An idiot abroad

[G-Man]

So, Gervais and Merchant send Karl Pilkington on a tour to see the seven modern wonders of the world, and have him filmed being confronted with meals consisting of testicles and Average Walls of China.

I enjoyed the podcasts, up to a point. It did have the odour of bullying, with the intelligent guys setting Pilkington up in the knowledge that he'll say something stupid. And Pilkington came across like a bumbling goon who had no idea why he was being laughed at.

The first episode of the charmingly titled An Idiot Abroad -- in China -- is full of set ups. Pilkington visits Chinese family, gets served toad (one can almost hear Gervais' mad cackling as he hatches that plan).

Thing is, Pilkington comes across as a bit guileless, but more than that, as somebody who is quite comfortable stoically defending the grounds of the narrow horizon. He is sort of in on the joke, bumbling along gamely, and occasionally shows nice touches of wit.

I'm not sure whether to stick with the whole season, and if I don't, I'll be able to formulate my reasons in Pilkington style. "It's just nothing new, is it? Why should I be watching a guy I don't know bumbling through cities I'll never see? If he was a friend of mine I might be interested, but I'd be better off watching people I know on Corrie."

[sw2borshch]

An idiot abroad

I've not seen any of this, the billboard ads look off-putting enough, but a mate has and he's quite enjoying it, but when he's describing funny bits it reminds me of the sort of thing he used to moan about when he spent three months laying fibre-optic cable in Germany with a group of about twenty or so lads from here - that is, going in a restaurant and a bunch of blokes constantly repeating to a waiter "Patty in bun? Patty in a bun?" with no interest in eating owt even vaguely foreign. Mind you, not surprising all that spinach-sausage muck they eat over there.

[tracteurgarcon]

An idiot abroad

I watched the second episode with Pilkington in India and expected it to be funny, in a crass sort of way, with Karl misunderstanding the culture and making loads of oh-so-amusing faux pas, but actually it was really quite poignant and worked quite well as a travelogue with a mix of social commentary, which completely caught me off guard.

Yes, Karl is slightly ignorant and doesn't really know what he's getting into but his dealings with locals were much better than I expected them to be, he takes the piss a bit but he came across as a genuinely decent bloke who was willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and get involved in things that were way outside of his comfort zone.

He also has a child-like innocence and asks questions that perhaps other people would shy away from, which provokes some very interesting conversations.

Not as funny as I thought it was going to be but much more interesting.

[G-Man]

An idiot abroad

I watched that one last night, and agree with tratorello's post entirely. Pilkington seems a really nice guy; I liked the way he posed Princess Diana-style on the bench in front of the Taj Mahal.

Gervais and Merchant come across as utter shits though. The "honeymoon suite with a view" was travel TV's equivalent of the spunk sandwich, I thought. And Gervais' "I flew first class and sipped champagne" spiel was just crass; not because Pilkington was shown to travel in discomfort as the voice message played, but because the abject poverty that was shown earlier.

That American disciple of the nice guru guy looked terribly sinister, by the way.

I'm looking forward to seeing the episode in Petra, just for Pilkington's reaction when he turns that final bend in the Siq as the Treasury comes into view. By that reaction I shall judge him.

[Ginger Yellow]

An idiot abroad

Yeah, I remember thinking as I was walking down that: "It can't possibly be as impressive as that bit in The Last Crusade". It was.

[Guest]

An idiot abroad

I stayed up till 5 am this morning subtitling the Jordan episode for DVD. (long story involving corrupted video files & a stupid deadline).

I guess Gman will judge old Karl pretty harshly.

In some respects he's not that daft and Ricky & Stephen are probably a bit disappointed with him. Even when confronted with the traditional 'You must eat this goat's eyeball or they will think you are rude' stuff when he stays with a Bedouin family, he doesn't really do or say anything stupidly hilarious like he's being set up for.

Those poor camels though.

edit: Basically what tratorello already said about his attitude to his travels. He's quite sweet and always telling people that he's clueless about the world.

[G-Man]

An idiot abroad

Actually, I thought his reaction to the Treasury was quite funny. It wasn't dismissive, though he clearly didn't quite understand just how incredible a thing he was seeing.

I think you're right, the bullies must be disappointed in Karl. He comes across as a nice guy.

[Guest]

An idiot abroad

Yeah, you're right. Actually probably a lot of people get there, or Angkor Wat, or the Taj Mahal or the Great Pyramid or El-Djem or wherever & go, 'Yeah, it's all right. Quite nice. If you like that sort of thing' but Karl is honest enough to admit it. The 'let's get on with it then, let's see this wonder and go home' thing is kind of funny.

[G-Man]

An idiot abroad

I find his constant references to "the wonder" rather than the name of the wonder rather amusing.

Surely there'll be a time when he sees a wonder and gets excited about it. But I am certain that by the time he gets to see the pyramids he'll be so grossed out by Cairo and unnerved by its traffic that he'll be especially disinterested.

I bet they'll accommodate him in the City of the Dead, hoping to spook him out, but he becomes best friends with somebody and finds the accommodation comfy because "I don't mind dead people", or something like that.

[Tony C]

An idiot abroad

I've been given the dvd of this for Christmas - my kids had intimated on several occasions that I would like it and see me as very Pilkington-esque.

Well I did like it, very much. Even Gervias's heavily affected laughing - not least on the adevertising posters - couldn't put me off. Hugely entertaining, working as both comedy and travelogue in equal measure (as suggested above).

[wingco]

An idiot abroad

I've simply never been able to get past the role of Gervais and Merchant in this, and their insistence on inserting their open, guffawing mockery into the frame. I've really admired their work in the past but their involvement in this seems to be in defiance of one of the basic rules of comedy. Which is a shame, because Pilkington himself, from the glimpses I've been able to bear, strikes me as a funny character/"creation".

[The Bean Counter]

An idiot abroad

I watched a couple of episodes and found it quite interesting, if slightly mis-billed as a comedy. Though I think it could be improved. Instead of the Chinese family cooking frogs, they should slow-roast Ricky Gervais and Merchant instead.

[Tony C]

An idiot abroad

wingco wrote:

Which is a shame, because Pilkington himself, from the glimpses I've been able to bear, strikes me as a funny character/"creation".

Pilkington as a comic "creation" is apparently a touchy subject with Gervias and Merchant, who absolutely insist that all his contributions (whether on radio, podcasts or television) are completely unscripted and/or unedited. From this programme I would certainly believe that - if not he's a wonderful actor.

[Guest]

An idiot abroad

I've been given the travel diary of the series for christmas, and on the back is written 'Karl Pilkington. Adventurer. Philosopher. Knob Head.' Gervais's involvement may be a little irritating, but Pilkington, i dunno, it just works, doesn't it?

[Femme Folle]

An idiot abroad

I love this series, but we still have a couple of episodes that haven't aired here yet (I think).

I agree with tratorello 100%. I saw them out of order and laughed myself silly at the Mexican adventure. I thought they would all be as goofy, but the India one was excellent.

I also am amused at the way Karl says "the wonder" instead of whatever the name of it is.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

An idiot abroad

The funniest thing I've seen the past ten years.

Saw when he went to Alaska last week and couldn't stop laughing. Walking through ice and snow for hours, shot with him way out to the left on the screen he exclaims:
- Why is this shown in HD!? I'm getting blind here, and it wouldn't matter because what's there to see?

Also when he was taken there by an old woman on a snowscooter....
- We've been travelling for three hours... to see the same place we left!

[Antepli Ejderha]

An idiot abroad

Nice to see you back PPV, the show is great, Karl's comments switch between the mundane and hilarious to the absurd. Watched the first part of the dolphins episode with him in Thailand getting dressed as a drag queen, brilliant, the line asking if they knew Cagney and Lacey was priceless.

[G-Man]

An idiot abroad

Gervais and Merchaht are showing themselves to be even bigger bullies than in the first season. Whatever intellectual and moral superiority they claim over Pilkington is utterly diminished by their inferiority in empathy and respect for others.

[Antepli Ejderha]

An idiot abroad

G.Man wrote:

Gervais and Merchaht are showing themselves to be even bigger bullies than in the first season. Whatever intellectual and moral superiority they claim over Pilkington is utterly diminished by their inferiority in empathy and respect for others.

I totally agree with you G.Man.

The bullying to make the TV show funnier is not pleasant or indeed necessary, watching Karl at times I feel genuinely sorry for him and what he is going through.

[Bored Of Education]

An idiot abroad

I can't bring myself to even look at any of this. The bits of the Ricky Gervais (phoning it in) Show that I saw were awful and this looks worse

Similarly, while there are good bits of "Life's Too Short", they are never the bits where Gervais or Merchant are in or where Warwick Davis is effectively being a midget David Brent. The whole show could have been done better written by someone else than Gervais and Merchant.

This just goes to show that, as suspected from "Extras" onwards, Gervais is a man of diminishing returns and that he is more "11 o'clock Show" than he was "The Office"

[anton pulisov]

An idiot abroad

I like it. It's like a Michael Palin travel show for the rest of us. Obviously Pilkington is a moody bastard all of the time, but who doesn't identify with how he feels every now and then?

He's much more clever then he is given credit for. Merchant was chastising him when he was moaning on the phone about building a new shack in a shanty town. His response hit the nail on the head: "But they're still living next to a stream of shit."

I think the show would be much better without Gervais and Merchant. Around the World With Karl Pilkington

[Freestyling buck wilding Stijn Stijnen]

An idiot abroad

Pilkington is far more knowing than is given credit for, you can see when he knows he has come out with a beaut of a quip, he struggles to contain his glee at times.

His comment about the great wall of China being boring and the bear enclosure being an admittance of this being a case in point, he starts to smile but manages to contain it. Just.

Watch it again, you may notice it second time around.

And the brothers Grimm seem determined to want to come across as c*nts, Gervais more so than Merchant I would say.
Are they doing this in order for us, the viewer to sympathise with Pilkington that much more?

Who knows, I do feel that the parts where they're acting the c*nt are again a little more knowing, possibly semi-scripted, then may be given credit for.

As ultimately, if he was that unhappy, he'd tell them to get tae f*ck and just piss off abroad without the cameras present, surely?

TENUOUS CLAIM TO FAME ALERT: I went to the same school as Steven Merchant, he was in the sixth form when I was in the first year, and I do remember him, as he did stand out(naturally).

Also, as I received my first ever valentines card from his sister Alex!
I was in year 7, and she was in year 8, oh man I was out of my depth.

She is very pretty from my memory, nothing like her bruv.

[Bored Of Education]

An idiot abroad

It's like a Michael Palin travel show for the rest of us.

See, I think that Palin travelling the world is like the rest of us. He gets ill, he drinks, he is curious about the places where he goes. I suppose that, as he is such a pleasant guy, there are no tantrums or strops that we have all probably had travelling.

I say "the rest of us", I suppose that depends who the "us" is. I am sure that there are loads of people that travel the world like Pilkington does or purports to so, in happy ignorance and with cynicism, but I am not the slightest bit interested in them

[anton pulisov]

An idiot abroad

Well of course I don't travel in the manner of Karl Pilkington, but we all have had a Pilkington moment.

See, I think that Palin travelling the world is like the rest of us. He gets ill, he drinks, he is curious about the places where he goes. I suppose that, as he is such a pleasant guy, there are no tantrums or strops that we have all probably had travelling.

We don't know what he's saying when the camera is off, or bits that have been edited out.

[Bored Of Education]

An idiot abroad

Well, indeed, although, everything I have read about Palin, the worst that seems to be have been said about him is that he is too nice and there are no skeletons in the cupboard