Thomas Wilson/HBO
John Wilson goes from getting stoned at home every night to getting ripped in his latest episode of How To with John Wilson, which aired Friday night on HBO. It’s an inspirational path, even if it leads him to the strangest people in the world—like body-builders participating in a 9/11-themed competition, cat photographers, and giant pumpkin growers.
Wilson gets the idea for this episode—which is all about how to work out—from a muscularly built steward he sees on a flight. The man, he says, has biceps that look like “they might burst out of his uniform.” Wilson yearns to have a hulking bod. But he’ll be the first to admit: He looks a little like a couch potato at the moment. (Don’t we all, after the pandemic?)
After a harrowing stop at Planet Fitness, where Wilson feels threatened by the neon banana hues, the filmmaker visits his first subject. This episode is full of out-of-the-box characters, perhaps the weirdest Wilson has ever found. They only get more bizarre as the episode goes on. The first is a chronic masturbator. Wilson applauds him for being so committed to his craft. In fact, Wilson wishes he had the motivation to commit himself to something in the same way that the obsessive masturbator has done with pleasing himself.