Written by Linda
January 22, 2011
The Ricky Gervais Show is built around the fact that Ricky and his friend Stephen Merchant think their colleague Karl Pilkington is a tool. But after getting sucked into this bizarre animated series that is based on a series of conversations, I decided that I adored Karl and his curious view on the world.
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant gained fame for creating (and in Ricky's case, starring in) the original British version of the uncomfortable television comedy The Office. They, along with their much-maligned friend Karl Pilkington, sat down for a series of podcasts where they simply... talked. Quickly, however, the theme turned into Ricky and Stephen waiting with bated breath to see what sort of strange stories would come from the mouth of Karl. These strange stories would often involve monkeys, and he told them with such a droll earnestness that Stephen would demand explanation while Ricky would be squealing for Karl to stop. And all the while, Ricky would mock Karl's perfectly round head.
That is really all there is to The Ricky Gervais Show. Those familiar with the podcasts will already know all of these conversations. For the rest of us, The Ricky Gervais Show has simply taken these conversations and animated them. I've read fan complaints that only those without imagination would bother watching this show. Those purists who heard the podcasts decry adding visualizations to Karl's strange monkey-laden images... but heck. Visuals or not, these stories are funny.
My favorite parts of these brisk, 23-minute-ish episodes were Stephen's straight-faced readings of Karl's succinct journal and Karl's patient explanations of his views. For being called The Ricky Gervais Show, Ricky Gervais plays almost a supporting character to Karl. Ricky and Stephan are the collective straight-man to Karl's oddity, and often Ricky's role is simply to shriek in gales of laughter and scream, "Stop! Stop!" And this was fine, because, as we all know, Ricky can sometimes be a conceited ass.
I kind of loved this show, and watched episode after episode, one right after another, adoring Karl Pilkington more and more. I may seek out the podcasts, but the truth is I'll probably just wait to hear the stories in Season Two so I can look at Karl Pilkington's perfectly-round cartoon head.
