most difficult part of organizing the event was gathering the on-stage performers, who included Yusuf Islam, the O’Jays, and Ozzy Osbourne, to name a few. “Trying to get in somebody from Dubai, and another group from Cleveland, and get Ozzy in from… wherever Ozzy is from [was hard],” Stewart said. But it was worth the effort: “One of the nicest things about the event for me was their joy in performing together,” he said. “There was a moment when we were in the trailer with The Roots, and I had Yusuf to my left, and Ozzy to my right … We all felt like 12-year-olds. We just played in this little trailer. It was purely joy. That, to me, was the best and the hardest thing to pull off and put together.”
- Stewart and Rick Sanchez have made peace. The Daily Show host says his feud with the embattled CNN host — who was fired after an interview in which he called Stewart a “bigot” and implied that Jews control the U.S. media — is all but over. “He called me a few days later. We spoke … It was pretty anti-Semitic,” he joked. “[No], he was very kind … he is not a bad guy.” But someone else is still waiting to hear from Sanchez. “He has yet to call me,” Colbert said.
- One of Stewart’s regrets during his interview with President Obama? Calling the commander-in-chief “dude.” “I don’t think there’s any interview that I’ve ever done that I don’t end up going, ‘I wish I had done that better,’” he said. “But I also called King Abdullah of Jordan … ‘broseph.’” Stewart said he is fond of the spontaneity of his segments. “[The interviews] can also be the most revelatory,” he said. “At times it’s a high-wire act. At times it works, at times it doesn’t. But again, the joy of it is trying.”
- Stewart’s not afraid of bad reviews. The host might have bashed the media during his rally, but he’s not afraid the media may bash him. “I don’t care,” he said of the possibility of poor reviews. “I just don’t care. We’re proud of ourselves, we’re proud of the show we did, and, for us, the success of it was the execution and the idea and the intention … We’ve developed a pretty thick skin as far as critcism or praise, quite frankly.”
Read more:
The Rally to Restore Sanity: On the scene at the insane event
‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ review: Jon Stewart led his nation, unevenly, and mostly against the media
I’m glad he “spoke from the heart.” It certainly put words to things I’ve been feeling for a while but haven’t been able to voice. The rally was a lot of fun, and I hope it inspires people to change the way they discuss and debate ideas. I loved the line about “animus, not enemies.” I may be way too optimistic, but that’s how being there has left me feeling: hopeful.
Some hits, some misses. I felt bad for the mostly white crowd trying gamely to get into John Legend’s homage to Donny Hathaway. Loved the Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow duo, Father Guido, Tony Bennett. John Stewart’s key note address was one of the most rational public addresses I have heard during this year.
Mostly white crowd? Hardly. This was as diverse as you can get.
Mostly white? Not from what I was watching!
There were mostly white people there, though there was a lot more diversity than I expected.
I was there. I’m not white. The crowd was easily 90% white. It was not diverse.
My family was there and while there were lots of whites, there were also lots of latinos, asians, middle eastern, yes, even blacks. People were from all walks of life and we all had FUN being Americans. No one packed a gun (other than cops) and I didn’t see any head stomping. Everyone we talked to was mad at the government, the media, and anyone else who refused to learn the art of negotiation. We all seemed to agree that we don’t care if someone is Republican or Democrat as long as the two of them TALK to each other. They don’t have to like each other, but at least try to engage in civil discussion. That is all us flaming moderates want.
It would be surprising if it wasn’t “mostly white”, as it was a rally in the United States. The US population is roughly 65-70% white. Pick 100 people completely at random and you will have a “mostly white crowd.”
“Minority” is a numerical reference.
I was there and was packed tighter than you can believe with all sorts of people. All ages. All races. All pretty nice folks too. And the signs were hysterical.
Yes it was a predominantly white crowd, but it was not an entirely white crowd. That may be parsing to some, but I saw a lot of diverse ethnicities and ages as I was looking at hundreds of photos taken of the event. Perhaps it really was as Jon said on stage yesterday, representative of the US as whole, mostly white with a fair representation of the rest of the minorities in the US – Hispanic, Black, Indian, Asian, Mixed, Arabic, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, etc, etc, etc. My friend was there, about midway between the stage and Washington monument, and she said she saw just about every type of person you could imagine.
Are you guys sure you all went to the same rally?
Beautiful rally! Vote Tuesday and keep the house and senate dem. If we all vote, the blue-dog/dinos and the republicants will be outnumbered and we Dems will finally have a fillibuster proof congress.
It was a blast to be there. I was far back, but everyone around me was so nice. I totally agree about Stewart’s keynote. Great event. Totally worth the plane ticket
As someone who went to the rally I was just disappointed that you couldn’t hear or see much but I don’t think they ever thought there would be that many people there. It was waaaay more than 250,000 people. I’m watching it now on DVR which is great because I get to see what I missed in certain parts but I also had the experience of being there.
You and me both. I was too far back to hear or see anything, but it’s something to say I was there.
I was there and could see and hear everything thanks to the Jumbotrons. That does suck that there were so many who couldn’t even see or hear.
Man, I wish I’d thought to set my DVR… I could hear pretty well from where I was, but seeing the screens was difficult.
John Steward is stupid or just stupid?
I don’t know about John Steward but Jon Stewart is a genius.
No buddy, that’s just you.. get their name right next time you try to trash them… otherwise, you will be the one coming off as a fool
Hee, this actually reminds me of a sign I saw at the rally: “SPELLING COUNTS” (only the “o” had been added in with a carat since “counts” had been misspelled… if you get what I mean…)
Give Jack a break..he’s clearly tired from making all those signs for the Tea Party rallies…
Favorite sign at the rally:
Jon 3:16
Amen.
stupid or just stupid? What the hell does that even mean? Though since it’s your entire post (plus a misspelled name), I’ll assume you’re “just stupid.”
Jack must be from the Tea Party. My fav sign was “We don ned no dapartmant of edukashun”. I think that’s the mantra of TeaParty folks everywhere.
It was fantastic to be there! I got there early and had a great spot. I left midway through the keynote address because I was tired from being there for nearly 6 hours and I have to say that there were at least 250k people. As I walked back to the Smithsonian metro I couldn’t believe how big the crowds were, and you couldn’t see or hear very much at all. I’m surprised people stuck around but they did! Was great fun.
Yeah it sounds like you had such great fun you had to get the hell out of that hippie/yuppie nightmare.
I wish I could have been there, but I had other priorities to attend to and I couldn’t make the trip. I did, however, watch it live on Comedy Central and I enjoyed it. I think sanity is just what this nation needs. I’m tired of the fear-mongering that’s taking place in today’s media. I’m tired of the racism and blatant hate being spread throughout this nation. We are at a point where if we as a nation want to build ourselves back up, we need to do it together. It’s hard to do that if we’re afraid of each other.
Wow, 250,000 is a freakin LOT of people.
They always wildly overestimate rallies. The real figure was 80k.
No, that’s the Beck rally–he claimed 500,000, the real total was closer to 86K. The 250K estimates are pretty consistent… we’ll see what the CBS study shows.
Tom – you’re confusing numbers with your IQ. There were WAY more than 80K there
I live in the area and metro had record breaking numbers and anyone who took metro knows that isn’t a lie. *LOL* At 2:00 p.m. metro reported 330,000 riders already. Now not everyone was going to the rally, but everyone pretty much felt it was over 250,000. Canadian broadcasting and the park service reported possibly over 250,000. CBS was the only lowball at 210,000.
Just put a lid on it Tom Strong.
You have no point,so why comment? I think your jealous that some people had a good time without you. And everyone stop talking about how many whites where there, just sounds like you where paying to much attention to skin color while you where there, and whats the point?
Liberal doyenne Arianna Huffington spent $250,000 busing in 10,000 people from NYC, which certainly helped.
And the Koch brothers also bussed in tens of thousands to Beck’s ‘rally’. What exactly is your point?
His point wasn’t an anti-Beck point… it was simply that bussing people into the event helped get the 250,000 people there.
Yeah, a whopping 4% of the crowd came in those buses.
As much as I give kudos to him for this, something just feels slightly wrong when the lines of politics and entertainment blur like this. Fast forward 50 years and our county’s leaders are all going to be ex TV and movie stars?
There weren’t any political candidates present; it was a plea for a change in our democratic process, specifically the role of the media. Which of the performers seemed to be running for something?
If FOX GOP.inc has it’s way they will all be former or future FOX “news” analyst.
Can you say Reagan? Fred Thompson? Sonny Bono? Schwarzenegger?
Hilarious! And don’t forget Gopher from the Love Boat…and Cooter from The Dukes of Hazzard…
sonny bono
oh, and jesse ventura
Everyone seems to forget that before Reagan and Schwartzenegger, California had song and dance man Senator George Murphy.
Thanks, walrus, you got there before I did, and you said it nicer than I would have…
Dont forget Jerry Springer was they mayor of a town in Ohio too I think for a while
But further, Jon Stewart is a political satirist. Political satire is not some new invention made by people like Stewart and Colbert. It has been around for millenia. Politics and entertainment have for a long long long time been mixed.
Yes. Comedians have always been pushing boundaries in political and social arenas, making comfortable through humour realities that are very uncomfortable. I think it’s an important part of our society. It’s not like he’s the star of the new hit ABC sitcom; politics and news media are his life.
Tv stars and entertainers care about
politics too and many are very smart an educated. Because entertainment is something you so doesn’t mean it is all of who you are or will become.
I saw someone wearing a Stewart-Colbert 2012 shirt there, and remarked to my friend that I might actually vote for that ticket. Although I think these two perform a much better public service doing what they do than they would if they were actually in office.
And what’s so great about the current media/politics atmosphere today? None of the talking heads out there and so-called public servants have any interest but in their own power and fame.
Can you say Reagan?
I can! “Reagan.”
Loved it! I loved the entire “Train” sequence with Yusef, Ozzy, and the O’Jays. I was giddy with the clever way Stewart and Colbert made their point.
Just to put a finish to the numbers debate. I was a member of the crew, and at about 10:30am the park service came over our radios saying that they were shutting down 7th street (from experience, because this isn’t the first time the national park service has done this before, that means there is 150k in attendance) and at show time they had almost closed 8th, which (once again they are the experts) means a solid 200,000
One of the best experiences of my life. It was a great rally and a great speech.
I absolutely loved Jon’s speech. That and the train segment and all the medals being awarded were my favorite parts. Well, pretty much any of the Stewart and/or Colbert segments were my favorite parts. But that speech was wonderful; I wanted it to go on much longer. And I couldn’t quite tell, but I wondered if he was kind of choking up at a bit at the end. His voice went a little funny…or maybe I’m just making stuff up. Either way, it was good fun to watch once the rally truly began, post-John-Legend-and-the-Roots (good music, but not what I wanted), and I’m glad it was so well-attended.
I thought he was choked up at the end too, especially just before he “spoke from the heart”. It was fabulous and I wish I could have been there. I still feel happy having watched it.
I watched it on DVR when I got home and he did choke up a little at the end.