If you missed the first season of An Idiot Abroad what you should know, beyond the fact that it’s currently the best show on television, is that Karl Pilkington has a head like a fucking orange. He also hates to travel, so, his friends Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant gave him his own TV show in which they force him to travel to exotic locations and let us watch him suffer on the back of a camel. This is not your normal travel show.
Beyond the comedy, the real brilliance of An Idiot Abroad is the unvarnished way it lets us really see what it might be like if we traveled to these exotic places. That happens because Karl basically hates everything and isn’t easily impressed. No other travel show really does that, they’re all about amazing sunsets and incredible local food. When Karl Pilkington visited the pyramids he complained about all the trash laying around and ended up watching the sunset behind those ancient tombs from the window of a nearby Pizza Hut.
The show’s first season is over, but it’ll be back for a second season, against Karl’s wishes. Season one ended with Karl vowing to never have anything to do with this project again, but for the second season Ricky and Stephen have lured him back in by promising to let him decide where he's going (don't worry, they won't). They’re calling it An Idiot Abroad: The Bucket List, and producer Ricky Gervais has just unleashed the new season’s first teaser trailer. Here it is.
Karl probably should have seen this coming. They promise to send him whale watching and they do, but they make him whale watch from a working fishing boat. This should be fun, for us. Not so much Karl.
If you’re someone who’s still not sold on this show, here’s my last ditch attempt to convince you to get moving and try to catch season one in reruns. This is my favorite scene from An Idiot Abroad season 1, in which Karl visits Mexico and is forced to hang out with cowboys who poke him with sticks, gets chased by bees, and wonders "Is anywhere safe?".
