16 Mind-Blowing Daily Show Facts

After 16 years of making us laugh, Jon Stewart is stepping down as the host of the celebrated Daily Show, passing the legacy down to 31-year-old comedian Trevor Noah. During those sweet 16 years, the show has become one of the most loved satirical shows ever, not only providing top notch entertainment to its viewers, but also serving as a powerful tool of social criticism.

Despite having watched so many episodes of the Daily Show, there are still some things that audiences (probably) don’t know about the funny host. As we are about to say farewell to Stewart, let us take a look at some of the most interesting facts about Jon and his show.

1. Jon, whose real name is Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, dropped his surname and legally changed it to Stewart in 2001, after realizing that he and his estranged father would never be able to fix their relationship.

2. Before becoming an international celebrity, Stewart worked as a puppeteer, a busboy and a soccer coach. To make things more interesting, his older brother fired him from his very first job because he destroyed a $10,000 aquarium.

3. Apart from being a successful comedian and host, Stewart also voiced President James A. Garfield for the audiobook version of Assassination Vacation and played Andy Dick’s twin brother in an episode of NewsRadio.

4. Jon Stewart is a man of many talents and cocktail making is one of them. However, not only does he enjoy an occasional mixed alcohol drink, but he also invented his very own cocktail named ‘The Whack in the Head.’

5. As far as love is concerned, Stewart is married to Tracey Lynn McShane, whom he proposed via crossword puzzle in The New York Times. They have been together for almost 20 years and have two children.

6. Although he is known for his straight man behavior, Stewart is not always so calm in real life. For example, he once threw a newspaper at a colleague at a meeting because he was so angry that he didn’t know what else to.

7. The top three most frequent guests on The Daily Show were Brian Williams (appeared in a whopping 22 episodes), Fareed Zakaria (made an appearance in 20 episodes), and Dennis Leary (we had the chance to see him in 19 episodes). Stewart apparently enjoyed their company, but the host said that his favorite guest of all time was definitely Ralph Nader, mainly because of his ‘passion.’

8. In addition to knowing who his favorite guest were, audiences have always been curious to know who Stewart simply couldn’t stand. And the answer is Hugh Grant. Not only did Stewart say that Grant was his least favorite celebrity guest, but he also banned him from the show (Grant was apparently aware of his horrible behavior, seeing as he admitted Stewart was right for criticizing him).

9. Some of you may have noticed that the globes in the opening credits spin the wrong way, but we know someone who definitely paid attention to breaking the laws of physics – Neil deGrasse Tyson, who told Stewart that ‘his Earth is spinning in the wrong direction.’ Ouch.
On the other hand, Stewart must be proud to have an asteroid named after him, “116939 Jonstewart.”

10. Not only was President Barack Obama the first American president to appear on the show (he was Stewart’s guest for a total of 7 times), but he also acknowledged that his Daily Show interview was the ‘toughest’ interview in his 2012 campaign (according to former White House press secretary Jay Carney).

11. Nominated for a total of 60 Emmy Awards, The Daily Show has won 20, including ‘Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Series,’ every year from 2003-2012. Although the longest Emmy winning streak ever was broken by The Colbert Report, the success of The Daily Show is still pretty darn impressive.

12. In 2009, Time conducted an online poll that was supposed to determine who America’s Most Trusted Newscaster was, and no one was surprised to see Jon Stewart’s name at the top of the list. Basically, people trusted him more than literally every newscaster in the country – despite the fact that The Daily Show is not a newscast.

13. We may be sad to see him go, but Jon Stewart is stepping down in big style. He is estimated to leave The Daily Show with a net worth of more than $80 million.

14. A known animal lover, Stewart and his wife bought a New Jersey farm in order to turn it into an animal sanctuary for rescued farm animals. Stewart himself is the proud owner of four dogs, three rabbits, two guinea pigs, two hamsters, two pigs, two fish, and a parrot.

15. Egypt has its very own version of The Daily Show called Al Bernameg and even though the two shows are not affiliated, host Bassem Youssef imitates Stewart’s behavior.

16. Fans of the show were desperate when they found out that Stewart’s famous interview couch was removed from the studio in 2006 and they immediately created a ‘Bring Back the Couch’ campaign. It was later made a prize along with tickets to NYC and some money.