An Idiot Abroad: S02 Ep05

What happened?

Karl was presented with the opportunity to travel to Uganda to see mountain gorillas in their natural environment. Before then he was given something of a small tour of South Africa and Africa, to once again be presented with bungee jumping, to seeing a house where a hippo is kept as a pet, to be a children’s teacher and to build a new hut for a poor family as well as cook for a king.

Thoughts

I really feel like this show has settled down a lot more into itself, almost as though it’s comfortable with itself and what it’s about without having to try too hard. The first episode tried too hard for me and, slowly, over the course of things, that sense of forced amusement and stunt pieces has given way to a more flowing vibe and it’s really helping the show along.

Take Karl taking a visit to the school and then to the mass maze of hut homes in South Africa. Now this was an eye opening place (and credit for the high definition views, some of the shots this show captures of the world are quite amazing and something An Idiot Abroad doesn’t get particularly noticed for). But whilst it was amusing to see Karl struggling to teach children about risk there was the undercurrent of what their life is really like when they were asking about the risk of getting pregnant at just thirteen years old.

Same for the building of the hut. The guy whose home they knocked down and rebuilt was lay ill by the side, and whilst Karl quipped and later bickered with Stephen Merchant about the futility of his actions (genuinely touching, just hearing Karl’s exasperation at how his efforts were so miniscule in making a difference to the overwhelming problems of the area) the programme was also showing us what conditions these people live in are like. It did it without patronising or ramming the message home – it showed us a world of need and deprivation and still made us chuckle at Karl.

I guess what I am saying is that An Idiot Abroad does have the potential to be justified and vital, and not just a show about putting Karl Pilkington through as much shit as possible and then sticking a camera in his face to record his expression and see what he has to say about it.

There was something near-justified in presenting Karl with another opportunity to do a bungee jump which he subsequently declined, it kind of makes it into a running theme during the series since it was something he also failed to do during the first episode. That he lied about it to Ricky was amusing, but better was the last reveal that Karl had got one of the crew to do it for him and was going to pretend that was him – only the hat had fallen off the guy and so revealed a head of hair that Karl patently does not have.

Again, what made this reveal all the better was seeing Karl discuss it on the phone with Ricky and laugh about it. Again, Karl laughs! It’s better that the show allows him this – isn’t afraid to occasionally drop his dead-pan, morose demeanour to let us see there is a sense of humour and fun beneath.

The show is, of course, called An Idiot Abroad and it’s perhaps worth me remembering that before I get all irritable about the actual end, where Karl was presented with gorillas, and seemed to become utterly bored with it. Maybe it’s just because it’s one of those things that I would have been fabulously fascinated by (far more than boring old whales from the last episode) but his grumbling all the way along the trek to find the gorillas and then near-tedium once he was there just rubbed me up the wrong way.

As I said, I suppose I ought to remember that he is the ‘idiot’ that is abroad and, as such, I ought not to be too surprised when he behaves in a manner I deem idiotic! Good episode all round though and, you know, I think this series is actually shaping up to be stronger than the first one.

What was the best part?

I really liked the part where Karl was being a teacher. His flipping between being stuck for what to say to becoming incredibly agitated, like when they thought he shaved his head and he adamantly announced that he was in fact bald, were very amusing. But the bit where he mentioned that he didn’t have children despite having a girlfriend for seventeen years, and then having to clarify that she wasn’t seventeen years old was laugh out loud funny.

What do I think will happen next?

Karl is off to travel Route 66 in America, which might prove to be mightily entertaining or it might be one of those episodes where a lot more gets set up along the way and so loses that fluid, impromptu quality the series has been developing. I’ll continue to hope for the best, and the good news is that Karl will at least be able to communicate better with the people he meets which might mine more comedy gold.