You’re probably already aware of Louis Theroux, whose documentary on the Westboro Baptist Church is widely available online. Theroux has hosted several different shows for the BBC over the years, including Weird Weekends, which ran from 1998 to 2000 and followed Louis as he spent time with some of America’s stranger subcultures. Just yesterday, Boing Boing linked to a treasure trove of Weird Weekend movies on Google Video, and I have no misgivings about spending most of Friday afternoon and evening ravenously devouring them.

What makes these documentaries so interesting – aside from their diverse subjects of interesting oddballs ranging from male porn stars and black supremacists to UFO hunters – is Louis Theroux himself. His genuine curiosity for his subjects allows him to insert himself into his documentaries without becoming the star attraction, asking potentially painful or embarrassing questions and surprisingly almost always getting honest answers in return. Michael Apted gets away with asking similarly blunt questions in his Up series because he’s known his subjects – age 49 as of the last installment – since they were seven years old, at one point reminding a London taxi driver that he has failed at every career he has pursued in his life. Theroux doesn’t have the advantage of becoming lifelong friends with the people he’s documenting, and instead penetrates these peoples’ lives so effortlessly because he is open, friendly, and genuinely interested in what they have to say. Even when dealing with his most repelling subjects like Neo-Nazis or the aforementioned Westboro Baptist Church, he humanizes these people by cutting through their personas and rhetoric with his profound curiosity. The show is not just about the subjects themselves, but also about Theroux’s journey to understand them.

So, should you find yourself unusually bored (even moreso given this site’s current involuntary hiatus WAIT, I STILL FUNCTION) and don’t mind spending an hour or two streaming decent enough quality video, you could do worse than randomly clicking a link at the bottom of the Boing Boing post linked to above. Or, if the laws of probability terrify you like they rightfully should, might I suggest a few personal favorites like the episode on white supremacists or maybe the one on gangsta rappers. Of course, for those who haven’t seen it, Theroux’s time spent with the Westboro Baptist Church is immensely interesting, even if it leaves your faith in humanity utterly destroyed.