Monday, November 1, 2010

Sanity Signs

I watched the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on Saturday, sponsored by Comedy Central, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. It was great. There is a wonderful article in Salon Magazine that captured the essence of the event: http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2010/10/30/restore_sanity_television/index.html. And the magazine article had it right - it was goofy at times, odd at times, but overall, quite an event. The Peace Crazy Love Train was especially fun. And Jon Stewart's speech at the end - worth watching. I appreciated this line: "If we amplify everything, we hear nothing." And I loved his reference to traffic that is narrowing to get ready for a tunnel - "you go, then I go, you go, then I go..." and the occasional jerk who drives along the shoulder to take cuts - well, we know he is the exception to the rule - and we certainly don't give him a cable show. Here's the entire speech at the end:



The signs, too, were fun. I saw one: "I believe in Sanity Claus." There was another that had a smiley face with a Hitler mustache. And then here is a list of others that I like, gathered from various sources:

"Patriotism is using your inside voice."

"Hyperbole is the greatest threat of all time!!!"

"Less rhetoric, more cowbell."

"I want my country back or a pony. One of the two."

"Compromise is sexy."

"It appears we disagree. Would you like some pie?"

"Take a deeeeeeep breath."

"I have a sign."

"I respectfully disagree with your opinions but I still value you as a person."

"I'm mad as hell but I'll probably be fine tomorrow."

"Anyone for Scrabble later?" (apparently this sign generated one of the world's largest scrabble games later that day!)

"Somewhat irritated by extreme outrage"

"Is this the line for Justin Bieber tickets?!?"

"No head stomping"

"OMG! Snakes!" on a "Don’t Tread On Me" flag

Well, I think that's enough. The whole event was a lot of fun. Now, let's get sane.

2 comments:

Mary K said...

It was an irreverent and fun event. And a great creative outlet for those of us who are so tired of the way that the media portrays America. I wanted to thank you for giving a nod to my sign (Less Rhetoric, More Cowbell). I'm honored! There were so many amazingly clever and funny signs at the Rally. I was impressed at the creativity of the crowd.

Beth Bollinger said...

Of course! It was that SNL skit all over again - "I need more cow bell!" -

http://www.funnyhub.com/videos/pages/snl-more-cowbell.html