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Theroux, 29, came to television by way of "TV Nation," the predecessor to Michael Moore's "The Awful Truth." (Fans of that show may recall how Theroux distinguished himself with a brilliant segment in which he waged "psychological warfare" on the media circus surrounding the O.J. Simpson murder trial.)

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends Fridays, 8 p.m. ET on Bravo

But Theroux's distinct charm -- and, indeed, the success of his show -- depends largely on his lacking any clear agenda, political or otherwise. "Weird Weekends" is more about Theroux's earnest explorations than it is any kind of satirical exposé -- though he's not above using provocation for the sake of good footage. (In one segment, a pissed-off pro wrestler worked him over until he threw up.) He walks the line between being brave (sleeping in an underground mountain shelter with an armed survivalist) and brazen (asking a wannabe porn actor to show him his penis), but he never forgets his well-bred manners -- in a show about born-again Christians, Theroux accompanies his "date" to a religious revival, and shows up in a suit and tie.

There's a touching moment at the end of the show about anti-government survivalists in Idaho where Louis bids farewell to his host and advises him "not to do anything silly." "Seriously, Mike," he intones, "I'd hate to hear that something terrible happened to you because of something silly." He reprises the sentiment in the closing voice-over, and just when you think he's taken it to the point of mockery, comic relief kicks in and the following readout appears on-screen: "Since the taping of this episode, Mike hasn't done anything silly." Ultimately, Theroux makes more fun of himself than anyone.

"One of the weird things about doing the series is that I'm making the program, but the program's also about me, to a degree," Theroux explained during our interview. "So I'm both scientist and laboratory animal."

The Oxford-educated Theroux cut his teeth at the Spy school of satire, working briefly at the magazine as a writer and editor in 1992. "It was fun, but it was difficult, because it was definitely after the glory years. I think we felt a bit like ancient Britons in the ruins of the Roman baths, you know, looking around at these monuments to a lost civilization and peeing in them, crapping in the Forum."

You worked with Michael Moore, who is a pretty controversial character, especially among American lefties. So it's interesting that he seems to have found an audience in Britain. What's the appeal for British audiences?

For me what it comes down to is, Do you find his shows funny or not? Do you enjoy watching the shows or not? And if you think that there's something bogus about the political analysis, then that's because you're not enjoying the show. But I personally do enjoy his shows. I like Tom Green. I can't justify it; I don't think [Green's] really doing a huge amount for the environment, but you're either laughing or you're not.

Michael's a polemicist, and a satirist, so he's going after corporate targets. It's not really what I would do. But I applaud him for doing it. I don't consider the people I cover to be targets, just subjects.

So how do you pick your subjects?

I haven't totally pinned this down, but they tend to be worlds which I find to be, on the face of it, self-contradictory. Americans have this unusual degree of commitment to things that just don't square -- they seem based on a misunderstanding of objective reality. That isn't true for all of the shows, but I think that's probably true for the best ones -- the male porn stars, the born-again evangelists.

Next page | "Americans like British people a bit more than British people like Americans"