Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
I will just get right out there and say it: from a spectator’s standpoint, my wife and I were very disappointed by The Rally to Restore Sanity. It was an event we were looking forward to attending, and we expected a big crowd.
But when we arrived and stuffed our way into the crowd near the front, we were highly disappointed that it was not only challenging to see a jumbo screen (easy to understand and forgive), but almost impossible to hear the program (bordering on incompetent for how close we were to the stage). So we left about half way through the rally (along with tons of other people in our area) when it was clear that things would not improve.
So what was good? It’s always fascinating to see a big crowd and people excited. The jammed-up-tight Metro ride had its own sort of intrigue and excitement as we and countless others had other body parts squished against the train cars’ walls to get to the rally. As the cliche goes, excitement was in the air and people were feeling good. Early tallies suggest that the rally attracted around 150,000 people and the photo below would seem to confirm that number and suggest that there were in fact many more attendees. I must admit that I was surprised by how the racial diversity at the rally was low. It was mostly white people, which for the D.C. area is not very representative of the diversity of people here.
As for the signs, I took photos of the ones I could, and I thought it was interesting how many related to animals in some way or another. Stephen Colbert often likes to say that bears are ruthless killers, so that’s clearly where the bear signs came from, but others were weird in a nice way.
Without further ado, here are the best photos we took (the other two I placed above were pulled from the internet– they seem to be quasi-official photos of the event). Some are weird and funny signs, and others are challenging to understand. I will provide some commentary where I see fit.
Good sign. 
What does this mean anyway? 
So true. 
What's this guy's costume? 
There's a lesson here. 
Not actually a very good threat in my estimation. 
Funny-- although clearly most people weren't as appreciative of the Stephen Colbert Restore Fear aspect of things 
Like the message but don't understand the witch picture. 
Not my favorite. 
WTF? 
Good sign I thought for any political rally. 
For posterity. 
Weird sign, but interesting. 
Another "what made you think this was funny sign?" Although I like Tom Selleck. 
Another good sign for just about any rally. 
Too many concepts here I think. 
Have heard this before, but still a good sign. 
This actually was breaking in spirit with the Rally's intention, but I thought it was funny. I guess it does fit Stephen Colbert's fear rally. 
Concise and appropriate.
Levi Novey 
Nice pics. The witch sign I think is a reference to Christine O’Donnell.
I watched the rally on C-SPAN and I have to say that until Jon Stewart’s speech at the very end, there wasn’t much worth watching. The banter between Colbert and Stewart was forced, and the musical acts were for the most part stodgy. There was one decent video montage right before Stewart’s speech showing the silliness of the media.
In any case, I recognize that being there would’ve brought a lot more to the experience than a C-SPAN broadcast.
News media this AM made it seem like a BFD but we were not there, were we? Best part of rally: Levi Novey’s photos and comments available on his web site.
“Ape Shall Not Kill Ape” is the Planet of the Apes version of the human Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” Probably a nerdy anti-war reference. The more you know!