John Oliver says working for Jon Stewart was a ‘dream’ despite breaking his nose on the job
John Oliver is looking back on his storied days as a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” with fondness, including that time he broke his nose while on the job.
“That was one of my first experiences in America was breaking my nose,” Oliver said on Thursday’s episode of viral hot wing interview show “Hot Ones,” adding, “it probably made me realize that I was in the right place to work.”
Oliver served as an on-air correspondent and writer for “The Daily Show” between 2006 and 2013.
While filming a segment about war in America in 2006, the future 18-time Emmy winner broke his nose while participating in a civil war reenactment for the Comedy Central show.
In case you haven’t seen the clip, Oliver broke his nose when he fully face-planted on the grass after running across a field manically screaming “freedom!” Once he got back up, his face was covered in blood.
“To get back to the office and hear them playing that clip again and again and laughing so hard, it kind of made me think, ‘Oh, you’re more concerned about the joke than me. I think this is where I belong,’” Oliver said on “Hot Ones,” laughing.
When asked about what the most harrowing experience was that he endured on the show, Oliver admitted that “they were all pretty harrowing.”
But, he said, “it was a dream come true to come and work for Jon Stewart.”
Oliver has hosted his own hit news-centric program titled “Last Week Tonight” since its 2014 debut. The HBO show has won a total of 28 Emmys. (HBO and CNN share the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
Stewart helmed “The Daily Show” for 16 years until comedian Trevor Noah took over in 2015. Last week, Stewart announced that on February 12, he’ll be returning as the program’s host on Mondays, with a rotation of hosts filling in the rest of the week, throughout the 2024 election cycle.
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