[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVawARS2oCQ&w=500&h=307&rel=0]
Later today (starting around noon) Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert–both mainstream liberal comedians, media critics and Barack Obama partisans–aided by tens of thousands of their viewers (supporters?) will try to both outdo and lampoon the antics of rightwing entertainer Glenn Beck (and the Republican Party/Tea Party) with their “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” on the Mall in Washington D.C. The event’s purpose remains murky but that has not stopped thousands from committing themselves from braving snarled traffic and unreliable train schedules to get to the US capital. By tonight the TV pundits would have had their way with the event’s meaning and impact. So before you surrender your critical faculties to bloviating pundits, feast on this video of “A Conversation About Comedy and Politics” that I helped organize with a New School graduate student Lorena Ruiz in late September. (Lorena started thinking about this in the Spring already.) Predictably, because of its timing, the speakers (and the audience during question time) spent much time reflecting and previewing today’s DC rally. The panel features an excellent cast: The Gregory Brothers (the guys behind Autotune and “The Bed Intruder Song” with Antoine Dodson), Onion senior editor Baratunde Thurston, former Daily News and Colbert Report producer Dan Powell, and humorist Steve Almond. It’s definitely worth your time. After the necessary introductions, the action starts about 4 minutes into the video. Ribald comedy and spot-on analyses ensue for the next hour and a half. — Sean Jacobs