The Ricky Gervais Show
The last thing I can remember ignoring, when it was as guarantee a home run for me as conceivably possible, was The Life Aquatic. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are two movies that I absolutely love, (Bottle Rocket, ehhhh), but for some reason I didn't make it to the theater to see The Life Aquatic and ended up watching it at home months after it came out. In the exact same style is The Ricky Gervais show, his downloadable podcast radio show. I remember hearing that this came out like 8 months ago, and was even given the emphatic "It's hilarious" guarantee by a friend about two months ago. Somehow, it completely did not manifest itself as a priority until yesterday, when I read an interview with Ricky Gervais in Stop Smiling magazine and decided to check the podcast out.
Holy god. I spent all day yesterday looking around, hoping that if anyone at work happened to see one of the many uncontrollable laughing outbursts I was having, that they would notice the headphones and infer that I was listening to something funny. The low point came during an episode of Monkey News (more on that below) towards the end of the day, when I heard something funny while sipping water, attempted to suppress a spit take, and ended up almost choking as the water went down the wrong pipe. The Ricky Gervais show: funny enough to almost kill you, or at least get you fired for spitting water all over expensive equipment.
Anyone who has seen The Office, and Extras needs no introduction to Ricky Gervais, or co-host Steven Merchant for that matter, the man who played the agent on Extras and Gareth's pal The Oggmonster on The Office. But the central character of these podcasts is the third man, Karl Pilkington, who has already amassed a vast internet following, as well as rumors about whether or not he is real. The show centers around Gervais and Merchant asking him questions, or prompting him to tell a story, which they then dissect and dispute, even as he is still telling the story. They analyze how Karl's mind works, and the effect is to reinforce why the absurd nonsense, coming out of the calmest, most qualude-ed up sounding guy you can imagine, is so absurd. They make him answer reader emails, read from his diary, (Sample entry: "Had a drink in bar...Everyone sat and watched one of the local cats lick its bollox.") and of course, Monkey News, where Karl delivers a ridiculous lengthy story about monkeys in the news that Gervais scoffs at.
Karl Pilkington
At least two dozen times per episode, Gervais lets loose with the high pitched girlish laugh that you heard on the office when David Brent was seen helping to pull off an obese co-workers pants in front of the camera. The laugh is so contagious that I nearly caused us to drive off the road on the way home today, even though I wasn't even driving, and the joke that Ricky Gervais was laughing at was because Karl Pilkington got a piece of mail addressed to "Mr. Dilkington." Even as Ricky Gervais was laughing and shrieking, "I don't know why that's so funny!" I found myself laughing so hard that I almost started hitting myself over the head with a mallet, like the wolf in those old Tex Avery Cartoons.
So there are 18 half hour podcasts so far...That's 9 hours of hilarity. It's a guarantee people, a can't miss. You will love it. I put up one of the podcasts from the first series for download, it features one of the better monkey news segments, and I don't remember what else. The first 12 episodes cost $4.95 and the last 6 cost 6$.95, all at Audible.com. Don't sleep on it like I did. They are the funniest things you will hear all year. In a world of tepid comedic entertainment, where romantic comedies like "Wedding Crashers" can pass for edgy, offensive comedy, Ricky Gervais' humor makes me laugh the way I did when I saw Eddie Murphy "Delerious" for the first time. This is the only time I'll implore you to not behave like me - download these podcasts without further delay.
Download an episode of The RIcky Gervais Show
Comments
"The ravings of a mental patient." I tried listening to one of the first episodes at work and thought I was going to shake myself out of my chair from keeping the laughter in.
Either Karl is one of the funniest men in comedy or he's completely insane.
Posted by: TJ | June 22, 2006 07:48 PM
I know exactly what you mean. I can no longer listen to these on airplanes because my laughter is so loud and painful that I fear I am freaking the people out that are sitting around me. I have yet to get his more recent ones, but I really should get on that.
Posted by: uwmryan | July 7, 2006 07:06 AM