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, and the Great Pyramids in Egypt. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant also appear in the series.

The official podcast from An Idiot Abroad has proved highly successful in the iTunes charts, with a number of top positions.

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.” Each episode documents Karl on his journey to one of the seven wonders. On the eighth and final episode, Pilkington meets with Gervais and Merchant to discuss the overall experience and hear some of the feedback from the critics.

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.

The show has also aired in North America on The Science Channel in the US and Discovery Channel Canada in Canada.

Travel Diary

Karl also kept a travel diary that documents his trips to all of the seven wonders. The diary has been released as a book and is titled, An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington. It is available for purchase from Canongate Books and has been officially reviewed by Pilkipedia.

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: China	Series 1	23 September 2010	TBA	1
The first country on the docket is China. In this episode, Karl visits The Great Wall of China, learns a bit of Kung Fu, and eats some toad. Karl genuinely finds himself confused and bewildered by a strange culture where the public toilets have no doors or toilet paper and people eat cockroaches and scorpions.

Episode Two: India	Series 1	30 September 2010	TBA	2
Karl travels to India in this episode to visit the Taj Mahal. He clashes with culture again as he has difficulty understanding spirituality at the Kumbh Mela Festival. He also takes a swim in the Ganges River, meets the Elephant Baba, and participates in Holi Day!

Episode Three: Jordan	Series 1	7 October 2010	TBA	3
Not only does Karl get the opportunity to visit Jordan in this episode, but he also makes a stop over in Israel. He visits the Wailing Wall, Jerusalem, and sees Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus in the West Bank. An extreme kidnapping scenerio tests his bravery and he gets to fully experience Petra by riding a camel across the desert and sleeping in a cave.

Episode Four: Mexico	Series 1	14 October 2010	TBA	4
In this episode, Karl is taken to Mexico to visit the Chichen Itza. As luck would have it, he is there for Easter Sunday, and he gets to witness a re-enactment of the Passion, and he learns how the locals punish Judas Iscariot. While there, he also tries his hand at wrestling and learns how to be a charro.

Episode Five: Egypt	Series 1	21 October 2010	TBA	5
description coming soon

Episode Six: Brazil	Series 1	28 October 2010	TBA	6
description coming soon

Episode Seven: Peru	Series 1	4 November 2010	TBA	7
description coming soon

Episode Eight: Karl Comes Home	Series 1	11 November 2010	TBA	8
description coming soon

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

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.