diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/better-maybe-json-uri.yml b/changelogs/fragments/better-maybe-json-uri.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c944032da3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/better-maybe-json-uri.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- uri - improve JSON content type detection
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/uri.py b/lib/ansible/modules/uri.py
index 958aefc938b..c00213644de 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/uri.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/uri.py
@@ -447,7 +447,7 @@ from ansible.module_utils._text import to_native, to_text
 from ansible.module_utils.common._collections_compat import Mapping, Sequence
 from ansible.module_utils.urls import fetch_url, get_response_filename, parse_content_type, prepare_multipart, url_argument_spec
 
-JSON_CANDIDATES = ('text', 'json', 'javascript')
+JSON_CANDIDATES = {'json', 'javascript'}
 
 # List of response key names we do not want sanitize_keys() to change.
 NO_MODIFY_KEYS = frozenset(
@@ -695,11 +695,11 @@ def main():
         content_type, main_type, sub_type, content_encoding = parse_content_type(r)
     else:
         content_type = 'application/octet-stream'
-        main_type = 'aplication'
+        main_type = 'application'
         sub_type = 'octet-stream'
         content_encoding = 'utf-8'
 
-    maybe_json = content_type and any(candidate in sub_type for candidate in JSON_CANDIDATES)
+    maybe_json = content_type and sub_type.lower() in JSON_CANDIDATES
     maybe_output = maybe_json or return_content or info['status'] not in status_code
 
     if maybe_output: