A Joly good time on Trigger Happy TV
Dom Joly (pictured above) is returning to The Apex, in Bury St Edmunds, next week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Trigger Happy TV.
Trigger Happy TV was a hidden camera show that paired surreal sketches with brilliant music and became essential viewing in the noughties, catapulting Joly to fame.
With crazy scenes, such as a human-sized snail crawling across a zebra crossing in a busy London street, over-sized dogs beating each other up with truncheons, or that giant mobile phone – it relied on seeing absurd behavior dropped into ordinary public spaces and capturing real reactions.
Joly is stunned that 25 years has gone by so quickly.
He said: “Trigger Happy TV happened in this curious moment in time.
“It was the beginning of the Millennium when so many things were changing. We had the internet, but it was still dial-up. We had mobile phones, but they were still very basic. You could call, text and play snake. That was about it. Television was about to explode into pieces. YouTube and TikTok were years away.”
The show had a mischievous energy, without the cruelty that can make hidden-camera comedy uncomfortable.
The target was usually social norms, rather than individual victims.
Looking back, a lot of modern viral videos and public-prank content borrow elements that Trigger Happy TV was doing two decades earlier.
The difference is that it often felt more creative and playful than the attention-seeking prank culture that followed.
Joly says: “We were definitely on a fulcrum point. Between old school, mainstream hidden camera shows and the anything-goes free-form of YouTube.
“Between everybody watching the same channels and the digital grazing that constitutes modern viewing habits. Between the aftermath of Tory Britain and Tony Blair’s Cool Britannia honeymoon.
“It was an exciting time to be creative. Music was incredible. The economy was booming. Nobody believes you when you tell them nowadays, but people were, on the whole, happy.”
“We laughed and laughed so hard making the show. Something of the joy we had making it clearly showed up on the screen, and I think that’s why it became such a massive hit.”
It really was massive – Trigger Happy TV was sold to 80 countries, sold a million DVDs, made multiple hit soundtrack CDs and won lots of awards.
“People still ask me questions about the show to this day – which is partially why I’m writing this book and doing this 25th Anniversary Tour.
“It was a crazy showbiz fairy tale that, like everything in life, probably didn’t end as perfectly as I’d have liked … but might just have a happy ending coming up 25 years on.”
Dom Joly appears at The Apex on Tuesday, November 17, at 7.30pm. See www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758000 for more information, or to book tickets.