Of course, no one could see a thing. The acoustics were nonexistent. And, my God, the traffic? Don't ask. Yet never was a crowd more content.

When Jon Stewart announced in September that he would hold a Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington's National Mall, the media's reaction ranged from eh? to d'oh! What did that even mean? Didn't only rabid rightwingers have enough rage these days to attend rallies? Was Stewart approaching the edge of professional neutrality and about to plunge into the icy waters of political propagandist, such as Fox News's Glenn Beck?

But at the event itself on a warm autumn afternoon, all the anticipatory handwringing felt like little more than a tempest at a tea party. Flooded with what early estimates put at 200,000 people, or what Stewart's comedy colleague and rally co-host Stephen Colbert described as "six billion", the Mall radiated calm good humour.

In regards to how "political" the event was intended to be, the crowd's placards – as seems to be the rule now for American rallies – told the real story. Yes, there were some rabidly anti-rightwing sentiments ("OMG GOP WTF"); there were also plenty of representatives from I'm-just-here-for-the-jokes ("Where's my car?").

But most asked – politely, humorously and correctly spelled – for the kind of moderation Stewart was advocating: "Maybe you're wrong, maybe I'm wrong – let's grab a beer"; "The founding fathers were east coast liberals"; "I masturbate and I vote (but not usually at the same time.)"

This moderation extended to the crowd's behaviour, even when faced with certain events that would have tried the endurance of angels. Making a presumably unintended echo of Stewart's The Daily Show, the celebrity guests seemed to function solely to make you wish Stewart was soliloquising. In a moment no human should have to endure, Kid Rock took to the stage and, piling cruelty on top of torture, announced "Ladies and gentlemen – Sheryl Crow!"

Yet a group of emo teenagers merely rolled their eyes (whereas at least one journalist considered an emo-style act of self-slaughter), but respectfully waited for their beloved Stewart and Colbert to return, which they did, with merciful speed.

While the media were exercised about Stewart's possible politicisation, when he announced towards the end that he was to conclude with "a keynote speech", in a voice that suggested any hint of irony was merely a fig leaf, the crowd fell silent and still.

There were no jokes about Christine O'Donnell, no complaints about Obama. Yet this will prove of no solace to the media because they were the targets of Stewart's anger – both the left and the right. "We hear every damn day how fragile our country is," he said, nigh-on presidential candidatedly. "But we work together to get things done, every damn day. The only place we don't is here," he said pointing to the Capitol behind him, in a gesture that will doubtless be spun by Fox as un-American, "and on cable television … If we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together". Never mind the jokes, never mind the politics: this, truly, was the Obama (circa 2008) moment that the crowd came for, and one could almost feel the vibrations of gratitude. That Stewart then gave a final humorous twist – "sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is not the promised land – it's just New Jersey" – kept him anchored in his satirist role.

Within an hour, Stewart's points about the ridiculousness of the American media were confirmed on, yes, both the right ("Jon Stewart poking fun at the news … how incredibly novel of him," sniffed Fox News) and the left. MSNBC's resident ranter and news commentator Keith Olbermann – who once described a Republican senator as "an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model" – tweeted his umbrage at Stewart's intimation that he is unhelpfully hyperbolic, possibly before smashing his Blackberry underfoot. The website Gawker snarked that the free buses laid on by the Huffington Post to take New Yorkers to the rally arrived a little late because, truly, there is nothing funnier than a free shuttle service getting caught in traffic. But once again, the real story was in the crowds. After the rally finished, with a does-the-job America the Beautiful from Tony Bennett, seemingly all 200,000 people headed to the metro station, where staff were apparently unaware that a rally had been happening. There was a near-crush in the ticket hall, only three turnstiles were working and the trains were sporadic. But, maybe because they were freshly steeped in the day, or maybe because Stewart simply spoke the truth, everyone let one another through, one at a time, working together.