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The joint rally by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert began its variety show of shtick and song, political purpose and wink-wink whimsy. The two Comedy Central fake-news anchors arrived onstage Saturday afternoon to present bits that pit Stewart's wry rationalism against Colbert's warped bravado.
As throngs headed to join in the Mall's hoopla, some were thwarted by transportation delays. Metro's trains, teeming with rallygoers, could not accommodate new passengers at stops closer to downtown. Also, many prospective rail riders arrived at stations in Maryland and Virginia only to be confronted with long lines that defied usual weekend patterns.
(LIVE UPDATES: Up-to-the-minute analysis of the rally)
On a stage west of the Capitol dome, the TV personalities welcomed cross-genre musical acts that sang in harmony -- Kid Rock with Sheryl Crow, Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples -- or in mock discord, as when mellow folkie Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) had an interruptive session with metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
Mall visitors arrived in steady streams on foot, bike and when possible, by Metro. Many toted signs with arch witticisms such as those identifying the carrier as a member of the "Decaf Party." In keeping with the meta qualities of the Comedy Central shows, one spectator had a sign that was decidedly not purposeful in its announcement. "I am holding a sign," it read.
"I find it incredibly ironic," says Jim Neimeier, who drove to Washington from Wisconsin for the event, "that I had to come to a rally sponsored by a comedian to get at the truth."
Or at least a point of view diametrically opposed to the one expressed by Glenn Beck two months ago, when he staged a religiously themed "Restoring Honor" rally -- on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech -- with Sarah Palin on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
(RELATED: The "Rally to Restore Sanity" schedule)
The "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" is billed as a correction to what Stewart, Colbert and their fans consider the extremism and dishonesty that have infected the American political system, especially the self-righteousness and fear-mongering they see in the right-leaning Beck and his employer, Fox News.
But with its Capitol backdrop, exuberant crowd and clever placards, the Stewart-Colbert rally began to look like an ironic version of the political theater it sends up. At some point, do those mocking such hubris actually exhibit hubris?
"This is the most American thing I've ever done!" a young man screamed Saturday morning into a plastic megaphone, provided free by Comedy Central.
The megaphones, handed out with tea towels from the swag bags of volunteers, mixed with backpacks and folding chairs. Earnest signs read "I'm Not Afraid of Muslims, Tea Parties, Gays." Irreverent ones read "Support the Right to Arm Bears." Obama inauguration gear made it back out of the closet. On many posters reading "Hope," the visage of Stewart, not Obama, stared out.
With all the trouble it took to get to the Mall, some attendees chose a more unusual mode of transportation: a 70-foot-long, 30-foot-tall copper-colored dragon on wheels. The vehicle, favored by anti-nuclear-weapon activists from the counterculture festival Burning Man, echoed down Irving Street. Along 14th Street NW, people held signs reading "Free the Gays" or "The Sky Is Falling." Scores of people dressed in wigs and costumes, in part because the rally coincides with many Halloween celebrations. One man dressed as Abe Lincoln. Another went as a tea party activist (tea bags dangling from his hat's brim).
"It's just a lovely day to be on the Mall, to meet up with out-of-town friends," said Ruth Hupart, 24, a Hill staffer.
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