When your friend is an idiot, you never run out of material

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From left, cartoon approximations of Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington.

It can be difficult if one of your best friends is a complete idiot.

Then again, it can also be wildly amusing and immensely profitable.

It's the second dynamic that has been in effect for Ricky Gervais for much of the past decade, as the creator/star of the hit Brit sitcoms The Office and Extras and his longtime collaborator Stephen Merchant have built a podcast empire and, now, an animated TV series on the singular notion that their pal Karl Pilkington is a dimwit.

"A complete idiot," Gervais laughs when he described his "little round-headed" friend to TV critics during HBO's portion of the U.S. networks' recently completed winter press tour in Los Angeles. "Some of the things Karl comes up with are incredible -- I mean, he thought Anne Frank was just avoiding paying rent.

"He's doing a documentary called Seven Wonders, which we've arranged, in which we send him around the world to see what he thinks of the seven wonders (of the world). And he's not impressed so far. He thinks the pyramids are overrated; I said, 'Why?' and he said, 'It's a bad design... the lounge is going to be huge, but the bedroom is going to be tiny.'

"An absolute idiot."

The Ricky Gervais Show, which premieres Friday at 8 p.m. on HBO Canada, takes the audio from Gervais's record-breaking podcast and pairs it with some fairly kitschy, old-school animation to create a 13-episode cartoon series.

The podcasts -- mostly improvised comedy chats involving Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington that are mainly focused on the two TV moguls making fun of their lesser partner's skewed spin on reality -- have been downloaded about 190 million times, earning a spot in The Guinness Book of World Records.

When one observer suggests that the animated version of Gervais bears more than a passing resemblance to '60s cartoon kingpin Fred Flintstone, the best the Brit funnyman can muster is a mischievous smile.

"I think you will find, in a court of law, that I don't look like him at all," Gervais says with a giggle. "We just wanted to be retro, because we thought some of the subjects we handle are quite out there. They are quite taboo subjects; we talk about everything. And we thought if (the animation) was too spiky and trendy, it would just be too off-putting. We wanted it to be sort of cosy and sweet and cuddly."

Which, of course, will lull The Ricky Gervais Show's viewers into a false sense of nostalgic comfort only long enough for them to realize the voices behind the cartoons are talking about evolution (Pilkington thinks dinosaurs and humans co-existed), midget warriors fighting lions for public amusement, unconventional sexual preferences, nudity in the gym locker room and how to avoid donating to charities.

And, as a recurring theme, news involving monkeys.

"He's fascinated with chimps and monkeys," Gervais says of Pilkington. "We do a regular feature called Monkey News, in which Karl gets some sort of spurious tale and then embellishes it. He doesn't mean to, but he sort of fills in the gaps himself. And I try to feed on this fascination.

"There was an interesting article in The Guardian; clearly, the point of it was that chimpanzees, like humans, have an adolescence, and it was about this chimp that had an argument with his father and had run away. I told Karl this, and Karl went, 'What was the argument about?'

"Incredible, isn't it?"

When pressed, however, Gervais and Merchant confess an affection for Pilkington that runs much deeper than the public mockery to which they constantly subject their pal.

"Joking aside, I don't think he's an idiot," said Gervais. "I think he's smart, and he's good at some stuff, and he sees the world differently; he's a genuine artist in the sense that he does see it differently than us.

"He doesn't try to perform. He isn't trying to be a comedian. He shies away from that. But he's got an opinion on everything, and usually, it's a funny one... You could ask everyone the same 100 questions, and Karl's answers would be the most different from everyone else's, because he just sees the world differently.

"I can't get enough of Karl. I genuinely believe he's a comedy genius, whether he knows it or not."

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

TV WORTH WATCHING

Invasion of the Giant Pythons (Sunday at 8 p.m., PPTV) -- This new instalment of PBS's Nature examines an unsettling population explosion that has gripped Florida's Everglades in recent years -- giant Burmese pythons, which were introduced into the area by careless and probably overwhelmed pet owners and have multiplied quickly to become a predatory threat to other wildlife.

American Idol (Tuesday at 7 p.m., Fox) -- The competition finally reaches the stage where things get genuinely interesting -- the Top 24 semi-finalists compete this week, with the dozen remaining females up first and the still-standing male singers awaiting their turn (Wednesday). And maybe this is when the Ellen-Simon thing really starts to heat up...

TV ON DVD

Nurse Jackie -- Season 1 (release date: Feb. 23) -- Edie Falco (The Sopranos) isn't playing second-fiddle spouse to any mobbed-up hubby in this Showtime series; instead, she's front and centre as a New York City ER nurse who is susceptible to being overwhelmed by the pressures of her job.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 18, 2010 E5