God... I mean Podfather Part 1,2 & 3

Ricky Gervais has taken the world by storm. First with his egotistical, self-loving character of David Brent from The Office, which proved to the world first and foremost that the British really do have a funny bone.

Above: Gervais as "David Brent"

Then teaming up again with his comedy writing partner, Steven Merchant again (the worked on the Office together) came Gervais' next risk taker - the show, Extras. This was a comedy revolving around the extra actors that work on a show whilst highlighting some of the farcical elements of "hollywood" and of "celebrity". Some of the stars to appear in the show so far have included David Bowie, Ben Stiller, Orlando Bloom, Robert deNiro and Chris Martin... to name a few.

Above: Some of the stars from the first season of "Extras"

The man is so successful that he is the first guest star on "The Simpsons" to co-write an episode. But the latest venture that has seen Gervais take off into the stratosphere, has been his podcasts. Along with Steven Merchant as always, and their mate, Karl Pilkington, a former radio producer for british radio station XFM, the trio have set new Guiness world records for podcasting with a recorded 8 million downloads so far...



Now I say latest venture, but the trio are up to season three already where they discuss bascially what ever comes into their heads whilst recording. But as well as the usual seasons (the last two you've had to pay for), the gang have decided to pay back fans of the show with 3 free holiday related episodes, Halloween, Thanksgiving and to be released soon, Christmas. In these episodes they talk ghosts, philosophy and the idea of having a calendar free year. Possibly the most entertaining part of the show are the comments made my Karl Pilkington.

Above: Karl Pilkington

Karl's anecdotes about his family are often a source of much amusement to Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais. His father once crashed a train into Manchester Central Station, his mother shaved one of their cats after it kept being sick, and his brother was thrown out of the Army for driving to the shops in a tank to buy a packet of cigarettes.

Karl has a number of possible causes of his baldness. It may have been caused by the fact that he once worked a 24-hour-shift overseeing the production of audio cassettes, or perhaps due to the negligence of a Manchester barber who cut the young Pilkington's hair in a shack near the local train station. His lack of a fulsome barnet never really bothers him, except when he was on Jury Duty and felt some form of hairpiece might be in order to diguise him from any proximate ne'er-do-wells.

Taken from Wikipedia.org/karlpilkington

I've been listening now since the show first started in November last year and I've tried to get as many people as I can listening but in my opinion, its freaking helarious. The only problem is that because they're downloadable... you often find yourself laughing whilst listening to it walking down the street and you look absolutely mental.

If you want to download the podcasts and have a listen, click here.