WASHINGTON, D.C. – This election cycle has showcased more partisan venom and wing-nut vitriol than any in recent memory. It has produced the Tea Party and brought forth a cadre of candidates whose positions are so extreme, their campaign staffers have ordered them not to talk to the press until after the election. But it also helped motivate almost a quarter million people from all over the country amass on the National Mall in Washington to call for a more sane discussion.

Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show,” and his protege Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report,” held the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on Saturday. (Originally, Colbert was going to counter Stewart’s rally with a “March to Keep Fear Alive,” until they decided to merge the two.) It was, admittedly, a very vague call to action.

As rallies go, it was much of a call to action. It was a lot of fun: At one point, Stewart brought Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) on stage to play “Peace Train,” until Colbert interrupted with Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train.”

And it was very, very funny, with skit after skit lampooning the conflict-addicted, panic-inducing news media.

Stewart and Colbert have been wildly successful with their shows. They use satire to criticize a media environment so frantic, their “fake” news shows often seem more based in reality than the networks who purport to offer the “real” news. Pundits, in particular, are the object of their ridicule, which may explain why so many of them predicted a disaster on Saturday.

Across all three 24-hour news networks and many of the nation’s major news magazines, pundits warned that Stewart was overstepping his role as satirist to become a political figure.

Ironically apropos to the rally, the pundits’ concerns were over-stated and their conclusions were dead wrong. The idea for the rally came from the viewers, who suggested the idea in a Facebook group. Stewart and Colbert took the suggestion, as well as the risk that came with it, and it worked out better than either of them likely expected.

CBS reported 215,000 people attended the rally. Organizers put the number at 250,000. (Stewart said the rally was not a counter-rally to Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally back in August, which drew a relatively meager 87,000.) People had came in from all over the country to pack onto the mall, climbing into its trees and atop porta potties to catch a glimpse.

And while the jokes and skits and performances were great, the rally seemed to find itself in Stewart’s “moment of sincerity” at the end. He called for a more reasonable discussion, with less name calling and Hitler comparisons.

“But we live now in hard times, not end times,” he said. “And we can have animus, and not be enemies. But unfortunately, one of our main tools in delineating the two broke.”

According to Stewart, that tool, the media, need to help us understand our problems, not create new ones.

“The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen,” he said. “Or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the dangerous, unexpected flaming ants epidemic. If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”

You don’t get almost a quarter million people to show up anywhere for just a comedy show. These people came out to have a good time, yes. But they came because they are disaffected, they are turned off by the national discourse that does not represent their nation. If nothing else, they came to say, “Seriously, America. Tone it down, and stop taking yourself so seriously.”

Dave Balson is a junior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-7942 or at

[email protected].