The Rally To Restore Sanity

This morning, I am watching the The Rally To Restore Sanity streaming live on thecomedynetwork.ca. I will compose this post as the event unfolds. So far, there has been a band playing funk and soul music. It looks like a nice fall day in Washington DC, perhaps a bit chilly. The crowd looks generally young and energetic. As this event is obviously a spoof of a previous event hosted by Glenn Beck, it is notable how different the demographic appears. Is it strange the type of dogmatic dissonance that a character like Beck is promoting appeals to an older and lawn chair required crowd? The satirical sanity crowd is on its feet, moving to the music, having fun...
10:26 - John Legend says 'fucked him up' during the intro to a soulful tune about a young draftee.  The Capitol building fills the background. Interesting.
Ripping guitar solo at 10:32. "Shot me in my shoulder" refrain from Legend.
Powerful performance, certainly going to energise the crowd.

10:39, the band is done. Introducing the Mythbusters guys. "World's largest sample size."
The camera pans around for the first long shot  I have seen; Huge crowd, appears much bigger than the Glenn Beck thingy. Doing the wave from front to back. Wave physics with a crowd. Brilliant. So sane and reasonable.
10:48, now a new gag, the 'meat orchestra'. "Laugh like a mad scientist", "cry", and cheek  pop. It must be so fun to be there. "I think you guys are almost ready" the use of vernacular is typical.
10:52, trying to get the crowd to jump all together and make a little seismic event. '20 million pounds of meat' on the lawn of the mall. Making people jump, exercise and energy, science and crowd control.
10:56, introducing Jon Stewart. Theme music from the show, the crowd is going wild. People love this guy. "stand for the national anthem." Performed by four troops; I suspect that they are real military service persons. (Three fellas and a lady.)
Reinforcing the concept that one can be a patriotic citizen and still have liberal values. Not too subtle at all. Jon Stewart returns after the anthem, and asks people 'no littering'. Don't recall hearing anything like this during the Beck thingy. "We have over ten million people... we are going to count off..."
11:05, Stephen Colbert is trapped in his fear bunker, two thousand feet below, encased in solid bedrock. LOL. Colbert is shirtless. He is worried that nobody showed, "are the men handsome and the women beautiful, and do they respond to obvious pandering?"
11:08, Colbert emerges from the stage in a capsule, like the Chile miners escape, in a Captain America-esque hero suit... "Release the bees". Colbert is trying to "deliberately fabricate fears that don't exist".
The camera pans by a person with a Canada t-shirt.
11:12 Father Guido Sarducci delivers a benediction. Police sirens can be heard in the background. Guido is now asking God to endorse a particular religion.
11:21, Sam Waterston reads 'Are you sure?', by Stephen Colbert.
11:25 Yusef, formerly known as Cat Stevens performs 'Peace Train'. Colbert interrupts him at 10:27 to declare he will not get on the train. He is acting like a total ass.
10:28, I guessed that Colbert is about to introduce, and he does, introduce Ozzy. A performance of 'Crazy Train', is interrupted by Stewart. Back to Peace Train "I will not ride the Rainbow Moonbeam Choo-choo..."
11:31, Ozzy and Yusef walk off the stage together, as brothers. A musical interlude.
11:44, awards for reasonableness, no surprise, interrupted by Colbert and his fear awards.
11:47, another musical performance. Reasonable intermissions, I would assume people need to have opportunities to relax, perhaps find a porta-john. Methinks as far as live comedy events go, this one may be setting some kind of precedent. There has been no politics as yet. Pure entertainment, in the guise of a political rally. Many laughs so far. The bit with Ozzy and Cat Stevens was comedy genius. The correspondents in the crowd scenes have been well coordinated so far. Without a hitch as far as I can tell.
11:58 "everyone has a right to be patriotic", Stewart appeals to Colbert to not fight and unite in their love of nation. Colbert acts as if that would be impossible. They are singing a song together.
12:10 "Dude, you have no Koran" guy gets a final Reasonableness medal which he throws to the crowd.
Kid Rock performs with Cheryl Crow. Two of my least favourite pop stars, almost offensive pop. In a crowd shot reads a sign, 'FCK H8'. Hmmmm...
Cheryl Crow, even with clothes on appears to be stick-thin and has no bum. In my opinion, her kind of mind numbing ear candy pop music damages critical thinking and ability to recognise quality.
11:24, a debate between Stewart and Colbert. "If Eve had a healthy fear of snakes, she would not have eaten the apple and cursed us with original sin.".
12:29, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appears on stage as a moderate Muslim.
12:31 R2-D2 makes an appearance as a moderate 'robot'.
Follows with a collage of 'fear-mongering' in contemporary news networks mostly Fox and CNN. Colbert claims victory, having slain Stewart with fear. John Oliver appears as Peter Pan. Stewart reminds the crowd that he is not actually dead. Oliver gets the crowd wound up, and the chanting is killing Colbert. Very silly.
12:41, Stewart seems to be winding it up. A moment of sincerity. "I'm really happy you guys are here." Stewart goes on to assert that the politico pundit press commentaries contributes to the crisis.
"If we amplify everything, we hear nothing."Applause "The press is our immune system, if it over-reacts to everything, we get sicker..." "Americans don't live here (the capitol) or on cable TV..." He is drawing some analogy that all kinds of people drive cars and yet co-operate; Obtuse. "Sanity is in the eye of the beholder,... seeing you here has restored mine. Thank you."
12:54, Stewart introduce Tony Bennett, he sings 'America the beautiful', solo. He sounded good, must be at least 75 or so. (Google check, he is 84!)
Stewart returns to thank Colbert (who steps out of character and is gracious), the people that put this together, the musicians. All performers appear on the stage together.  Roll credits during final performance. I think Ozzy is missing?
"I believe in a Sanity Clause"
Sponsors plugs, etc.

As a fan of the Daily Show and Colbert report, I was not disappointed by the event. Three hours seemed to roll by smoothly. I wonder what and if there will be any reaction to this event.

1:14 PM mountain time; Enough for today, time to go outside and get some fresh air.