The Pitch – Ricky Gervais and podcast compatriots Steve Merchant
and Karl Pilkington, as animated characters, narrating both their own existences
and (mostly Karl’s) bizarre musings on Life, The Universe and Everything. The
gestation of this, not entirely original concept, came from Gervais’ growing
awareness that fans of his ground-breaking podcast were setting their pointless
conversations to animation – often nothing sophisticated, but nevertheless very
funny. It’s encouraging to see the internet acknowledged as a breeding ground
of innovative ideas like this. One very good example of a similar set-up online
is the extremely popular Spill.com - as
a film buff, I worship at their altar.
Gervais, Merchant and
Pilkington’s exploits are ideally suited to the form, the trio being both very
good storytellers and not remotely precious about the whole affair. They do
engage in weighty topics, such as science, homelessness and sexuality, but more
through the lens of the odd instances that have peppered their lives. Karl, the
unconventional thinker and real star of the show, frequently tells stories,
wherein he coasts through life puzzled by perceived inconsistencies that most
of us would struggle to appreciate. Inconsistencies such as why certain animals,
that appear to him to serve no purpose aren’t “got rid of” to make room for more
useful animals (some, such as insect-human hybrids, are of his own design…) He,
along with the equally funny, and somewhat more on- planet-earth Gervais and Merchant,
also recounts strange anecdotes and frustrations from childhood to adulthood. Merchant
is an interesting figure here, because whilst an undeniable success, he is
hugely self-deprecating and regales his colleagues and the audience with
stories of his failures in romance and insecurity over his unconventional looks
– something over which Pilkington and Gervais make no attempt to reassure him.
Gervais himself is the ringleader. Both him and Merchant goad
Karl into revealing more of his outlook on life, over which Gervais takes
unadulterated glee. Though he can occasionally seem aggressively brash and
opinionated, his affection for his friends is clear; this is very much a
passion project and Gervais obviously loves nothing more than the company of
these two rather odd men.
The Hanna-Barbera style animation is superlative; the comic
timing and visual gags layered over the dialogue are hugely memorable, without
any uncomfortable stylistic jarring with the humour of the original podcasts. It
also creates the worlds that the trio so artfully recount beautifully – you really
get a sense that the animators love the universe that they’ve been given to
play with, with characters described in previous anecdotes making background cameos
and call backs to previous jokes that hard core fans will really appreciate.
All in all, the Ricky Gervais Show is laugh out loud funny, beautiful to look at and, surprisingly, rather sweet.
