So just how Russell Brand got the job is anyone’s guess.
Brand is a self-proclaimed anarchist. He’s been arrested for public nudity, been fired more times than a human cannonball, been attacked by audience members at a comedy gig, and performed some unspeakable acts in the name of entertainment. He was once even beaten up by the security staff at his own gig, and managed to get himself arrested in the process. Responsible? Calming? Careful? He’d need a dictionary even to understand the words.
Today, sat in a photography studio in implausibly bourgeois Fulham, he looks every inch the nutter. His black hair sticks out like he's been licking plug sockets, his Gothic/new romantic clothes and black beard add a sinister air of vampirism. Most shockingly of all, though, he turns out to be charming, erudite, polite and warm, as he expounds on everything from the lunacy of live TV to his favourite Big Brother moments.
I'm happy it's done well. I didn't have any expectations, except that it would be a laugh and be good, and it's got better. It's got really good people working on it, so I think it's inevitable that it's become so good. I'm glad people like it though – that's brilliant.
It gets an impressive audience for E4, doesn't it?
Yeah. The last one in Celebrity Big Brother got more viewers than Channel 4 had at the same time. You can't argue with statistics! I think it's because it's a show that gives a voice to everyone who wants to talk about Big Brother, whether at home or in the studio.
In the same period your own stock's risen, culminating in you being named Time Out's Stand Up of the Year this year. Have you been tempted to give up presenting to concentrate on the stand up?
The two can work quite well in tandem. Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother is at most four months a year, which gives me the rest of the time to do stand-up. And I really enjoy doing Big Mouth, so I've not been tempted to give it up.
You mean because Rob Newman wouldn't do it, or Mark Thomas? I like it because it's live, and it's talking to people about people. I think that's good, that is in keeping with what I believe. I don't feel at all compromised by doing Big Mouth. It's just people talking about humanity and people's behaviour towards each other. I'm always trotting out that Desmond Morris, the anthropologist, said: "If you visited some indigenous Australian tribe, and you listened to their campfire mutterings of an evening, they wouldn't be talking about Gods and mythology, they'd be talking about the next tribe and who was doing what." We're so atomised in society now, and Big Brother gives us common next-door neighbours. While it is on, we all live next door to that house. Of course you can look at it and say it's exploitative, it's sensational, it's salacious, but what's always amazed me about it is that humanity always emerges. Preston and Chantelle are in love for heaven's sake, what more do you want from life?
How much of Big Brother do you watch when the series is on?
I haven't got time to watch more than an hour a day. I watch the main show, and then maybe if something mad happens I'll tune in and watch that. But that's all I can manage, because we're so busy working on the programme.
I thought it was really fantastic. I loved Dennis Rodman – he was like a great big bear who slowed his heart rate right down to exist in there when he realised he wasn’t going to be having it orf. I loved George Galloway, for how seriously he took it. I liked it that he thought Preston was a plutocrat. Preston ain't a plutocrat, he's just a bloke in the Ordinary Boys. It's a term that should be used to describe Idi Amin or Robert Mugabe, not Ian Curtis or Preston. Pete Burns was intense, Traci was dead beautiful. I thought it was really great television. Not to mention the whole Chantelle thing – look what's happened to her.
The audience on Big Mouth are very vocal. Where do you get them from?
I think they're just fans of Big Brother from across the country who have found it like a church. "If you build it, they will come".
Do you ply them with booze to make them so opinionated?
I personally lacquer jelly beans with a high resolution alcohol solution so that they're off their heads by the time they get into that studio. I take personal responsibility for that. In fact, I delight in it, I delight in seeing people vulnerable.
It can be completely chaotic on the show. Do you ever worry that things are getting out of hand?
No. I like it. I like it when things go mad. That's when I feel at home, whether it's someone getting up and walking out of the studio or someone starts going mental, that makes me excited. That's how I feel all the time.
Not really. It's better the show being on after the watershed so you don't have to worry about it. I don't swear on television unless it's absolutely called for. I'm not really into it. I prefer to talk like it's the old days.
Do you get a kick out of the fact that the show is live?
Yeah, I love it. Live television is much better. I do get really nervous, but that nervous energy facilitates an excitement. That's just your body getting you ready to have a right laugh.
What have been your favourite moments on Big Brother's Big Mouth?
I like doing things with Little Paul Scholes [his regular puppet guest], because I liked the development of that character and that relationship. I liked some of the returning fans, they can be a real laugh. I love the joke at the top of the show where we pick out a moment from the house and look at it again.
And on the series last summer?
I liked Craig. I liked him wrestling with his dilemma, bless him. I enjoyed him enormously, I thought he was a hero. And I thought Anthony was lovely, and a worthy winner. And Makosi was gorgeous. I thought it was a great series.
Have things ever gone really badly wrong on Big Mouth?
Yeah, loads of times. On the last show, the stuff that's meant to go directly into my ear was broadcast, so everybody heard "25 seconds to the competition". Michael Barrymore heard that and looked all confused, so I had to say "Don’t worry Michael, we all heard that voice".
I like them. I like people. I think everyone's lovely. I've never had anyone on that show who I've thought: "Ooh, you horrible, spiteful, selfish bastard". Except perhaps for me. And even I'm alright really.
Will you be changing anything about the show this year, or is it a case of "If it ain't broke don't fix it"?
It's a case of "If it ain't broke, meddle with it", that's the policy we're employing. Because it's going to be four shows a week over 13 weeks, we're introducing some new characters. As well as Little Paul Scholes there's going to be a menagerie of animals turning up in the show, and some interesting new items.
Is this the longest that you've been without being fired from a job?
Yeah, definitely. Easily. By far and away. I've never done anything for that long. I was probably never even at a school for that long. It's a miracle that it's gone on as long as this. I don't want to get fired from this job. I want to leave with everyone saying "well done, you've done great", not with someone standing near a window with broken glass, crying, and someone else nervously shaking with spit on their chin. I don't want that energy any more.
By Benjie Goodhart