Such scenes include Joly answering a gigantic novelty mobile phone and shouting at the top of his voice into it (normally in quiet locations like golf courses, cinemas, libraries and parks), a chef chasing an actor in a large rat costume out of a restaurant, and two actors dressed as masked Mexican wrestlers getting into spontaneous fights in grocery stores. The programme's surreal sketches have been described as being influenced by Dada. Other scenes include people dressed as animals breaking into a fight and the progress of various costumed pedestrians (such as a snail and an old man) across a zebra crossing in London. Joly also often dressed as a Cub Scout, a foreign person with bad English (presumably, his own adaptation of the foreign man character from the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook sketch by Monty Python), or a park attendant.

The show also didn't include a laugh track, instead playing instrumental and sometimes sad music during sketches. Bands such as Eels and The Crocketts have been used multiple times in Trigger Happy TV. Another Dom Joly-related show, World Shut Your Mouth, does not have a laugh track either.

Three series and a Christmas special of the show were produced in the UK, from 2000 to 2002. Three DVDs were released, containing the "best of" both series and the Christmas specials.

Despite the show's popularity over two continents, Joly says he will not make any more in Britain, as his face and voice are now too well known.