Last night I went and saw the new Ricky Gervais movie, The Invention of Lying. Now, I have been climbing the walls waiting for this movie ever since I heard it was coming out. Why? To be honest, I just love everything Ricky does. So even if I had to pay $15 to sit and watch Ricky sit on a couch and eat cheese (His apparent fave hobby) I’d gladly do so. But going by the ads and write ups, the movie seemingly had more going for it than just Ricky himself. And so it did.

First off, the plot is exceptionally different. I mean, don’t expect this movie to win an Oscar or anything (Really good movies never do) but it’s definitely one I’m going to buy on DVD when it comes out. Mark Bellison (Gervais) is a man living in a world without lies. In this world there is no such thing as embellishments, no fiction, no flattery. Everyone is brutally honest, and Mark struggles to find success in this reality as a writer, despite the content being flat-out boring (Imagination doesn’t exist). His romantic life is just as sad, due to the fact he is a “little fat man with a snub nose” in the eyes of Anna (Jennifer Garner) who is looking for a great genetic match to father children with. It is in this depressing, unimaginative reality that Mark suddenly discovers the ability to lie. The results are fantastic, hilarious, and to my complete surprise, utterly heartbreaking. The way it shone a light on human nature really got my thinking – which is quite a feat for a comedy! I wont go into detail other than to say this isn’t a fast paced flick, it’s a thought provoking comedy that makes you sit there afterwards and think about our society as a whole. Makes you consider the impact of religion, why we do the things that we do. Made me laugh, made me tear up – and made me high five my friend @FrostyBoy (See blog on the left hand side) when Stephen Merchant had his cameo.

Secondly, the cast is great! (Aside from the great Ricky Gervais and brilliant Stephen Merchant of course!) Jennifer Garner plays the romantic interest and plays it with surprising sincerity, Rob Lowe plays the nemesis (but you kinda want to pinch his cheek anyway), and then there’s Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., and even PC! (As in, Hi I’m Mac and I’m PC!) John Hodgman is just hilarious and I loved his small part in this movie. 

All in all, I enjoyed it. I was hoping for more of Ricky’s humour to be inserted into the character, but then that’s the fan inside me talking! I was holding out for a glimpse of Karl Pilkington but alas, he must be off researching Monkey News or something! Joking aside, this movie was worth the price of the ticket and I walked out smiling. What more could I ask for?

The Invention of Lying

As if I forgot about this, it came out 3 weeks ago and I’ve only just downloaded it. Shame on me. The Gervais & Co ‘Guide To’ series has been pretty good so far, and this society special is no exception. Listen to the fat demi-French beardo, the lanky speccy one and the manc halfwit with a head like a fucking orange talk about their views on society and the role of authoritive governence in modern society. For me, Karl’s views on Rosa Parks are this episodes highlight.

This video is just a preview, you can get the full hour long version from iTunes.

Ben

I made this video awhile back featuring Karl Pilkington. If you don’t know who Karl Pilkington is I suggest you go to iTunes and download all of the Ricky Gervais podcasts. You can also find Karl at his website or by a quick search on Youtube.

ich habe soooo gelacht!

ich freu mich soooooo sehr auf die podcast animation! ich höre schon seit 1,5 jahren ALLE ricky gervais shows, ungefähr 50 h !!!! wirklich!! XFM mit karl pilkington und steven merchant. oh my. das beste des letzten Jahrzehnts!

To those of you that haven’t heard of the Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and (Oh I’m grinning already) the delightful Karl Pilkington podcasts, you’ve been missing out.

We all know Ricky. He is the extremely clever writer, producer and actor of The Office (Where he played pathetically funny David Brent) and Extras (Playing wannabe star Andy Millman), along with being in recent movies like Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying. He is also an amazingly successful stand-up comedian. Stephen is the lesser known but equally talented (Also award winning) writer and producer of The Office and Extras, and together with Ricky has recently written a script for a new movie called Cemetery Junction.

Karl on the other hand… Well. Different story really. Karl Pilkington was an unknown radio producer that happened to be placed as the producer on a new show with Ricky and Steve. It didn’t take long for them to see gold in Karls bizarre, nonlinear and, to be honest, downright stupid ideas. (Also, that he had a head like a f@cking orange!)

And so the podcasts were born. Five seasons of absolute hilarity, along with one-off podcasts focusing on different topics (e.g. Medicine, Natural History, The Arts) all which feature the three men discussing their thoughts on any given subject. Sounds a bit boring? Well, I promise, it isn’t! 

Despite a sort off halfcocked structure, the basis of the podcasts are Ricky and Steve trying to get Karl’s opinion on things. And Karl’s view of the world is idiotic, inane, completely warped and so hilarious that I cry with laughter listening to him. 

Hard to explain in a blog, but here are a few gems to get you on the Karl Pilkington track:

“If I was [Noah], I would have gone, “Hang on a minute, I’ve just seen somethin’ that looks a bit like this, let it drown”, have a bit of a clear out, but he was messin’ about savin’ everythin’” 

“Why didn’t evolution make a giraffe good at carpentry so it could build a ladder?” 

“You know how they say people have six senses? There’s loads more than that. [The ability to feel someone looking at you], that’s been around since man and dinosaur were knockin’ about.”

“We came from the sea originally, now we’re going back in it. Don’t go in it, unless you’re in a boat.” 

“Does the brain control you or are you controlling the brain? I don’t know if I’m in charge of mine.” 

“They say it all started out with a big bang. But, what I wonder is, was it a big bang or did it just seem big because there wasn’t anything else drown it out at the time?”

(On fun-sized chocolates) “I don’t know why they’re called fun-sized; I mean, if I called a midget fun-sized, they’d kick off” 

“It’s like the panda, they say that’s dying out. But what do they do? When you see them they’re just sitting in the jungle eating” 

“People who live in a glass house have to answer the door” - Karl invents his own phrase based on “Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”

“You don’t get anything done by planning” 

“Any problem solved is a new problem made.” 

Ahhh, I was just cracking up reading all of them! And it’s not just Karl. Ricky and Steve are truly brilliant, funny guys with a wealth of knowledge. I have spent many an hour listening and re-listening to these podcasts. Makes me laugh every time.

They are available to download on iTunes or Audible.com

Three Wise men: Ricky, Steve and... Oh... Karl.

Gazing through the empty orange

From nine in the morning till seven in the evening, all I’ve been doing is entering data in excel spreadsheets. It would be completely and utterly unbearable if not for my iPod and much-needed dose of the Ricky Gervais podcast, which is hilarious. For you who aren’t very familiar with it the simplest way to describe it would be to say that Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant (co-producer of the office) have stumbled upon an endless source of stupidity (a guy named Karl Pilkington). He is simply described as a dimwit, who looks like a shaven chimpanzee and has a head like an orange. It doesn’t follow a real manuscript or anything. Basically they just sit and talk and make Karl comment on stuff of which he has no understanding (which isn’t much). It may sound nothing but a bunch of cretinous drivel, and most of it is drivel, but it’s very funny.

Here’s a random quote from the show, although you really need to listen to it rather than read it.

Ricky: So, while we’ve been filming a TV show, you’ve been watching insects.
Karl: Yeah, ’cause everybody knows the insects are out there, but no-ones keeping an eye on ‘em.
Stephen: Why, what are they up to? What are you worried about?
Karl: Well, Steve, you wouldn’t be laughin’ like that, if you’d watch ‘em, ’cause they do some weird stuff an’ that, is what I mean.
Stephen: What sort of stuff, any examples?.
Karl: Err, I saw a bee have ‘ heart-attack.
[Ricky, Stephen laugh]
Stephen: You saw a bee have a heart-attack?
Karl: Yep.
Stephen: How were you sure it was a heart-attack?
Karl: ‘Cause what happened…
Ricky: Did it clutch its chest with all six legs?
Karl: No, I…
Stephen: Were there little bee paramedics?
Karl: No, I’d just been out in the park anyway, just looking at caterpillars knocking about, all the butterflies an’ stuff…
Ricky: [laughs] So, when Susanne goes to work, she goes, “Karl, don’t you waste the day, just ’cause you don’t work at the radio station anymore, I want you to do some constructive stuff”, and you go, “Yeah, I am, yeah.” So, in your head, suddenly goes, [whistles tune]. And he goes out, and, “Ooh, there’s a moth.”

a free sample from the podcast
I should add though that it grows on you, but once you’re hooked…

there are like 5 “guides to” and all of them are hilarious. ths is the recent one which is available 4th of november on i:tunes or in the www.

i’ve been listening to the xfm radio shows and podcasts all the time, seriuosly, the best thing that I came across since “the office” and “extras”. KARL!!!!

visit http://www.youtube.com/user/Pilkipedia#p/u

I was intrigued with this soap box speaker when I was doing some filming in Hyde Park, Sydney. I might revisit and see if I can shoot a little documentary with this gentleman as I was interested in his thoughts and ideas on happiness. Maybe the reason I like him is that he looks a little like Karl Pilkington (The Ricky Gervais Show.) Thoughts?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Pilkington

Starting a Radio Programme for a university assignment this week. Me and my “attorney” are doing  a radio adaptation of, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” , by the Late, Great,  Hunter S Thompson.

  There is tonnes of work we need to do, such as monologues, dialogues, Sound effects, Backing Music, as well as arranging and mixing the damn thing. However really looking forward to it, as we are going to record lots of the dialogue on location “GONZO” style!!!  I shall post the finished version on here when completed ( roughly 8/9 weeks).

This will be my first time producing radio material and I cannot wait to learn about it.

Whilst I’m on the subject of radio, it seems only fitting that I take this opportunity to introduce my radio hero…. Mr Karl Pilkington.  Here is a video of a particularly good excerpt, (remember this was live on air)… enjoy!!

Footy Manager Update

Finished 8th last year, knocked out in the Champs League Quarters and won the Italian Cup. Somehow that was enough to stay in charge, I was quite lucky that someone was trying to buy the club so they kept thanking me for my patience.

The takeover didn’t go through, I was given £25million to spend, annoyingly Berlusconi wanted me to boost the clubs profile, I went through shit loads of players trying to sign, got offers/contracts accepted for Vidic/Pato/Tevez, annoyingly I need a defender most, so went for Vidic.  Big Silvio decided to go through with the Sneijder deal despite not having the transfer funds available. No money for anyone else though.

My starting line up for next year should be

Ochoa

Alves Vidic Nesta Richards (Accomplished at LB)

Cassano Sneijder Pirlo Obertan

Kaka

Torres

Backups include Vela, Bojan, Gattuso, Jankulovski, Gourcuff, Asulin, Gilardino, Oliveira, Mata, Tavano.

My squad still doesn’t look strong enough though, I should be able to challenge for top four though. That’s such a pathetic aim really.

I might sell Kaka, to blood Vela and I can get around £35million for him. I want a proper LB too, went for Adriano/Baines/Bale but now I’ve ran out of money, quite annoying. I could do with a good backup keeper too, not sure who I want though.

Just listening to a Karl Pilkington thing for Q Radio, it’s not great, too much music and not enough talking, not that surprising as he’s by himself though. I can’t wait for them to do some more stuff. I really want to see The Invention Of Lying too, Gervais is quite annoying but almost everything he does is great, although I can’t really remember Ghost Town, I don’t think I liked it much though.

Anyway, Great Track of the Day ;

Oasis – Married With Children

As a supplement to my rather negative review (“the worst film I’ve seen at the cinema since Highlander II“) of The Invention of Lying, I thought I’d offer a little relief. Assuming you like his schtick, Ricky Gervais gives good interview, and is great at publicising his movies without making it look like a rictus-grinned duty to trot out the studio’s party line. Or maybe it’s a reverse-psychology tactic to attach a non-conformist odour to a film that otherwise reeks of formula. In any event, though, Karl Pilkington’s half-arsed attempt to review the film, ending up with only a handful of tepid, backhanded compliments (“it was the right length”) has more laughs in ten minutes than there are in the whole of the film itself.

Part One:

Part Two:

Er bei Ellen.

Karl Pilkington reviewt “The Invention of Lying”

bei den Ellys 2009

link: cinematical
link: ricky gervais blog

Even though I’ll be in Peru at the time, I’m getting really excited about the upcoming HBO Animation version of the Ricky Gervais Show Podcasts.

Here’s what Ricky has to say about it….

Had a conference call about the HBO animation. It’s weird. I’m really excited about The Invention of Lying and Cemetery Junction and the tour and the Flanimals movie and everything else I’m doing, but when I watch a new animatic or talk about the press campaign for the HBO thing I actually get an adrenalin rush. I want it to be a success like I’ve never wanted anything else to be successful. It’s partly because I love working with HBO. It’s partly because it started out as a laugh – a labour of love. It’s partly because the animators have done an amazing job. And it’s partly because there’s nothing quite like it.

The strange and wonderful mind of Karl Pilkington:

Om Æsops fabler:

“That’s the problem with them fables, they’re putting animals together that wouldn’t meet. I don’t know where a scorpion is knockin’ around with a frog.”
-Podcast S3E2

“Why didn’t evolution make a giraffe good at carpentry so it could build a ladder?”

Writer, director, and all around hilarious dude Louis C.K. has revealed his plans to premiere his latest stand-up special, Hilarious, to film festivals. The comedian, who recently sold out a string of high profile shows at Just For Laughs, divulged the info in an e-mail to online comedy community A Special Thing:

“The new special, “Hilarious” I shot in Milwaukee back in March, or was it April? In any case, I shot it on RED cameras with 35mm movie lenses and directed myself, with the intent to release it as a theatrical film. It’s about 85 minutes long. The plan is to begin at film festivals. It might start at Sundance which isn’t till January. If we don’t get theatrical distribution, then it will just go on Comedy Central, who advanced the TV licence fee to us so we could shoot it. In any case I don’t think anyone will see Hilarious until 2010.”

C.K. has been busy with a number of projects, and has a new pilot ready for a new type of show that integretes stand-up material with sitcom-type situations. Sounds familiar, but the comedian has claimed it is different from Seinfeld. The pilot is expected to be picked up by F/X in the fall.

In the meantime, you guys can all feast your eyes on the trailer for the upcoming Ricky Gervais film “The Invention of Lying”, in which C.K. appears to have a meaty role. The movie also stars comedy favorites Jonah Hill, Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jeffrey Tambor, Martin Starr, Christopher Guest, Stephen Merchant, Karl Pilkington, John Semley and Patrick Stewart. Click poster to see trailer:

“The Invention of Lying” hits theatres September 25th/

I can’t believe we’ve gone this long on the blog without an introduction to our good friend Karl Pilkington (actual name).  He is a complete twit, but an adorable one at that.  Karl is an amazing little oddity with a head like a fucking orange.

Mancy twat (pronounced Main-key tw-at)

Currently that little head is sporting a mustache and though he looks simply stunning the rediculously stupid shat that he says is even more stunning.  With that as a given fact I had to include a clip from the Ricky Gervais DVD Politics… as knowing the British comedy icon is Karl’s only claim to fame… Its a long clip but it is well worth it.  So come along with us and get to know Karl… he’s wonderfully stupid.

Not enough.. I knew it wouldn’t be.. If you want more simply type Karl Pilkington into youtube and watch til your hearts content as he bumbles away life, through the the lens of Rickys camera. Your Welcome..

I have been working on a piece about British comedy, but I’m struggling to get my thoughts organised. There are a few “acts” I’d like to focus on and these include:

•    Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant (and Karl Pilkington)
•    The Likely Lads
•    Graham Linehan and his crew
•    Green Wing

While they obviously are all comedy-related, I’m not sure I can connect them into one piece. I don’t know if it’s worth breaking them into “genres” (tv, sketch, writing, etc). I think it’s probably better to focus on what I want to say about each to see if that provides a link to tie them together.

I’m not going to lie: I think British comedy deserves some good analysis but my main connection with it is simply that it helps me when I’m struggling to get through.

In the meantime, enjoy.

MONKEY NEWS

Oh, Karl. “They did a thing, like they do.” Love the monkey when he puts the spacecraft into reverse.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS

My heart belongs to Terry Collier.

THE IT CROWD

Watch Richard Ayoade’s leg action. Priceless.

GREEN WING

Believe it or not, it does all make sense. The clips suffer though from the lack of the brilliant original soundtrack.

I’ve been a fan of Ricky Gervais since he first burst onto the scene with The Office, which was amazing. In my opinion Extras was even better. Stephen Merchant, the co-creator of both shows, was hilarious as Darren Lamb, the agent of hapless extra Andy Millman. And Gervais’ latest movie Ghost Town wasn’t half bad either. However, I only started listening to the back catalogue of The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts in January of this year. Ricky and Steve are joined in presenting this award winning, record smashing podcast by a third compatriot, their former producer/collaborator from the Xfm radio show of the same name. That man is Karl Pilkington.

How has it taken me so long to discover this amazing man? I mean I heard his name being murmurred in the back-alleys of the interweb, but nothing could prepare me for what I had found. He is quite possibly the funniest man alive, and that’s saying something when he’s sharing the mic with the creators of two of the best TV shows in history.

Pilkington is a self-confessed “satisfied fool”, and it is his idiocy that makes the podcasts so ingeniously funny. Only Mr. Karl Pillockton could possibly make such a paradox possible. Gervais and Merchant simply ask “the shaven chimp” questions (that are usually way beyond the scope of his intelligence) and await his inevitably hilarious response. As you can probably tell from the picture above, Pilkington has an unnaturally round head, or ”a head like a fuckin’ orange”, a phrase of Ricky’s that fans of the show tend to spout regularly. This is a constant source of fun for Gervais, who derives sick pleasure from giving Pilkington’s head a “squoze”.

I have now listened to the majority of the ‘work’ that the trio have produced, from the early Xfm stuff to the latest The Ricky Gervais Guide To… series of podcasts. And It appears that, over the course of nearly a decade, the “Baldy Manc Twat” has learned nothing despite the best efforts of Gervais and Merchant to educate him on the most basic things, such as why you can’t just pick a species of animal and say “get rid of em” because you don’t feel they do enough to earn there place on this planet (something Karl has said about jellyfish, snails, cockroaches, sloths, and many more, him being unable to grasp the concept of an ecosystem).

Through his imbecility, Pilkington has come up with some of the greatest quotes and unintentionally hilarious one-liners known to man. Well, I suppose, who else would they be known to? Shit, I’m starting to sound like him now. The Elephant Man is simultaneously Karl’s favourite movie and his favourite freak, freaks being an obsession of his. This has resulted in some ingenious utterances:  “The Elephant Man would never have gotten up and gone, ‘Oh, God. Look at me hair today.’” See what I mean? The ingenious observation of an idiot. In the latest series of podcasts, Karl has described art as “something for your eyes to look at”. That’s as deep as his understanding of the subject gets. Another source of hilarity are Karl’s comments on the appearance of Steve: “I was walking home the other night, and I was thinking about it, and do you worry that when you’re old you will be on your own?”, or “Were you a tall baby?”. Amazing.

So, whatever you have planned to do with your spare time (but is it spare time if you’ve made plans? Ahhh), change your mind and get listening to The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts. I challenge you not to laugh your tits off. Learn why Karl bought his girlfriend, the long-suffering Suzanne, a jumbo box of condoms for Christmas. Let the greatness of such features as ‘Monkey News’ (“ooooh chimpanzee that, ya f*@kin…”), ‘Rockbusters’, ‘Karl’s Diary’, etc. astound you. Free excerpts and one-off shows can be downloaded as podcasts on iTunes, the back catalogue is available on iTunes and at Audible.com.

Andy

Sehr geil!

Karl (=Pilkington) und Steven (=Merchant)…

Quelle (Ricky Gervais Blog)

I bought the audio book of this short story from iTunes and listened to it. I haven’t seen the film yet, although I do want to. I first heard about this tale from Karl Pilkington, who actually thought up the story himself, not realising it was already published as a short story. His friends Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant laughed at him, telling him he was an idiot. Then, a couple of years later, the film is put into production. Take that, Gervais.

Anyway, back to the book. Quick outline – a baby is born to Roger Button, but he is born an old man. As the years go on, instead of growing older, he grows younger. The story follows his life and the struggles he faces as he tries to be normal. I liked the idea of the story, but I think it would have worked better as a novel, than a short story. There were many interesting themes I thought warranted more detail, which in a short story, you just cannot do. As I said, I am yet to see the film, but I am delighted that this intriguing tale has been remade via another medium, one which I think will work well (have you seen the film? What did you think?). There is the popular argument of ‘Which is better? Book or film?’, and I am of the opinion that generally the book will be better. But in this case, again without seeing the film (so I guess I’m hardly one to comment on this, but I will anyway!), I think the film will be better than the short story.

As soon as iTunes release The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I will watch it!     

I have created a poll about audiobooks, and whether listening to a book is the same as reading a book. Please vote on this page, it will only take 2 seconds of your life! Do it!