I am only including the current correspondents and contributors (as listed on the Wikipedia page), otherwise Colbert and Correll would run the table.
For the record, Wyatt Cenac is not a current correspondent, his final appearance was on December 13.
PTF
What?!?! I love Wyatt!
I don’t have a favorite; most can do great. I tend not to like Jason Jones much, same with others in the past. But when any of them are on, yay…
John Oliver is my favorite, followed by Aasif Mandvi
I find myself laughing at Mandvi most often.
I voted John Oliver, but it would have been a tossup with Wyatt if he were still on.
I voted Larry Wilmore. He’s not often on, but when he is, it’s amazing. His schtick is the complete opposite of most of the other corespondents, who tend to play the idiot. Wilmore comes across as at least as smart as Jon, and deals with racial issues as deeply and hilariously as Chris Rock or Richard Pryor.
He’s often an ass, but he’s had some great lines. This bit about the Bush administration and torture is a classic.
[QUOTE=Jason Jones]
McCain has opened with no torture, any time. The administration has countered that they want to do whatever they want, to whomever they want, whenever they want, with nobody knowing about it. So they’re not that far apart. There’s some wiggle room there. And if you know anything about torture, you do not want to spend any time in the wiggle room.
[/QUOTE]
I love his delivery of this. Just the thought of what sort of torture happens in the “wiggle room” makes me giggle like a fool. Yes, I am a bad person.
I voted for Oliver, but Mandvi would have been a fine vote too, both consistently bring the funny. The others are more uneven, though all of them are capable of being hilarious if they hve good material to work with.
I have a HUGE crush on John Oliver! If I didn’t already have a partner . . . . . . . . . .
If Lewis Black was a regular instead of appearing once in a blue moon, I would have voted for him. But I voted for Oliver.
Anyone but John Hodgman, who is the man that comedy forgot.
I did despite that. I probably should have gone for Oliver though, now that you mention it Black doesn’t feel like a proper correspondent.
Larry Wilmore. He is smooth and funny.
Me too, and for the same reason. I also bought his book “I’d Rather We Got Casinos”.
Other than Oliver and Wilmore there are none of whom I’m particularly fond. They need some new blood.
I recently read an interview with Mo Rocca in which he was asked would he be willing to return to The Daily Show and he basically said that yeah, if the circumstances were right yadda yadda, he’d consider it. The same day I read an interview with Stewart in which he didn’t single Rocca out but said that there was essentially no love lost twixt him and the Kilborne era correspondents (which included Rocca) who apparently were obnoxious as hell to him and he was not unhappy to see any of them go (and they pretty much all did). It’d be interesting to see the backstage dealings at that show. I have no idea if Stewart’s a diva backstage, though if he is it sure as hell works so I hope he keeps doing it.
I wish the show would use its correspondents a little more. Pretty much all of the current cast is pretty good (other then Jason Jones), and Stewart kinda crosses the thin-line between funny comedy monologue and angry old-man rant when he has to fill the whole episode himself.
Jessica Williams and Al Madrigal were both hired in the last year, I think, and both are pretty good IMHO. (I think I laughed harder at Al Madrigal’s “that’s why I have such a hard time telling you how to run your Black Panther business” line from a few weeks ago then I have at anything else on the show in the last few months).
I voted for Mandvi, but Oliver is usually good also. I used to love Cenac and Mandvi doing their “Team Jesus/Team Mohammed” debates.
Mandvi is the best on the show at delivering the ridiculous lines with a straight face, which makes it that much funnier to me. The rest are funny, but there’s always just a hint that they know they’re being funny, which lessens the impact.
I like Bee and Williams most myself 
Jon Oliver, but the one I want most to nail is Olivia Munn.
Who we’d want to nail is part of the poll, right?
Anyone but Jason Jones. He was in Iran during their uprising and ended up doing jokes about drinking out of the toilet. Can you imagine what Colbert (former DS correspondent) would have done with that opportunity?