There are few events that could bring together figures so diverse, (metal legend Ozzy Ozborn, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “Law and Order” star Sam Waterston, and R2D2) but the rally held by political satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert somehow accomplished this feat.

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear at the National Mall on October 30 shifted seamlessly between social commentary and comedy. Humorists Stewart and Colbert host adjacent commentary shows on Comedy Central daily. The two hosts were originally planning two separate events, Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and Colbert’s March to Keep Fear Alive, but since they were aimed at the same audience, they decided to combine the events.

The rally started at noon, beginning with performances by John Legend and The Roots. After that, Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman conducted experiments with the crowd estimated at over 220,000. Colbert and Stewart then entered and began their mix of witty observation and humorous remarks, with several musical performances in between.

Colbert, who satirizes right-wing news pundits such as Bill O’Reilly, demanded that the mass media must keep fear alive and ensure that the public is afraid of everything from killer bees to flip flops.

Conversely, Stewart argued for a return to reasonableness, saying that compromise was necessary to achieve anything in a democracy. He also condemned the 24-hour cable news cycle for polarizing politics by hiring fear-mongering “experts” as analysts.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing” said Stewart during the rally. “We can have animus, but not be enemies.”

He then likened necessary compromises to cars merging into single-lane traffic upon entering a tunnel, and said he was tired of a political climate were parties are unwilling to be open to new ideas or concede their points of view.

The event was really a rally against rallies, a way for people to express their dissatisfaction with the current state of politics and the media characterized as “hyper-polarized.” Attendees held up signs mocking other protest signs, demanding “Death to Nobody,” and “I’m Pretty Content, Actually.”

Overall, the rally was a tremendous success. The gigantic crowds that gathered proved that Americans wish that politics would be more accessible and less argumentative, in order to accomplish what needs to be accomplished for the sake of the nation.

“We’re proud of ourselves,” said Stewart, in a post-rally interview. “For us, the success was the execution of the idea and the intention.”