Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart Show Up In NYT Crossword Puzzle (VIDEO)

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart's joint "Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear" has gotten attention in just about every media outlet on the planet. Now, the rally -- and its hosts -- are even showing up in the New York Times' famous crossword puzzle.

Colbert highlighted his debut as a crossword clue on his show Tuesday. He showed the audience a completed crossword puzzle from that morning's Times. The puzzle was littered with references to Colbert, Stewart, the Rally to Restore Sanity and the March to Keep Fear Alive, and even Bill "Papa Bear" O'Reilly.

Colbert wasn't fully satisfied, though.

"Where's my cut, Will?" he asked Times crossword editor Will Shortz. "You're selling puzzles using my rally and Daddy wants a taste of that sweet, sweet crossword cash."

WATCH:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Stephen Appears in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

In a post on the Times' crossword blog Monday, Times writer Will Horne said that, while the puzzle usually tries to avoid topicality, "every now and then, there's an event so significant, so earth-shaking, it must be memorialized right away, and the backstage machinery here at Puzzle Central cranks into high gear."

He said that the real draw for Times puzzlers was the words associated with the two hosts and the rallies. "Constructors are always on the lookout for paired phrases of equal length, and does this theme ever deliver!" Thorne wrote. "It's a gift from the crossword gods. It's almost as if Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert dared Will Shortz with an offer too tempting to refuse."

Writing in the same blog post, Chris Handman, who constructed the actual puzzle (it was also his debut puzzle for the Times), said that he came up with the idea when watching Colbert's show one night, and that he was delighted to find that "Rally To Restore Sanity" and "March To Keep Fear Alive" each have 20 letters. He also noticed many other symmetries:

...Each event begins with a five-letter word, allowing the remaining 15 letters to stretch across the entire length of a standard crossword grid. And to top it all off, it didn't take long to appreciate that "Colbert" and "Stewart" each contained 7 letters, allowing their names to square off against each other in the center of the grid mano a mano.

The Huffington Post is providing buses from New York to Washington, D.C. for the October 30 rallies.

Comments

[funkalicious]

04:02 PM on 10/29/2010

Stewart and Colbert are just pushing the Foppish agenda, the once anti establishment icons are now tools of the establishment. Just another tool for the bullshitters in Washington to use to brainwash the kiddies

[kenhamlett]

10:21 PM on 10/27/2010

I like Jon Stewart, but I also assume he has an agent and a publicist. It would seem that the HuffPost has also decided to take on that role in his career. So be it ....

[MrBiggs]

04:58 PM on 10/28/2010

So he has an agent and publicist but yet you don't understand why he is on HP? Could it have something to do with having an agent and publicist. Wouldn't their job be to gain exposure for him. So basically you just don't like the attention he is getting....

[kenhamlett]

07:42 PM on 10/28/2010

I actually like him quite a lot. But, every day, he has about a dozen stories on the HP. Certainly, press agents and publicists plant stories. That does not mean that media outlets have to print each and every one. The genocide in the Sudan hardly gets mentioned on the HuffPost, but Mr. Stewart, Mr. Colbert, Ms. Palin and Ms. Kardashian get limitless coverage. Seems a little skewed to me, that's all.

[Ted Bouklos]

08:07 PM on 10/27/2010

haha the second and third across the top spell out "papa bear" which is what colbert calls o'reilly

[Tulka2]

05:21 PM on 10/27/2010

It was the Tuesday puzzle which is the easiest of the week, but still, kudos for doing it in ink, baby. Impressive.

[YouDontWantMeHere]

04:29 PM on 10/27/2010

i like NBA tails

[InedaName]

03:46 PM on 10/27/2010

Stephen, if you take the Metro North to Grand Central, be sure to park your car in space #13.

[sixtoes]

11:59 AM on 10/27/2010

Remember after the '06 elections, Howard Dean was on the Daily Show, and he thanked Jon and said "you guys did it for us"? Perhaps Jon, and this time Stephen as well, are going to do it for them again.

[DSOTM]

11:08 AM on 10/27/2010

How could they not have a clue for "Truthiness"

I really wish the Huff Post would stop underlining Truthiness, its not misspelled, its now in Websters.

[pittsburghunionguy]

10:38 AM on 10/27/2010

This must be a VERY slow day at HuffPost.

[DSOTM]

11:09 AM on 10/27/2010

Or maybe your just blind to the significance and intellectual humor of Stewart and Colbert.

[pittsburghunionguy]

12:49 PM on 10/27/2010

Maybe you're just blind to the insignificance of what's in today's crossword puzzle as a news story.

[spitoon]

01:45 PM on 10/27/2010

But it's the comedy section...