Jon Stewart says J.K. Rowling is not antisemitic following 'Harry Potter' comments on his podcast last month

• Jon Stewart said on Wednesday that he did not think that J.K. Rowling was antisemitic.
• His comments came after he had claimed that Goblin bankers in the franchise were tropes of Jews.

Jon Stewart on Wednesday said in a video that he doesn't think that J.K. Rowling or the "Harry Potter" series are antisemitic, following coverage of comments he made about Goblin bankers in the movies on his podcast in December.

"I do not think J.K. Rowling is antisemitic," Jon Stewart said in the video. "I did not accuse her of being antisemitic. I do not think that the Harry Potter movies are antisemitic."

His criticism was largely aimed at a viral article that covered his comments, where he criticised the depiction of Goblin bankers, last month.

Stewart added on Wednesday that "any reasonable person" would have concluded that the conversation "was lighthearted."

"Have you ever seen the scenes in Gringotts Bank? Do you know what those folks who run the bank are? Jews!'" Stewart said in December, adding that he was surprised about a lack of criticism of the trope.

"And they're like, 'Oh, look at that, that's from "Harry Potter!"' And you're like, 'No, that's a caricature of a Jew from an antisemitic piece of literature.' J.K. Rowling was like, 'Can we get these guys to run our bank?' It's a wizarding world…we can ride dragons, you can have a pet owl… but who should run the bank? Jews."