Last Night Wasn’t the First Time Jon Stewart Accidentally Cut Himself During ‘The Daily Show’
“Late Night Talk Show Host” isn’t generally considered to be one of the most dangerous professions. At least not now that the job rarely requires hosts to come into close contact with Crispin Glover.
But last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart’s segment about Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts ended with a literal cut.
The problems began when Stewart brought out his “Wanna Be An Accountant Starter Kit” to see if he could help DOGE find some areas where government spending could be reined in. After hammering away on a calculator, next to a “World’s Most Dad” mug, while wearing green visor, Stewart pointed out that while Musk has targeted things like “VA nurses” and “iguana STD studies,” the government spends billions subsidizing oil companies and Big Pharma, who in turn, reward the Americans whose tax money bankrolls their industry with their “highest drug prices in the Western hemisphere.” Not to mention the trillions on a completely useless fighter jet,
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While making a point about Biden’s ineffectiveness to curb pharmaceutical companies’ rampant exploitation, Stewart picked up his mug and smashed it to pieces. At that point he lowered his right hand below the desk and told the audience: “I’ll be going to the hospital soon.”
While it seemed like he was joking, later in the segment, he raised the same hand above the desk revealing that it was dripping with blood. As the audience gasped, Stewart bellowed, “It’s fine!” and continued with the show.
It’s unclear whether or not the mug smashing part of the monologue was a pre-arranged bit that just went wrong, or a moment of genuine passion. Regardless, oddly enough, this isn’t actually the first time that Stewart cut himself with a prop during The Daily Show. Back in 2011, Stewart poked fun at Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal with a sketch that found him making margaritas during a mock press conference; Stewart had previously been accused of going too easy on Weiner, who he considered a friend. Unfortunately, during the taping, the blender wouldn’t turn off. So Stewart tried hitting it with a margarita glass, which it should be noted, is not an effective method of appliance repair.
The glass shattered and cut Stewart’s wrist, and not unlike last night, he told the crowd, “That's not good. I'm probably going to need to go to the hospital.” Stewart was soon joined by John Oliver, who couldn’t help but add a reference to his “visibly, visibly injured hand” into the pre-prepared lines. At least a producer tossed the host a towel to mop up the blood.
Although he took a 10-minute break to get bandaged up, Stewart still finished the show. Comedy Central even used the incident to promote the episode, tweeting: “Why is Jon Stewart bleeding? Tune in tonight to find out.”
Which, come to think of it, may be how Jay Leno should start advertising his stand-up tour.
