Friend of the blog Rachel Sklar contributed to an extensive article on Jon Stewart in the November/December edition of Moment (“Jewish politics, culture, religion”), containing some interesting stories about Jon’s history, etc.:
Meet Jonathan Stuart Liebowitz (aka) Jon Stewart
The wildly zeitgeisty Daily Show host
By Jeremy Gillick and Nonna Gorilovskaya
On January 11, 1999, a nervous 37-year-old comedian who could have passed for a college student settled into a host’s chair that was too high, wearing a gray suit that looked too large. “Honestly, I feel like this is my bar mitzvah,” he told actor Michael J. Fox, the guest sitting opposite him. “I’ve never worn something like this, and I have a rash like you wouldn’t believe.”
The rookie was Jon Stewart, and he was making his debut as the anchorman of Comedy Central’s two-year-old The Daily Show. It was not his dream job: That one had gone to his predecessor Craig Kilborn, who had taken his frat-boy act to CBS’ Late Late Show—one of several gigs for which Stewart had been passed over.
Stewart then proceeded to dole out The Daily Show’s usual sophomoric fare: That night, it was the engagement announcement of cartoon characters Popeye and Olive Oyl (complete with mandatory wedding night joke). The show’s celebrity correspondent filed an interview with the aging actors who played munchkins in The Wizard of Oz—“dwarf porn” and “dwarf tossing” were among the topics. But even on day one, the best part of the show was Stewart’s commentary on the headlines, then consumed by President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. “The important issue facing the U.S. Senate is how can it take a pointless, tawdry trial whose outcome has already been decided and make it last for six hilarious, humiliating months,” he intoned.
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I’m not sure why, but I think my favorite tidbit of info from this piece might have been in learning about the “Liebo award”, still given annually to one of William and Mary’s soccer players!
that’s quite the article- more comprehensive than his wikipedia page! it’s got a lot of quotes from all sorts of people!
fact check: they place a Jon Oliver interview in 2001, which makes no sense. it actually occurred in 2007. AND Stephen Colbert didn’t really play an O’Reilly character while he was on TDS…he was much more correspondenty than that…
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The article stated that Jon Stewart is relatively mum on his personal political beliefs, but did anyone catch his brief admission on his show last week that he would have voted for McCain in 2000? Did I hear that right? Just thought that was interesting.
“Jon is admirably balanced,” Colbert has said, explaining that Stewart always tries to get at the “the true intention of the person speaking, left or right” in order “to be able to honestly mock.”
I think they pulled that from the Charlie Rose interview. Am I right? Just want to know how closely I cling to Stephen’s every word:)
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“The article stated that Jon Stewart is relatively mum on his personal political beliefs, but did anyone catch his brief admission on his show last week that he would have voted for McCain in 2000? Did I hear that right? Just thought that was interesting.”
I did, and I would have, too, and I consider myself a liberal. McCain’s biggest mistake was trusting himself to the same people Bush did. His concession speech was the best speech I’d heard McCain give during his campaign, sadly.
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I totally agree. It sounded a lot more like his pre-campaign self, which is the John McCain, I presume, Jon admires.
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Great article! Thank you for sharing it here.
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That was a very unexpectedly lengthy and fascinating article! This just proves to me how much I’m going to plotz when Jon writes a memoir someday. I mean, I truly hope he plans to write one someday because we really know so little about his personal thoughts on his background. He’s kept himself to himself very well, and he’s entitled to that, but I sure would like to read some of his favorite personal stories about growing up the way he did.
Funny, I just realized that if neither Jon nor Stephen had come down with some physical ailment(Stephen his ear and Jon his knee) we might not have the comedians we have today!
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A brilliant fact-filled history of Jon! Fantastic! Thanks so much for posting it and bravo to all of the writers and researchers who contributed to it. Well done!
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