OMD's Pop-culture corner: Vaya con Dios, Juan Stewart

For many of us, Jon Stewart has been the face of late-night television for the bulk of our adult lives. As other hosts and titans of the late-night game came, went, or lost relevance, Jon Stewart held his place atop the mountain of late night hosts for the better part of nearly two decades. His blending of scathing satire with irreverent absurdity while setting about on the quotidian, sisyphean task of taking on the disingenuous in the worlds of politics and the news media was something that much of America seemed to need as he rose to prominence.

His political leanings may have turned off those whose ideology did not align with his, but to say that he did not also hold the feet to the fire of those on the left who ran afoul of his code of decency would be selling him short. He pointed out the hypocrisy on all sides, though this did happen more frequently with the political right as Fox News made for an obvious punching bag.

While most retrospectives this week focused on Stewart's emergence as the voice of the left over the past 17 years, his knack for picking out talent was second to none. Were it not for Jon Stewart's tenure at the helm of The Daily Show, the pop-culture landscape would be decidedly different. Stephen Colbert would not be ascending to the late night throne left open by David Letterman's departure. John Oliver would not be helming his own brilliant weekly news show--HBO's Last Week Tonight--that has arguably already surpassed what The Daily Show was ever able to do in just over a year on the air. It would be hard to imagine Steve Carell becoming an Academy Award nominee without the platform given to him by Stewart.

Those are just the huge ones. Correspondents Ed Helms, Rob Riggle, Matt Walsh, Rob Corddry, Dan Bakkedahl, Jessica Williams, John Hodgman, Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Wyatt Cenac, Nate Corddry, Vance DeGeneres, Mo Rocca, and Michael Che have left their imprint all over the pop-culture map.

Whatever it is Jon Stewart ends up doing next, there will be an army of people who follow him there. Trevor Noah will likely reform The Daily Show into his own comic cudgel, tilting at his own windmills. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will be missed, though.