Jon Stewart suffered a bloody on-air injury on The Daily Show on Monday, February 24.
“I will be going to the hospital soon,” Stewart, 62, joked after realizing he’d sliced open his hand during a dramatic gesture.
The comedian was in the middle of a monologue where he railed against Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] for allegedly ignoring billions of dollars of pharmaceutical subsidies used to lower prescription drug prices.
While pretending to be a DOGE employee, Stewart brought numerous props out on the desk including an incorrectly-engraved “World’s Most Dad” coffee mug.
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After playing an archival clip of the former U.S. President Joe Biden discussing his proposal to lower the prices of 10 commonly used prescription drugs, Stewart continued to impersonate a DOGE employee by angrily smashing his coffee mug against his desk.
Stewart quickly realized he’d sliced open his hand and thus ducked his arm out of sight from the camera, before flashing a knowing glance at viewers.
Ever the professional, Stewart pressed on with his monologue for several minutes. He later interviewed Georgetown Law professor Rupa Bhattacharyya about DOGE’s potential cuts to the groups like the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which Bhattacharyya once oversaw.
“[The cuts] make me so angry, I want to smash another mug,” he quipped.
The Daily Show studio audience then gasped as Stewart revealed how much blood he’d lost due to the on-air mishap.
“Oh, wow, this thing’s really coming out,” he realized. “In the commercial break, I had a lightsaber battle with one of the crew members, and that’s how that happened.”
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Stewart made fun of the injury via X on Monday while promoting The Daily Show’s return with new episodes this week.
“We’re back! New Daily Show tonight! It’s a bloody good episode…emphasis on bloody…I’m an idiot,” he wrote.
Stewart came back to The Daily Show last year in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. Though he was the full-time host of the Comedy Central news show from 1999 to 2015, he now only appears on Monday nights, with Daily Show correspondents anchoring remaining episodes throughout the week.
“Jon Stewart is the voice of our generation, and we are honored to have him return to Comedy Central’s The Daily Show to help us all make sense of the insanity and division roiling the country as we enter the election season,” Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, announced in January 2024. “In our age of staggering hypocrisy and performative politics, Jon is the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit.”
The influential stand-up comic renewed his contract with Comedy Central following November’s election to continue on The Daily Show at least through December 2025.
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During his first 16 years on The Daily Show, Stewart won 22 Emmy Awards and five Peabody Awards. He was replaced by Trevor Noah following his Daily Show show departure in 2015, with Noah himself later quitting in 2022.
Stewart briefly partnered with HBO in his post-Daily Show career before moving to Apple TV+ in 2021 to host The Problem With Jon Stewart. Apple canceled the political talk show in 2023.
The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
