Here’s the trailer for Season 2 of HBO’s “Ricky Gervais Show,” scheduled to debut January 14th on HBO. It’s more of what we saw in Season 1: an animated version of Gervais’s podcast, in which Ricky and his pal laugh at the bumbling Karl Pilkington.

I think Gervais is a comedic genius, and I like most of HBO’s programming, but this show has never done it for me. Maybe it’s the format, maybe it’s the barrage of British accents, maybe it’s the animation — I don’t know. It’s not bad; it just doesn’t resonate with me. And I hope Hanna-Barbera is getting royalties from the animators, because their portrayal of Ricky is just Fred Flintstone with a clean shave.

HBO has ordered thirteen episodes of a new animated show that will be based on Ricky Gervais’s popular podcast.  Variety says:

“The Ricky Gervais Show” features Gervais and his longtime collaborator Stephen Merchant (who were behind HBO and BBC’s “Extras”) — and revolves around the world of their unusual friend, Karl Pilkington. “They find him to be the funniest person in the world,” MRC’s Modi Wiczyk said. “Ricky says Karl is like crack to him.” According to Gervais and Merchant, “Karl is a man who believes that a sea lion is a cross between a fish and a dog.” [...]

Fans even began animating some of Pilkington’s musings themselves, uploading the shorts to the Internet. It was Wildbrain development VP Lisa Ullmann who first put the idea of an animated version in Gervais’ head… Show will utilize the audio from the “Gervais” podcasts and open each week with the animated version of the trio. Then, once Pilkington begins telling one of his unusual stories, the animation will delve into those worlds.

I think it’s a great idea, but that’s probably just because Gervais could say “cheeky bastard” and I’d end up laughing. He’s one of those people who laughs at his own jokes and I can’t help but laugh with him (which is annoying, because I ordinarily hate it when people do that).  He could read the Yellow Pages and I’d think it was funny.  As long as he called every third person a “wankah.”

(Some of the fan-created animated podcasts after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »