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Josh Johnson

Comedy Central · 2021 · 60 min

A quiet, story-driven hour about screen fatigue and bad dates.

Watch it free on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Josh Johnson has a calm, conversational cadence and a knack for taking long, scenic detours through a story. Released in June 2021, his debut hour-long special focuses on the screen-addicted isolation of the pandemic and the subsequent friction of trying to live in the real world again. His routines are less about heavy political commentary and more about highly specific, bizarre human interactions, from his survival-mode reaction to a bee getting caught in his hair to a friend’s potentially racist pet bird and the dark side of high school catfishing pranks. At this point in his career, Johnson was best known as a writer for The Daily Show. Host Trevor Noah presented the special, which capped off a year where Variety named Johnson one of its 10 Comics to Watch. Critics at NPR, Paste, and Vulture listed the hour among the best specials of 2021, establishing his transition from a reliable late-night writer to a headliner in his own right.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Friend's bird being racist

    Johnson questions and evaluates whether or not his friend's bird is a racist.

  2. Dating expectations for men

    Argues that a woman's checklist for a male partner can be distilled down to three attributes, of which you can reasonably expect to get only two.

  3. When a bee flies into your hair

    Being deathly allergic to bees, Johnson reenacts his life-or-death panic when a bee got trapped in his hair in 2020, integrating a joke on the fetishization of Black hair.

  4. Witnessing a public marriage proposal without a phone

    While attempting to be present in the world without a phone, Johnson sees a man propose in public only to be hit in the head with a rock by the woman.

How it plays

Tone
Relatable, candid, and comedic.
On stage
Keen storyteller with quick wit and relatable perspective.
About
Dating and romantic relationship expectations, Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on social life, Social media and screen dependence, Everyday interactions and race

What the critics said

Received positive reception, earning praise for its practical and relatable dating humor as well as Johnson's storytelling.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: justwatch.com, themoviedb.org, plotexplained.com, cbsnews.com, vulture.com, simkl.com, consequence.net, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, thecomicscomic.libsyn.com.

Backstory

Conceived and rewritten during the COVID-19 pandemic amid quarantine restrictions, exploring isolation, screens, and shifts in social media habits.

Details

Released
Runtime
60 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
David Paul Meyer
Honors
Vulture's Best Comedy Specials of 2021
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents (2017)
After
Symphony (2026)

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