Sanity, Fear, And Sanchez: The Year’s Top Moments In Stewart/Colbert (VIDEOS)

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had an unusually controversial year. In the past they’ve simply been award-winning Comedy Central funny men. But in 2010 they were everything from cable news targets to sanity restorers to policy advocates to subjects of congressional ire — all the while staying award-winning Comedy Central funny men.

Here are TPM’s five favorite moments from their year…

In March, Jon Stewart unveiled an epic impression of bespectacled and be-crazied Fox News host Glenn Beck, and used Beck’s inimitable (er, very-easily-imitable) style to unveil the ultimate conspiracy: Bert, from Sesame Street, is actually Hitler. “I’m sorry. I promised myself that I would cry,” Stewart said, forcing the tears to come.

Over the next few months, Jon brought back the act, once to help him follow the money…directly from Fox News to the GOP, and another time to prove that Glenn Beck is actually a puppet sent by George Soros to discredit Rupert Murdoch.

Here’s the original segment:

Many a cable news host has been taken down by Jon Stewart (see: Crossfire, Jim Cramer, etc.). But few wallopings were as self-inflicted as that of CNN host Rick Sanchez. Stewart had long made Sanchez a target for, among other things, agreeing to be tased on his show. And Sanchez was apparently more than a little bitter about it, going on a radio show in October and calling Jon a “bigot” — then implying that the Jews run CNN. Sanchez apologized to Stewart and Stewart accepted … but Sanch was still fired.

Here’s the Sanchez interview:

And here’s Jon’s response after Sanchez was canned, noting that the whole flap “is perhaps a chance for all of us to get in touch with not our dirtier, but our better Sanchezes.”

As Stewart put it back in September, Stephen Colbert “ruined Congress” by testifying on Capitol Hill on behalf of the United Farm Workers Union — or at least that’s what the cable news networks and House members like Steny Hoyer and Steve King would have had you believe. Colbert was testifying about an Ag jobs bill before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, after he worked a day over the summer as a migrant farm worker. “This is America,” Colbert said in his opening statement. “I don’t want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American. Then sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.”

Here’s the video of his full opening remarks:

[TPM SLIDESHOW: The Whole Truthiness: Stephen Colbert Testifies On Capitol Hill]

And here’s Colbert being questioned by members of the Committee, including King (R-IA), who was no doubt incensed when Stephen described his work on the farm as “packing corn. I was a corn-packer.”

“I know that term is offensive, to some people, because corn-packer is a derogatory term for a gay Iowan.”

As we’ve seen over the past year, getting Congress to pass certain things is like trying to pull teeth from a toothless lion. Which made it even more impressive that Stewart was able to play a pretty big role in eventually getting the Senate to pass a bill in the lame duck Congress (or “lame-as-fuck Congress,” as he put it), that would provide health care to 9/11 first responders. First he attacked Senate Republicans for constantly invoking 9/11 for political reasons — except in this case. “You know what, Republicans, you use it so much, if you don’t owe the 9/11 responders health care, at least you owe them royalties,” Jon said.

Watch:

But what really got everyone’s attention was when he devoted part of his show to talking with several first responders, all of whom are now dying from illnesses related to their work at Ground Zero.

Here’s the video:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs noticed, saying of Stewart: “I think he has put the awareness around this legislation. He’s put that awareness into what you guys cover each day, and I think that’s good.”

And finally, there was the Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear, the perhaps inevitable culmination of Stewart and Colbert’s popularity. The October rally is estimated to have drawn in more than 200,000 people — way more than Glenn Beck’s 9/12 movement rally back in August — and many of whom came bearing ironic Tea Party-esque signs.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Reader Photos From The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear]

Though there was speculation and hand-wringing over whether the rally would be political, Jon put it simply: “I’m really happy you guys are here, even if none of us are really quite sure why we are here.”

Here is Stewart’s “moment of sincerity” at the end, in which he criticized the sensationalistic media, saying “if we amplify everything, we hear nothing” :