It used to feel like Showtime was the also-ran when its original programming was pitted against HBO fare like “The Wire,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Sopranos.” But in recent years the pay-cable TV titans have been running neck and neck, with Showtime’s excellent “This American Life,” “Dexter"and “Weeds” coming up from behind. After tonight, it may be that Showtime pulls ahead—in my household at least—with the premiere of “La La Land,” a new series starring the absolutely brilliant British comedian Marc Wootton.

If you’re a fan of “Borat” then you’ll love what Marc Wootton does too. But as good as Sacha Baron Cohen is at pulling the wool over people’s eyes, Wootton may be even better at it. In his guises as Borat or Bruno,  Cohen can keep his victims guessing for some time, but can he do it for several days? Wootton can, as evinced in his 2003 game show series “My New Best Friend” where contestants have to convince their family members that Wootton, playing some of the most obnoxious characters ever seen on television, is indeed their “new best friend” as he attempts to humiliate them. We’re talking grinding humiliation (The “winners”—and I use that term loosely—got a cash prize, but few stuck around long enough to collect, so horrifying were the paces that Wootton’s characters put them through).

And then there is Wootton’s most famous character, Shirley Ghostman, the flamboyant spoof tele-psychic. “Shirley”—who is in fact a man, an extremely effeminate man with poofy hair and nail polish who’ll have you know he’s not gay, okay?—is the Liberace-esque host of “High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman.” Shirley makes contact with the spirits of Elvis Presley and Princess Diana, reads the minds of pets and takes hapless contestants through a maze of humiliation in a reality show-within-the-show called “Spirit Academy,” the “American Idol” of psychic talent. The people Shirley interacts with—and the dumbfounded studio audience—have no idea they’re being put on. I’ve inflicted “High Spirits” on many a friend and everyone agrees: This is one of those pee-in-your-pants-funny shows. An absolute must-see if you are a fan of ill-at-ease comedy.

“La La Land” has been described as a reality-hybrid comedy, with Wootton playing three fish-out-of-water characters trying to make it in Los Angeles: Gary, an aspiring actor, Brendan an egocentric documentarian of the Nick Broomfield/Michael Moore “you-get-a-documentary-plus-me” school of filmmaking and Shirley Ghostman, who gets resurrected for his U.S. television debut.

“La La Land,” 11 p.m. Mondays, Showtime

Below, a clip from 2005’s “High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman”