History Series / AnIdiotAbroad

* ProductPlacement: The words "Sky One" and "in [[Platform/HighDefinition HD]]" are said OnceAnEpisode. It's a little odd when played in America, where most people don't know what "Sky One" is.

* ProductPlacement: The words "Sky One" and "in [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HD]]" are said OnceAnEpisode. It's a little odd when played in America, where most people don't know what "Sky One" is.

''An Idiot Abroad'' is a travel series starring Creator/KarlPilkington (and to a lesser extent his "friends" Creator/StephenMerchant and Creator/RickyGervais). It initially aired on Creator/SkyOne in the UK from 23rd September to 11th November 2010 and started airing in January 2011 in North America on Creator/{{Discovery|Channel}}'s Science Channel. It was advertised as [[ForScience "a social experiment gone horribly wrong"]]. Supposedly, Karl was told that the show would be called ''Karl Pilkington's Seven Wonders'' and only found out that the name was going to be changed when he was in Peru.

* ProductPlacement: The words "Creator/SkyOne" and "in [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HD]]" are said OnceAnEpisode. It's a little odd when played in America, where most people don't know what "Sky One" is.

* PandaingToTheAudience: Karl and Warwick dress up as pandas to enter a panda enclosure in China.

* AdultFear: Some of the things Ricky and Steve arrange for Karl to do are things that a lot of people would be genuinely scared by; the shark cage, kidnapping preparedness training (without telling him that the kidnapping was fake prior to it) and the bungee jumping especially.
** In the India episode, the man who first picked Karl up not only runs a taxi but also works at a kabab store. He sleeps in the back of the shop in a bare room, exposed to the elements and shared with several other Indian men. That he has to work two jobs to pay for his dwelling suggests he's struggling to stay above water.
** In the Jordan episode, after the practice kidnapping, the trainer asks Karl who'd he call if he was kidnapped. Karl states he'd call his girlfriend ... by which point the trainer imitates her panicking at the prospect of Karl being kidnapped.
** Later in that episode, when crossing the giant border wall from Israel to Palestine Karl comments that it is depressing. The Palestinian man claims it is only depressing for those who have to wake up and see that every day.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: Karl complains at one point that Leprechauns prefer to be called Gnomes. Ricky howls with laughter.

* IAteWhat:
** In Cairo-- camel's testicle and penis. In China, frog. While in Egypt, A bull’s Testicles. When in Jordan, lambs eyeballs.
* [[DumbassHasAPoint ‘Idiot’ Has A Point]]: Half the fun of the show is that Karl frequently makes valid points about quirks or illogical traditions of foreign cultures.
-->"'Awesome'. I wish he'd stop saying that. Everything's awesome, I've got no point to judge things by any more."

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Karl's Africa trip in the second season is all about going to Uganda to see mountain gorillas in the wild.
** Subverted in another episode where he visits a "monkey villiage" in Thailand. He's quite annoyed by how aggressive the monkeys are around him (especially when he has food) and compares them to Ricky and Steve.

* Useful/LosAngeles: In Season 2 Episode 6 ''“Route 66”'' the episode started with Karl beginning the journey from Santa Monica pier.

* [[DumbassHasAPoint ‘Idiot’ Has A Point]]: Half the fun of the show is that Karl frequently makes valid points about some quirks or illogical traditions of a foreign cultures.

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* {{Transgender}}: Karl meets some Thai ladyboys in Season 2. They dress him up as a woman. He's pretty cool with it.

* WhatTheHellHero: In China in Season 2, Karl visits a village for midgets and dwarves, which is proportional to their size. When he calls up Creator/WarwickDavis to make sure this is OK, Warwick points out that it's completely exploitive and he's disappointed in Karl. Karl counters with the inane assumption that the dwarf in a king's outfit ''is actually a king.'' Rather than a performer.

* WhatTheHellHero: In China in Season 2, Karl visits a village for midgets and dwarves, which is proportional to their size. When he calls up Creator/WarwickDavis to make sure this is OK, Warwick points out that it's completely exploitive and he's disappointed in Karl. Karl counters with the inane assumption that the dwarf in a king's outfit ''is actually a king.''

* [[DumbassHasAPoint Idiot Has A Point]]: Half the fun of the show is that Karl frequently comes up with a valid point about some quirk of a foreign culture.

** In Cairo-- camel's testicle and penis. In China, frog. While in Egypt, A bull’s Testicles. When he was in Jordan, Lambs Eyeballs.

* HilarityEnsues: Karl is frequently booked in the shittiest hotels in the worst parts of whatever country he's sent to.

* IAteWhat: In Cairo-- camel's testicle and penis. In China, frog.

** The 'Elephant Baba' - so called because of the deformity of his face, which, naturally, resembles the elephant Man, at least to some degree. He seems like a perfectly nice chap, however.

** The 'Elephant Baba' - so called because of the deformity of his face, which, naturally, resembles an elephant, at least to some degree. He seems like a perfectly nice chap, however.

A third series began airing in November 2012, with Karl assigned the task of replicating Marco Polo's historic journey. In response to Karl's insistence he be given someone to tag along (Ricky is who he had in mind), Gervais provided him with Harry Potter and Star Wars celebrity Creator/WarwickDavis. This edition was shorter, only three episode with a fourth episode of wrap-up (the previous two seasons were seven episodes with an eighth wrap-up episode).