"Give Us This Day Our Daily Show"

Mr. Fish:

Political comedy, without practical application within a political strategy, will merely satiate our hunger for real change with a punch line and rob us of our sensitivity to any number of social and political injustices. Remember that levity provides a biochemical relief to our physiologies. It tells our insides that all is well and that there is happiness in our lives and that being buoyed by this temporary joy is justified by its own ends. Only when a wound is allowed to remain open and some measure of discomfort is permitted to pester our morality will we act to seek a solution to eliminating our pain and the pain that we empathetically feel in others.

“I’m sure a lot of you were just here to have a nice time, and I hope you did,” intoned Stewart from the stage at the end of his rally, groping comedically for a reason why the event was organized and also why the overwhelming majority of his audience showed up to watch it. Such a banal and grandmotherly adieu left me to wonder if Americans shouldn’t be looking for a more profound reason to stand shoulder to shoulder in a crowd of 250,000, in their nation’s capital, carrying signs and wearing T-shirts demanding peace, love and understanding in every way possible, than just to have a nice time.

Contrary to the mood of those surrounding me, those who were continuously waving at themselves on the immense monitors set up all over the Mall, I refused to fool myself into thinking, even for a historical moment, that we were just too big to fail. MORE...

Howie P.S.: The author, Mr. Fish, is a cartoonist. I think the "Rally" was helpful. However it will fail, by itself, to achieve its stated goal.