The Ricky Gervais Show: Difference between revisions

[[File:ricky.jpg|frame|From left to right: Stephen, Ricky and Karl, as animated in the HBO [[Animated Adaptation]].]]

 

'''Ricky Gervais''' basically describing the entire show. }}

 

** Karl also uses the phrase "knocking about" a lot, even in situations where he is trying to make a serious point. Naturally this renders whatever he's saying hilarious.

** Lampshaded by Steve at one point:

* [[Centipede's Dilemma]]: Many times Karl will be telling a story and Ricky and Stephen call him on the possibility of said scenario working. This leads to some very, VERY outlandish explanations.

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: When Paul "The Party Animal" Parker was first mentioned in the cartoon, he was imagined as a schoolkid wearing bowling shoes and a Doctor Who scarf who was asked to plan his school's parties. From his second appearance, where he was discovered to be an adult, he was reinvented into a Ferris Bueller-esque legit party animal.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: "Don't be ignorant." -Karl, near the end of season 1.

** Ricky seemed genuinely astonished and bemused when Karl, without a trace of irony, said that "I think I think more than most people."

'''Karl:''' [[Comically Missing the Point|No, I haven't mentioned the jellyfish today.]] }}

** Ricky himself has sometimes gotten basic facts wrong in the course of berating Karl, or claimed that even the bits of his stories that are true couldn't happen. The latter part, at least, can possibly be justified through Karl's poor and inarticulate method of telling stories, which can often make it very difficult to tell what is fact, what is fact he's exaggerated and / or somehow distorted, and what's just completely made-up. Ricky even said that [[Stephen Hawking]] could be speaking to Karl and all that would come out of Karl was "gobbledygook".

** In Karl's world, seals are "between dogs and fish".

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Ricky is a master of this trope when it comes to Karl's insane ramblings. This becomes particularly prominent over time during Karl's Monkey News -- Ricky frequently foresees the incoming twist -- granted, something which is not exactly hard given that it nearly always involves something previously suspected to be a human turning out to be a monkey -- and repeatedly points out how ridiculous certain events would have to be to reach that conclusion in the hopes of making him see how absolutely unbelievable his stories are. Karl always ignores him, of course.

'''Ricky''': Choose the jockey wisely, then.<br />

'''Karl''': So he says to his, like, mate, "Look, I've got myself a horse and that, so we just need a jockey. Get someone to sort it out and what-have-you, so I can get in this race."<br />

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: Season 3 opens with arguably the best episode the show's ever done, but shortly after the episode aired, Karl passed a kidney stone. The second episode is significantly more somber, but it does get better as they go on.

** Karl's hilarious stories involving his brother tend to end with him mentioning him being in prison or not having seen him in years. As Ricky put it:

* [[Mood Swinger]]: Steve and Ricky especially can wildly veer between helpless laughter and frothing rage as a result of Karl's anecdotes and personality.

* [[Moon Logic Puzzle]]: "Rockbusters" in Season 2 was an attempt to puzzle through Karl's unique logic to identify musicians by initials. Examples:

* [[Self-Deprecation]]: Steve finds his Rio adventure every bit as funny as the audience does. Ricky acknowledges his own weight gain and [[Big Eater]] tendencies.

** Steve is also usually the first to make fun of his poor track record with women, as in an example where they discuss a newspaper article reporting that Steve was apparently a hit with the ladies in a nightclub until he started dancing:

'''Steve:''' Rick, if I ''had'' been, [[Stop The Presses|I would have phoned the [''Daily Mail'' newspaper] ''myself'']]. Point A. I seem to distinctly remember talking to one of my mates the whole night and we were discussing the fact that we were too shy to talk to girls. So ''wrong there''. }}

* [[Sidetracked by the Analogy]]: Karl; for instance, he doesn't understand the "thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters" probability theorem, because he imagines it's about monkeys ''trying'' to reproduce the works of Shakespeare and is convinced they would make mistakes.

* [[Unlucky Everydude]]: Steve.

** Karl once unwittingly touched a nerve with Steve regarding this. Steve was asking how Karl had met Suzanne as a friendly gesture. Somehow, Karl got offended and poked fun at Steve's status as a single guy. This prompted Steve to make a sarcastic remark on how he didn't want to be reminded of his loneliness on a comedy radio show. It's one of the few times that Steve is genuinely upset by what Karl said.

*** Actually, if it's that particular XFM episode being referenced above (10th Nov 2001), Steve is actually first lamenting how even a homeless person can maintain a relationship with another homeless person living in a different city entirely - And whilst Ricky and Steve do ask Karl how he met Suzanne, it is not without the usual mockery, which includes suggesting that Suzanne was the sort to go through bins for food. With that in mind, it's perhaps right that Karl, for once, gets quite aggravated.

* [[The Untwist]]: "Monkey News." Karl always tells the story as if it's a shock that {{spoiler|the mysterious character is always a monkey. *gasp*}} Ricky and Steve mock and Lampshade this repeatedly.

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: Karl once starts off a story by referring to the "bad wind" that hit America. It takes Ricky and Steve a few beats to puzzle out that he's talking about ''Hurricane Katrina.''

* [[Wangst]]: [[Invoked]] In-universe -- Ricky and Steve frequently accuse Karl of over-exaggerating both the effects of his kidney stones in the third season, and often generally call him out on being an all-round moaner and misery-guts. On one occasion, when a discussion about toenails leads to Karl moaning about having to carry things in general, such as bags:

* [[We All Live in America]]: Mocked during the holiday podcasts, when the trio do a Thanksgiving podcast. Thanksgiving, of course, being an American holiday founded by British expatriates giving thanks that they didn't have to live in Britain any more.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: If Karl had got any of the previous jobs he applied for (like for Granada), then the world would never have heard his musings and Ricky and Steve's careers would be rather different.