The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Society

The Ricky Gervais Guide To... Series Two Episode List

Episodes: Guide to... Society Guide to... Law and Order Guide to... The Future Guide to... The Human Body Guide to... The Earth

The Ricky Gervais Guide To ...Society is the first audiobook in the second season of the Guide To... series.

Track Listing

1. Introductions (0:00)

The Show's Album Art

Ricky introduces this new series of audiobooks by demonstrating what fellow people throughout history have said about society before welcoming himself, Steve Merchant - Award Winning Writer - and Karl Pilkington "Round headed little twat."

2. Ancient Greece (1:05)

Steve starts off the audiobook by talking about times in Ancient Greece when people would be selected to present new laws or new ideas, which their fellows would then decide upon keeping or not keeping. Ricky says he would ask for peace and such noble ideas. Karl reckons he worked as a slave himself when actually he had a normal job, although he was determined he was a slave, as he had no choice for another job. Steve throws forward an ancient proverb "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." Once again, the metaphor brings forward problems for Karl.

3. GERANIUMS (3:59)

Karl mentions when he went to Ibiza, a place where a lot of deaths occurred on the roads. To Karl, because all these deaths have happened, people have planted flowers and made the place beautiful, whereas in a place like London it's very safe and, as such, very grey and boring. Ricky and Steve ridicule him. Karl says that sometimes people have to die, and even though this fella outside his house had a helmet on, when he hit a lamppost his head came off.

4. President Pilkington (7:10)

Karl reckons that people should not have to wear crash helmets if they don't want to. Ricky puts forward to him a role-play in which a person didn't wear a helmet and did crash and unfortunately die. But this man was not the only victim and Karl has to deal with his children. Karl's answer is to put the kids in a home; he fails to see how it is his fault for not making him wear a helmet. He says he is defenseless to stop it. He believes that the idiots who will not wear helmets will kill themselves off, getting rid of the idiots who do not have any common sense.

5. The Tidy Police (13:15)

Ricky asks Karl what would happen if Karl enforced rules about simply being tidy and being nice and how this would work. Ricky identifies a problem: he can see how a person who doesn't like to clean and likes a simplistic life and that Karl's rules would not be fair to people who like to live their lives like that.

6. Who Can Have Children? (15:46)

Steve brings up how people in China can only have one child but Karl thinks it would be better to decide about who can have children rather than how many they can have. Karl believes that if you are rich, like Madonna, you can have as many kids as you want. But if you are poor, then it’s not fair on the children. Ricky points out that he was born into a poor family. Karl clarifies that he means people who lived on the estate, like the child who chased cars. Stephen sets up a hypothetical situation where he and Ricky come to Karl to ask if they can adopt a child. Karl asks them to fill out a form. Ricky and Stephen mock the situation by pretending to be very bad parents. Karl states he wouldn’t ask any questions as they have filled out the forms.

Quotes

Karl: "There was a fella outside our house who hit a lamppost; he had a helmet on, but his head come off."

Ricky: "Look at this Suzanne... fella who lost 'ead here... Geraniums? GERANIUMS?? For fella who lost bloody 'ead?"

Steve: "People are fucking idiots!"

Free Preview

The free preview was released on 28 October 2009 and can be downloaded at rapidshare and can also be downloaded from iTunes.