Twenty years of twaddle: Why an old Ricky Gervais podcast is still topping charts

Twenty years ago, three blokes got together to launch a nonsense podcast about man moths and little monkey fellas going into space. 

People loved it - so much that it set a Guinness World Record for the most downloaded podcast at the time, marking the advent of what would become one of the most popular mediums of the 21st century.  

Called ‘The Ricky Gervais Show’, it featured British comedians and co-writers of The Office Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant encouraging the hilariously inane ramblings of former radio producer Karl Pilkington. 

The trio first met in 2001 while hosting a weekly show on the alternative UK radio station XFM, where Gervais quickly realised that Pilkington was an untapped comedy genius. 

“I liked him instantly, as he wasn't impressed by who I was,” Gervais told the Independent. “I think the first words I said to him were, "Why have you got a round head?" and he replied, "What shape's a head meant to be?" I laughed straight away, as he didn't go, "How insulting!" 

“As humans, we use humour to see if someone's on our wavelength and I felt Karl was the funniest man I'd ever met.”

Ricky, Steve and Karl - their collaborative content commonly referred to online by their initials ‘RSK’ - gained a cult following for their off the cuff and unorthodox broadcasting that included segments like ‘Freak of the Week’ and ‘Monkey News’, where Pilkington would share spurious stories he’d read on the internet about chimps performing human endeavours. 

This content was later offered as a podcast series by Guardian Unlimited, all five series totalling 300 million downloads by 2011 and made into a popular Hanna-Barbera style animated show.

A lot of the content has, admittedly, not aged well, with outdated comments on race, weight and disabilities, yet a huge global audience of devoted fans are still listening to it -some of whom weren’t even born when the shows first aired. 

The old episodes are even being rereleased weekly on Apple, currently sitting at number 1 in its UK comedy podcast chart. Meanwhile, over on YouTube, you’ll find countless uploads of both the old XFM shows and clips from the podcast, some with millions of views.

Perhaps funniest is the subreddit dedicated to Ricky Gervais, where the majority of its nearly 180,000 members ignore (and actively dislike) the comedian's newer works, only commenting in quotes from his content with Merchant and Pilkington. 

At a time when it feels like everyone and their dog has a podcast, it may come as a surprise that one of the earliest ones is still drawing in so many listeners. One of the main reasons is, of course, nostalgia. For those that grew up listening to it, there’s an instant cosiness to be found in its familiarity, noughties reference points, and the leisurely and unpolished ambience of three guys simply chatting about silly things. 

“It's just parasocial comfort, like I'm hanging out with a bunch of old mates at the pub,” says Tom, a 37-year-old fan from the UK. “It's one of those things that sort of grounds me when I'm travelling as well and I'll just give their unique brand of nonsense a blast and all is well with the world.”

Brett, a 36-year-old fellow fan, has been listening to the shows on repeat since 2009 and also finds them to be a constant source of solace. 

“Though they may not be the most politically correct or kosher thing through the lens of today, they harken back to an earlier time, both socially and personally for me. I was young and had the whole world ahead of me. The Internet was still in its young days, not everyone was 100% connected with their noses buried in their phones at all times; we weren't all jaded from the constant deluge of celebrity gossip, politics and various world-problems. It's my comfort place and, at this point, probably will be for the rest of my life.” 

Turns out… Lots of little monkey fellas

From every fandom develops a microcosm, and within RSK’s it is one filled with pure absurdity: Derek Acorah, armed dolphins, Tic Tacs tinging their way up the tube, near-death experiences involving Mr. Freeze pops and chimp doctors - hours of recorded conversations creating an endless pool of surreal reference points that fans never tire of quoting to one another. 

So dedicated are the community that has formed around these old shows that in 2021, Steven O’Halloran, the Managing Director of Timeryder Productions, decided to set up an annual RSK convention in Manchester and London.  

“We are the only RSK related event on the planet that celebrates all things Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington... including all of their bodies of work as a collective, as well as individuals,” O’Halloran tells Euronews Culture. 

Featuring quizzes, Q&As, merch and a whole host of bizarrely niche activities relating to the podcast and XFM shows’ content, between 200 and 500 fans have attended previous events, with a major highlight being the ‘Kick Your Own Height’ competition - something Pilkington once spoke about doing as a child.  

It’s an event that O’Halloran hopes will continue to grow, which seems likely given the continued popularity of the old podcasts and many younger people discovering them via YouTube, social media - and maybe their millennial parents. 

“The reason people love these shows and keep returning is the fact that most of what Ricky, Steve & Karl have produced over the years is absolutely genius... and it's a struggle nowadays to find anything similar or as good,” O’Halloran explains. 

“I've personally watched and listened to probably 99% of everything the trio have ever produced or starred in over the past 25 years, and yet... I still find myself drawn back to wanting to listen and watch them all over again. It's just a massive shame that we probably won't ever get to see the famous trio work together on a project ever again. Forget about the Oasis reunion... we all want a RSK reunion please!”