“An Idiot Abroad” could have been the name of my blog, but instead it’s a television program on the UK’s Sky1 that I absolutely loved. It’s a travel show unlike any other.
Ricky Gervais: “You are the strangest man on the planet.”
Karl Pilkington: “You haven’t been to China.”
Overview
In the Sky1 series “An Idiot Abroad,” Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (best known for creation of television shows The Office and Extras) send their friend, Karl Pilkington, on trips around the world to see the “Seven Wonders.” The difference from other travel shows, however, is that Karl is an unsophisticated everyman who hates anything that takes him out of his comfort zone. Added to that, Karl’s unique perspective on the world provides amazing humor that shines through the naiveté and discomfort he has with the places he visits.
From: http://sky1.sky.com/an-idiot-abroad
A telling moment at the start of the series is when they ask Karl if he’s done much traveling and he says “I’ve been to Wales.”
A little bit more about Karl
Several years ago, Pilkington was the producer on a radio show Ricky and Stephen hosted. Then, they started to bring Karl into the conversation on-air and a legend was born.
Karl isn’t stupid, but he’s a utilitarian who condenses the world around him into the simplest components that he can easily relate to. That makes his observations hilarious, though often painful.
True, he says a lot of stupid things. Sometimes he’s working off of poor information, sometimes he draws unwarranted conclusions, but that’s always blended with an unfiltered, uncommon thought process and an odd sort of bizarre logic.
For a way to fill some hours with great comedy, you can check out the Ricky Gervais audiobooks on iTunes. There are some lengthy collections of their past podcasts and radio shows available, but more recently they’ve started doing one hour audio programs exploring Karl’s thoughts on specific topics – Medicine, Philosophy, Law, The Future and several others.
The Destinations
In each episode of the television series, Karl heads toward one of the Seven Wonders of the World (depending on what list you’re working off of): The Great Wall, the Taj Mahal, Petra, Chichen Itza, Christ the Redeemer, The Great Pyramids and Machu Picchu.
Before he gets to those locations, however, he’s put through a series of cultural experiences and challenges that would make a lot of Survivor contestants quit and head home. Often, the struggle is where he stays – a crowded hostel in Rio during Carnaval, a cramped room in India, with a tribe on the Amazon. Other times, it’s physical torture like camel rides or eating sheep testicles.
For a man who whines a lot and hates being away from home, I give him credit for putting up with things that would exhaust even a lot of experienced world travelers.
A few of my favorite bits
In the Amazon: referring to the candiru that live in the Amazon and can swim inside a man’s penis with painful result: “What’s so good about The Amazon? Can’t be that good; there are things in it that would rather live in me knob.”
About jellyfish: “Jellyfish are 97% water or something, so how much are they doing? Just give them another 3% and make them water. It’s more useful.”
On the Great Wall: “You can see it for miles. Like, it goes over the hills and stuff for miles….but so does the M6 and that’s useful.”
On Cairo: “That song Walk Like an Egyptian – no one’s walking, everyone seems to be in a car at all hours. Just beeping.”
On the Taj Mahal: “Anyone who builds something like that for his dead wife, something was going on. ‘Three other wives, I shouldnta done that. I’ll put her in something nice.’”
My take on the show
As with other “reality” shows, it’s obviously been edited heavily. But in this case, it’s for comic effect, which it delivers marvelously. More than once, I’ve been caught laughing uncontrollably while watching.
Some of it’s a bit uneven, with stunts that are clearly staged to evoke a reaction from Karl, like booking him into a horrendous hotel room or the mock abduction by terrorists. Ricky and Stephen’s set-ups are often painful to watch and can come across as mean-spirited, even as practical jokes.
The show is at its best when it’s organic and Karl shares his thoughts about the locations he’s seeing. Those thoughts aren’t always limited to travel. For anyone following the podcasts, you know that Karl has a fascination with two things – insects and human oddities (like the Elephant Man).
He puts an amazing amount of effort into anthropomorphizing everything around him. One of my favorite segments from Peru is when he’s just talking to the camera about “stick insects” and how difficult life is for them because from a distance they can’t tell if it’s a friend of theirs or just a stick so they have to walk all the way over to find out.
He has a uniquely logical, if misinformed, perspective that comes across in a deadpan, matter of fact delivery. His thoughts and opinions are not always politically correct, but it’s apparent that those thoughts come from a lack of understanding and not any form of malice.
How to get it
The show recently concluded its 8 episode run. For the most part, viewing is limited to people in the UK at the moment, though the show was just released on DVD (again, only in the UK). It’s viewable online at http://sky1.sky.com/an-idiot-abroad (ALSO open only to viewers with a UK IP address).
If you’re not in the UK, you can check out fairly lengthy clips on Sky1’s YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/skyonezone or download free podcasts of highlights and cut scenes from iTunes. Otherwise, I’m sure the series will be making its way to other outlets around the world soon.
UPDATE – January 26, 2010: The series has begun broadcasting in the US on Science Channel. It’s also available on iTunes for US based customers.
http://science.discovery.com/tv/an-idiot-abroad/
