You had a long day at work, and you’re on your way home. You call for the elevator in your apartment building, only to discover a 500-pound sumo wrestler occupying it when the doors open.
You’re window shopping downtown only to come across a storefront display of the nativity scene gone awry, with the three wisemen clubbing each other as the Virgin Mary looks on in contempt.
Or perhaps you’re pumping gas when, out of nowhere, a cheerleader emerges — fully equipped with pigtails, pom-poms and leg kicks — to root on your gas guzzling:
“”Ro-sham-bo, pick up sticks,
You’re paying a dollar-sixty-six!
Nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts,
You’re getting screwed!
Go American Consumption! Yeah!””
Enter the insane world of Dom Jolly, star of Comedy Central’s “”Trigger Happy TV”” — the newest and funniest hidden camera show on television right now. Much like some of the bits on “”Jackass,”” “”The Tom Green Show”” and “”The Jamie Kennedy Experience,”” the show’s comedy plays on the confused, skull-scratching reactions of Jolly’s victims — who are subjected to jaw-dropping, awkward situations, like a penguin and nun fistfight or an epic battle in the produce section between Mexican wrestlers over a head of lettuce.
“”Trigger Happy TV”” was created and filmed in England, and its first seasons were aired for the first time in the United States last fall on Comedy Central. The show has since moved to the United States, and the one-man cast of Jolly has recruited the talents of American comics Jessica Makinson (“”That’s My Bush!””), Travis Draft (“”Spy TV””) and Jerry Minor (“”The Martin Short Show”” and “”Cedric the Entertainer Presents””).
The prankster Jolly answered a few questions for the Guardian regarding the new season, keeping a straight face and his favorite beer.
Guardian: What do you think distinguishes “”Trigger Happy TV”” from all the other hidden camera shows?
Dom Jolly: Consistent quality, I hope. The first “”Trigger Happy”” came out in 1999 in England. So when we did it, there weren’t any hidden camera shows. Obviously, there had been things like “”Candid Camera”” and such, but there wasn’t any of the new wave of programs coming through. One of the things that I wanted to do was just to create a program where literally we could see if we could do a laugh a minute type of program, which is always the cliche that’s put across but never really happens. We wondered why people didn’t do that.
G: How do you not laugh when you’re participating in such absurd situations?
DJ: I’m actually really good at keeping a straight face. One of the main reasons is because normally you’re in such an absurd situation that, if you laugh or give it away, then you have to explain it to the person you’re talking to. That’s more embarrassing than the embarrassing situation you’re in.
G: Who do you see as your comic inspiration?
DJ: Well, I don’t model myself on anyone really because I think it’s pointless. If you’re modeling yourself on someone, they’ve already done it. My all time absolute God-like hero is Andy Kaufman without a shadow of a doubt. I’m doing a new show at the moment, which I have to say is inspired by Andy Kaufman and which is a sort of spoof chat show. I just loved the absurdity of Andy Kaufman.
To me, perfect humor is someone like Andy Kaufman getting a thousand people to come and see him do standup, and then he just starts reading “”The Great Gatsby”” and reads the whole book until there are three people left in the auditorium. Financially and commercially, I don’t think Comedy Central would be interested in that as a proposition, but that, to me, is great comedy.
G: Who has better beer, the States or the U.K.?
DJ: Well, if you talk to your average beer loving Englishman, they’d say we do. Personally, my taste is more American. I’m not just saying that to butter you up. There’s nothing I like better than the keg party – I’m joking. I grew up on Schlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous, because I was abroad. I’ll stick with that. That’s probably a very uncool beer to drink.
G: What sort of stuff have you been arrested for in the United States? Have you ever been pulled in while doing a skit?
DJ: I was arrested on the Empire State Building. Not arrested, but the Empire State building seems to be its own city, basically. I don’t know if it has a mayor, but it definitely has some security force. We were doing one of the spy exchanges so I was dressed as this dodgy spy. This was before 9/11 so there wasn’t quite as much tension and paranoia, but there was clearly quite heightened security.
They picked us up straight away, and I was put in some weird little room on about the 80th floor of the Empire State Building for about half an hour by a guy who looked very like a Texas Ranger. It was very surreal.
G: What’s with the obsession with animal costumes?
DJ: I kind of wonder that sometimes. I’m a real animal guy. I have a dog, a couple of cats; I love animals. Actually, in the first season there were a lot of dead animal jokes which I realized, like recycling dead animals and the stuffed dog that I used to take for walks.
One of the reasons we wear the costumes is, obviously, we never show our face. It’s actually a lot easier if for some reason, when you’re wearing a costume like that, even though people know in their brain rationally that it’s a guy in a costume; they still behave slightly differently than they do, obviously, if it’s just you. It gives you a slight edge. It makes people slightly unnerved. They don’t know quite how to behave because although they might be being annoyed by this thing, they’re also thinking, “”Oh, isn’t he big and cute?”” I don’t know. It kind of gives us an edge. Also, it’s just nice and comfortable.
The only problem was that we were so determined to be sort of punk and lo-fi that we never had any costumes made. We just hire our costumes from the costume place. Like the dogs that fight all the time, it was disgusting. We’d pick them up on a Thursday, and somebody had used them the week before for a stag party or a bachelor party would have thrown up in the heads. I’ll tell you; I’ve seen horrible things.
The new season of “”Trigger Happy TV”” appears on Tuesday evenings at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.
