Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
	Poster for the rally
Date	October 30, 2010
Location	The National Mall, Washington, D.C.; Satellite rallies in 20 or more U.S. cities including Austin, Texas; Los Angeles; Burlington, Vermont; Chicago; Denver; Honolulu and Boise, Idaho;
Participants	Hosts ; Stephen Colbert; Jon Stewart Featured guests ; The MythBusters (Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman); Don Novello; Sam Waterston; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Musical performers ; The Roots and John Legend; 4troops; Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples; Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow; Ozzy Osbourne, Yusuf Islam and The O'Jays; Tony Bennett
Website	Official website

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was a gathering that took place on October 30, 2010, at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The rally was led by Jon Stewart, host of the satirical news program The Daily Show, and Stephen Colbert, in-character as a conservative political pundit, as on his program The Colbert Report, both then seen on Comedy Central.^[2] About 215,000 people attended the rally, according to aerial photography analysis by AirPhotosLive.com for CBS News.^[3]

The rally was a combination of what initially were announced as separate events: Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" and Colbert's counterpart, the "March to Keep Fear Alive". Its stated purpose was to provide a venue for attendees to be heard above what Stewart described as the more vocal and extreme 15–20% of Americans who "control the conversation" of American politics,^[4] the argument being that these extremes demonize each other and engage in counterproductive actions, with a return to sanity intended to promote reasoned discussion. Despite news reports' description of the rally as a spoof of Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally and Al Sharpton's Reclaim the Dream rally, and the logo's striking similarity to that of the Restoring Honor rally, Stewart insisted the contrary.^[5]^[6]

^ Steffen, Jordan; Gold, Matea (October 31, 2010). "Team Sanity numbers more than 200,000, by some estimates". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Interactive. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
^ "200K turn out to 'Restore Sanity' in Washington". Toronto Sun. October 30, 2010.
^ Montopoli, Brian (October 30, 2010). "Jon Stewart Rally Attracts Estimated 215,000". CBS News.
^ "US comics unveil dueling DC political rallies". Agence France-Presse. September 17, 2010. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
^ Cite error: The named reference NBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Jon Stewart: Rallies Not a Response to Glenn Beck". Rolling Stone. September 30, 2010. Archived from the original on October 2, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2011.

[1] Steffen, Jordan; Gold, Matea (October 31, 2010). "Team Sanity numbers more than 200,000, by some estimates". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Interactive. Retrieved November 14, 2011.

[torontosun-2] "200K turn out to 'Restore Sanity' in Washington". Toronto Sun. October 30, 2010.

[cbs-size-3] Montopoli, Brian (October 30, 2010). "Jon Stewart Rally Attracts Estimated 215,000". CBS News.

[AFP-4] "US comics unveil dueling DC political rallies". Agence France-Presse. September 17, 2010. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2011.

[NBC-5] Cite error: The named reference NBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[6] "Jon Stewart: Rallies Not a Response to Glenn Beck". Rolling Stone. September 30, 2010. Archived from the original on October 2, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2011.

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