Way back when Apple went on a rampage against Gizmodo after the publication got its hands on a prototype of the iPhone 4, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show ripped into the company for its seemingly heavy-handed tactics in going after the publication. 9to5Mac has spotted an interview with Stewart on the Howard Stern show in which he says that Steve Jobs actually called him after he ran that segment… and the most shocking thing about it was that Jobs was polite and nice.
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“It was actually the worst because he was really nice,” Stewart tells Stern. “It was more like, ‘Jon, we were friends. I thought you would call me first.’ And I was like, ‘Really, I could call you? I didn’t know I was able to call you!’ It was definitely more like that than it was threatening.”
This is rather surprising given that the late Apple cofounder was prone to having a combustible temper and was not shy about telling people very bluntly how he felt about their work. That said, Jobs was also probably smart enough to know that his usual brute force tactics probably would backfire if he tried them on Stewart, who thrives when people get angry with him. Instead, it sounds like Jobs decided to employ a classic charm offensive tactic to influence the comedian.
The whole video follows below. The segment on Jobs starts at roughly the 40:06 mark.
