Illustration by Nancy Stahl for TIME
This past Halloween, generic costumes were an afterthought for hundreds of thousands of individuals visiting our nation’s capital.
For Americans disheartened by bickering between the left and right sides of the political spectrum, Comedy Central comedians Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart offered a vacation from the norm. The gag gurus stand as a candidate for TIME 2010 Person of the Year after organizing the inaugural Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
(See photos of Stewart and Colbert’s biggest moments.)
The Oct. 30 gathering brought together nearly 215,000 purported pragmatists on Washington D.C.’s National Mall. It provided a venue for “the people who’ve been too busy to go to rallies, who actually have lives and families and jobs (or are looking for jobs)” to voice their concerns.
(See scenes from the Stewart-Colbert rally.)
By event’s end, the most heavily questioned group was neither a political party nor a stumped spectator. It was the mainstream media — guilty of aggrandizing the occasion with weeks of anticipatory coverage. Stewart professed to TIME that “The press is our immune system. If it over-reacts to everything, we get sicker, and maybe eczema.”
(See the top 10 Jon Stewart moments.)
The ‘overreaction’ did little to harm Stewart and Colbert’s reputations. Three days before the 2010 Election, polls were surpassed by the fervor behind their event. It’s no secret that many individuals already turn to fake news first for a take real stories. Nearly 65,000 people have tipped a vote in Stewart and Colbert’s favor. Head over to TIME.com to see the full list of candidates and cast your vote. Or, mobilize others at a TIME Person-of-the-Year meetup spot.