| Ray William Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | RWJ, Ray Johnson, RayWJ |
| Occupation | YouTube comedian |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Known for | YouTube videos |
| Website | |
| raywj.com | |
Ray William Johnson is an American comedian best known for his YouTube series Equals Three, in which he provides commentary on viral videos.[1][2] Many of the videos featured on Equals Three are noted to have received an additional boost of popularity.[3][4][5][6][7] As of December 2011, the RayWilliamJohnson channel is the most subscribed channel on YouTube,[8][9] with over 5.1 million subscribers, and over 1.4 billion video views.[10] In February 2011, one industry publication noted that Johnson currently had six of the top twenty most watched videos of the month.[11]
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While Johnson was studying at Columbia University to pursue a career in law, he became interested in watching YouTube videos, and eventually making videos himself. He took notice of the fact that people visit YouTube either to watch viral videos or their favorite video bloggers, and subsequently started his first formatted show, Equals Three, as a way to combine the two popular video styles.[1]
| Equals Three | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Ray William Johnson |
| Written by | Phil Haney Steve Greene Marvin Silbermintz Erin Schmalfeld Ilana Cohn Ray William Johnson |
| Presented by | Ray William Johnson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | Spanish (Igual a Tres) |
| No. of episodes | 244 (as of November 22, 2011) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Ray William Johnson |
| Producer(s) | Erin Schmalfeld |
| Editor(s) | Brandon Perna |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | YouTube |
| Original run | 2008 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | BreakingNYC Your Favorite Martian Breaking Los Angeles Igual a Tres Breaking Season 3 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
In Equals Three (stylized as "=3"), Ray William Johnson reviews, criticizes, and adds commentary to some of the internet's latest viral videos.[2] Equals Three episodes are usually uploaded to his channel every Tuesday and Friday. In these episodes, Johnson interacts with his audience by posting a viewer-submitted "comment question of the day", then features five of his favorite comments in the preceding episode. Equals Three is on the most subscribed channel on YouTube, having over 5 million subscribers to date, and has been recognized by Guinness World Records.[1][12][13] Because of his popularity, every Equals Three episode can consistently obtain millions of views within a week, which are then consequently featured on the YouTube front page. Johnson has been able to leverage his popularity to secure several celebrity guests on Equals Three, including Robin Williams, Gabriel Iglesias, Kal Penn, Margaret Cho, and John Cho.[14][15][16][17][16]
In January 2011, Johnson launched a collaborative YouTube channel called "YourFavoriteMartian", which features animated comedy music videos.[18][19] The songs are performed by a virtual band (a title reference to They Might Be Giants and Gorillaz) of four fictional cartoon characters: PuffPuff Humbert (lead singer, voiced by Johnson), DeeJay (DJ), Axel Chains (drummer), and Benatar (guitar/keytar).[20] Johnson writes lyrics, raps, sings, composes beats, and sometimes collaborates with other musicians to produce the songs.[21] The following is a list of music videos that have been released so far:
| Name | Featured Artist | Upload date | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Balls | N / A | January 26, 2011 | 3:13 |
| Zombie Love Song | N / A | February 9, 2011 | 3:59 |
| Bottles of Beer | N / A | February 23, 2011 | 3:41 |
| Club Villain | N / A | March 9, 2011 | 4:12 |
| The Stereotypes Song | N / A | March 23, 2011 | 4:26 |
| The Unofficial Smithers Love Song | N / A | April 6, 2011 | 3:55 |
| Orphan Tears | Wax | April 20, 2011 | 3:36 |
| Mr. DoucheBag | N / A | May 4, 2011 | 3:55 |
| Transphobic Techno (Bitch Got a Penis) | N / A | May 18, 2011 | 3:25 |
| Grandma Got a Facebook | N / A | June 1, 2011 | 3:33 |
| Tig Ol' Bitties | N / A | June 15, 2011 | 3:52 |
| Fight To Win | Destorm | June 29, 2011 | 3:51 |
| Stalkin' Your Mom | Wax | July 13, 2011 | 3:13 |
| Robot Bar Fight | N / A | July 27, 2011 | 3:12 |
| 8-Bit World | Hoodie Allen | August 10, 2011 | 3:30 |
| Puppet Break-Up | N / A | September 14, 2011 | 3:23 |
| Whip Yo Kids | Nice Peter | September 28, 2011 | 3:29 |
| Booty Store | N / A | October 12, 2011 | 4:23 |
| Nerd Rage!!! | N / A | October 26, 2011 | 4:00 |
| Epileptic Techno | N / A | November 9, 2011 | 3:38 |
| Dookie Fresh | N / A | November 23, 2011 | 4:08 |
| Santa Hates Poor Kids | N / A | December 7, 2011 | 3:55 |
| Shitty G | N / A | December 21, 2011 | 3:51 |
To date, Johnson has released 23 songs through the channel. As of November 2011, the channel has over 1.6 million subscribers, making it one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube, and over 250 million video views.[22] Due to the rapid growth of popularity of the channel and the music videos getting more views than the Equals Three episodes, Johnson has commented in his Breaking Los Angeles video blog that he at some point hopes to have the music videos released weekly instead of bi-weekly.[23]
BreakingNYC is a former daily video blog or vlog that Johnson started in December 2009 while living in New York City. He made the vlogs almost daily until June 2010. After nearly a year-long hiatus, Johnson resumed contributing to the video blog channel, creating a new higher quality series with a similar format. The new series titled, Breaking Los Angeles and the Adventures of Puff Puff, was released every Friday and is filmed in Los Angeles. Johnson often featured notable guests in his new series, including rappers Wax, Hoodie Allen and Dumbfoundead, slam poet George Watsky, comedian Gabriel Iglesias, and actor/director Bobcat Goldthwait. After Johnson took a three-month hiatus from making videos for the channel, a third season of Breaking Los Angeles (retitled to Breaking: Season 3), premiered on December 14, 2011. The new season features many changes, including four new main cast members Big Rob, Anna, Dee and Lance. New opening credits are used, as well as a new theme song, "Tonight Is The Night" by Outasight. Many guest stars are reported to appear, with actor/comedian Robin Williams, being one of the first to appear in this season.
| Honorary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by nigahiga |
Most subscribed channel on YouTube June 2011—present |
Incumbent |
| First | Top Subscribed Channel on YouTube RayWilliamJohnson Ranked first as of December 2011 |
Succeeded by nigahiga |
| Preceded by KassemG |
Top subscribed channel on YouTube YourFavoriteMartian Ranked 19 as of November 2011 |
Succeeded by MichellePhan |
| Preceded by juliansmith87 |
Top subscribed channel on YouTube BreakingNYC Ranked 71 as of December 2011 |
Succeeded by WhiteBoy7thst |