What happened?
A retrospective episode with Karl sitting down with Ricky and Steve to discuss his travels and field questions from viewers, as well as Ricky finally ensuring that Karl had his prostate checked and his invention of Pilkopants made it to a shopping channel.
Thoughts
Strange kind of episode to write a write-up for, considering that a lot of it was basically going over old material and discussing it. As such there doesn’t leave much for me to actually discuss here so I don’t envisage this being too long-winded. Curiously, though, this retrospective episode was perhaps the most consistent and amusing episode of the whole series.
Anyone who has heard or watched The Ricky Gervais Show will be familiar with the trio of Ricky, Steve and Karl and how they get along together. It’s a lot of fun to actually see them, properly. I think one of my most memorable moments was the sight of Steve Merchant creasing up with laughter, clinging on to Ricky’s arm, when Karl was talking about how one of the rooms he had stayed in had stank of fish.
There’s little else to say about the three of them talking about what happened, save to say it remained fun and entertaining. The highlight of the straight conversations had to be when Ricky made Karl re-enact his ‘Bullshit Man’ superhero, which then resulted in an interrogation of whether he could fly, or had superhearing, all of which were added superpowers! If there was anything lacking, I would say that I'd have preferred to see more 'behind the scenes' pieces of the making of the show - stuff that didn't fit in with the regular episodes but could have been included here.
This being an episode of An Idiot Abroad then Ricky and Steve couldn’t help themselves lay out some stunts for Karl to endure, although they were definitely the highlights of the episode. The visit from the doctor that took Karl to a private room to perform a check on his prostate was brilliantly funny. I defy anyone not to observe a man begrudge another man sticking his finger up his arse and not laugh. And the scene was capped off brilliantly with Karl’s perfectly-timed joke remark asking whether he was a real doctor.
Karl also had his own surprise when he showed Ricky and Steve his stint on a shopping channel trying to sell his Pilkopants. They were truly a terrible invention, basically boiling down to little more than a string bag attached to the seat of trousers. (Surely a better idea would be to have a form of inflatable thing in the seat of trousers for the use as a seat when required?) Still, Karl gave it his best shot (best line being that they’d be useful for children that fell into water to keep them buoyant, with Ricky pointing out that they would be floating face down, submerged!) and managed to sell all fifteen of them.
Probably some smart consumers snapped them up. Not because they were a good product but because they’ll surely be worth quite a lot more as famous rarities.
End of the series then, and this second foray of An Idiot Broad has been good value. The first episode had me worried that they were striving too hard to re-create the effortless fun of the first and failing. But after that initial mis-step the series seemed to relax and find its own groove and be thoroughly good viewing week in, week out. Dare I say it, but I think I liked it more than the first one.
What was the best part?
Easily the part where Karl had his prostrate checked. He took it in good humour and, strangely, it probably did more for raising awareness about what such a simple and important check it is that might prompt men over 40 to do the same.
What do I think will happen next?
Ricky Gervais is usually pretty strict on quitting on a high, and his television output so far has always took the trend of two series, and a special (not including the podcasts that inspired The Ricky Gervais Show). So, I suppose, there’s always scope that there will be An Idiot Abroad special. Given the massive success of the show, though, I would imagine there’s a lot of encouragement to go right ahead and make a third. If they can get the right conceptual reason to be sending Karl overseas then I certainly would be tuning in.
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