The Ricky Gervais Show: Difference between revisions

 

The show basically has the format of a [[Seinfeldian Conversation]]: Ricky, Stephen and Karl talk about life in general, the news, amusing anecdotes and sometimes even a little life philosophy. The show started with just Ricky and Stephen, but eventually, Karl was included into the show, since Ricky and Stephen realized from talking to him that [[Cloudcuckoolander|Karl's... interesting worldview]] was a source of humor they just ''had'' to exploit. Recently, they produced a series called "The Ricky Gervais Guide to..." and focused on topics like Medicine, England, Society, the Future, and the Human Body, though the discussions rarely remained that focused.

* [[Actor Allusion]]: In the animated episode "Comic Relief", when Steve is telling a story about shopping for records in a thrift shop, he is shown picking up a Seona Dancing record--that being [[Old Shame|the boy band Ricky Gervais belonged to]] when he was young.

* [[Agent Mulder]]: Karl.

* [[Biting the Hand Humor]]: Back when the show was being broadcast on XFM, Ricky and Steve would make fun of the radio station and its listeners almost as much as they'd make fun of Karl and each other.

* [[Blunt Metaphors Trauma]]: Karl.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Part of the reason Ricky and Stephen added Karl to the show is because he's SO great at being on the receiving end of their verbal jabs. He actually takes it in pretty good stride, though. Ricky and Stephen have even [[Lampshade Hanging|hung a lampshade on it]] by comparing him, both physically and in attitude, to [[Peanuts|Charlie Brown]].

* [[Camp Gay]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZb3JesBN7c This Segment].

** Lampshaded by Steve at one point:

{{quote| '''Steve:''' How many times have we heard Karl use the phrase "I'm just saying that..." followed by such a stream of nonsense that it's blown our minds?}}

* [[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.

* [[Chew Toy]]: Stephen. While Karl is the butt of the show's jokes, Steve tends to be the butt of the world's. He believes that tallness should be considered a disability because of all the insults he gets and the expensive things he has to buy because of his tallness (like he can't fit into small cars, has to buy things from expensive Big And Tall stores). His story about Carnival in Rio is epic (basically, despite the reputation of Brazil's women as being sex fiends, he couldn't get a single woman to pay attention to him, and STILL can't), along with the story about how he was not allowed in a night club because he didn't bring any women with him.

* [[Double Entendre]]: Ricky and Stephen love making them, despite (or perhaps ''because'') of how uncomfortable it makes Karl.<br /><br />This is doubly true, although more legitimate, on the older XFM (radio) shows, as Karl was afraid of the repercussions of Ricky or Steve swearing on-air. Of course, the one time XFM got a complaint and Ricky and Steve were meant to be reprimanded, Karl [[Cloudcuckoolander|forgot to tell them]].

* [[Double Take]]: Sometimes, the things Karl says will drive Ricky and Stephen to baffled, stupefied silence.

** Every so often, Karl's lack of political correctness about certain issues will prompt Ricky and Steve -- themselves not exactly shy about playing with politically incorrect humour -- to react in a "Whoa! Hold on there!" fashion.

** Probably the best example is when Karl is talking when he went out with a girl who he later found out had a (supposedly) terminal illness. He broke up with her soon after because he didn't see the point in spending time and money on her when "she's going to die on me". Ricky literally screams "Oh God!" in disgust before calming down and saying, even though he understood what Karl meant, you still can't say something like that in public.

'''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".

* [[Ink Suit Actor]]: In the animated adaptation, as shown in the photo on this page.

* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: Karl is this Trope incarnate. For example, he's willing to donate all of his organs except his eyes. He doesn't want to donate his eyes because [[Our Ghosts Are Different|he's afraid of becoming a blind ghost.]] Even though he is convinced that blind people will get eyes in the afterlife.

* [[Jury Duty]]: A question about Karl's hair (or lack thereof) leads to an anecdote of Karl performing jury duty. [[Hilarity Ensues|Cue maniacal laughter by Ricky]].

* [[Kiss of Life]]: Steve told a story about how a kid he knew thought he could resurrect a bird that had been hit by a car just by kissing it.

* [[Lack of Empathy]]: Karl seems to have a mild version of this; he's certainly not sociopathic by any means (he can be fairly sympathetic to others, including bugs drowning in his pool and worms), but he seems completely unable to put himself in the shoes of the person (or animal, as the case may be) that he's discussing, to the inevitable end that he's completely unable to understand why they just don't do what he'd do in that situation (such as why people in famine and poverty-stricken nations don't just move somewhere else). This tends to lead to some of his failures of logic.

** The aforementioned girlfriend with a terminal illness incident comes to mind, as he didn't see the point in spending time with someone who he thought was going to die soon. He was more worried about "wasting" his money and free time than he was giving someone who's presumably not in a happy stage in their life some comfort.

** Karl mentioned he once thought he looked like the alien from the 'Boswell alien incident.' It took almost 2 minutes of laughter to tell Karl it's Roswell, New Mexico.

** [[Clive Owen|Clive Warren!]]

* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: Ricky and Stephen seem to be convinced Karl is at least bisexual, and will frequently make jokes about it to him. Not that he does much to defend himself, but you can tell he gets flustered when the subject comes up and will try to drop it as quickly as he can. Any time Karl mentions meeting an attractive male or a gay person, Ricky and Stephen will NOT let it go.

** "[[Memetic Mutation|I could eat a knob at night.]]"

** They once dedicated an entire segment of the radio show to Karl's stories about his "near-death experiences" as a kid. The first involved choking on a Mr. Freeze pop (which he credits with giving him a sense of a new lease on life, as a result of which he went to school for three whole days in a row); the second was a snowy day when his mother didn't think it was safe to go out, so he had to sneak out to do his paper route in time to get back and watch ''[[The Pink Panther]]'', and he got caught in an upstairs window and almost fell; and the third was during the martial-arts craze in the eighties when he tried to "kick his height," but froze at the apex of the kick to try to get his father's attention, lost his balance and hit his head on the ground. There was also the story about the time he ate too many cream cakes and had a bad stomachache. His mother called the doctor, who sarcastically said he didn't have long to live, which his mother believed until Karl's dad came home and phoned the doctor to check. Ricky tactfully suggests that in another family, they might have realized the doctor was joking.

* [[Not Good With People]]: Karl seems far more comfortable around bugs (or ghosts!) then friends or family. During a date with Suzanne, he becomes far more interested in the ladybug that lands on his arm.

* [[Rage Breaking Point]]: Happened a few times, but the most notable is when Karl is talking about two monkeys who got 'married' during one of the Monkey News segments. Ricky's reaction when Karl finishes the story is mental.

* [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: Many people accuse Karl of being 'a character, since no one can possibly be that weird in real life.' Ricky and Stephen have constantly denied this, stating that not only is Karl for real, but Ricky and Stephen ''hopelessly wished'' they could write something half as funny as what Karl says in all seriousness. And Stephen has said that if Karl ''was'' a character, Ricky and Stephen certainly wouldn't have wasted him on a podcast.

* [[Recursive Reality]]: One of Karl's movie ideas involves a failed actor (in earlier versions a plumber, according to Ricky) called Bryan, who would be played by Ted Danson, who gets his mind put into the body of [[Tom Cruise]] when both are involved in serious accidents simultaneously, with Bryan going on to take Tom Cruise's place in a later ''[[Mission Impossible]]'' sequel. Stephen is highly amused to point out that this would eventually result in a situation where Tom Cruise would be playing Ted Danson playing 'Bryan' playing Tom Cruise playing Ethan Hunt.

* [[Recycled in Space]]: At one point, the trio discusses remaking movies in the style of [[The Muppet Show]] (Including, of all things, ''[[Schindler's List]]''). This leads to Stephen yelling, "Schindler's List '''IN SPAAAAAACE!'''"

* [[The Scrooge]]: Steve, apparently. He went to Rio and stayed in a hostel.

* [[Seinfeldian Conversation]]: The main format of the show, it's just Ricky, Stephen and Karl musing about life in general, commenting on news stories or telling funny anecdotes. The intro to the show is, "For the past few years, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington have met on a regular basis for a series of pointless conversations. This is one of them".

** 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:

{{quote| '''Steve:''' Right, I'll take issue with this, because firstly...<br />

** Karl doesn't understand analogies at all. When outright asked for the definition of "analogy," he responded "A short story, told quickly." Apparently confusing it with the word "anecdote."

* [[The Social Darwinist]]: Karl seems to have this sort of mindset, such as when he describes his Auntie Nora as "a weak person" who's been "allowed" to live longer than she should have.

* [[The Stoic]]: Karl. The most he changes facial expression is raised eyebrows. He practically always has the same pouty facial expression.

** It was a huge deal to Ricky that he actually made Karl laugh in a conversation animated for the television episode "Munchies." Ricky kept interrupting Karl, and finally Karl said, "You have to keep it-" "Erect!" and Karl finally gave in and started laughing as loud as the other two. Ricky even pointed out to the audience, "I made Karl LAUGH!"

* [[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.

* [[Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things]]: The podcasts used to be put online for free for a period before being uploaded to iTunes for sale. So many fans complained about them charging for something that was once free that Ricky got annoyed and now they charge right out of the gate.

* [[Wild Child]]: Karl states he was like this as a child, using a litterbox like a cat when younger. The animated series has a [[Flash Back]] of him as a child running about naked, acting like an animal.