Showtime will be bringing Brit prankster Marc Wootton Stateside ... will his gay-themed gags join him?

Premium channel Showtime doubled up its British comedy quotient when it announced that it would be bringing comedian Marc Wootton to American airwaves.

I know Wootton best as Shirley Ghostman, the fake celebrity psychic who claims to channel the spirits of famous people (often claiming to speak with the ghost of Princess Diana). But Wootton jumped headlong into gay prank territory on the reality game show My New Best Friend, where people had to pretend that an appalling character played by Wootton was their new best friend.

Normally, hidden camera shows that try to mine comedy out of people's embarrassment leave me cringing more than laughing but Wootton targets his victim's worst qualities in a way that reminds me of Sacha Baron Cohen. In the first episode of My New Best Friend (warning, some NSFW language in the show), Wootton takes Tim - a real "man's man" - and forces him to spend the weekend with Stevie, a campy, effeminate social worker with whom Tim must pretend to be best friends. The experience brings out Tim's homophobic tendencies and makes him face them (even to the point of coming out to his friends) in order to win the prize.

Wootton's Showtime series will have him similarly interacting with unsuspecting members of the public and I wonder if this series will include a gay character like Stevie. There's certainly room for a character that makes cringe comedy out of American homophobia like Cohen's Bruno did. We'll have to keep Wootton's new series on our radar.