Skip to main content

Jon Stewart's Top 10 Science Moments on The Daily Show [Video]

After 16 years, Jon Stewart signed off from The Daily Show on August 6, but not before leaving the world a trove of humorous and pointed clips about science

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


From 1999 to 2015, Jon Stewart frequently took on science policy issues as host of The Daily Show. Search the show's web site for “science” and 529 clips come up. In honor of Stewart's last show August 6, 2015 we picked our ten favorite Daily Show science moments. Some got a lot of social media love, like this one, where Stewart put his hands over his ears and teased climate change deniers by putting his hands over his ears and chanting, “La, la, la climate change”:

Bye Bye Wordie & Reservoir Hogs (La La La Climate Change), March 25, 2015


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


But that was only one of a many shows talking about climate change.

War on Carbon, January 6, 2014

 

Our Dead Planet – Melting Cities, January 10, 2008

 

This show about the Live Earth global rock concert supporting conservation really captured the world’s climate of hope and fear.

Live Earth, July 31, 2007

 

On this show, Stewart sneezed at how newscasters claimed that this year was the worst year for pollen ever – and then showed that year after year, as the world warmed, that was actually true.

Along Came Pollen, May 27, 2015

 

Stewart was interested in other big science issues like stem cells, and the thoughts of great scientists. Not all guests were household names, but at least one name on this list is well-known to Scientific American fans.

Stem Sell, March 16, 2009

 

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, March 6, 2013

 

Fred Guterl (Scientific American Executive Editor), August 1, 2012

 

Harold Varmus, March 2, 2009

 

Evolution, Shmevolution Panel: Edward J. Larsen, William A. Dembski, Ellie Crystal, September 24, 2005

 

Eliene Augenbraun is a multimedia science producer, formerly Nature Research's Multimedia Managing Editor and Scientific American's senior video producer. Before that, she founded and ran ScienCentral, an award-winning news service providing ABC and NBC with science news stories. She has a PhD in Biology.

More by Eliene Augenbraun