Last night, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced that they would hold sort-of-but-not-really-competing rallies at the Lincoln Memorial on October 30th.
Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” will be the voice of reason countering Colbert’s alarmist “March to Keep Fear Alive.” It’s a real-life satire of Glenn Beck’s Tea Party demonstration called “Restoring Honor” held on the National mall this past August. And it brings Comedy Central’s continued lampooning of absurd punditry and broken politics to a whole new level.
The Lincoln Memorial is America’s soap box. Most famously, in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech catapulted the efforts of the Civil Rights movement, and it helped make the memorial one of the country’s most powerful architectural symbols. It’s without a doubt a solemn space for Americans, but not one the comedy world hasn’t touched before. After all, Legally Blonde’s cartoonish “Elle Woods” and the actual cartoon Lisa Simpson have both found inspiration there. Who knows if history will be made there on October 30th, but we can probably count on Colbert and Stewart being pretty funny.
A few years ago, as part of our series American Icons, Studio 360 devoted a whole hour to the Memorial, in which Kurt Andersen looked at what makes it the place to give a speech.
This fall, our Peabody Award-winning series returns. Studio 360 will bring you stories on I Love Lucy, Jimi Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner,” the Harley-Davidson, and that other piece of architectural Americana, Monticello (an episode that, coincidentally, features Stephen Colbert). American Icons picks up next week with the premiere of our one-hour episode on The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Don’t miss it!
-Stephen Reader
Stephen,
I really enjoyed hearing the audio piece you embedded in your blog post about the Colbert/Stewart political rally announcement. Although this is entertainment news, I think it relates even more to politics. Although half of your blog post was about the rallies, and the other half was about how significant the Lincoln Memorial is to politics, I think you would appreciate this video since it merges many different aspects of this story: http://bit.ly/cIc2dh.
I think the audio really added to your blog post, especially for those who want to listen and read at the same time. If you decided to add a Newsy video, it works the same way; only it will add visuals as well. Since you post many political stories, take a look at the Newsy website to see if there are any more video pieces that can help you get more information for your future blog posts. I hope this bit of information was helpful to you, and I look forward to staying in touch.
Take care,
Daniel
I just don’t know how people like Stewart have such a blatant disregard for our Constitution. I think the insanity is that you never hear the words “Constitutional” from these people because the contitiution is an inconvenience for them.
Mark