Comedy saves America: the Stewart and Colbert rallies

Oh how happy and glee filled are the teabaggers when the ridicule, disrespect, smear and lie about the President of the United States and how angry they are when someone satirizes them. A shining example of their hateful, mean spirited "Christian love" to say nothing of their own hypocrisy.

Stephen Colbert shouldn't even be promoted by people who claim to be Christian. He claims to be a Christian; but, he has a rather filthy heart.

Posted by: joe_allen_doty

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areyousaying your small and shallow god deputized you to see into the hearts of others and determine who is "Christian" and whose not?

Or maybe you're just another ignorant lemming teabagger who uses Rove's tired old wedge-issue witchcraft to smear and libel others.

As a Stewart and Colbert follower, at least our "religion" isn't some middle-eastern, bronze-age, bullsh*t.

...and unlike most Christians, we're college educated.

@eezmamata: Bull.

The cow knows *SHE* is a cow.

Remember how outraged the conservatives were when the liberals were picking on them for their rally. And now here they are today, doing the very same thing.

Really, what's the difference between a conservative and a cow?

The cow knows he's a cow.

Love it. I'm organizing "Seminarians Supporting Stephen" and "Students Sticking with Stewart" on Facebook.

I can't wait for the "dueling rallies." This the best news I have heard for a long time. A little comedy can do a lot to adjust your perspective. This is the best Stewart/Colbert can do for America. Let's hope it goes a long way to tone down the vindictiveness and rancor sown by Beck, Palin, and their Teaparty friends.

Stephen Colbert shouldn't even be promoted by people who claim to be Christian. He claims to be a Christian; but, he has a rather filthy heart.

Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."

A Believer (Correct Bible name for Jesus' followers) in Jesus who has the right relationship with him would never talk like Colbert does even on a TV show.

I don't recall who first pointed this out some years ago, but in 1994 when Republicans gained the majority in Congress for the first time in about 40 years, Newt Gingrich advised his newly elected colleagues not to take up residency in Washington lest it corrupt them. That advice is partially to blame for much of the rancor and distrust in Congress that's made compromise harder even before the current Republican caucus settled on its "just say no" tactic, placing partisanship ahead of patriotism. Prior to then, it was common for members of Congress with opposing political philosophies to become acquainted in the communities in which they lived. A prime example is the friendship that developed between the late extreme liberal Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy and the very conservative former Wyoming Republican Senator Alan Simpson. Members of Congress no longer get to meet at their kids school events or have the opportunity to chat over dinner. Instead they've flown off to their home towns.

When Senate Republicans unanimously began saying NO to every Democratic proposal from the beginning of Obama's term, I am dismayed that the public and the media did not cry out that democracy cannot work when grown Senators throw childish tantrums. Refusing to play is infantile, and I fear that we are really, in Robert Bly's words, a nation of adolescents.

Apparently Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are as close as liberals get to religion these days.

how about, "liberalism sucks"

I'm planning to attend--if it's a nice day. Some of the signs I am considering making to carry:

I'm not angry--is that okay?
Was I supposed to come in costume?
Veterans for smilies!

Anyone else have suggestions?

Well looky looky, Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber...two of the most arrogant left wingnuts on cable TV are going to have a rally in DC.

Many, many Liberal Loonies will attend and bring their hate signs too. These Demorat Socialists are so enamored with Barak Hussein Obamamama that they would (and will) follow him into oblivion in 2012.

The New York Times has a poll out this morning talking about the disaffection of women voters, that they are so turned off by the politics this season that they're not likely to even vote - and while Stewart and Colbert may have patriotic intent in their rallying, they might well overlook this most significant demographic.
Not that the election is their responsibility to win or lose, it's all of ours as voters.
Satire can be overdone, and taken TOO seriously, and then it becomes a sad commentary on what we've lost in our efforts to make a difference - I sure hope they don't go there...

bproulx45 I resemble your remark. My mother put a leash on me when I decided to climb into a bear enclosure at a zoo. I was 3 yo at the time. I still have my leash. But my dogs don't wear sweaters.

joebanks No, Jon and Stephen can't change the minds of these people because they don't actually use their minds. What Jon and Stephen want to do is get the rest of us out to vote. We outnumber the wingnuts. Let's show them we are still in charge.

Hu10, Perhaps you might want to finish grade school before you post a comment. Your teacher will be able to help you correct your grammatical and spelling errors. I know English is a complicated language, but you can learn it if you apply yourself.

Thank you for making this point in such an eloquent fashion. Comedy has long been a mechanism for diffusing fear and paranoia. Stewart, Colbert and their respective staff writers do a masterful job pointing out the lunacy of today's political environment. Unfortunately, Democrats and Republicans are providing way too much material.

Using humor in religious teachings is always a winning strategy, in my experience. My children could always tell tell me the topic of Sunday's sermon when it started with a funny story. My family was lucky to have priests that infused humor into their weekly sermons and everyday interactions with people.

The Tea Party folks would like us to think of themselves as somehow the heirs of the Boston Tea-Partiers...you know, the guys who threw the tea into Boston Harbor so long ago.

Actually they put me more in mind of another tea party: the one that Alice attends in Wonderland, with Glenn Beck perfectly cast as the Mad Hatter. I still haven't figured out who the other characters might be, but I'm sure that Sarah Palin ain't Alice. Maybe the Queen of Hearts (who isn't actually at the party, but is always somehow present in the story, much like Sarah is in the media)?

And folks like HU10 must have been in Jonathan Swift's mind when he wrote about the Yahoos.

I'm sorry but I have very grave doubts about this being the panacea of good will you expect. We reached a moment a few years back when the sides polarized, the right wing decided truth was irrelevant and discussion ended.

I fear that humor, as a tool, has become ineffective. Religious fervor, which the GOP has been cultivating for 40 years only values total fidelity. They feel the left is evil and only rigid vigilance at any cost is proper. Saying "no" is the only virtue. Since mutual respect and rational discourse are weak and backsliding, and humor requires at least the momentary ability to wear the other guy's shoes, the right wing will be diligent in it's gravity.

Will Rogers made jokes that both sides found funny because the truth they exposed was inescapable ("I belong to no organized party...I'm a democrat"). Stewart is cut from the same cloth and is, if anything, more respectful and deferential than Rogers, but neocon humorlessness is implacable. Today's right wing, with it's win-at-any-cost mentality and eagerness to trash the law of the land when it is inconvenient, finds it acceptable and effective to deny and deride whatever it doesn't like. Moreover, the Fox media bubble most teabaggers exist in will prevent them from seeing most of what Colbert and Stewart have to offer. Most of them will never have a chance to make up their own minds for themselves because they won't leave their carefully and deceitfully edited Fox/Rush lives.

Your evoking a world where humor can deflate tension is lovely...too bad it doesn't exist today. Would humor have stopped Nazis or Fascists or Communists? There are none so blind as those who will not see and the tea party, by definition and composition, will NOT acknowledge any variation as valid: it spends most of it's time denying what is clearly seen by everyone else and the rest of the time creating a fog of fallacy.

Stewart and Colbert can do NOTHING to change the minds, or persuade or even calm these loons. At least the rest of us will get a good laugh.

My wife said it the best: This country was lost when dogs started wearing sweaters and kids started wearing leashes. If anyone CAN save this country it's probably going to be Stewart and Colbert.

Does Jon Stewart still award the dooshbag of liberty? I have to live overseas right now, I don't get to watch anymore.

I had to misspell that word, somehow the wapo management worries that too many people will be upset by it. Maybe they should get a group dooshbag of liberty award.

Will the humor include cartoons?

When people incredulously ask me who could possibly be making up the masses that believe FOX and Beck and their cohorts, I can now just show them HU10's post as a visual reference: people with, the inability to think for themselves or form coherent philosophies based on reason and reality, with below average reading comprehension skills and even worse spelling. In short, those who sit at home, dutifully sitting through commercials, playing along at home and consistently reminded that they are NOT smarter than a 5th grader.

Ha ha ha Hu10 at September 20, 2010 9:21 AM! You are such the redneck racist assswipe. Ha ha ha

When will thinking Americans stop believing the crap these guys and gals spew they are at least just readers of humor wrote by someone else never there words and thoughts so stuff it i saw that wrote somewhere.And as for the white house they are clowns on vacation and hate America.have a cig and contemplate that bama the clown.

Yes it does, that idiotic unsubstantiated post by pauldia at September 20, 2010 8:21 AM has me in stitches.

The problem with Angle's reference to armed rebellion and Palin's cry to "reload" is that some of their stupid lemmings take these literally.

Is witchcraft being practiced in the White House???

Obama Mom-In-Law Practicing Witchcraft?
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Marian Robinson

Barack Obama is reportedly steaming mad after learning that his mother-in-law is openly practicing Santeria in the White House.

72-year-old Marian Robinson, who lives in the White House and looks after Obama brats Sasha and Malia, began practicing the Afro-Hispanic witchcraft in the late 1980′s to help her ailing husband, who was crippled from multiple sclerosis. Robinson took him “to ceremonies where they did spells and trances, and sacrificed animals, chickens and goats,” which upset Michelle, a close friend reports. “But Marian was desperate and kept going anyway, even when her husband was to sick to go with her.” Michelle never brought up the incidents after her father passed away in 1993.

The friend says Robinson is now afraid for her health and recently invited an old friend with whom she practiced Santeria with to the White House. Michelle is said to have “flipped” when she saw the woman.
Michelle & Mom

Michelle & Mom

Obama “is quite upset about this on two different levels. First, he is a committed Christian, no matter what his critics say about Reverend Wright. He is adamant that Sasha and Malia be raised with Christian influences. He does not want them to be involved with African voodoo. And secondly, he is worried about the political fallout if his enemies get wind of this. Rev. Wright was bad enough, but this would be political suicide,” a close friend of Michelle’s confided.

Obama reportedly has told Michelle that her mother will have to go back to Chicago if she does not “stop this witchcraft mumbo-jumbo immediately” and ordered the Secret Service to not allow Marian’s friend to return to the White House.

God bless Stewart and Colbert, two of the smartest and funniest people around. I especially love the Keeping Fear Alive idea. Brilliant. When I hear morons like Sharron Angle (GOP senatorial candidate) talk on right-wing shows about the second amendment option--violence with firearms in case her party doesn't win the elections it wants to--I don't think that she literally expects her fans to burn cities or capture Dems. What IS scary is the new low that many right-wing pols will stoop to in order to appeal to the knuckle-draggers among us. Gingrich calling Obama hard or impossible to understand. Angle with her references to armed rebellion. Meanwhile, my life hasn't changed much since Obama took office, and the same is true for everyone I know. Again, many thanks to Steward and Colbert.

Thanks so much for posting this! I taught humor theory for many years, and was always disappointed at the lack of material on theology and comedy.