Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are comedy gods. I'm not just saying that because they revolutionized sitcoms with their series The Office, though that is a big part of it. No, most of my love from Ricky and Stephen comes from what they didn't write, but what they found. Who they found. I'm talking about Karl Pilkington, of course, the star of An Idiot Abroad.
There's a context to An Idiot Abroad that exists outside of the show. Gervais and Merchant first met Pilkington when he worked as a producer on their radio show, and they quickly discovered his incredible humor. Of course, he's not intentionally funny. You're not laughing with Karl when he says something ignorant in a very naive way. You're laughing at him, along with Ricky and Stephen. Karl doesn't seem to mind much, though; there's the sense of a very close friendship between him and the other two, despite the fact that they're constantly poking fun at the way he thinks. That's what keeps An Idiot Abroad from being mean-sprited. Ricky and Stephen genuinely like Karl (and he them), and they also find him insanely funny.
An Idiot Abroad, which hit DVD January 10, sees them send Karl around the world to see the seven wonders of the world. Along the way, he runs into situations that make him truly uncomfortable (some planned by Gervais and Merchant, who are really only present in the series via telephone). The fun of the series is seeing how nonchalantly Karl reacts to things that many people dream of seeing. He's mostly annoyed by having to go see the world.
"I hated it," he admits in the show's prologue.
"That was sort of the point," Gervais responds, grinning. "I was hoping for that."
An Idiot Abroad is the perfect antithesis to the trite, enthusiastic documentaries you usually see about the modern world. This series leads us to appreciate the wonders of the world because Karl doesn't, but it's also easy to sympathize with Karl's incessant desire to just go home. Fans of both comedies and documentaries will absolutely love this series.
The two-disc set includes the preview episode in which Gervais and Merchant explain their motivations, some deleted scenes from the show, and a photo gallery of Karl's travels. An Idiot Abroad 2: The Bucket List will likely hit DVD within a year as well.
