Within the next few years, every celebrity will have played a superhero. It’s simple mathematics. Between Marvel, DC, and anyone brave enough to try to introduce non-Marvel and non-DC characters to the current cinematic landscape, there is a role out there for just about anyone who’s ever been famous.
Now, as Jimmy Kimmel discovered, Jon Stewart has joined the club as the latest version of The Incredible Hulk.
A segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in which the show’s host offered cosplay tips for the 2018 Comic-Con, featured interviews with a line-up of Hollywood Boulevard’s famous off-brand superheroes. After a few minutes bantering with a fanny pack-wearing Superman and Spider-man (who wears sunglasses beneath the mask of his thrift store costume), Kimmel turned his attention to The Hulk. Lifting his crummy-looking mask off to speak more clearly, the perpetually weary face of Jon Stewart himself peered out.
As Kimmel interviewed the former Daily Show host, we learned that Stewart goes to the bathroom in his suit and has been playing “the adequate Hulk” since the day after he left his old, satirical news gig. Unfortunately, Stewart also explains that he makes very bad money playing The Hulk (he counts being told to go fuck himself by a passerby as a roundabout sort of tip) but that he’s not in it for the cash. He’s motivated by “the sparkle in a little boy’s eyes when he hears the sound of The Hulk flying in The Hulk-a-copter.”
It’s a pretty good bit (though it’s hard to measure up next to Conan O’Brien as Batman) that makes Stewart the fifth person to play The Hulk to date. We can only hope his time as the character is received as well as Lou Ferrigno and Mark Ruffalo. It can’t be hard to beat Eric Bana and Edward Norton’s reception, after all, foam green bodysuit and late night gag or not.
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