Two left to go, or, as Gervais and co. have been hinting, quite a few more left to go, which is good news. There are ads on this one (for comedy on Channel Four), but Karl Pilkington does them, so who’s complaining? There’s also a marriage proposal. Pilkington’s farcically uneventful diary, which Stephen Merchant read aloud this week, is reminiscent of Jim’s Journal, Onion founder Scott Dikkers’ diary-like anti-cartoon, which I reviewed many moons ago in Salon. ‘Course, that’s the link above.
Meanwhile, the trio asks high-profile DJs to work on “I Could Eat a Knob at Night.” If they do, and they will, they can add their remixes to the versions of the insanely popular mashup that I’ve been compiling. And it occurs to me, this podcast, that as convinced as Ricky says he is that Karl is not a man but a shaved monkey, it’s Ricky who emanates the ape-like screeches that punctuate the show. In fact, it was the sly, good-natured, and undermentioned Merchant who prompted one of the piercingest shrieks this time around. Who’s the monkey? Perhaps it’s not the inspired Karl, who, invented persona or not, has a sang-froid most of us would surely do well to borrow.
Gervais’ fans are, clearly, insane for comedy that’s part Beckett, part bollocks, all improv chemistry, and quintessentially British. This is why, as I’ve mentioned before, I’ll be sad when Gervais takes a break, but I couldn’t live without the Comedy 365 podcasts to which I’ve become irreversibly addicted. Big Squeeze, starring the profane and sparkly Georgina Sowerby and Brian Luff, Chris Skinner’s “celebrity interviews” on Simulacrum (Paris Hilton! Prince William! King Henry VIII! Dr. Dre!), and John Dredge’s Killer Comedy (if you think Pilkington is dry…) are rocking my world nearly every day these days, and I hope more people discover this gold mine of hilarious, more or less X-rated inanities. Also, Skinner is always ready to talk about honey badgers, which I now agree are the meanest, most symbiotic, best animals ever.
Categories: Gervais, Pilkington, Comedy 365, podcasts