Dominic John Romulus Joly (; born 15 November 1967) is an English comedian and writer. He is best known as the star of '' Trigger Happy TV'' (2000–2003), a hidden camera prank show that was broadcast in over 70 countries.

Early life

Dominic John Romulus Joly was born in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

on 15 November 1967, to British parents John Joly and his second wife, Yvonne. John Joly, a pilot with the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, owned banking, insurance and shipping agency Henry Heald & Co., which was managed, and later bought, by Joly's great-grandfather. The family business is now run by Joly's sister. Joly's parents were "quite detached" and he was raised with a nanny; his parents separated when Joly was 18, and for 20 years he had little contact with his father, reconciling in his old age prior to the latter's death in 2011. He has a half-brother and two half-sisters resident in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and England, to whom he is not close. Joly attended

Brummana High School Brummana High School (BHS, ) is a private school in Lebanon. It is located in the village of Brummana, situated in Metn, Mount Lebanon, east of the capital city Beirut. This school was established in 1873, by the Quaker Theophilus Waldmeier ( ...

in Lebanon. He then moved to England, where he was educated at Dragon School in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and Haileybury College near

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a Ford (crossing), ford on ...

. He later attended the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. He studied for a degree in politics. Joly speaks

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

and French in addition to English. In 2018, Joly told ''

The Sunday People The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881. At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...

'' that when he was at school in Beirut in the 1970s a fellow pupil brought a severed head to show his class.

Career

After university, Joly was a diplomat, based in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Television

''Trigger Happy TV''

The original series ran for two series on Channel 4 from 2000 to 2003. In 2003, a new series of ''Trigger Happy TV'' was made for an American audience with an altered format that featured a band of different comedians who performed skits without Joly although he cameoed. Joly was not happy with the US version. Following the success of ''Trigger Happy TV'' on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, Joly was secured by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

for a rumoured £5 million.

''This is Dom Joly''

''This is Dom Joly'' was a spoof chat show presented by Dom Joly, originally shown on BBC Three in 2003.

''World Shut Your Mouth''

''World Shut Your Mouth'' was a hidden camera television series starring Joly. It ran on Friday nights in 2005 on BBC One.

''Dom Joly's Happy Hour''

In this series which aired in 2006, Joly and his partner Peter Wilkins travelled the world and tried the unique alcoholic beverages of each country. It ran on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

''Made in Britain''

In 2009, Joly fronted a show titled ''Made in Britain'', shown on the Blighty channel in the UK.

''Fool Britannia''

In 2012–13, Joly made two series of '' Fool Britannia'', a hidden camera show that aired on Saturday evenings on ITV1.

''Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls''

In 2016, Joly was marooned on a desert island for two weeks for '' Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls''.

''Pilgrimage''

In 2020, Joly walked the Sultans Trail from Belgrade to Istanbul for the BBC One series ''

Pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

''.

Writing

Joly was a columnist for ''

The Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' from 2003 until the paper closed in 2016. He was thought to be the writer of a spoof column in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' and then '' i'' called "Cooper Brown: He's out there", and later confirmed in his autobiography that this was the case. The column was presented as the work of an American character named Cooper Brown and revolves around his putative adventures as "a garrulous American showbiz type". In 2010, Joly published a travel book called ''The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the World's Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations'', investigating

dark tourism Dark tourism (also thanatourism, black tourism, morbid tourism, or grief tourism) has been defined as tourism involving travel to places historically associated with death and tragedy (event), tragedy. More recently, it was suggested that the con ...

. In the book Joly travels to places that witnessed great tragedy and death, including Chernobyl, which he visited on 4 May 2009; his childhood home of

;

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

; various spots in the United States including locations of famous assassinations; the Killing Fields of Cambodia; and Iran for a skiing holiday. The book was published on 2 September 2010 in the UK. Joly published his second travel book, ''Scary Monsters and Super Creeps'', in 2012. In the book, he travels the world in search of six

cryptids Cryptids are animals or other beings whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated by science. Cryptozoology, the study of cryptids, is a pseudoscience claiming that such beings may exist somewhere in the wild; it has been widely cri ...

such as

Bigfoot Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...

and the

Yeti The Yeti ()"Yeti"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. is an ape-like creature purported t ...

. In 2019, Joly published the travel book '' The Hezbollah Hiking Club'', in which he documented his walk across Lebanon with two friends. Joly was a special correspondent for the ''Independent'' at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

in Beijing. While in Beijing, he also appeared daily on the ''Drive'' programme on Five Live. In 2023, Joly published a book '' The Conspiracy Tourist'', in which he travels the world investigating conspiracy theories and the people who believe them including QAnon, hunting for UFOs in Roswell, chasing Alex Jones of Info Wars around Austin, trying to prove that Finland exists and taking a flat-earther to the edge of the world.

Political career

In the 1997 UK general election, Joly stood in Kensington and Chelsea against

Alan Clark Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark (13 April 1928 – 5 September 1999) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), author and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Tr ...

. Hiring out hundreds of

teddy bear A teddy bear, or simply a teddy, is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. The teddy bear was named by Morris Michtom after the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt; it was developed apparently simultaneously in the first deca ...

costumes, he staged mock protests at

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

and came fifth out of nine candidates, receiving 218 votes (0.6%).

Podcast

On 29 June 2018, Joly released the first episode of his comedy podcast, ''Earworm''. In 2020 the second series of the podcast was released by

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

Personal life

Joly is married to Canadian graphic designer Stacey MacDougall. Having lived in the

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a wikt:cosmopolitan, cosmopolitan and multiculturalism, multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting ...

area of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, the two later sold their apartment to novelist

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

and bought a property in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

to raise their children there. Joly has spoken about his struggles with

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

and depression.

References

External links

Joly on Twitch

Joly
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

*
Channel4.com – ''Trigger Happy TV''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Joly, Dom 1967 births Living people Alumni of SOAS University of London English columnists English male comedians English male journalists English television personalities English television presenters Liberal Democrats (UK) People educated at The Dragon School People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College Writers from Beirut The Independent people HuffPost writers and columnists 20th-century English comedians 21st-century English comedians 21st-century English writers People from Notting Hill Comedians from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Brummana High School alumni