Ray William Johnson

Equals Three

In 2008, Johnson started the YouTube series Equals Three, where he reviewed 3 videos and gave commentary on them, with all of his videos starting with the catchphrase "What's happening, forum?". The first episode, "I WILL END YOU", showcased Johnson reacting to various clips, such as one of a man drinking his own semen, a man yelling at a cat, and a man balancing a shoe on his head. The videos quickly went viral, and Johnson became one of the most subscribed YouTubers on the platform. Many notable content creators have had large content exposure as a result of Equals Three, such as Cr1TiKaL, Joji (formerly known as Filthy Frank), and Mark Rober. In October 2012, Johnson announced that he would be leaving Maker Studios, contending that they had been pressuring him to sign a new contract that limited his access to his AdSense account and would reportedly take 40% of his earnings from the series. The contract also would have required Johnson to give up 50% of his intellectual property rights to the show and his other animated web project, Your Favorite Martian.^[12][13] In November 2012, Johnson founded his own production studio, Equals Three Studios (then known as Runaway Planet), and continued producing Equals Three. Your Favorite Martian series was ended that same month.^[12]

In December 2013, Johnson announced that he would be ending Equals Three in the near future to focus on other projects.^[14] His last show as host (titled "THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING") was published on March 12, 2014, and was around 14 minutes long.^[15] The channel had over 10 million subscribers and 2.6 billion total views at the time of Johnson's departure.^[16] The show returned in July 2014 with Robby Motz as host.^[17][18] Motz would depart in July 2015, at which point Kaja Martin, one of Johnson's frequent collaborators, took over as host,^[19] but Martin was subsequently replaced by Carlos Santos in December 2015.

In 2015, Johnson sued Jukin Media for requesting the removal of 40 Equals Three videos which sampled their content. The case was later settled.^[20]

The series featured numerous celebrity guests, including Robin Williams, Sarah Silverman, Gabriel Iglesias, John Cho, and Jason Biggs.^[21][22][23]

In 2017, Randy Stair, who went online as PioneersProductions and was featured in a 2011 edition of Equals Three, shot a Weis supermarket before committing suicide. Ray William Johnson would later publish a video formally apologizing for including him in his 2011 video in 2025 called "This YouTuber Killed 3 People".

Scripted series

In December 2013, Johnson debuted his first scripted series, Riley Rewind, which was originally released on Facebook before migrating to YouTube. The series revolved around a teenager with a special time-shifting power. It was released in 5 parts and cumulatively totaled about 50 minutes.^[8][24] In 2015, Johnson reported the series had received 10 million views on Facebook.^[25]

Earlier in 2013, Johnson was in talks with FX Networks about a scripted series based on his life. The network gave Johnson a script commitment. The script was to be written by Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller.^[26]

Other "Ray William Johnson" content

In 2013, Johnson participated as Star Wars character "Boba Fett" on the Epic Rap Battles of History YouTube channel. In another episode that year, he appeared as anime character Goku from Dragon Ball Z.

In 2014, he made a guest appearance in Joji's online video "ASK FILTHY FRANK #4: (KILLING BABIES AND POWER RANGERS)", where he asked Joji about AIDS and North Korea before leaving.

Since his departure from Equals Three, Johnson has continued producing comedic series for his main "Ray William Johnson" channel. These series included Booze Lightyear, Top 6, and Comedians On. Booze Lightyear was a scripted sketch comedy web series that featured a variety of different actors often in comedic situations. Johnson appeared on the series' first episode in February 2015.^[5] Top 6 is "list show" that is written and hosted by Kelly Landry and discusses 6 items about a given topic each episode. Top 6 also premiered in February 2015.^[6] Comedians On premiered in July 2015 and featured a collection of different comedians humorously discussing a chosen topic with Carlos Santos as host. "Comedians On" along with "Booze Lightyear" were eventually cancelled at roughly the same time that Carlos Santos became host of "Equals Three". All of these shows (including Equals Three itself) are produced by Equals Three Studios. Top 6 and Equals Three were eventually cancelled in late 2018. Johnson occasionally appeared in these shows and in "update vlogs" on the channel.^[7][17]

Music, acting, and film production

Johnson was attached to an indie film project entitled Who's Driving Doug in May 2014.^[27] He was cast in a role as a new driver for a disabled recluse played by former Breaking Bad star, RJ Mitte. The film was written by Michael Carnick, who uses a wheelchair as the result of a rare disorder, and also stars Paloma Kwiatkowski.^[28] Who's Driving Doug was released in February 2016.^[29][30] Johnson previously had a small part in Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie.^[10] He appeared in a series of advertisements for DiGiorno pizzas in January 2016, alongside Colleen Ballinger, DeStorm Power, and American football player Clay Matthews III.^[31]

Johnson is also the co-creator (with former Equals Three host, Kaja Martin) of the film production company, Mom & Pop Empire. They worked on a documentary project that seeked to expose cable monopolies. Johnson and Martin were co-producers along with Max Benator and Marc Hustvedt's Supergravity Pictures. Johnson was expected to narrate the film, but the project was cancelled in 2022. Mom & Pop Empire had previously co-produced a film called Manson Family Vacation with Mark and Jay Duplass. The film premiered at South by Southwest in 2015 and its distribution rights were purchased by Netflix soon after. Johnson and Martin are also working on a separate film starring Johnson and a long-form movie version of their web series Booze Lightyear as part of Mom & Pop Empire.^[11][32][33]

In the musical sphere, Johnson released an album titled Fat Damon in 2018, which featured three tracks: "Conspiracy Theory Guy (ft. Wax)", "My Life Is Dope", and "Fred Astaire".^[34] Additionally, he formed a virtual band named The Upside Downs, although the timeline of their releases is not specified.^[34]

Recent work and true crime stories

In 2020, Johnson returned to YouTube after a yearlong hiatus with a new series called Svperhvman, where he reviewed movie trailers. ^[35] He also revived his side project "Your Favorite Martian" releasing a new video called "Orphan Tears Part 2", the first in over ten years.^[36] He has since transitioned to sharing true crime stories on social media in a short-form content format, which has been particularly successful on TikTok and Instagram. He has gained a large following on those websites, with Johnson now having over 20 million subscribers on TikTok. In 2023, Johnson stopped using X, citing the reason as "Elon being trash", and switched to Mastodon instead.

In 2024, he appeared in a hoax video on Cr1TiKaL's channel alongside fellow YouTubers and streamers Hank Green, Ironmouse, Antron, and Jordan Howlett, announcing that the Cr1TiKaL's channel would be given to rapper T-Pain. After 2 videos, Cr1TiKaL announced the video was a hoax.

In 2025, a trend began on TikTok where people would animate pictures of Ray William Johnson, Mr. Beast and other creators such as IdkSterling and Joe Bartollozi dancing to the song When the Saints Go Marching In, with the creators being referred to as "saints". A remix of Thriller is sometimes referred to as the "saint song". This trend was mentioned by Ray William Johnson in a 2025 video called "STOP IT!", in which he jokingly told people to "stop making videos involving the saints". ^[37]

In 2025, Johnson was sued for defamation by the Kingdom of Jesus Christ after his video, "He's a dangerous cult leader", made on Apollo Quiboloy, a megachurch preacher accused of sexual abuse and sexual harrasment, human trafficking, marriage fraud, and money laundering by the FBI and the Senate of the Philippines. The lawsuit was later thrown out by a judge due to the judge believing that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ was suing under false pretenses.