The Ricky Gervais Guide To...

The Ricky Gervais Guide To... is a series of audiobooks from Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington. While it is the sixth series of audiobooks overall, it is a reinvention of The Ricky Gervais Show. Based on blog entries and on-air discussions, Ricky and Karl appear to have grown tired of the old format of the show and have adapted a quasi-educational format to rejuvenate the series. Each episode of the series is based around a particular academic or intellectual topic, with Ricky and Steve hoping to educate Karl and the listeners on the topic in question. Ricky, Steve and Karl would research the topic before recording and present what they had learned as part of the show. Every episode starts with a somewhat cliched intro from Ricky, where he introduced the trio and their respective qualifications (or lack thereof). The shows are available on itunes and Audible.co.uk. In February 2010 Ricky Gervais announced that The Ricky Gervais Guide To... The Earth will be the last of the Ricky Gervais Guide to... Series of Audiobooks.

Season 1

	Title	Release Date	Length
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Medicine	30 December 2008	53:45
	A fella with no arms and legs needs Karl's help havin' it away with his lover. Karl comes up with a new way for doctors to administer diagnoses.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Natural History	20 January 2009	47:45
	Subjects include: Karl's invention for long car journeys, Ricky and Karl's bizarre zoological creations and Karl gives AIDS a voice.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... The Arts	17 February 2009	52:42
	Ricky and Steve ponder the arts and what they bring to a person's life. Karl isn't bothered an' that. Featuring discussions on whistling, sculptures, outsider art, the play and the non-art of puns.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Philosophy	16 March 2009	53:11
	Philosophy takes a back seat to problem & worry holes, ant massacres, lazy Descartes and life changing decisions based on a packet of Munchies.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... The English	20 April 2009	57:15
	The boys discuss what it means to be English, the good, the bad and the ugly of England and its people and their personal stories of Englishness.

Season 2

	Title	Release Date	Length
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Society	3 November 2009	54:46
	The boys discuss today's society and how they could better it. President Pilkington bans crash helmets, becomes the tidy police and decides who can have children.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Law and Order	1 December 2009	52:12
	The boys discuss all aspects of today's judicial system, including hostage situations, death defying policemen and getting ripped off by useless plumbers
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... The Future	29 December 2009	52:09
	The boys discuss aspects of the future including "uglier humans", "Google brains" and the end of our planet as we know it.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... The Human Body	26 January 2010	56:00
	This episode the boys discuss the Human body. Karl Can't open his eyes, Steve's mate claims you can touch the human heart via the arse and Karl's parents can't remember him before he was six years old.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... The Earth	February 23 2010	50:00
	The boys discuss planet Earth in the "last ever guide to... audiobook". Karl thinks it should be called "The World" instead of "Earth", Steve's plane needs to be "de-iced" and Karl fires imaginary employees.

Specials

	Title	Release Date	Length
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... The World Cup	12 June 2010	44:26
	The boys loosely discuss the upcoming World Cup in this special free podcast. Karl also discusses a new past time involving dribbling and takes credit for the training of an Olympic athlete.
	The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Comic Relief	6 March 2011	59:06
	The boys talk about Comic Relief, as well as their views on charity. Karl also discusses his second movie idea featuring Tom Cruise.

Reception/Controversy

As with previous audiobooks, The Ricky Gervais Guide To... has been extremely successful, dominating itunes charts world wide. Medicine and Natural History shot to the top of the audiobook charts in the UK, America and all over Europe on the day of release. While more recent output from the boys has received mixed reactions from fans on the Pilkipedia forum, the "guides" (and their previews) have been very well received. Most people cited the new format as one of the reasons they enjoyed the show. It was also apparent that the boys actually appeared to enjoy doing the show, something that was missing from the NME Radio Show which was poorly received.

While the original audiobook was intended to be released on New Year's Eve 2008, it was released a week early on itunes and audible.com, much to the delight of American and European fans. However, Pilki-fans in the UK were unable to get the shows as it had yet to appear on the UK itunes store or audible.co.uk.

Ricky's comments about fat people caused mild controversy with various internet news sites reporting his "attack on the obese". In the audiobooks, Ricky expressed his frustration at obese people who claimed their ailment was no fault of their own, likening obesity to homosexuality. Some critics boo-booed Ricky's coarse and abrasive language when lambasting the overweight. Ricky frequently posted articles criticising him on his website and usually responded with an unapologetic blog entry. In various blog entries, Ricky bemoaned the fact that media figures were criticising swearing but never specified what particular events had sparked the reaction. This may have been tied to the above articles criticising his own language.

Many users were frustrated by the price of the audiobooks, at 1.95 (Pound Sterling and Euro) when Ricky had earlier said it would be "around a pound".

Trivia

• Ricky likened the new format to the Educating Karl feature on the Xfm shows.
• Before each show became available, the trio have released previews featuring clips from the respective shows as well as some impromptu conversations.
• In his blog, Ricky requested people send Karl natural history questions for the series but they were never used.