Did Comedy Group Yank 'Obama = Keynesian' Video After Beck Radio/TV Exposure?

We all shared a good laugh at the expense of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert fans shortly after the comedians' "Restoring Sanity and/or Fear" rally when a video of rally-goers berating an "Obama = Keynesian" sign surfaced online. We first noticed the video when Politico's Ben Smith posted it on his blog, as produced by The Partisans of Second City Network -- a comedic enterprise headquartered in Chicago.

The video has been wildly popular on The Blaze (over 130,000 views). Glenn Beck talked about it extensively on radio and TV.

But now Second City seems to have removed the video from their YouTube channel. The version embedded on Ben Smith's blog is now marked "private."

The video was also pulled from Second City's own website, though they do have a post featuring video from Beck's radio program which played the audio of Second City's video.  The video was coupled with a panicked message: "Our video was featured on the Glenn Beck show! WHAT HAVE WE DONE?!!!"

We had updated our Blaze post by swapping in a different YouTube version.  But the other day that video was yanked with a notice that Second City had asked YouTube to remove it.  There are still many other versions on YouTube.

So here's the obvious question:  Why did Second City pull The Partisans' "Restoring Sanity" video?

Commenters on the Second City website have their own theories.

Another commenter suggested the individuals in the video should "sue because they did not have permission from the people on this video to be aired on national tv," they wrote.  "I know one of the people and they were not told it was on tv and I think they should sue the crap out of the person who posted this for damages."

Is that the reason?

Did people who attended the Stewart/Colbert rally threaten to sue?  When they talked to a video crew did they not understand the concept of video?  Or was it only okay when they thought they were lecturing ignorant conservatives?

That could be the simple truth.  Stewart/Colbert fans love videos skewering conservatives.  But they can't stand when they are the ones being skewered.

Requests for comment from Second City have thus far gone unanswered.

We'll keep you posted.