diff --git a/httpie/pretty.py b/httpie/pretty.py
index 774839d1..1a108d39 100644
--- a/httpie/pretty.py
+++ b/httpie/pretty.py
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 import os
 import json
 import pygments
+import re
 from pygments import token
 from pygments.util import ClassNotFound
 from pygments.lexers import get_lexer_for_mimetype
 from pygments.formatters.terminal256 import Terminal256Formatter
 from pygments.formatters.terminal import TerminalFormatter
-from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer, bygroups
+from pygments.lexer import include, RegexLexer, bygroups
 from pygments.styles import get_style_by_name, STYLE_MAP
 from . import solarized
 
@@ -31,6 +32,68 @@ class HTTPLexer(RegexLexer):
             (r'(.*?:)(.+)',  bygroups(token.Name, token.String))
     ]}
 
+# Stolen from https://github.com/orb/pygments-json
+class JSONLexer(RegexLexer):
+    name = 'JSON Lexer'
+    aliases = ['json']
+    filenames = ['*.json']
+    mimetypes = []
+
+
+    flags = re.DOTALL
+    tokens = {
+        'whitespace': [
+            (r'\s+', token.Text),
+        ],
+
+        # represents a simple terminal value
+        'simplevalue':[
+            (r'(true|false|null)\b', token.Keyword.Constant),
+            (r'-?[0-9]+', token.Number.Integer),
+            (r'"(\\\\|\\"|[^"])*"', token.String.Double),
+        ],
+
+
+        # the right hand side of an object, after the attribute name
+        'objectattribute': [
+            include('value'),
+            (r':', token.Punctuation),
+            # comma terminates the attribute but expects more
+            (r',', token.Punctuation, '#pop'),
+            # a closing bracket terminates the entire object, so pop twice
+            (r'}', token.Punctuation, ('#pop', '#pop')),
+        ],
+
+        # a json object - { attr, attr, ... }
+        'objectvalue': [
+            include('whitespace'),
+            (r'"(\\\\|\\"|[^"])*"', token.Name.Tag, 'objectattribute'),
+            (r'}', token.Punctuation, '#pop'),
+        ],
+
+        # json array - [ value, value, ... }
+        'arrayvalue': [
+            include('whitespace'),
+            include('value'),
+            (r',', token.Punctuation),
+            (r']', token.Punctuation, '#pop'),
+        ],
+
+        # a json value - either a simple value or a complex value (object or array)
+        'value': [
+            include('whitespace'),
+            include('simplevalue'),
+            (r'{', token.Punctuation, 'objectvalue'),
+            (r'\[', token.Punctuation, 'arrayvalue'),
+        ],
+
+
+        # the root of a json document would be a value
+        'root': [
+            include('value'),
+        ],
+
+    }
 
 class PrettyHttp(object):
 
@@ -52,11 +115,13 @@ class PrettyHttp(object):
                 # Indent JSON
                 content = json.dumps(json.loads(content),
                                     sort_keys=True, indent=4)
+                lexer = JSONLexer()
             except Exception:
                 pass
-        try:
-            lexer = get_lexer_for_mimetype(content_type)
-        except ClassNotFound:
-            return content
+        else:
+            try:
+                lexer = get_lexer_for_mimetype(content_type)
+            except ClassNotFound:
+                return content
         content = pygments.highlight(content, lexer, self.formatter)
         return content