Camera is candid, even cruel

Some people should never be allowed to carry cell phones. It’s bad enough when a pleasant moment is shattered by a musical ring that’s too loud, too shrill, but when that man answers, shouting at the top of his lungs into a cell phone the size of a boom box, it’s too much.

Welcome to “Trigger Happy TV,” a British import shown on Comedy Central on Thursdays at 10:30 p.m., a playground, of sorts, for British comedian Dom Joly, a self-described “manic depressant.” Each half-hour episode, consisting of short vignettes shot largely with hidden cameras in and around London, was written and directed by Joly. And he’s seen in a giant red dog costume, pummeling a giant Dalmatian.

“Trigger Happy TV” can be crude at times, as when giant rabbits simulate sex in a park, and some of the bits just don’t hold up well to frequent repetition. Segments can also be whimsical -- a gang of giant cats overturning trash cans in the middle of the night -- and they can be downright cruel, as when Joly plays a stoic Royal Guardsman flipping out at a tourist for taking his picture.

“Trigger Happy TV’s” real strength comes from the reactions of the victims of Joly’s clever setups. It says something about modern culture that people walk past a violent confrontation between giant dogs. It’s left to the viewer to wonder just what that says.

We’re also left to wonder why they let Joly into concerts and movies with that big cell phone in the first place.