The show consists of comedy sketches of characters played by Francis wearing exaggerated latex masks of various celebrities, with minor support roles over the years played by Craig Phillips, Caroline Flack, Ozzy Rezat, Patsy Kensit, Karen Hayley, Barunka O'Shaughnessy, Dexter Fletcher, Sean Pertwee, Luis Fernandez-Gil and Robert Stone.
Francis played central character Avid Merrion, a dangerously insane stalker, who is obsessed with celebrities and tracks them down.
The most popular sketches involve entertainers such as Elton John, who is portrayed as being angry, aggressive and antisocial (in one episode he says he shops on the internet due to his hatred for society), David Blaine, Kelly Osbourne, who comes off as calm and laid back at first and then begins ranting uncontrollably at the camera, Michael Jackson, a foul mouthed mental patient who has tics in the form of "hee-hees"; Mel B, who has a strong Northern accent; and central character Craig David, an egotistical Yorkshireman who owns a plastic peregrine falcon named Kes, a reference to the 1969 drama film of the same name.
Each story starts off the same way and ends with the celebrity (usually female) saying or doing something sexually suggestive, causing the Bear to have an erection (at which point he would shout "Christine Hamilton!
Much of the show's humour is derived from the deliberate ineptitude of each impersonation and general incongruity; scenes include Avid slapping Justin Timberlake with slices of cold meat, and trying to seduce Patsy Kensit while in character as Mel B.
Avid lives in a flat in London, with his dead mother, whom he keeps in the cupboard, and Craig Phillips, winner of the first series of Big Brother UK, whom he keeps chained up in the toilet.
With his slurred and broken English, a ginger mullet, eccentricity, bisexuality, peculiar sexual fetishes, poor social skills and obsession with showbiz figures, he became known as one of the scariest celebrity stalkers.
He spends most of his time harassing celebrities at functions such as book signings or film premières, highlights of which are shown throughout the first two series.
By the third series of this show, his newly elevated status in pop culture allowed him to talk one-on-one with celebrities, rather than stalking them.
in the USA, Avid has given up his job as a chat show host, and now owns a hotel in Los Angeles, where many celebrities come to stay.
In the first series, a segment entitled "Craig David's Life Story" is featured, showing events such as David visiting the doctor to be fitted with a urostomy bag (which he often fails to wear at night and wets the bed), and attempting to break the American market but catches a flight to Mallorca by accident.
As time went on, Craig's fall from fame was chronicled as he started making appearances on shopping channels and in Cha'mone Mo'Fo' Selecta he was reduced to working in a call centre.
Leigh Francis stated in an interview with Metro that the character was based on Billy Casper from Kes, rather than the singer Craig David.
She speaks in a northern accent, which is apparent when she says the word "fuck" like "fook", and wears a leopard-print top, revealing a disturbingly hairy chest.
In the first series, she features in a segment in which she promotes her new book, which discusses the split of the Spice Girls and her love for her stuffed tiger.
The segment shows her living with singer and actress Patsy Kensit, whom she is always trying to seduce and with whom she eventually has a drunken one night stand in the final episode.
On the music video for Avid Merrion's cover for I Got You Babe (which also starred Patsy Kensit), Mel's father was revealed to be Jim Bowen.
Michael Jackson is portrayed as a vulgar mentally ill patient, usually beginning his segment by shouting "Cha'mone mother fucker!
In series one, his segment was titled "The Jacksons", which featured Michael showing the viewer around his family home, and having an ongoing feud with The Osbournes.
The segment followed his nine weeks of being in jail (the real Michael Jackson was due to face trial at the time) with his comedy hero Ronnay Barkay.
In one of his magic tricks (referencing his "Frozen in Time" stunt), he masturbates in front of the audience while being encased in ice.
She is either always sweeping the floor with a brush, or searching for food, a reference to her real life bulimia, though is obsessed with her dogs and often is portrayed as eating their bowel movements.
She is portrayed as having something of a split personality, moving suddenly from being upbeat and friendly (despite using the word "douchebag" constantly) to loudly swearing and being extremely hostile and violent.
Throughout series one, she regularly appeared in "The Week In Bits" segment, often meeting other celebrities or talking about her private life.
In series two, she has her own segment, entitled "The Kelly Osbourne Show", in which she goes shopping, gets a haircut, slags off other celebrities, or does an advice call-in.
In series three, his face and hair is drastically increased and he gains a Yorkshire accent in his own show "Jack Off" in which he interviews several people.
He was also made gay in series three, leading to a sketch where Avid would say television has changed into a 'blank', which would immediately cut to an impersonation of Blankety Blank.
[6] Speaking to The Sunday Times in 2007, Craig David confessed that "Inside it was absolutely pissing me off and hurtful beyond belief.
There were times when I thought, ‘I just want to knock this guy out.’" Although David made an appearance himself in the programme, he regretted it even as he was making it: "I didn’t want people to think, 'Craig’s reacting to it,’ because then they would think, 'How can we get up Craig's nose even more?’ So, I did it, but I wasn't happy about it."
However, in 2015, David dismissed his disappointment with his caricature, explaining that his PR team insisted that he "play hurt" and had since "made peace" with Francis.