The shtick

Saluga's shtick as Ray J. Johnson is to become annoyed when addressed as "Mr. Johnson", exclaiming in a loud voice, "My name is Raymond J. Johnson, Jr. Now you can call me Ray, or you can call me J, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me Junie, or you can call me Junior; now you can call me Ray J, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, or you can call me RJJ Jr." ultimately ending with, "but you doesn't hasta call me Johnson!"

The spiel got more widespread attention in the late 70s in a series of commercials for Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...

 Natural Light Beer. Saluga appeared alongside comedian/pitchman Norm Crosby

Norm Crosby

Norm Crosby is an American comedian sometimes associated with the Borscht Belt who often appeared on television in the 1970s. He is best known for his use of malapropisms and is often called The Master of Malaprop. He was born in Boston.-Career:Crosby went solo as a standup comedian, adopting a...

 echoing (in a roundabout way) Norm's advice to unknowing customers: "Well, y'doesn't hasta call it Anheuser Busch Natural Light Beer, and y'doesn't hasta call it "Busch Natural". Just say "Natural"!" This before launching into the "You can call me Ray" tirade at the mere mention of the word "name".

Capitalizing on the relative fame of Raymond J. Johnson, Jr., in 1979, Saluga released a disco

Disco

Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 called "Dancin' Johnson."

Saluga performed Raymond J. Johnson, Jr. on This Is Tom Jones

This Is Tom Jones

This is Tom Jones is an ATV variety series starring Tom Jones. The series was exported to the United States by ITC Entertainment and was networked there by ABC....

, The David Steinberg Show, Sanford and Son

Sanford and Son

Sanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....

as well as Redd Foxx

Redd Foxx

John Elroy Sanford , better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best known for his starring role on the sitcom Sanford and Son.-Early life:...

's eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

ous variety show

Variety show

A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

, and later on television commercials for Anheuser-Busch's Natural Light beer.

Popular culture

Ray J. Johnson was mentioned in 1993 and again in 1999 (as Ray Jay Johnson) on the TV show The Simpsons

The Simpsons

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

. He was also proclaimed 'dead' on the Chicago sports radio show "Boers and Bernstein".

In the 1993 episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled

Krusty Gets Kancelled

"Krusty Gets Kancelled" is the twenty-second and final episode of The Simpsons fourth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 13, 1993. In the episode, a new show featuring a puppet named Gabbo premieres in Springfield and competes with Krusty the Clown's show...

", Krusty the Klown mentions that the only bad show he put on was when Johnson co-hosted, saying "That thing was funny for about three seconds." Lisa Simpson shared the same sentiment in the 1999 episode
"Mom and Pop Art

Mom and Pop Art

"Mom and Pop Art" is the nineteenth episode of The Simpsons tenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 11, 1999. In the episode, Homer inadvertently becomes a well-praised outsider artist after his failed attempts to build a barbecue pit. His exhibit...

", claiming "I'm sick of him already" after hearing Homer recite Johnson's bit ("You can call him Ray. Or you can call him Jay. Or you can call him Ray-Jay but you doesn't have to call him -". In 2002, Saluga himself appeared as Johnson in the episode "The Old Man and the Key

The Old Man and the Key

"The Old Man and the Key" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons thirteenth season. It first aired in the United States on the Fox network on March 10, 2002. In the episode, Grampa Simpson falls in love with Zelda, an old woman who has just moved in to the senior home in which Grampa lives...

", singing (in a Branson, Missouri

Branson, Missouri

Branson is a city in Taney County in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s....

, theater), "You can call me Ray / Or you can call me Jay / Just don't call me washed-up / I do three shows a day." In the episode "Brother's Little Helper

Brother's Little Helper

"Brother's Little Helper" is the second episode of The Simpsons 11th season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 3, 1999. In the episode, Bart floods the school gymnasium, which prompts the school's principal Seymour Skinner to diagnose Bart with ADD...

" Homer asks whether something is "Ray J. funny or O. J.

O. J. Simpson

Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson , nicknamed "The Juice", is a retired American collegiate and professional football player, football broadcaster, and actor...

 funny?"

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 quoted Johnson's shtick in the 1979 song "Gotta Serve Somebody

Gotta Serve Somebody

"Gotta Serve Somebody" is a song by Bob Dylan from his 1979 studio album Slow Train Coming. It won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male in 1980. The song was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It stands as Dylan's last hit single, peaking at #24...

" ("You may call me R.J./ you may call me Ray…") on the Slow Train Coming

Slow Train Coming

Slow Train Coming is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 19th studio album, released by Columbia Records in August 1979.It was the artist's first effort since becoming a born-again Christian, and all of the songs either express his strong personal faith, or stress the importance of Christian teachings...

LP.

In a season 7 episode of Garfield and Friends

Garfield and Friends

Garfield and Friends is an American animated television series based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. The show was produced by Film Roman, in association with United Feature Syndicate and Paws, Inc., and ran on CBS Saturday mornings from September 17, 1988 to December 10, 1994, with...

titled "Alley Katta and the 40 Thieves," the sultan character, voiced by Bill Saluga, is always saying "you don't have to call me your highness" in a variant of Saluga's Johnson schtick, much to the annoyance of the other characters.

Johnson can also be glimpsed briefly, via a television commercial, in the film Being There

Being There

Being There is a 1979 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby. Adapted from the 1971 novella written by Jerzy Kosinski, the screenplay was coauthored by Kosinski and Robert C. Jones. The film stars Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard A...

.

The bit is mentioned every time a caller on the Opie and Anthony

Opie and Anthony

Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...

 Radio Show has the Name, Ray, Jay or Johnny.

The band Scatterbrain

Scatterbrain

Scatterbrain was an eclectic thrash metal band formed in 1989 when Long Island, New York hardcore group Ludichrist featuring Tommy Christ and Glen Cummings regrouped and changed their name....

 quoted Johnson's routine in their 1990 song "Don't Call Me Dude".

Svengoolie

Svengoolie

Svengoolie is the name of a character from a long-running series of locally-produced television programs in the Chicago, Illinois metropolitan area...

's skull sidekick is based on Ray Jay.

In a post-season-13 episode of King of the Hill

King of the Hill

King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...

, "Just Another Manic Kahn-Day," Bobby Hill struggles to comprehend why the show's middle-aged characters consider Ray J. Johnson funny. After forcing himself to listen to a Ray J. Johnson vinyl record in his room multiple times, Bobby finally breaks out in epiphanous laughter.

In the 2010 American Dad Christmas Episode, Roger meets a moonshiner named Bobb Todd Williams. Bobb Todd introduces himself using a parody of the Ray J. Johnson schtick.

External links

• The "You can call me Ray" bit in RealAudio
  RealAudio
  RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...
  
  format, from tvparty.com
• Ray J Commercial and Disco Song Dancin' Johnson at http://www.retroist.com