I've been hearing some rumblings lately about how Ricky Gervais has lost his game. Now, Gervais has always walked a somewhat tenuous line with me - it took a few years' time and a second viewing of The Office for me to really come around - but I don't think you can deny that the man can be hilarious, even if his Simon Cowell uniform is quite laughable in a different way. Additionally, I think he's been really smart about the way he's handled things since Extras ended - after making smart choices like casting Louis C.K. in The Invention Of Lying, Gervais has let the spotlight shine on smaller characters, and used his forceful personality to drive the comedy from these supporting roles.
Karl Pilkington is the result of this exercise. Now, I'm sure that a little bit of Karl is put-on persona, but I've listened to the Ricky Gervais Podcast for a few years now, enough to know that most of it is just Karl. He is bumbling and, more than anything else, just strange. The man is an oddity. Ricky Gervais' brilliance is that he knows the perfect questions that will set Karl off on a roving tour of WTFville, and then sits back and laughs his great donkey laugh. This, along with a heavy dose of teasing, mockery, and profound disbelief, is what has made the Ricky Gervais Podcast and all subsequent related endeavors (The Ricky Gervais Show, Science, An Idiot Abroad) pretty fantastic successes. Gone is the petulant narcissism that, despite some lovely, spontaneous, and hilarious moments, hung over Extras like a dentist's lead apron; Gervais' new tactic is to examine his subjects under a magnifying glass, letting them shine through big and crazy and occasionally setting them on fire.
Before we talk more about Gervais, let's take a look at Warwick Davis. Now, I've been a fan of Warwick since he played Reepicheep (and NERD ALERT Glimfeather The Owl in The Silver Chair) in the original BBC adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia (AKA The Best, AKA my life any time I was home sick as a child). Here are some things you may not know about Warwick Davis (besides that last thing which I'm pretty sure the only people who know what I'm talking about are people upon whom I have forced the viewing of said TOTALLY AWESOME adaptations): He was 17 when he starred in Willow. He was in all three Leprechaun movies. He also played a leprechaun named Lucky in a movie called The Very Unlucky Leprechaun, ha, irony. He was Acorn The Dwarf in the NBC miniseries The 10th Kingdom (AKA The Best, AKA my life any time I was sick in high school (No really, you should watch The 10th Kingdom, it is super great in that carefreee, 2001 pre-9/11 kind of way. Kissing Town!)). What you probably do know about Warwick is that he has
played both Professor Flitwick and Griphook The Goblin in the Harry Potter movies, though he is not actually that old ("Prosthetics!" Might as well give a shout-out to the awesome New Zealand accent my friend Kate picked up from LOTR dvd extras, since this is maybe the nerdiest post ever). Anyway, this is all to say that despite being a professionally trained actor who has been working since he was 11 (when he played an Ewok named Wicket in Return Of The Jedi (Meta Nerd Parentheses: What an LOTR rip-off title, eh? George Lucas, ugh.)), his career has involved some not-so-distinguished projects. I mean, it's probably been a lot better for him than for most little people actors, but still.
I would like to take this opportunity to point out that (a) Time Bandits has always been one of my favorite movies and I am always surprised by Warwick's absence from it (though the guy who plays Randall is seriously great) and (b) I would totally date a little person. A lot of people think that's a weird thing to say, or that it's a fetish or something, and that is just ridiculous. For me it has to do with being queer, and being attracted to all sorts of different people and genders and whatnot. It probably also has something to do with being really short myself (not even 5'1") and not feeling like it makes much of a difference if my partner is a foot and a half shorter than me. Now, Warwick Davis is cute, but he's been married for forever and besides I always picture him with an Aslan-restored tail. BUT I would definitely do the bald guy from Pirates Of The Caribbean and Scrubs, and I've had a major crush on Peter Dinklage since The Station Agent. C'mon. Peter Dinklage. Smouldering, yet sweet. C'mon. You know I'm right.
Anyway, over the past year or so, Ricky has been posting extras from the Science dvd where Warwick and Karl talk to each other, while Ricky laughs. Warwick is incredibly funny, with great comedic timing and a very droll sense of humor about himself. What inspired this post was an 18-minute-long segment of this where Karl and Warwick meet (ostensibly) for the first time, and hang out while Ricky asks Karl questions like "What would you do if you woke up and it was like the movie Big, except you were a little person?" (Karl, to Warwick: "But that's not what happened to you!") This amalgamation of great things obviously inspired Ricky as well. Filming has started on Gervais and Stephen Merchant's new show, called Life's Too Short, that stars Warwick Davis. Has there ever been a TV series that starred a little person (No, Dorf doesn't count... he's not really little.) in a non-costumed role? I think not. And so I feel that this is a great move, to show a little person's perspective while still remaining a very pointed, Gervais-style comedy. In order for Life's Too Short to work, we've got to be able to laugh both with and at Warwick Davis, and, from what I've seen on the podcast, Warwick appears to be totally game.
Now, this is where I've been hearing some other bitching from people. "Oh, it's just The Office meets Extras, that doesn't sound original at all!" Well, first off, those shows are both excellent, smart, much-imitated shows already. And secondly, having your lead be one of the most famous little people in the history of little people actors (which is a long history) automatically makes the show something different, interesting, and new. Add to that Gervais and Merchant's proven writing abilities and Gervais' penchant for provoking comedians to greatness, not to mention Warwick Davis being The Best at everything (like playing leprechauns and anthropomorphized mice but especially just at being funny and believable in his face("His face...it's [not] bad" - Troy Barnes), and it's going to make what is hopefully just a really fantastic show. I have high hopes for Life's Too Short (coming to HBO at some point in the fall, I'm guessing around the same time Bored To Death comes back), and in the meantime you should all go watch the BBC versions of The Chronicles Of Narnia, especially Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, because they are NO JOKE seriously great.
Ok, I know this post has been one whole parenthetical nerd fest, so thanks for sticking with me through that. If you don't already subscribe to the Ricky Gervais podcast you definitely should, and if you're new I would really recommend getting at least the three most recent episodes. You don't want to be the person who missed Warwick Davis perched on Karl Pilkington's knee discussing what they would do if they were conjoined twins with one "knob" between them. You just don't.
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