I’ve
enjoyed White Josh since he played Rebecca’s unwitting cock-block back at the
start of season 1, but as his role has expanded over the years, he’s become one
of my favorite supporting characters on the show. Often a voice of reason in the madness but
still very funny, he brings both entertainment and a certain steadiness to the
series and the other characters’ lives (a few White Josh-related spoilers.)
Initially
a bit player rounding out Josh’s friend group, our earliest exposure to White
Josh is mostly through understated (for this show) comic relief. One running gag throughout the first half of
season 1 is that a) White Josh removes his shirt at the drop of a hat and b) Rebecca
has absolutely zero interest in him and his muscles. Of course, at this point, the audience (and
presumably Rebecca) doesn’t know he’s gay, but either way, it’s both a funny
bit and a good demonstration of
Rebecca’s total laser-focus on Josh Chan that, if anything, she’s annoyed at
the sight of White Josh’s abs.
Over
time, though, we start getting more than sight gags/eye candy and an extra
character for Josh and/or Greg to talk to.
I’ve already talked about the gradual roll-out of White Josh’s
relationship with Darryl, giving us an in to learn a little more about White
Josh while Darryl is simultaneously figuring out a little more about
himself. In addition to being a good
outlet for Darryl’s journey of discovering he’s bi, they’re just a fun couple
to watch. Pretty opposites-attract – dad-bod
Darryl and “fit hot guy” White Josh, even-keeled White Josh and high-strung
Darryl – but even though they don’t feel like they ought to work, they sort of
do, and I enjoyed watching their dating life, felt for both of them during
their season 3 breakup, and have liked seeing them try to navigate a
post-dating friendship more recently.
But even
if his relationship with Darryl is a jumping-off point for expanding his
screentime, what I really like is the expanded characterization that brought
about for White Josh, both with Darryl and within the larger cast. Some of these traits follow from the thinner
character sketch from early on. He’s in
great shape because he’s obsessively into fitness and has been known to work
out exhaustively when something’s bothering him. If Rebecca’s unimpressed with him, he’s not
all that taken with her, either, and he can’t figure out why Josh and Greg are
so tangled up in her drama.
One of
White Josh’s biggest defining traits is probably his pragmatism. You wouldn’t necessarily think that’d be very
entertaining to watch, but his deadpan practicality contrasts well with the
schemes, dilemmas, and meltdowns of the other characters. Whether he’s trying to talk Darryl down from
a ridiculous emotional ledge, mediate a dumb fight between Josh and Hector, or
just widening his eyes in silent amazement at Rebecca’s latest outrageousness,
his mild sarcasm and appeals for logic balance out some of the more
over-the-top humor and character reactions.
Even in that unintentional cock-block, while Rebecca uses a
conveniently-broken garbage disposal in a bid to spend more time with a sweet
but clueless Josh, White Josh simply gets down to the business of looking at
the garbage disposal pointing out that it’s stuffed with whole chicken breasts
and looks as if she was trying to break it.
Other characters are frequently trying to pull him into whatever
insanity they’ve got going on, but if White Josh goes along with it at all, it’s
usually to try and talk some sense into them.
It also
helps that the other characters think White Josh’s more even personality is as great
a character flaw as their own tendencies toward drama and mayhem. Various members of the friend group
frequently scoff at White Josh’s pragmatism and resistance to getting sucked
into the madness, and it’s brought up early in season 2 that they sometimes
keep big secrets from him because they think he’ll get “judgy” about it. And we definitely do get a little superiority
from White Josh, a sense of “oh my god, these people” head-shaking mixed with a
slight Cassandra complex of no one ever listening to his rational advice. As he attempts to save his friends from
themselves and they dive headlong into complications or humiliation anyway, he
can’t help but think their lives would be a whole lot easier if they’d all just
listen to him.
Of
course, White Josh isn’t always a fount of maturity himself, even if it often
seems that way in contrast to the other characters. I like the moments when he too has goofy
reactions to things, like doing angry crunches during a fight with Darryl, and
for someone who always tends to see the practical response to his friends’
absurd crises, he doesn’t fare as well when the crisis is his. The most recent episode features him landing
himself in something of a farcical situation when Greg and Nathaniel
(unbeknownst to each other, both exes of Rebecca) meet and become friends at
his gym. White Josh is horrified and
watches them like an impending trainwreck – “They think they’re just regular
friends! Straight people are so tragic” –
but as much as he tells himself he has to explain things to them before they
find out for themselves, he can’t bring himself to actually do it. While some of his friends would probably
hatch harebrained schemes doomed to just make it worse, White Josh can’t act at
all. Not so easy when he’s the one in
the ridiculous pickle.
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