Talking of reality television, as we were the other day, the Ali G show starts tonight on HBO in the US. Will be interesting to see what they make of it, since their own concoctions of genuine irony and reality situations - like "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment" - all seem predisposed (thanks to "Candid Camera") to the notion that the audience somehow has to be "let in on" the joke for the set-up to work.

Ali G and also "Trigger Happy TV" which has been running pretty successfully on Comedy Central for a while now, depend on that absolutely NOT being the case, that the integrity of the comedy is more important than a mass audience reaction and empathy. "Brass Eye" and "The Day Today" were brilliant in this context. Probably too good, in fact.

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