Embracing the English (Part 1)

So within the last year, my awareness and resulting appreciation for British pop culture has really expanded.  And well, I thought it worthy of mention. It started with Ricky Gervais, trickled to Jonathan Ross, and most recently has grown to include Russell Brand. I'll start with Ricky Gervais.

I guess I've been aware of who Ricky Gervais was since 2005 when the American Office debuted on NBC.  It being a British import there was much discussion about how the subtle humor would hold the attention of us dumb Americans.  Anyway, it succeeded eventually, and the names "Ricky Gervais" and "Stephen Merchant" had at least a marginal increase in their Q rating here in the states.  At this point, I didn't bother to seek out the UK Office.

Flip to 2007.  HBO decides to broadcast another Gervais BBC show: "Extras." I didn't get into Extras until Season 2, which looking back I can pinpoint as the genesis of my not-at-all unhealthy obsession with Ricky Gervais.  So I watch Season 1 and Season 2 a few times and finally Extras came to an end with a 90 minute Christmas Special in December 2007.  This brings us to Exhibit A (great scene altogether but the speech starts at about the 1 minute mark):

After this finale, I found myself on YouTube one day looking for more Gervais material.  I found the podcasts aka internet radio shows. These podcasts introduced me to this lovely man:

His name is Karl Pilkington and he is a male human.  He is also fucking hysterical. He wears velcro shoes and is responsible for the quote "What were the things in Gremlins called?" He has an unquenchable infatuation with insects, jellyfish, and now that I think about it, most of the animal kingdom. He's a rare mind and I'd be doing you a disservice by trying to describe him to you so here's a taste courtesy of the Ricky Gervais Show podcasts:

Remarkable. Really, truly remarkable.  The podcasts are some of the funniest things I've seen or heard from any medium of entertainment. Onto The Office.

So I was a fan of the American Office and now a huge fan of the show's creators. Naturally it followed that I would seek out the UK version of the show. Fantastic. Short by American network television standards at only two seasons of six episodes each (plus two hour-long Christmas specials), the series is tight (as in no fillers) and rewarding. The Tim and Dawn relationship (UK's Jim and Pam) and how things wrapped up with David Brent (aka Michael Scott) were all very satisfying for the viewer. It is first and foremost a comedy though, so here's a gem from Season 1:

Links:

Ricky Gervais' site

The Pilkington Files