Jon Stewart Admits What He Did Wrong in 2024

Jon Stewart said he “did a lot wrong” this year, while reflecting on the past 12 months during his final Weekly Show podcast episode of 2024.

The Daily Show host admitted he was “annoyed with himself” for a certain type of stubbornness when it comes to his opinions. “I get annoyed at myself for being like a little high horsey—and you get a little of the sanctimony in there. So I try to relax sometimes on the certainty of my opinions and the contrarian thing.”

One of Stewart’s contrarian takes this past year was his defense of Donald Trump’s rally comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who took the stage to perform several racist jokes in October. As many on both the right and left condemned Hinchcliffe’s remarks, Stewart came out in his defense on the Daily Show. “I find that guy very funny,” he said at the time—in a take he was blasted for in an op-ed by ex-employee Wyatt Cenac.

“I really do feel like if you threw me in a room with somebody who wanted to argue AI was gonna destroy us all, I’d be the guy who’d be like, ‘It’ll save us.’ And then you throw me in a room with a guy who’s like, ‘It’ll save us,’ and I’ll be like, ‘It’ll destroy us,’” Stewart explained. “I have a f---ing Fiddler on the Roof problem, which is that ‘on the one hand, but on the other hand.’ So yeah, I’ve done a lot wrong this year, but I’ve had an awful lot of fun doing it.”

Elsewhere in his recap of the year, the host shared who his “favorite billionaire” is. “I wonder if I know more than one,” he said vocally scrolling past one of the most divisive billionaires ever. “I’ve talked to Elon,” he said, but “I’m trying to think if there’s another billionaire.”

“I would say [Jerry] Seinfeld. He’s actually pretty close to probably being a billionaire—and funny as s--t. He might be the funniest billionaire.”

Why? Stewart said that Jerry Seinfeld “generally doesn’t try and chip us, or he doesn’t try and do other billionaire s--t to us. So I give him credit on that, you know. He could.”

But then, when his producers reminded that the addition of Juan Soto at the New York Mets to the tune of $765 million was courtesy of that team’s billionaire owner, Steve Cohen, he changed his answer.

“That is my favorite billionaire,” Stewart said, correcting himself. “Yeah, good to have a billionaire owner of a team you like.”