An Idiot Abroad is a travel documentary television series broadcast on Sky1, as well as spin-off books published by Canongate Books, created by and featuring Karl Pilkington and his former radio show colleagues Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The ongoing theme of both the television series and the books is that Pilkington has no interest in global travel and so Merchant and Gervais make him travel while they themselves stay in London and monitor his progress. An Idiot Abroad documents Karl Pilkington's journeys to foreign countries under the guise of visiting the New Seven Wonders of the... World. Though the New Seven Wonders of the World include the Colosseum in Rome, this is not one of Pilkington's destinations because Ricky and Stephen thought that he might feel too comfortable in Rome; instead he visits the Great Pyramids in Egypt . Despite the stated focus of visiting the wonders, most of each episode focuses on Karl’s reactions to cultural differences and idiosyncrasies in the countries he visits.
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