If you are familiar with what is, at least to me, the comic genius of Ricky Gervais (The Office; Extras), then I strongly encourage you to listen to the weekly free podcasts he’s doing, with his usual partner, Steve Merchant, and their producer Karl Pilkington.
I’ve listened to the first three now and each time have been laughing out loud – twice on planes, and then yesterday so hard in my car that I had to pull over.
Gervais’ humor is quite British, and my suspicion is that, if you don’t already know him, you’ll either find it ridiculously funny or, well, just ridiculous. An extra reason to like it is the strong reason-versus-nonsense streak that pervades a lot of Gervais’ comedy. In this regard, Pilkington is the perfect partner. The partial discussion of some aspects of evolution in the third episode is a particularly wonderful example.
Each episode will be available for download for four weeks, so you still have almost two weeks to get the first one, before it vanishes.
December 21st, 2005 at 2:16 pm
Bless you for bringing this to my attention. Especially now that Extras is on hiatus.
December 21st, 2005 at 2:32 pm
Thanks for this Mark, I will try not to drive when listening. I now find myself wondering what kind of remarks his character would make on this blog in response to some of the frequently discussed topics…
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:28 am
Its a well known fact Gervais/Merchant are comedy genius’s. http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=13345
links there in.
I dont have i-pod, so I am going to miss out. A lot of their work is quite complex, they can take everyday predjude’s and political correctness to the extreme, and you have to watch their work a number of times to see the background innuendo’s.
The very first Extra’s show for instance( the Ben Stiller one), has a complex thread of reverse situations layered,within the show, if you could watch the sketches in reverse?..then the End is the beginning, where Ben ends up (show ending) is actually in total contradiction to the shows starting point.
The Extra’s, extras?..people in background, are all persons from all of life’s picked upon, can you spot the persons you may have passed comments upon unknowingly in everyday life?
Pretty amazing team of writer genius’s.
December 22nd, 2005 at 7:02 am
Agreed Paul. You don’t need an ipod to listen by the way. You can just download the mp3 to your computer and listen right there.
December 23rd, 2005 at 6:14 am
Seriously funny stuff—reminds me of their old XFM programme (which I presume is no longer on, these days).
“Hitler and Nero—they must have overlapped somewhere, right? They moved in the same circles.”
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:00 am
Thanks for the tip, Mark. You can’t beat lines like “If Newton said it, you’d go ‘hmmm…’.”
December 24th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
Wow, this is fabulous.
December 26th, 2005 at 11:22 pm
Okay, I admit that, for the first time ever, I have downloaded a few podcasts, and this post inspired me to include Ricky Gervais among them. All I can say is: pure genius.
“Think about the goat” is my new motto.
December 27th, 2005 at 8:22 am
Yes – my favorite bit was when he says, referring to the African family receiving the goat at Christmas, “So they open it up, …”.
December 28th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
Sat in my office with a friend from Wales, we laughed till we cried, the Cambodian wrestling team fighting a lion started us off….I’ll have to listen to the latest one for the goat story….cheers, thanks for the link,
Jennifer
December 29th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
Just finished listening to the last two podcasts available, hilarious!
Karls explanation of Xmas goat is a real gem, having a picture of him at the guardian webpage linked, gives an insight to the obvious solid reality he seems to be existing in?
I am going to blow their minds via e-mail, to point out that in a vacuum a Hammer and Feather do not fall at the same rate, simply because you either have a vacuum (which has nothing in it) or you have a hammer and Feather?.. surely you cannot have all three simultainious?
Lets hope they restate the conversation from one of the early podcasts that I have not been able to download.
Amazing ‘real’ comedy.
January 5th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Hi folks,
Happy New Year!
I’ve been reading regularly but have been away from the net for a while. I’d love to check out the Ricky Gervais podcast but the Guardian website does not contain the first episode. I’ve downloaded the rest but can someone do me a favour and email me the first episode (don’t worry – it will be for personal, non-commercial use only).
Thanks,
Richard
January 6th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
The original Xfm Gervais shows, where this trio of philosphers first aired their thoughts, are available to listen to at the Xfm website – xfm.co.uk. Most of the pieces are only available to listen to online, although there are a few that can be downloaded for your glistening pleasure. Enjoy the original monkey news and, of course, Karl’s somewhat mental “RockBusters”
Larry GT
January 6th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
fantastic! Thanks LarryGT – you can download 6 hours of the more recent ones, but just listen to the archives.
January 10th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Richard and others here is a link for the first episode.
http://podcast.rickygervais.com/episode1.mp3
January 10th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Here is episode two, as well, in case you need it.
http://podcast.rickygervais.com/tx_episode2.mp3
January 11th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Thanks Don!..just heard the first one, thanks again for your link, so time for number 2, and I have heard them all..really amazing talents!
January 11th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
If you want the earlier episodes in iTunes format you can also use these links:
http://podcast.rickygervais.com/episode1.m4a
http://podcast.rickygervais.com/tx_episode2.m4a
January 12th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Links no longer working?..can anyone help with the first two eposodes, many thanks.
January 12th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
yes, the links dont work anymore and i really want to hear 1 and 2. thanks for the help, in advance.
January 13th, 2006 at 8:14 am
HELP I ALSO WANT THE FIRST COUPLE OF EPISODES
January 14th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Me too!
January 15th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Found ‘em here:
http://www.donosborn.com/podcast/
Cheers.
January 17th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
If Richard want episode 1, please email or leave a message.
Chris
January 17th, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Where can I get the first 4? I just fond this yesterday and I laughed like an idiot durring the commute. any help would be great
January 18th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Thanks Cap’n, glad to finally hear the “seed in a 78 year old” theory…. absolute madness!
January 18th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Thank you so much Cap’n!!! I’ve tried all morning to look for that!
January 19th, 2006 at 11:01 am
Hi,
All you folks dl’ing the episodes from my website caused my site to crash. I exceeded the daily bandwidth and was shut down.
Anyway, now that a couple thousand of you have the first couple mp3′s, you can host them for a while, or share them out on your favorite P2P client.
I had to remove them so I don’t get in more trouble with my web provider.
cheers.
don
January 19th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Thanks Don!
Great to be part of an amazing communication process, dont forget the link (Mark’s) at the top of page gives the latest podcast release, the latest one is another gem.
January 19th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Any links to 1-3? This is great stuff!
January 19th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
does anyone know where you can download some monkey news from there xfm days??
January 20th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Hi all,
I’m also looking for the first three episodes. Anyone have links to them?
Thanks,
January 20th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
hee si the first season of the xfm show, you can also find the 2nd season and early stuff on the site as well
http://www.xfm.co.uk/sectional.asp?id=3025
January 20th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Anyone know where I can download episodes 1 and 2? – none of the links here seem to work. It’s absolutely brilliant. Cheers – James.
January 20th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
http://alanskerrett.uk.eu.org/
Good grief this is worse than searching for the holy grail.
This has a link to download all the epis… but the only one I can get to work are 1 &3 (had the rest except 2)
NOW WE NEED EPISODE !!!
CMON THEN!
January 20th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
http://alanskerrett.uk.eu.org/
Good grief this is worse than searching for the holy grail.
This has a link to download all the epis… but the only one I can get to work are 1 &3 (had the rest except 2)
NOW WE NEED EPISODE 2!!!
CMON THEN!
January 22nd, 2006 at 7:54 am
I’ve only just discovered these podcasts through a friend and i love them! but i discovered them too late and so can’t find the first 3 installments! would anybody be able to tell me where i can find them or send them to me? thank
January 22nd, 2006 at 2:40 pm
See above, I found 1 and 3 but not 2.
Can someone get this done? It’s 2006!
January 22nd, 2006 at 3:48 pm
I agree! although I have listened to all the podcasts, I have not seemed to have saved them? I have been searching my computer for the files, but cant find them, bummer!
I am going to try limewire, or other mpr file sharing sites.
January 25th, 2006 at 3:02 am
You can download all of the podcats at http://www.kingricky.co.uk – 1 – 8 are thre at the moment and it’s updated every week.
Enjoy
January 25th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I keep on hearing about the hammer and feather in a vacuum story but cant find it anywhere!! I have all 8 podcasts but have listened to them twice and am none the wiser!! Please advice or send me a link!!!!
January 25th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Andrew, I believe it is in the first podcast?
January 26th, 2006 at 11:07 am
I have just listened to the first podcast again and still cant hear it!! I know all about monkeys going into space, vampires, haunted tankards and mental hospitals but nothing about the vacuum!!!
January 30th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Great! Thanks for the link to the original podcasts!
February 18th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Just to clarify that only the last link works as far as I can tell. http://www.kingricky.co.uk I have just downed the 4 first episodes and they work fine.
This is a must have, just how three guys chatting can be so ‘spit your cornflakes’ out funny I don’t know… and this could of made Ricky+co very rich if he had sold it for just 1 dollar…12 episodes x 2.5 million listeners = 30 million dollars…….. but he didn’t it’s free. LOL HAHA
February 19th, 2006 at 2:53 am
http://alanskerrett.uk.eu.org/2006/01/ricky_gervais_p.html
February 21st, 2006 at 8:36 am
For anyone who missed out on the first few episodes, there is a torrent with all 12 episodes:
http://static.thepiratebay.org/downloadtorrent/3447496.torrent/The_Ricky_Gervais_Show_Podcast_-_Episodes_1_-_12.3447496.TPB.torrent
February 27th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
The only reliable place for the early episodes I’ve found is:
http://yabanip.blogspot.com/2006/02/ricky-gervais-podcast.html
February 27th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Reliabilty?..I cant download them, a link with charge comes up?
February 27th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
If you wait 15 secs or so it gives you a free option:
After which you get:
Click on the “Don’t want a premium download” and you will be asked to wait a further 30 secs to get a free download.
Look mate, this site is hosting for free, surely they’re entitled to make you wait and hopefully get some people to pay or click on ads in the meantime. Bandwidth has to be paid for after all.
April 21st, 2006 at 9:46 am
Email me for info on how to get any of the first 12 podcasts galaxianx@blueyonder.co.uk
May 1st, 2006 at 8:11 am
You can get all the episodes from the season 1 podcast (eps 1-12) as an iTunes podcast. Really easy.. it just loads all the episodes into the itunes podcasts tab and downloads and saves them automatically.
Here’s the link: http://seej.hopto.org/?p=3
I’ve also put all 20 volumes from season 1 of ricky’s show on xfm.. also an itunes podcast.. in m4a format: http://seej.hopto.org/?p=4
Unlike the wma files from the xfm website, you can use itunes to load the m4a files into your ipod or save them to your hard disk.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
The ‘early years’ of ricky’s show on xfm are now up:
ricky gervais’ early years on xfm
As usual, it’s a proper itunes podcast of m4a files, for loading on to your ipod, hard disk, whatever. Each one is nearly an hour long.