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 a travel show on Sky1. It features Karl Pilkington traveling the globe in order to visit each of the Seven Wonders of the World. During his travels Pilkington visits The 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 also appear in the series.

In February 2010 Gervais stated via his blog that Pilkington had lost weight due to the food in India, or as Gervais put it "he shat himself thin". Gervais also confirmed that he and Merchant have been involved with the editing of the show.

Programme

A preview show of An Idiot Abroad aired on 5 September 2010 and the first episode of the series begins transmission on 23rd September 2010 on Sky 1. 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 twat in the world.”

Episodes

Title	Series	Original Airdate	Buy	#
Preview Special	Series 1	5 September 2010	TBA	0
Ricky and Steve sit down with Karl to discuss his travels in this preview special. Clips are shown from the series and Karl adds some descriptions of the places that he visited. As usual, Ricky and Steve react to Karl's views with bursts of laughter. The pair even attempt to wind Karl up with some of their patented role-playing.

Episode One	Series 1	23 September 2010	TBA	1
description to come

Episode Two	Series 1	30 September 2010	TBA	2
description to come

Episode Three	Series 1	7 October 2010	TBA	3
description to come

Episode Four	Series 1	14 October 2010	TBA	4
description to come

Episode Five	Series 1	21 October 2010	TBA	5
description to come

Episode Six	Series 1	28 October 2010	TBA	6
description to come

Episode Seven	Series 1	4 November 2010	TBA	7
description to come

Episode Eight	Series 1	11 November 2010	TBA	8
description to come

Quotes

Karl: I had to get an injection to protect me from a dirty chimp.

Ricky: He's 23 but his penis is 102. What can we do about that?
Karl: Is this any use?

Karl: What's so good about The Amazon? Can't be that good; there are things in it that would rather live in me knob.

Karl: I've never seen anyone bend over as much as him.

Karl: Whenever you buy toilet roll holders, it says, "Made in China". Why aren't they using them then?

Karl: ....in the end I ate one.

Karl: That song walk like an Egyptian - no-one's walking, everyone seems to be in a car at all hours. Just beeping.

Karl: The alright wall of China.

Karl: Looks like a game of Jenga that got out of hand.

Karl: (on The Great Wall of China) Just goes for miles and miles....but so does the M6.

Karl: Like a little tornado innit. You don't see that in the brochure. Shitty old nappy whizzing through the air. They tend to leave that out.

Karl: I'm not going on a camel again, I'm not going on a camel again, I'm not going on a camel again...

Karl: Me bollocks are squashed.

Karl: China's gray enough, why would you want to see it in HD?

Karl: Wake up, Nietzsche.

Ricky: You are the strangest man on the planet.
Karl: You haven't been to China.

Name Change Controversy

The show was initially titled Karl Pilkington's Seven Wonders of the World, however a decision was made to change the name to the more provocative An Idiot Abroad without Pilkington's knowledge. The name change was actually revealed to Pilkington halfway through the show in order to record his reaction. Pilkington 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.