Ricky Gervais's new animated series, which puts his buffoonish sidekick Karl Pilkington centre-stage, has been snapped up by Channel 4.
The 13-part cartoon series will bring to life his much-loved podcasts feature Gervais and writing partner Stephen Merchant poking fun at Pilkington for his odd worldview.
Pilkington has already published best-selling books which collect his rambling thoughts, including 'The World Of Karl Pilkington'.
The series is to air first on US channel HBO from February and will be screened by Channel 4 (UK) in the spring.
Gervais's audio versions of their studio chats - which had their roots in a series he fronted for Xfm - have now been downloaded more than 180 million times.
Pilkington - often pilloried by his co-presenters for "having a head like an orange" - is described by Gervais as "a global village idiot, but the funniest man alive".
Gervais said: "He thinks that a seal is a cross between a fish and a dog. Karl is a bottomless well of stupidity so, unlike my other shows 'The Office' and 'Extras', which I stopped prematurely through fear of going stale and running out of ideas, I want this to run and run like The Simpsons.
"The world has a new Homer, but this one is real."
Gervais said C4 was a natural choice for the programmes.
He added: "Who'd have thought three blokes chatting in a room would turn out to be so lucrative?"
I've never listened to the podcasts, but Ricky aired a clip from the show when he was a guest on Conan's final week. It was pretty damned funny and had to do with a new sex robot, where the woman lies down and the doctor goes behind the machine and sticks himself through the hole that the "robot" comes out of, and ricky just laughs like a little kid the whole time.
I've never listened to the podcasts, but Ricky aired a clip from the show when he was a guest on Conan's final week. It was pretty damned funny and had to do with a new sex robot, where the woman lies down and the doctor goes behind the machine and sticks himself through the hole that the "robot" comes out of, and ricky just laughs like a little kid the whole time.
Yeah I saw that too! Hilarious!! That was on the podcasts. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you pick them up! Though at least watch the show when it starts on Friday!! My commute to work is made so much easier by listening to the podcasts.. Though I imagine I look quite silly at times, with a big grin on my face or laughing constantly!
Would love to know what the American audience think of this show on Friday!!
The premiere episode last night was hilarious! Pilkington is my new hero, monkey news and the ghost stories, and the 78 year old baby births, pure idiotic genius...........i love this show!
The premiere episode last night was hilarious! Pilkington is my new hero, monkey news and the ghost stories, and the 78 year old baby births, pure idiotic genius...........i love this show!
YES YES YES!!!
Delighted you liked it.. Just watching it myself now!!
Wonder what the reviews are like in America???
Would love to know what everyone else thought!
Monkey News is incredible! So so funny.. In later podcasts they drop that and read extracts from Karl's diary!!!!
Delighted you liked it.. Just watching it myself now!!
Wonder what the reviews are like in America???
Would love to know what everyone else thought!
Monkey News is incredible! So so funny.. In later podcasts they drop that and read extracts from Karl's diary!!!!
Who else watched it???
The Hollywood Reporter doesn't seem to like it, lol, but they where right about one thing, it is them mocking Pilkington the entire time. Though from what I saw in that one episode, he brings it on himself for saying such stupid and funny things.
Quote:
The Ricky Gervais Show -- TV Review
Bottom Line: Sketchy comedy.
Better comedy through lovable buffoonery and complete obliviousness made Ricky Gervais (and frequent comedy partner Stephen Merchant) famous. It might have started with 2001's "The Office" and continued with HBO's "Extras," but Gervais has since shifted his attention from TV to film, live shows and even stuffed animals.
Since 2001, Gervais and Merchant have been behind a recurring series that landed them in the Guinness Book of World Records for most-downloaded podcast. That show found its muse in producer Karl Pilkington, a laconic sad sack who quickly became the centerpiece of the show.
So here is HBO's latest Gervais partnering, a live version of "The Ricky Gervais Show" podcast. And that's all it is -- the podcast, but in animated form -- which means the trio stride into a soundproof booth, sit down and begin talking as their live figures slowly turn into animated ones. The animation (by Wildbrain, home to "Yo Gabba Gabba," among others) blends elements of Hanna-Barbera simplicity with Genndy Tartakovsky and is colorful and surreal; Gervais, for example, resembles Fred Flintstone's toothier, shorter cousin.
But there are problems from the start: The static nature of three talking heads (even in cartoon form) is dull, and the intermittent non-studio interstitials used to illustrate the discussion fail to provide enough of a change. Watching cartoon characters laugh at one another feels recursively silly, and not in a good way. (Truthfully, the real-life people on the show are far more animated than the 2-D cartoon characters can ever be.)
But the main issue is that this show is not really about Gervais, or even Merchant. It is the Karl Pilkington show, because the essence of all content involves Gervais or Merchant prodding Pilkington into sharing his odd theories about the world (for example, nothing worthwhile was invented post-1900), then turning into his sneering, slightly hostile peanut gallery. Gervais even calls Pilkington a "little round-headed buffoon." This makes Pilkington seem the kinder person in the room, and the tone rings wrong.
Perhaps "Ricky Gervais" could have worked as a series of five-minute YouTube segments. As it stands, there's not enough variety and too much focus on the one person most people turning on HBO have the least interest in. Come back, Ricky, and quit laughing at Karl. The audience prefers you as their buffoon, so they can be the ones doing the laughing.
if you are enjoying these and are new to them, check out pilkipedia.co.uk, ricky steve and karl had a radio show in england before they started the podcast, there are over 100 radio shows archived there available to download, in my opinion they are even better than the podcasts and audiobooks that they have done. they are one of my favorite things of all time, seriously funny stuff
The other day after I watched this series premiere I was on Itunes and saw that they have the entire episode for free. It looks like they will continue to add them after they air on HBO, so anybody who doesn't have it, will be able to download them for free legally. Thought that was pretty cool.
if you are enjoying these and are new to them, check out pilkipedia.com, ricky steve and karl had a radio show in england before they started the podcast, there are over 100 radio shows archived there available to download, in my opinion they are even better than the podcasts and audiobooks that they have done. they are one of my favorite things of all time, seriously funny stuff
I've tried that place and couldn't find anything. It just throws up links to DVD sites.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
HBO/Channel 4 Snap Up Ricky Gervais Animation!!
Linear Mode
