Stewart, Colbert to Rally at Lincoln Memorial

Last night, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced that they would hold sort-of-but-not-really-competing rallies at the Lincoln Memorial on October 30th.

Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” will be the voice of reason countering Colbert’s alarmist “March to Keep Fear Alive.” It’s a real-life satire ofGlenn Beck’sTea Party demonstration called “Restoring Honor”held on the National mall this past August.And itbrings Comedy Central’scontinued lampooning of absurd punditry and broken politics to a whole new level.

TheLincoln Memorialis America’ssoap box. Most famously, in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech catapulted the efforts of the Civil Rightsmovement, andit helped make thememorial one of the country’smostpowerful architectural symbols.It’s without a doubt a solemn space for Americans, but not onethe comedy worldhasn’t touched before. After all, Legally Blonde’scartoonish “Elle Woods” and the actual cartoon Lisa Simpson have both found inspiration there. Who knows if history will be made thereon October 30th, but we can probably count on Colbert and Stewart being pretty funny.

A few years ago, as part of our series American Icons, Studio 360 devoted a wholehourto the Memorial, in which Kurt Andersen looked at what makes it the place to give a speech.

This fall, our Peabody Award-winning series returns. Studio 360 will bring you stories on I Love Lucy, Jimi Hendrix’s “Star-Spangled Banner,” the Harley-Davidson, and that other piece of architectural Americana, Monticello (an episode that, coincidentally, features Stephen Colbert). American Icons picks up next week with the premiere of our one-hourepisodeon The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Don’t miss it!