Assignment 5-1

A current pop culture topic that has caught my eye lately has to deal with politics and the popularity of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. This weekend in Washington D.C, the pair hosted a rally called “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’’ that drew in about 150,000 to 200,000 individuals. People held up signs and dressed up as various things like aliens, pirates and giant tea bags. The signs read (“SOMEWHAT IRRITATED BY EXTREME OUTRAGE’’) to the ridiculous (“Squirrels for Sanity’’). One person was dressed as a Banana holding a sign that read “God Hates Apples”. It was a political rally without the politics, mostly a comedy standup that involved the audience. Now both Jon Steward and Steven Colbert played their typical characters from the show on Comedy central, blasting political satire and Jon left with the message of “We can disagree without being disagreeable. When everything is amplified, we hear nothing”. What interested me in this article is the drawing power these two comedians have in the political world. The exposure that modern media has provided for these comedians has allowed them to become as popular as they are today. The power of popular culture has propelled both Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart into a position of power with the younger political audience, with me being one of them. The rally even had several celebrity appearances like Ozzy Osbourne, Cat Stevens, Sherly Crow and Kid Rock. Now politics have always been popular culture but never political satire on this scale. Both of these comedians could run for a seat on the senate and probably win them. Fans of the show have been even asking for Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert to run as a presidential candidate. I feel that as long as both of these comedians stay in the show light, popular culture will increase their political power and how much clout they have to toss around. The article can be found here at this link.