There was a tedious hidden camera show on the flight back yesterday, called "Just for Laughs -- the Gags" [this was the original canadian version, not the equally make UK remake, fact fans]. I was spared having to listen to it since I was sitting in a seat where the headset thingy was working (this presumably is what you get for trying to get the cheapest seat -- I'd say that airplane audio systems I've encountered have a failure rate of approximation 30% based on the flights I've taken). This didn't stop me seeing the really quite dull 'gags' and unfortunately I did have to listen to some cretin a few rows forward finding the whole thing hilarious.

In some ways I'd actually quite like to be the victim of one of these pranks, since then I could take great delight in getting angry with the unimaginative toads who put these things together, refuse to give my permission for the thing to be shown, and maybe even threaten legal action. There were quite a few set-ups in the show that I saw that seemed distinctly dodgy (a taxi with a back seat which threw the passengers around the cab? I would be wanting recompense for the danger that would put me in).

That gave me an idea for a sketch which, since I'm not currently engaged in scripting comedy sketch shows, you are welcome to use for yourself. Some particulalrly lame gag is played on a member of the public. Then the presenter walks on, and points out the hidden camera. The victim flies into a rage, screaming and shouting "how dare you do this to me?" and so on, for a couple of minutes. Then a second presenter walks on, explains to the victim that it was just a set up, and that the hidden camera show was just a fake, and then points out the second hidden camera. The member of the public pauses, then falls about laughing about he had been taken in and thought that it really was a hidden camera show playing a trick on him.

I find this hilarious, but in the same way that a large fraction of the dim-witted populace seems to find humour in hidden camera shows, I suspect that an equally large fraction would find the above unamusing. Perhaps it is. I refer the interested reader to the relevant sketch from "Not the Nine O'Clock News" parodying Game for a Laugh.