Jon Stewart Enjoying Oscar

We’re not too far away from Oscar time now. It’s been fascinating to watch how much media coverage there’s been around Jon Stewart hosting the show this year, every question being “Are you nervous? How about now? Now are you nervous? Now? NOW?”

Jon’s handled every single one of these incredibly well but my favorite responses have been from his interview Monday with Larry King. On bombing:

“I bombed in front of, you know, a lot of different audiences. This will just be the most famous audience that I bombed in front of.”

His defense of Letterman’s stint as Oscar host was also interesting. I remember nothing of it save for the “Oprah? Uma?” bit. He points out that his follow up line, “Oh, and also I want to introduce you to my friend Keanu” killed. The memory is different from the event itself. If I remember anything of previous Oscar’s host performances, it’s only a single bite. All I can think of from Chris Rock’s appearance was his line about how few stars there are and how Jude Law is just a “popular person.” Jon, of all people, from satirizing how the media reduces the political process to a bite, knows that he can’t control which of his lines he’ll be remembered for. So his conclusion: do the show and enjoy it.