Men are From Mars, Obi-Wan is From Jon Stewart

Not that I would ever accuse George Lucas of making up Star Wars details as he goes along but…OK, I would accuse him of that. But every now and then such on-the-fly backstory leads to some amazing bit of trivia, like the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi’s homeworld, Stewjon, is named after Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

?This apparently stretches back to Celebration V, a Star Wars convention where Stewart interviewed Lucas and asked about Obi-Wan’s home planet. Lucas jokingly replied that it was called “Stewjon,” but the joke didn’t end there. Stewjon is apparently now part of official Star Wars canon, to the point where it’s listed on Obi-Wan’s Clone Wars trading card. Some other Star Wars sources still describe Obi-Wan as a Coruscant native, so you can go on believing that if you like. But I’ll stick with the Jon Stewart version.

This leads us to one important lesson: if you become famous for incisive news-comedy and ask George Lucas enough questions, you might get a fictional planet named in your honor. And they say journalism’s a useless major. (Via TNW)