So I've got a column in The Times, I'm discussing new films and novels on BBC Two's Newsnight Review tonight and, on Monday, I'm presenting Panorama. I seem to have become a one-man dumbing-down operation.

Understandably, this has wound some people up. Janet Street-Porter, whom I must say I've always liked, suggested in her newspaper column that employing me as a presenter proved that Panorama was no longer a “heavyweight programme”. It seems the Government's call for more liberal attitudes towards social mobility is falling on deaf ears. If the show was about Gaza or the social services, I'd see Janet's point, but as it is instead about swearing and bad taste on television, getting me in has the same logic as getting Sue Barker in to do the tennis. I've been swearing and making off-colour remarks on television since 1988. I'm calling that credentials.

I remember the same dumbing-down accusations when Jo Brand first did Question Time. I think this is just comedianism. Serious TV presenters are saying stuff like: “These comedians, coming over here, taking our jobs.” And then there's the prevalence of comedianist language. What does it say about a society when words like “comedian”, “joker” and “clown” are used as insults?

There is definitely a strong feeling that comics should stick to comedy. I honestly sympathise with that. A comedian who wants to be taken seriously is like a politician who wants to show us their human side, best viewed with mistrust. But I don't want to be taken seriously; it's just that occasionally doing serious stuff makes a nice change. And the truth is, it's much easier than doing comedy. I know I set myself up for a fall by saying that but it's a fact.

Over the past few weeks, I've interviewed several people for Panorama. Obviously, you have to read up on them and have a sense of where you want the interview to go, but it's a walk in the park compared with the comedy interviews I did when I had a chat show. A serious interview is just asking questions. It's like helping someone to fill in a form. Then you get what's known as the hard-hitting interview. It's still just asking questions except you ask some of them three or four times.

A comedy interview, such as you'll see on tonight's Jonathan Ross show, is genuine multitasking - like doing an interview and a stand-up act at the same time. Questions are only part of the equation. You have to lead the interviewee towards the clip of them falling over in a charity football match or that paparazzi shot of them snogging someone from Girls Aloud and then look genuinely concerned as they talk about their alcoholism while you're trying to decide exactly the right time to whip out the drunkard's liver prop. It's complicated.

Maybe that's why the serious lot get angry when comedians have a crack at their job - they don't want them to find out how much easier it is than comedy. It must have struck you that comics keep cropping up on Newsnight or Question Time but serious presenters never seem to do stand-up tours.

Of course, if I do fall flat on my face on Panorama, it will at least prove that the programme is still heavyweight and thus an unsuitable vehicle for a gimmick presenter. So that'll be nice. Tonight's Newsnight Review, which, of course, I'm only doing because David Baddiel wasn't available, is on at the same time as Jonathan Ross's returning chat show so if I'm rubbish on that, at least there won't be too many witnesses.

It seems the storm over Manuel-gate, or Sachs-a-phone as I like to call it, has subsided, the sun is shining and it's safe for everyone to come out into the open again. I saw Russell Brand's new stand-up show in Reading on Monday. There's been much talk of how he deals extensively and enthusiastically with the recent furore but I was more taken aback by his outfit. The last time I saw him live, he looked like a gunslinger, all belt-buckle and cowboy boots. On Sunday he wore leggings and a little black dress. Combined with his lustrous black hair and wispy beard, when he first walked out I thought it was Ruth from The X Factor. I suppose if you have sex as often as Russell Brand does, buckles and buttons become a time-consuming annoyance. With leggings and a mini-dress there's only a little bit of elastication between you and instant pleasure.

I know everyone's expecting Ross's return to be less confrontational than Brand's but wouldn't it be strangely wonderful if Ross came back, instead, with all guns blazing? Imagine the spine-tingling exhilaration if he made the same lewd suggestion to Tom Cruise as he said to Gwyneth Paltrow, especially if Tom, caught momentarily off-guard, responded in the affirmative. It would be the perfect chat show moment - a big laugh followed by a major exclusive.

In fact, the story would be so big, it would surely only be a matter of weeks before Michael Sheen was on the set of the new film, Ross/Cruise, doing his best Jonathan Ross impression and re-creating the interview with Verne Troyer in a Tom Cruise wig. Perhaps when that film outdid Frost/Nixon in box-office takings, comedy interviewing, and indeed comedy in general, would at last be recognised as the superior genre.

Frank Skinner presents Panorama on BBC One at 8.30pm, Monday January 26

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