An Idiot Abroad
| An Idiot Abroad | |
 Promotional photo of Karl | |
| Genre | Comedy/Travel show |
| Running time | 60 min |
| Creator(s) | Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant |
| Starring | Karl Pilkington |
| Country | UK |
| Network | Sky1 |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
An Idiot Abroad (formerly known as Karl Pilkington's Seven Wonders Of The World) is an upcoming travel show on Sky1. It features Karl Pilkington travelling the globe in order to visit each of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. During his travels Karl will visit Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Macchu Picchu in Peru, Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Taj Mahal in India, Petra in Jordan, The Colosseum in Rome and the Great Pyramids in Egypt. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant got the idea for this show after Karl had mentioned that he thought they were all a bit boring and had no interest in seeing them.
In February 2010 Ricky Gervais stated via his blog that Karl had lost weight due to the food in India, or as Ricky put it "he shat himself thin". Ricky also confirmed that he and Stephen Merchant have been involved with the editing of the show.
Name Change Controversy
The show was initially titled Karl Pilkington's Seven Wonders of the World, however the decision was taken by Ricky to change the name to the more provocative An Idiot Abroad behind Karl's back. The name change was actually revealed to Karl halfway through the show in order to record his reaction. Karl himself has said in interviews that he thinks the name change will harm the show and that people will not want to watch a program about an idiot.
In a poll on Pilkipedia 61% of fans reported to be happy with the name change.
Programme
‘An Idiot Abroad’ began transmission on 23rd September 2010 on Sky 1. The ‘docuseries’ was produced by Karl Pilkingtons’ podcast and radio show colleagues Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and follows Karl’s trip around the globe to visit the exotic wonders of the world. Sites such as Machu Pinchu and The Pyramids at Giza produces an indifferent reaction from Pilkington who had enraged Gervais by stating that they “are a bit shit”.
Whether the experience broadened Karls’ horizons remains to be seen, but the series is a classic piece of travelogue, style programming that never fails to entertain. During the editing process Gervais stated on his blog“I cannot wait for this show to air. Karl is the funniest, baldest, grumpiest Manc tw*t in the world.”
An Idiot Abroad REVIEW Episode 7 ‘PERU’
Karl Pilkington’s new series ‘An Idiot Abroad’ may just prove to be the tipping point for Karl as a solo artist. It is so refreshing to hear his thoughts without the cackling Ricky Gervais every 5 seconds laughing at every single comment Karl makes.
In this episode Karl treks through the Amazonian basin for over 1000 km to get to his 7th and final ‘Wonder of the World’ Machu Pichu. The entertainment comes from the trek itself as Karl experiences life in the jungle. As Ricky suggests in the preview show for this series ‘There’s nothing funnier than Karl sitting in a corner being poked by a stick.” Well this really comes to life when Karl is in an Amazonian village watching a local being injected with the poison from a frog in order to get high before a hunt. At which point he reminisces about his ‘Aunty Nora’ and the amount of drugs she’s on, stating “If it hasn’t been tested on animals its been tested by me aunty Nora”.
Other gems of wisdom spring from Karl’s brain as he ponders the way tribes don’t count to more than 3 because they never have to deal with mass. He then proceeds to introduce ‘connect 4’ to the villagers to no avail. Karl’s perspective on Dolphins is intriguing too, he spots one in the Amazon and then states ‘Dolphins annoy me right, cos everyone thinks they’re dead intelligent and that, but I’ve never seen them do anything that’s blown me away”, “People call me a div and yet think dolphins are intelligent, it just baffles me.”
Whilst on the Inca trail Karl visits a doctor in order to check he is in good shape for the trek. The doctor gets out a ‘bag o shite’, as Karl puts it, and then produces a Guinea Pig! Karl comments that when you’ve got a doctor with cotton buds and bits of fluff and that in a bag, your probably better off getting a second opinion from the guinea pig. The doctor then proceeds to tell Karl that all the badness from him has been transferred to the guinea pig at which point Karl states “Well, that Guinea Pig is gonna have the major shits then”.
Karl eventually makes it to the ‘wonder’ at Machu Pichu but this isn’t the point of the series by a long way and is in fact more of an anti climax. This is a must see for not only Karl Pilkington fans but any fan of travel log documentaries as Karl actually experiences the trip and doesn’t just voice over as he points out that David Attenborough does.
As the series develops on Sky 1 throughout September we are taken through a journey of our own as seen through the eyes of Karl (in HD). Ricky Gervais sums up the project by stating ‘This is one of the funniest, most expensive practical jokes I have ever done”, and he’s not wrong.
Essential viewing all round. 10 out of 10.