WASHINGTON - A sea of smiling faces, many of them carrying signs with messages aiming for belly laughs, cheerfully flooded the U.S. capital on Saturday, heeding a call for civility from comedian Jon Stewart and a sardonic plea for excess rage from his fake nemesis, Stephen Colbert.
Tens of thousands of people, of all ages and colours, turned out for the duo's "Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear" event, cheering, laughing and dancing to the event's musical acts on a brilliantly sunny autumn day with the gleaming Capitol Building looming just behind centre stage.
While Stewart insisted in the weeks leading up to the rally that it wasn't partisan, the right-wing Tea Party was most certainly the butt of most of the jokes, including from Colbert, in character as his right-wing blowhard alter-ego.
Stewart kicked off the rally like a rock star, shouting out to the festive throngs that stretched from Capitol Hill to the Washington Monument about 10 blocks away on the National Mall: "Are you ready to restore sanity?"
Colbert left his "bunker of fear" shortly afterwards, emerging like a trapped Chilean miner from a capsule while dressed in a stars-and-stripes suit.
Throughout the events, Stewart and Colbert clashed, with "The Daily Show" host emphasizing the need for "reasonableness" while his counterpart urged the crowd to be more afraid of absolutely everything, from Hispanics to CNN host Anderson Cooper.
The musical highlight of the event involved a trio of "train" songs. The reclusive Yusuf, the man formerly known as Cat Stevens who converted to Islam more than 30 years ago, provided one of the only moments of sentimentality as he performed "Peace Train," leaving some of the older members of the crowd teary-eyed.
But no sooner had he begun than Ozzy Osbourne erupted onto the stage, cheered on by Colbert as the rock star shrieked out his classic "Crazy Train," deliberately drowning out Yusuf.
The faux-duel between the pair was settled by three of the original O'Jays, the soul group who performed an air-tight rendition of their big 1970s hit, "Love Train," dressed in white suits and nailing their synchronized dance moves. Their performance had the crowd dancing with glee, including many of the Comedy Central volunteers.
Tony Bennett, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, Mavis Staples and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy were among additional musical acts, but the other stars of the event were inanimate objects: the signs, most of them aimed at the Tea Party and Republicans.
Among some of the funniest, and most cutting, spotted in the crowd:
-- A Shepard Fairey-ish poster of Jon Stewart, with one word emblazoned underneath: "Kenyan."
-- "My Wife Thinks I'm Hiking in the Appalachians," a reference to Mark Sanford, the philandering governor of South Carolina and his original cover story.
-- "I Can Spell."
-- "Homophobia Is So Gay."
-- "I Wouldn't Care If The President Was Muslim"
-- "Stop Illegal Migration; Keep Canadian Geese From Entering Our Country."
Just three days before the congressional mid-term elections, it was a rare infusion of goofy silliness into the U.S. capital, where angry rhetoric has characterized much of the political debate since the historic election of Barack Obama two years ago. Stewart said the rally was aimed at the large silent majority who deplore the toxicity of political discourse in a country that remains deeply polarized.
"I think people are here to show that there's another side to all the anger and the fear that's being expressed during this election," said Joanne Olson, 62, of Alexandria, Va., as she took in the events.
"We are saying we just don't support this hate-mongering, yelling and all the divisive behaviour."
Her husband, Jeff, who works for the National Parks Service, agreed, adding that he believes the Tea Party's antagonism towards Obama is fuelled by racism.
"We know people, even Democrats, who said they wouldn't vote for him because he's black," Olson said.
"It's very American. As Americans, we are capable of great good and we're capable of just horrible behaviour, and we've exhibited both for 200 and some years. Today was a day to show our best side."
Canadian Megan Boler, a professor at the University of Toronto who studies the influence of Stewart's "The Daily Show," travelled to D.C to interview those attending the rally. She says the Stewart-Colbert event marks a watershed moment in the blurring of politics and entertainment in the United States, and has likened it to Woodstock more than 40 years ago.
In the crush of tens of thousands, Boler talked to about 30 people with her colleague, Ian Reilly of the University of Guelph.
"One of the things that was particularly significant is that most people had not ever been to a political rally before," she said.
"They watched 'The Daily Show' and they heeded the call to show up. And almost everyone said they watched watched the show because they think it's the best source of news. It keeps them informed while making them laugh, but it also inspires them to do more research and learn about the issues."
Boler is pondering establishing a video blog on her findings, and hopes to follow up with the people she interviewed to find out if they become more politically active.
Despite the insistence from organizers that the rally wasn't political, it's no secret Democrats, liberals and progressives have been hoping it would reinvigorate young voters in particular and get them out to the polls on Tuesday in the same numbers that helped propel Obama to the White House.
Rally organizers handed out stickers that read "Vote Sanity 11.02.10."
And Organizing for America, Obama's political operation based at Democratic National Committee headquarters, was also setting up a "Phone Bank for Sanity" after the rally to urge people to vote on Tuesday.
Stewart, popular with Democrats and independents according to a recent Pew Research Center study, steered clear of partisan politics throughout the event, but he did take a few jabs at cable news channels in his closing remarks, saying they were purveyors of fear and division.
"The country's 24-hour politico-pundit-perpetual-panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder," he said.
At a post-rally news conference, the comic bristled at suggestions the rally was politically motivated. Since announcing the event he's faced criticism, from left and right alike, that he's moved far beyond comedy and into full-fledged political activism.
"Our currency's not this town's currency," Stewart said. "We're not running for anything. We don't have a constituency. We do television shows for people who like them."
There was no official crowd tally, but it clearly far exceeded the 60,000 people that organizers originally thought could attend. More than 200,000 people on Facebook said they would be at the event; a National Parks police officer who didn't want to be identified said he thought twice that number had likely shown up.
The event was a swipe at the "Restoring Honor" rally held in August by Glenn Beck, the Fox News commentator popular among conservatives.