Spend April Fool's Day with Karl Pilkington!

Science Channel brings an appropriate April 1st treat to us today, a marathon of the Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant/Karl Pilkington humorous travel program An Idiot Abroad, beginning at 2:30pm this afternoon with the intro show and continuing on until 3am tomorrow morning. If you caught these previously, you'll know that these are ripe for repeat viewing; they don't get dull and I think you'll appreciate Karl's droll presence even more as you re-watch.

Each of the episodes -- China, India, Jordan, Mexico, Egypt, Brazil and Peru, and the "Karl Comes Home" hour -- offer something different. Sometimes slapstick, often absurd, the humor in An Idiot Abroad transcends the obvious and Karl frequently ends up being more a philosopher than a clown.

If you don't know who Karl is yet, you're missing something wonderful.

Revisiting Ricky Gervais' "Extra Finale" -- Still Unparalleled!

Yes, we said it here three years ago, and we're going to say it again -- Ricky Gervais is incomparable. After catching up again with his Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale on one of the HBO channels, it's abundantly clear that nobody else comes close. I was once more caught up in the pathos, intelligence and insight offered up by Gervais and his co-writer (and castmember) Stephen Merchant in the holiday-set (but not Christmas-y) movie-length episode about struggling actor Andy Millman and his grapple with fame when he found finally found success on a sitcom. Ashley Jensen as Andy's pal Maggie was nominated for an Emmy for her work in the special, and it was richly deserved.

Hilarious and heartbreaking, the Extras series finale is timeless in its message and endless in its entertainment. It's airing a couple of times next week on HBO Comedy on the 29th, so look it up or rent it. I offer, as a tantalizing reminder, Gervais' stunning speech at the end of the show. It's a brittle indictment of the world's obsession with celebrity, still as relevant as it was three years ago -- probably more so -- and it will take your breath away. To set the scene, Andy has been appearing on a Big Brother show as one of the resident "celebrities" and has a revelation.

Only the British -- or maybe it's only Gervais -- can combine (and with such incisive brilliance) so much sentiment, intelligence and wisdom, and dare to offer it up in a comedy. That's genius, TV fans.

Gervais & Merchant Present "An Idiot Abroad" with Karl Pilkington

If you're a fan of Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and their frequent partner-in-comedy Karl Pilkington, you're going to wish you lived in Britain right now. Those of you familiar with the trio's radio show (or the HBO animated series based on it) know how much fun these guys generated together, and now Gervais and Merchant have sent their friend around the world to make a travel docuseries for the Sky1 Channel entitled An Idiot Abroad.



I love Karl; he's got a wonderful sense of whimsy and absurdity -- listen to some of those radio shows and if you don't laugh at his contributions the most, I'd be surprised -- plus a hangdog non-extrovert persona that should prove a welcome contrast to the usual TV travelogues with their perky "I'm going to this resort for free so of course I'm loving it!" hosts.

As soon as we can figure out where we can watch these, we'll let you know!