You know this already, but it should be said anyways: Jon Stewart has been the fountainhead of comedy for the past 15 years. The reason why is simple: he saw the opportunity to mock politicking and the media for all it was worth, and gave it some sharp satirical teeth. And throughout his tenure as host of "The Daily Show," he took what was a standard news parody and made it a respectable journalistic outfit. (Though, as he said once, "If it's true, it's terrifying. We're not really watchdogs, we're the kind of dogs that lick each other's balls.")

With an influence this big, his retirement from the show has left a significant hole in the comedy landscape, something that quite a few comedians are trying to fill. And to quote the original, British, "House of Cards," "Plenty of contenders. Old warriors, young pretenders." And several of them were formerly correspondents for "The Daily Show" during Stewart's legendary run. Let us look at four such individuals - Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Samantha Bee - and see if there is any of them who can be truly considered the successor to Jon Stewart.

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Trevor Noah

Originally a relative unknown from South Africa, he is the official successor to Jon Stewart as host of "The Daily Show." Naturally, quite a few people have been, and still are, skeptical of his ability to fill in what are, admittedly, some very big shoes. And some commentators have noted that Noah's style of comedy is much more akin to a comedy lightweight like Jimmy Fallon rather than Jon Stewart. However, Noah has shown to have some skill at emulating his predecessor's style, though not yet to the degree of full-on mastery. Often this is targeted at the candidate of the dregs of society, Donald Trump, as seen here.

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Stephen Colbert

Originally the man who followed Stewart with "The Colbert Report," Colbert is as much of an heir as Noah, having succeeded David Letterman as host of "The Late Show" on CBS. Then again, the basic cable networks have a reputation for sucking out talent in the name of appealing to an insipid audience. But then again, it's amazing how creative one can get at swiping low-hanging fruit.

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John Oliver

Oliver was a guest host for "The Daily Show" back in 2013 while Stewart was making the film "Rosewater;' one can assume the acclaim for his run is what convinced HBO to give him his own show. From there, Oliver has definitely made a name for himself. Out of the four, he is probably the one that is the most critically acclaimed. And although his inevitable take on the reality TV star pretending to be a statesman was all fine and good, Oliver's best work was covering what eventually turned out to be the FIFA corruption scandal.

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Samantha Bee

Bee was one of the more popular correspondents, and, like in Oliver's case, TBS took notice and gave her a show. She is the newest of the four in terms of hosting her own work, and perhaps the most controversial (though none of the four are lightweights in any sense of the word). However, the people who like her really like her, to the point of some wondering why she wasn't given the reins of "The Daily Show" over Trevor Noah. Such a feeling is supported by some great segments, such as when she documents the origins of the Religious Right political bloc.

So, who is the true successor to Jon Stewart? The answer: it's only been a year since he retired, give the others some time to establish themselves a bit more. Then we can see who is really the best of the best.