Favorite Characters: White Josh (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)

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.