[1] Each episode of the series, originally only known as World's Dumbest Criminals, presented a comedic look at 20 half-witted and offbeat events recorded on camera and occasionally, on tape by 911 dispatchers.

[2] Because the show's original focus had solely been on criminals bungling their acts of crime, commentary used to be provided mostly by celebrities known for their own past brushes with the law, including Danny Bonaduce, Leif Garrett, Tonya Harding, Todd Bridges, Daniel Baldwin, Frank Stallone and Gary Busey.

In January 2011, the show renamed itself as truTV Presents: World's Dumbest..., dropping the "Smoking Gun", with the commentators' on-screen ID logos, the episode's opening title page, and background brightness adjusted as well, in the process.

Such cast members of the series included: Jaime Andrews, Mike Britt, Jessie Cantrell, Tom Shillue, Jared Logan, Jack Ford, Harlan Coben, Natalie Desselle-Reid, Tom O'Riordan, Godfrey, Michel Bryant, Wesley Dening, Nick Di Paolo, John Enos, Daisy Gardner, Judy Gold, Billy Kimball, Ted Jessup, Vincent Pastore, Roger Lodge, Brad Loekle, Michael Loftus, Loni Love, Kevin McCaffrey, Chuck Nice, Chelsea Peretti, Marianne Sierk, Chris Strait, Mike Trainor, Brendon Walsh, Gilbert Gottfried, Dan Cummins, Rachel Feinstein, Jamie Lee, Malachi Nimmons Jr., Mike O'Gorman, Brooke Van Poppelen, Annie Lederman, Katlyn Carlson, Nate Craig, Chris Fairbanks Mark Normand, Amanda Landry, Kate Wolff, and The Greg Wilson.

These included Amy Fisher, Judge David Young, Judge Maria Lopez, Michael Bryant, Ron Kuby, Mickey Sherman, Laurie Puhn, Alafair Burke, Tawya Young, Tom O'Riordan, Lauren Lake, Wally Zeins, Ken Stafford, Curtis Sliwa, Vinny Parco, Joe Brat, Bill Bastone, Andrew Goldberg, Jack Ford, Jami Floyd, and Jean Casarez.