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Podcast highlight: The Ricky Gervais Show
By Eleanor O'Connor ’07
STAFF WRITER

Podcasting has taken off over the past two years, and the New Oxford American Dictionary called the word “podcast” 2005’s Word of the Year. Defined as “a digital recording of a radio broadcast of similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player,” podcasts can be made by anyone. The music program iTunes offers thousands of podcasts that are free and include such areas as news, sports, entertainment, technology and education. You can get summaries of your favorite television show, MLB news, tours of the Louvre and Mandarin lessons in the same place.

But of all the podcasts available, only one can have the Guinness Book of World Records title as Most Downloaded Podcast. This title goes to The Ricky Gervais Show, and its British stars Ricky Gervais, Stephan Merchant and Karl Pilkington. You might recognize Ricky and Steve from their work on both the UK and US versions of The Office. Much of the show is spent asking Karl, an unemployed radio producer, various questions ranging from what he would do if he was a slug (“I’d just chuck myself in the salt pot.”) to what he thinks of Benjamin Franklin’s ‘waste not, want not’ (“So he was bit of a hoarder?”).

While standing in the shadows of Ricky and Steve’s celebrity status, Karl gained his own international recognition after a discussion about celebrity reality shows and kangaroo penises. Karl claimed that he wouldn’t eat the kangaroo penis, or knob in British slang, in the morning, but after eating some rice and letting his stomach settle for the day, “I could eat a knob at night.”

Ricky encouraged DJs to create dance remixes of that sound byte, and it inspired print items like T-shirts, buttons, stickers, and even clocks. Karl was featured in news articles and blogs around the world. Millions of listeners have downloaded the podcast to listen to Karl’s journal, monkey news and Ricky making fun of Karl’s head and utter stupidity.

The guys just wrapped the second season but will be back soon with a third. In the meantime, they’ve been posting free video podcasts on iTunes and are in the process of compiling classic Karl moments for the upcoming book, The World of Karl Pilkington. All 12 episodes of Season 1 and 6 episodes of Season 2 are available at www.audible.com for a very small fee. Be sure to check it out because it’s guaranteed to make you laugh!