Close Your Eyes and Laugh – The Ricky Gervais Show on HBO

I’ve been quite vocal of my almost hero-like worship of Ricky Gervais. The man who brought me two of my favorite comedies of all time (“The Office” and “Extras”) brought his uber-popular podcast to HBO with the premiere of THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW this past Friday.

To perhaps bring new life to these previously recorded podcasts, HBO has animated the series, allowing viewers to watch, not just listen to these laugh out loud, knee-slapping conversations. THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW features Gervais, Stephen Merchant (co-creator of “The Office” & “Extras”) and Karl Pilkington (original podcast producer) discussing a wide variety of bizarre topics not seemingly related to anything.

Watch the first episode of THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW

While Gervais and Merchant serve as able-bodied straight men, it’s idiot savant Karl Pilkington who is the real star of the show. The softly cerebral producer turned reluctant comedian steals the spotlight with his “unique” viewpoints of just about any subject thrown this way.  You’d be wrong to dismiss Pilkington as dumb or stupid, two adjectives Gervais likely to use liberally with regards to his friend. While Karl’s views aren’t always grounded in reality, he certainly has a way of constructing his own bizarre logic. His concepts are of a different world but you have to appreciate the thought and effort he exerts to make sound arguments, even if he’s the only one buying it.

An occasional past listener to the original podcast, I’m glad to have these conversations served up to me on a weekly basis. For that I thank HBO. But I do have to say that I think the animation hinders the show. I’d much rather watch Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington just sitting around in a studio talking than these Flinstone’esque animated versions of themselves. I suppose that without the animation the show wouldn’t exist, but I found myself listening in and not really watching the screen.  Doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose of having it on TV? But that doesn’t mean I won’t be tuning in each week. I don’t have time to listen to their podcast in my every day life, so getting this snippet each week courtesy of HBO makes me quite the happy girl. It’s good to laugh, and I’ll take my smiles anyway I can get them – even if they’re animated little men.

“Are you having a laugh?” – Yes, Ricky, I am.

If you missed the first episode of THE RICKY GERVAIS SHOW, watch the video above.

Is this something you’ll be tuning in to each week?  Share your thoughts in the comments.