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An idiot abroad

bri

By bri,
in GF - General Forum

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snez1 Mentor

snez1

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I have everything Ricky, Steve and Karl have ever done together and i can honestly say that Idiot Abroad is by far the weakest. It's all been going down hill a bit for me regarding Karl. They are trying to make a shit load of money off him and to do that they have to get him to appeal to the masses and the best way to do that is just repeat the most hilarious things he's said in the past and treat it like they're new and fresh.

 

He now knows why he's funny and they repeat shit that was once original and real (i.e Karl not knowing that lists of 'things to do before you die' don't actually mean things to do JUST before you die) in an obviously scripted way. All the best lines are just recylcled and acted (see the recent advert) from the mind blowing nonesence that Karl came out with years ago. I guess that's ok and an understandable way to do it, throwing all his best ever moments out there to people safe in the knowledge that 90% of them will never have heard most of them before, but if you liked Karl before he got popular it's annoying how he over acts and plays up to being a mong. Ricky's fake laughs at things you know he heard 8 years ago and has repeated a million times since also get on my tits. They need to stop acting and scripting it and just let Karl be Karl. He'd come across like he did in the old days, as a bit of an idiot who's outlook on life is ridiculously funny.

 

Forced as it is though Karl is still watchable and occasionally there's a nugget in there and something new. Idiot Abroad is also watchable on the whole as a show and if you haven't seen Karl before I'd imagine it's awesome. However, i can't help but feel short changed with it as the bar was set so high many years ago. The XFM shows in the first 2 series are spectacular and some of the funniest shit i've ever heard.

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Ezekiel 25:17 Grand Master

Ezekiel 25:17

Posted
Posted
I have everything Ricky, Steve and Karl have ever done together and i can honestly say that Idiot Abroad is by far the weakest. It's all been going down hill a bit for me regarding Karl. They are trying to make a shit load of money off him and to do that they have to get him to appeal to the masses and the best way to do that is just repeat the most hilarious things he's said in the past and treat it like they're new and fresh.

 

He now knows why he's funny and they repeat shit that was once original and real (i.e Karl not knowing that lists of 'things to do before you die' don't actually mean things to do JUST before you die) in an obviously scripted way. All the best lines are just recylcled and acted (see the recent advert) from the mind blowing nonesence that Karl came out with years ago. I guess that's ok and an understandable way to do it, throwing all his best ever moments out there to people safe in the knowledge that 90% of them will never have heard most of them before, but if you liked Karl before he got popular it's annoying how he over acts and plays up to being a mong. Ricky's fake laughs at things you know he heard 8 years ago and has repeated a million times since also get on my tits. They need to stop acting and scripting it and just let Karl be Karl. He'd come across like he did in the old days, as a bit of an idiot who's outlook on life is ridiculously funny.

 

Forced as it is though Karl is still watchable and occasionally there's a nugget in there and something new. Idiot Abroad is also watchable on the whole as a show and if you haven't seen Karl before I'd imagine it's awesome. However, i can't help but feel short changed with it as the bar was set so high many years ago. The XFM shows in the first 2 series are spectacular and some of the funniest shit i've ever heard.

 

You start by saying you hate everything they have ever done, then start pining for Karl to go back to the day's where he was 'ridiculously funny', hmm.

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snez1 Mentor

snez1

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Erm.....i said i have everything they've done, not hate. Loved the xfm show, the podcasts, the office, extras. I'm not saying Idiot Abroad is bad, just that it's rehashed in a lot of places, over scripted and over acted by all of them. The best bits are when Karl isn't playing up to his role as the idiot and is just himself. I guess thats getting harder and harder to do when you are expected to be the idiot every second. The early XFM stuff was so good because it was spontanious and Karl would just chime in now and then with some comedy gold without trying too hard. Now he's the star of the show i'm sure he feels he has to live up to it all the time and it feels forced. I'll still be watching, it'd decent, but it's not a patch on the older stuff when he was just a guy in the background being himself.

 

I don't think anyone who has followed Gervais, Merchant and Karl for a long time could argue the points i made.

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Stu Monty Grand Master

Stu Monty

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Erm.....i said i have everything they've done, not hate. Loved the xfm show, the podcasts, the office, extras. I'm not saying Idiot Abroad is bad, just that it's rehashed in a lot of places, over scripted and over acted by all of them. The best bits are when Karl isn't playing up to his role as the idiot and is just himself. I guess thats getting harder and harder to do when you are expected to be the idiot every second. The early XFM stuff was so good because it was spontanious and Karl would just chime in now and then with some comedy gold without trying too hard. Now he's the star of the show i'm sure he feels he has to live up to it all the time and it feels forced. I'll still be watching, it'd decent, but it's not a patch on the older stuff when he was just a guy in the background being himself.

 

I don't think anyone who has followed Gervais, Merchant and Karl for a long time could argue the points i made.

 

I agree about some of the points being re-hashed but disagree that there isn't loads of fresh stuff as they send him off to other places. I think he genuinely is pissed off, scared and well out of his comfort zone for a lot of it, he isn't putting it on. I think his opinion is that his little moans are what people find funny, and that he plays on it a little, but I don't find it any less funny for that.

 

The XFM stuff is still probably as funny as they will ever have been though. When Karl was being genuinely retarded and Ricky was getting angry it would have you struggling to breathe.

 

"Karl, you're a fucking idiot, play a record".

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snez1 Mentor

snez1

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I agree about some of the points being re-hashed but disagree that there isn't loads of fresh stuff as they send him off to other places. I think he genuinely is pissed off, scared and well out of his comfort zone for a lot of it, he isn't putting it on. I think his opinion is that his little moans are what people find funny, and that he plays on it a little, but I don't find it any less funny for that.

 

The XFM stuff is still probably as funny as they will ever have been though. When Karl was being genuinely retarded and Ricky was getting angry it would have you struggling to breathe.

 

"Karl, you're a fucking idiot, play a record".

 

Haha yep, "you're an idiot, play a record" must have ben said 100000 times and never failed to amuse! Like i said, Idiot Abroad has it's moments but i just don't like it when they sit down, get Karl to say something that XFM listeners heard him say years ago and then have Ricky scream "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA". It takes me out of the show a bit and stands out like a sore thumb. I'm sure loads and loads of people have never heard many of the things before and to them it will be hillarious but when you know something is scripted and also know how funny Karl is unscripted it just seems a little dissapointing to me.

 

I dunno, hopefully it'll be even better than the first season and Karl spends more time being himself rather than sitting in the back of some cart in India pulling his best gormless face for a close up with paint all over him. The funniest bits are the moments when he's really caught off guard (i remember him being in a bull ring and then shitting himself as a load of bees attacked him? Pissed myself) and reacts naturally.

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silverlining Grand Master

silverlining

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His stand-up material is patchy and not very well-performed.

 

I laughed at Gervais the most since The Office when he died on his arse at the Prince's Trust Wembley gig or whatver it was.

 

I haven't seen an Idiot Abroad because I have no interest in Karl Pilkington pretending to be mentally ill in different countries, and I have only a vague idea who he is anyway having never listened to XFM or the podcasts.

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Welsh Mentor

Welsh

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If there was a jamaican fella on the titanic he would probably shout this... initials CD... it's Christ De BERG... thats chris de burg.

 

That Jamaican fella doesn't want anything. Initials ND...He's got Nil Demand. That's Neil Diamond.

 

lmfao, going to start listening to them all again. The only series I don't have is the 1st one, can't find them anywhere on the internet (not paying for them)

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russ1979 Community Regular

russ1979

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That Jamaican fella doesn't want anything. Initials ND...He's got Nil Demand. That's Neil Diamond.

 

lmfao, going to start listening to them all again. The only series I don't have is the 1st one, can't find them anywhere on the internet (not paying for them)

 

 

here is all of them

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