The social motives of Bonzo Journalism

Speaking of Mads Brügger - and speaking of genre:

Brügger is a reporter who tends to steal a march on critics (and keep them entertained) by simply making the critical remarks himself. In "The Clown Wars" (Black Box Magazine 2003) he anticipates blogposts like this one by categorizing his text on his own:

I would also like to add a paragraph about genre. I call this kind of reality programming Bonzo. What defines Bonzo is no research at all, total honesty, no use of tape recorders, a self-confidence of grotesque proportions, self-inflicted sleep-deprivation and lots of alcohol.

So, well, Bonzo Journalism is constituted by one man's text on one single occasion - and so much for genre theory through the ages. This piece of journalism is obviously written for educated people taking a day off. You can relax and enjoy yourselves, he seems to be saying, there's no need to make clever observations on this one.

Anyway... neither textual features nor social motives are taken into account in Brügger's tongue-in-cheek definition of genre, but what is highlighted is the unprofessional-and-devil-may-care approach of the reporter which becomes the defining constraint for the way his piece of Bonzo is going to turn out (sort of an easy gonzo approach). And the story has a wallraffing dimension too as Brügger and a friend are basically infiltrating a clown festival disguised as clowns - and Brügger starts out by apologizing for this:

I'm sorry for faking my way into the dark and secretive world of the "claaaawn" ... abusing the trust of my fellow clowns, who really believed that my associate Caramba and myself are true-blue clowns when in fact we are nothing but dilettante impostors.

In some sense there's an ethnographic (or just feature journalistic) motivation to the setup. A subculture is being portrayed if in a very rude fashion. But to me these opening remarks on form (that I've been quoting above) is underlining a completely dominant social motive which is that of the writer being simply out to create a good time for himself and an exclusive group of readers. This is a valid motive and even more so in a halfway underground magazine like Black Box.

Or what? Can this motive stand alone? And does it? I might well have overlooked something. The way I see it and this is is due to the undercover approach in particular, the guys are having their fun at the expense of people that are never interviewed, but just observed (for no obvious reason) and ridiculed. The actual true-blue amateur clowns are portrayed as completely pathetic - and they may have been that, but reading this at length (oh, those long forms) leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I don't know what to make of the ironic or just insincere (?) apology above which seems to imply a bad taste in the mouth of the reporter too, which, however, he has chosen not to act upon. The text is there in print, richly illustrated and 12 pages long, and with Brügger serving as his own editor-in-chief. What to make of it? Is this a personal piece of journalism gone private?