Trigger Happy TV's Dom Joly now keeps phone on silent to avoid looking 'a w*****'

You might know him best as a giant snail. Or a man-sized mental squirrel. Or a shouty bloke with a phone the size of a suitcase. Comedian Dom Joly has been all those and more.

And 25 years on from the launch of Trigger Happy TV, his legendary hidden camera show, he's taking the chance to look back, with a huge nationwide tour and tie-in book. So Mike Ward has rung him for a chat. It's a chance for Dom to talk about his favourite Trigger Happy moments, his few regrets and the new show he's set to unleash.

That, plus his weight-loss journey, his love-hate relationship with social media, and why he fretted about meeting his hero, Robert Smith from The Cure.

Sorry, Dom, but as you're on the phone I have to start by asking: do you still have that annoying Nokia ringtone? Ha! It actually wasn't their ringtone when we started filming Trigger Happy TV. I only picked it because it was so irritating. Its just that by the time the show went out, weirdly, it had become Nokias. So it was suddenly everywhere, like a subliminal ad for the show.

And now..? I thought about this for ages. Should I go for ironic self-awareness and have that tone for real? In the end I thought, "No, I'd look a w***er." So I just have it on vibrate.

Im strangely gutted to hear that. Anyway, looking back, which bits of Trigger Happy TV are you proudest of? That giant phone, the mad squirrel, the huge snail slithering across the road and holding up the traffic those became my life. We loved the snail sketch so much, we re-did it as a tortoise and hare. It got no appreciation. Years later, I put it on TikTok. Its now had 30 million views.

So to prepare for this tour, you watched all the old footage? Must have felt weird. Yes, Sam Cadman, who made it with me, kept every tape, so three years of my life are documented. It was like watching that marathon Beatles documentary.

Sam and you are quite a team. Yes, working with him again is like a band re-forming. Like Oasis, you've got that tension between siblings. We're so different, we both up our game.

Dom Joly compares himself to the Beatles and Oasis. Great, thats our headline sorted! Yeah, I know!

Remember your very first sketch? Yes, I was dressed as a Womble, having a nervous breakdown on Wimbledon Common, littering and shouting at children. The clip was 40 seconds. We were there five hours. Theres footage of me asking: Is this funny?

People say you couldnt make Trigger Happy TV now. That irritated us, so we actually took four old characters back to the same locations. It worked. People were just as nice. The real difference now is smartphones. If I did the snail now, 40 people would film it, post it, then accuse me of nicking the idea.

Hence your new project Mugwuffin? Yes, weve created some new characters, like the Good News Energy Bear. I knock on peoples doors, apologise that their energy companys CEO is on his yacht with Amazons Jeff Bezos, then tell them hes sent them a balloon to compensate for their bills rising 300 per cent. After two hours, an angry crowd ties me to a lamppost.

Cant say I blame them. Looking back, did any old sketches make you cringe? Honestly, no. Other than when me and another guy wore fat suits and got stuck on escalators and stuff. Bit of a cheap joke. Anyway, Im on the Mounjaro now.

Yeah? So hows that going? I was 105 kilos, got down to 88, then plateaued at 95. The price doubling really f***ed me off, so I started ordering the 10mg and giving myself half. Some people get really angry, saying Mounjaro users have cheated. Which, OK, we have. But Im, like, who made you the f***ing ref?

Any side effects? Terrible burping. But what do I want to be, a constant burper or fat?

Speaking of angry people: social media. Oh, if I could, I'd quit in a flash, but it's part of my job. There's the constant one-upmanship, especially when I travel. Ill arrive in Cambodia, say, and someonell go, Oh, you shouldve been there five years ago. It was amazing. It's ruined now." Im, like, f*** off! What I do love is the wisdom of crowds. I'll say: Im in Hanoi, where should I go? The first 20 replies will tell me to kill myself, but drill down and there's always someone interesting.

Youve met many stars. But your all-time hero is Robert Smith of The Cure? Absolutely. He's incredibly nice, generous and decent. They say don't meet your heroes, but hes the exception. When we first met, Id asked him to do a cameo. Then I thought, what if he turns up dressed more like an accountant? So I messaged saying: Will he need a make-up artist? They said: No, he does his own. I thought: Perfect! Now that he's growing old, at times I think: You look like my mad aunt. But I love that he sort of doesn't care.

• Order the Trigger Happy TV Storybook at awaywithmedia.com/buy-books
• Tour tickets: domjoly.tv/live
• Mugwuffin launches in September

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