Comedian Marc Maron has opened up about his long-running feud with fellow comedian and The Daily Show host Jon Stewart.
In a “What I’ve Learned” interview with Esquire’s editor-in-chief Michael Sebastian, Maron was asked about the feud, which dates back to the 1990s when both men were up-and-coming comedians.
“I identify it as a petty, kind of, fully fueled by insecurity,” Maron shared. When quizzed over whose insecurity fueled the fire, Maron responded, “Mine. Jon never did anything to me, I was just jealous.”
He continued, “When I was coming up, he was this smart, cute, Jewish guy, who was good at... some people have foresight and are disciplined careerists, and they know how to understand their talent, harness it, and then figure out how to capitalize on it with their skill set on their terms.”
Maron said he “never had any control over my talent, I never knew its limitations or what it was, I was just all-in and just demanding a place in the world of comedy.”
Maron has previously explained that the rivalry stemmed from the fact that both men were vying for the title of “the king of politics, satire, whatever,” an honor he concedes Stewart won.
Speaking to Esquire, he went on to discuss how it felt like Stewart was “everywhere” during Maron’s early career—Maron succeeded Stewart as the host of Comedy Central’s Short Attention Span Theater prior to its cancellation—and how all-consuming his jealousy was.
“I couldn’t get through a week without him being on the cover of a magazine,” Maron said, adding that he would “just s--t on him, to his face.”
Sebastian also asked Maron if he ever tried to have Stewart on his WTF podcast, which ended this week after almost 1,700 episodes over 16 years.
“I tried to get him on early on… I’m kind of apologizing, I’m kind of making up with people and you and I have had this thing for a while, and he says, ‘There’s no love here,‘” Maron explained.
“Basically, he said, ’I might be willing to have coffee or something, but yeah, I’m not doing that with you.‘ And then he said, ‘I’m sure what you’re doing is very creative, and good luck with it.‘ And it’s just the stinging condescension of that, it didn’t help anything. And now he’s doing a podcast, so, full circle!” Maron added.
While Maron has never shied away from publicly discussing the rivalry, including referring to Stewart as his “nemesis” in the past, Stewart has been more tight-lipped, although former Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac, who attempted to broker a truce between the pair, thinks Stewart still has some lingering negative feelings towards Maron.
“If Marc had gotten The Daily Show, Jon would be a guy with a podcast that turned into this thing… I feel like the reason the beef exists is because they’re so similar,” Cenac said.
