‘NOT FRIENDS’

Marc Maron Reveals Depth of Life-Long Feud With Jon Stewart

The comedian explained why his longtime “nemesis” has never appeared on his podcast.

Marc Maron addressed his long-standing beef with The Daily Show host Jon Stewart on Friday, calling Stewart his “nemesis.”

Maron appeared on NPR’s Wild Card with Rachel Martin podcast, where he said he was “consumed” with “jealousy” over Stewart’s success “for most of my professional life.”

The comedian and host of the popular WTF podcast dished about their relationship through the years. “There was a jealousy to it, but it got consuming. But it went on a long time and he knew it. And we’ve had confrontations about it and we are not friends.” Maron’s disdain for Stewart goes back to the 1990s, when he and Stewart were both vying to be “the king of politics, satire, whatever,” a battle he admitted Stewart decisively won.

“When I was coming up as a comic, he had figured it out,” Maron said. “He had, I always used to think it was just because he committed to a haircut and a way of presenting. But like, he was just everywhere.”

Maron previously acknowledged his early disdain for Stewart when he told The Guardian in 2018, “Jon always represented to me why I was failing… So when I’d see him, I’d act like he was personally destroying me.” That disdain went deep, too—in a 2009 set, Maron referred to Stewart as a “Jewish pander-monkey.” The result today, Maron (who is also Jewish) said Friday, is that, “He does not particularly like me. I don’t think it’s a daily thing, but I annoyed him to the point where that was a reality.”

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Stewart has never addressed the feud publicly, but Maron said he did acknowledge his behavior toward him in a private conversation years ago. He told NPR that when he called to invite Stewart on WTF years ago to apologize on air (as was his custom at the time, unpacking past grievances with the show’s guests), Stewart told him, “‘Hey… I don’t know if you remember, you know, what a d--k you were to me back in the day… there’s no love here, man.’”

Maron never followed up on the request, citing “pride” in 2014, as he felt Stewart made a dig at his podcast at the time. “He said, ‘Look, I’ve always thought you were very creative and I’m sure whatever you’re doing is nice, and if you want to have coffee, I might be willing to do that,’” Maron told Rolling Stone in 2012.

Of course, Maron’s podcast ultimately became a massive success, paving the way for other podcast heavyweights like Joe Rogan. Now, he’s ending the show after 16 years—and denies that Stewart is still a white whale guest for the final run of episodes, saying, “Jon and I had been through it and there’s no relationship there.”

And just as Stewart has never appeared on WTF, Maron has never been a guest on The Daily Show, despite making dozens of late-night appearances with Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, and others.

Maron said he’s since moved past the beef and admitted his behavior was “resentment, insecurity, jealousy,” but social media users noted that his 2015 interview with disgruntled former Daily Show staffer Wyatt Cenac seemed like a pointed move aimed at Stewart.

At the time, Cenac said that Stewart chastised him for speaking up about a racially charged sketch. The hatchet hardly seemed completely buried on Maron’s end Friday, as he shared his glee that even Stewart has resorted to podcasting, particularly amid rumors that The Daily Show could be canceled as a casualty of Paramount’s merger with Skydance.

“Over the arc of it, the fact that he, like everybody, landed with a podcast—that’s satisfying,” Maron said, because “I helped create it.”

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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