Now 34, Johnson was raised in Alexandria, Louisiana. He kick-started his stand-up career in Chicago, then got his first break in late night as a writer on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he also performed the occasional routine. In 2017 he jumped over to The Daily Show, which, in the wake of longtime host Jon Stewart’s departure, was undergoing growing pains. Johnson embraced the challenge, and what followed was a glow-up not even he could’ve predicted. He opened for Trevor Noah at Madison Square Garden. He headlined a national tour. He appeared in multiple specials, including his own on Peacock, titled Up Here Killing Myself. At the same time, he was building up a fan base on TikTok, with meandering, many-minute videos that trusted audiences to follow along. The more I talk to him, the more I think that that—Johnson’s patience, and his expectation of ours—is the cornerstone of his appeal. Though his comedy is very much on the internet, it doesn’t feel of the internet: In an age of instant gratification, Johnson takes his time.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity, combining on-camera and off-camera portions. Check out WIRED’s YouTube channel for the video.
Jason Parham: You headlined a national tour this year. I imagine that comes with a lot of pressure.
Josh Johnson: Sure, sure. But also, that pressure is very much a privilege. There was a long time where there was no pressure on me because no one cared what I would do.
Have you learned anything about yourself throughout the process?
I don’t need much sleep. I need, like, four bad hours. I don’t know if that’ll last. I think it’s very much a now thing. I think, five years from now, I’ll need sleep very badly.
Let’s talk about your comedy heroes.
There are those almost template answers of Carlin and Pryor, but fundamentally they changed what people understood stand-up to be. Rather than just doing the joke—my wife, oh my wife—rather than doing that nonstop, a lot of it was either biographical or it was world takes.
Is there a joke that stands out?
What am I allowed to say?
Anything.
I’m paraphrasing it badly, but basically Pryor had this joke where he was like, “Duh, duh, duh, duh. That would be like me sucking a dick.” And then everybody busts out laughing. Then he is like, “I’m just kidding.” And then he takes another pause, and he’s like, “No, I’m not.”
He keeps flipping the joke, to the point where the audience doesn’t know what to expect.
He did have jokes that didn’t make it into specials that were about him being bisexual. This was a time where it was truly unthinkable and unheard of. Who else was really doing that? Who else was really like, No, I’m famous enough, I’m rich enough, and I’m influential enough to not just allude, but actually tell an audience stories about an experience that would be unimaginable for their favorite guy to have? There’s a sincere bravery to that, whether you get it right or not, or whether history looks back at the context in a fair way.