Etymology Monday: Who is Josh?

Fret not, dear readers, for part 2 of my 15 Authors post is still coming. I have a request to honor for Etymology Monday today, though, so today we find out something I hadn't even thought to consider before; when you are "just joshing someone," which Josh are you invoking?

My hypothesis before researching this was that once in the mists of etymology, there was a guy named Joshua and he was kind of a dick. As it turns out, that's not too far from the truth. The OED attributes the verb "to josh" as a reference to Josh Billings, the pen name of an American humorist named Henry Wheeler Shaw. Shaw lived from 1818-1885, and Wikipedia has given him the honor of being " second most famous humor writer and lecturer in the United States in the second half of the 19th century after Mark Twain."

Although they're neck-and-neck in moustache cultivation.

 Josh Billings went in for misspelled folksy wisdom (unlike Sarah Palin, who manages only two out of three) and was apparently the man who popularized the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." Other immortal joshes include:

• "As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand."
• "About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment."
• "Don't take the bull by the horns, take him by the tail; then you can let go when you want to."
• “I think when the full horror of being fifty hits you, you should stay home and have a good cry.”
• "I wud as soon take a ten dollar kounterfit bill on the Kodfish Bank ov Nufoundland, as tu marry a woman with false hare, false teeth or a false buzzum."

Scathing. When you tell someone you're just joshing them, it's this guy you are emulating. Which means, I think, that in order to josh anyone, one should first be required to grow that moustache.