Last night was Jon Stewart’s final appearance as host of The Daily Show (sob!), and as the hours ticked down to the finale there was an outpouring of support as you all yakked about what you’d learned from the show. A huge fan myself, these yaks made me a little sad as this feels like the end of an era — but it’s inspiring to see what an impact he had on so many people. So what will we remember most from Jon Stewart’s 16-year run?

He OWNED the news

The most common sentiment that we heard across Yik Yak all day yesterday: The Daily Show wasn’t just funny, it was a real source of news. Jon Stewart made news interesting, digestible, and relevant — even if he did serve it up on a satiric plate.

 

He brought out the lighter side of things

His flailing arms! His facial expressions! His sounds! His animated scribbles that somehow held the answer to exactly how to win at life, if we could only figure out how to decode them! Jon Stewart was just as good at turning comedy into news as he was at turning news into comedy.

 

He loved a good jab (or seven)

Whether it was poking fun at Fox News, Putin, Donald Trump, Donald Trump’s hair, or Donald Trump’s announcement of his presidential candidacy, the Daily Show host loved to latch onto a good comedic thing and go after it again… and again… and again. Kudos to Arby’s for taking their jabs in stride.

 

He impressed us with his bravery

Pick an issue. If Jon Stewart was personally troubled by it, he wasn’t afraid to talk about it and make a heartfelt case on national television – even if that meant raising a dissenting issue that wasn’t getting airtime elsewhere.

 

We’d put him on our ballot

It had to be said. After all, election season is well under way, and no one loved that time better than Jon Stewart himself.

 

Jon Stewart is bae, and we’ll miss him

True, there are other newscasters. True, there are other comedians. We’re not sure any of them would buy a farm just to give rescue animals a sweet home. And that’s part of what made Jon Stewart so special.