An Idiot Abroad - Episode 4 (Mexico)

We are still not buying it, but it is growing on us.  Sensible and hyper conservative Karl Pilkington is willing to be called a "round empty headed chimplike moron" on television and as his reward gets shipped off to various unpleasant international locations for a holiday from hell for our amusement? How much could they possibly be paying him?

Once you get past the glaring fakeness, seeing Pilkington sincerely ask every Mexican he meets if they have Mexican jumping beans, and wondering if he could buy any in a pet shop, does have a certain charm. Probably the phoniest travel program you will ever see, but maybe also the funniest.

An Idiot Abroad airs on Discovery Channel on Tuesdays at 21h20.

An Idiot Abroad - Episode 1

Part travel program, part extended practical joke. Remarkably round headed Karl Pilkington is the supposed idiot in question, unwillingly sent abroad by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (the men behind The Office) and unwittingly subjected to childish and absurd pranks thinly related to the culture of each country he is touring.

The premise of the first season is that insular and grumpy Pilkington must visit the sites of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World and record his inane reactions. On paper it is brilliant.  Quirky balding slack jawed everyman Pilkington as a refreshing and funny antidote to the ultimately futile political correctness of modern society.   In practise it is awful. Sulky Pilkington has very few spontaneous responses, except for when he is tortured or assaulted.  Instead he spouts a monologue that is very clearly scripted by Gervais and company. Mildly funny at best, it ultimately makes you feel like you are the one being held for a fool.

In the first episode he is sent to China, home of the first modern wonder, the Great Wall of China. 

Pilkington comes off as a manic depressive who is bored to tears with the script he has to deliver. He observes a lady "stuffing her face" with dried scorpions and wonders what she would do if she wakes up in the morning and finds a spider in her bath. He compares the Great Wall of China with the M6 and claims that the M6 is more useful because you can drive on it.  He is stunned to find a Chinese toilet that does not have doors or toilet paper and declares that China does not need iPhones, but toilet paper instead.  He is assaulted by Kung Fu masters and force fed boiled toad. 

The only amusing and spontaneous moment comes when Pilkington is literally tortured by a lady administering a traditional fire massage, setting fire to his extremities. More Jackass than Travel Channel, this moment is sadly ruined by Pilkington spouting some rehearsed line about not knowing that you need a fire extinguisher on standby for a massage.

If you are watching this, beware: this is not just about an idiot abroad, it's about the one they are trying to make out of that person staring at your television back home.

An Idiot Abroad airs on Discovery Channel on Tuesdays at 21h20.