As of early October, 2002, some parts of Trigger Happy TV are shot in New York! This isn't mentioned anywhere, but if you look closely you'll notice yellow cabs in some of the scenes, many of them with "NY Taxi" written in the doors, driving (with all the other traffic) on the righthand side of the street.
This caused some consternation among my circle of friends; we've long speculated that some of Dom Joly's sketches wouldn't work nearly as well in the United States. Thus far, we've seen one ice cream truck sketch and one Guardian Angel sketch filmed in New York.
In a letter on the show's website (http://www.triggerhappytv.com), Dom explains that "You American viewers see an international version on your screens....We are coming to the US very soon to inflict our brand of humour on your shores." Typical of Dom Joly humor, he ends the letter with "Look forward to meeting you all soon. Stay American!"
We will, Dom. We will.
While I am confident that Secret Agents and Hungarian Tourist would go over well with the populace of New York or LA(they're already accustomed to meeting crazy people on the street who speak nonsensically), I cringe at the thought of Mr. Joly pulling off a cell phone sketch on a crowded New York subway. He'd probably get his ass handed to him on a platter. An American version of the 'fabulous prizes' sketch, on the other hand, would work particularly well. We citizens of these United States do love the idea of getting something for nothing!
For completeness, I should explain:
- Ice cream truck: He pretends to be selling ice cream to passerby from a smallish ice cream truck. When people try to buy something he smears ice cream on the window, begins disco dancing (complete with fog machine and disco ball!) or runs away.
- Guardian angel: Dressed as a Guardian Angel in a red beret and loud red jacket, he stands on a streetcorner and screams threateningly at the top of his lungs "Alllll RIGHT! THIS STREETCORNER IS NOW PROTECTED BY THE GUARDIAN ANGELS! DOES ANYBODY HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?"
- Fabulous prizes: Dressed in suitably authentic-looking game show garb along with his entire camera crew, Dom cons foreign tourists into thinking they are participating in a game show and may win fabulous prizes. He leads them on a wild goose chase through the streets of London, making them run without resting for 20 minutes or more, and then climbs into a cab and rides away.