The more I watch these two the more and more I enjoy Webb's sort of weird way of delivering lines "I call him Ricky, I know him". I find myself going back to old sketches and laughing at lines I would normally have passed over, this sketch is full of gold.

I really do enjoy Dave Gorman's work. But Mitchell and Webb pretty much got this bang on.

My favourite Gervais anecdote was told by Victoria Coren-Mitchell. They were at a celebrity poker game and Ricky, who was knocked out early said, "What am I supposed to do now?" And Stephen Fry said, "There's a shotgun in the drawer."

For anyone who is a fan of Gorman, Hawks and Mitchell & Webb and who might feel put-out by this, remember Rob Brydon's equally brilliant piss-takes of his fellow performers' schticks (including Peep Show, no less) on Annually Retentive. It's normally nothing more than the sort of mutual banter you often get on panel shows, an environment that Mitchell especially is no stranger to.

No, Tony Hawk is an american skateboarder. Tony HawkS is a british comedian and author. :-)

I love Dave Gorman's output. I also love this parody... :)

I’ve only seen Dave Gorman on Taskmaster, so I didn’t know that he’d done all these sorts of “Round Ireland with a Fridge” ideas.

"I call him Ricky - i know him" haha!

Thanks to everyone who pointed out that this may be based on Tony Hawks as well. I've edited the details to take this into account... :)

"And then we had to find somewhere to put all the money!" LOL

This is a classic example of a M&W sketch that's funnier on a repeat viewing, when the female presenter says she's nervous about meeting the next guest because he's bonkers, knowing that David's character thinks she's talking about the sectioned guy makes me crack up xD

I like the Richard & Judy parody element too.

Steve Merchant bank - nice!

You know, it's possible to parody someone without hating their guts. I like both Gorman and M&W, but this is just a fairly light hearted jab at his early career. Lighten up folks.

Charlie Stayt and Delia Smith - what a combo.

Also based on Tony Hawks with his trip around Ireland with a fridge and his playing tennis against the Moldovan football team. The technical term for people who do contrived "drunken bets" is "wanker".

Turning a drunken bets into "heart-warming scrapes" with profitable films and books documenting said scrape? Gosh, I have no idea...

2:51 I bet when Steve was setting up the merchant bank his eyes started bulging with imagined riches.

this is great

The One Show called. They want their programme back.

Gormans flatmate Danny Wallace wrote a book where he had to say 'yes' to everything with hilarious consequences...so they are right there.

Haha. 'Crossing Africa in a Carrier bag' is a great gag.

quality sketch

And to think Channel Dave commissioned Late Night Dog Poker and Al Murrays Compete for the Meat. Yet my show "Giving everyone in Kenya a Dogecoin" never made it past the pilot.

i think this is excellent. i'm sure gorman and wallace would take it in good humour and theres no need for their fans to take offence on there behalf. besides, theres no pretending either of them do this kind of stuff for self reaffirmation then decide it would make a popular book or show afterwards.

couldn't agree more....

btw, mitchell and webb catagorically said in an interview, that this isnt a direct parody of dave gorman. Just a reality twat mockery

To be fair... are you Dave Gorman and around Ireland with a fridge are 2 of the best books I have ever read

@cole003f David Mitchell is a co-host of 10 o Clock live, regular on comedy panel shows such as Would I Lie To You and 8 out of 10 cats along with appearing on Mock the Week. Robert Webb is also a panel show regular, the pair of them creating an award winning sketch show "That Mitchell and Webb look" as well as an award winning TV series "Peep Show". All of which were populated by other comedians and comedic journalists. How have they failed at comedy?

And then we had to find somewhere to put all the money. #classic

Oddly, the most hilarious thing about this skit is that I can actually very vividly imagine Ricky Gervais talking to some fame-addicted third row "entertainer" and replying to his stupid show idea with the most unenergetic "Why?" possible.

"crazy in a different and less harrowing way". Lulz

@retread01 Mitchell & Webb's style is suppose to be angry,sarcastic and awkward (like when you hear nerdy people complaining about pop culture) I think that's what you (and I do mean just you) hear as "sounding stilted"

I saw Dave Gorman at the Melbourne Comedy Festival about thirteen years ago and thought he was hilarious, particularly as his show was based on the story of absurd quest to find people of the same name carried out according to his ridiculous but strictly implemented self made rules. I thought it was bloody funny that his whole journey was supposedly based on a drunken bet, not that it was a drunken bet per se but because of the significance he himself apparently gave to it and the fact that the audience was meant to accept this. I thought he was a great entertainer and performer. However I went to see another of his shows a year or two later but found to my disappoinment that while the details had changed the basic premise/joke had not. Naturally this included a drunken bet as the initiating factor for another absurd quest that took him all around the world ...

"And then we had to find somewhere to put all the money!"

Agreed!

they aren't 'having a go' at Dave Gorman it's just a joke; a parody of all those sorts of programmes. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all. Don't over analyse.

he's been on the dialy show a few times

Kudos to yourself for the use of chutzpah in a KZfaq comment and to onepiecemachine for the comment I have borrowed from. :)

Tony Hawks was the original guy that did all the silly drunken bets but unlike the others, his books are worth a read if you get the chance.

If anything it's a Tony "Round Ireland With A Fridge" Hawks parody...

Imma ladiee!

The Daily Mail had it as well.

@retread01 look forward to seeing you in stand up. No wait...

this is meant to be Danny Wallace more than Dave Gorman isnt it? Danny Wallace, mitchell and webb are all soo funny

Is that Barunka O'Shaughnessy? I love her, I had no idea she was ever in Mitchell and Webb

are you Dave gorman was also the result of a drunken bet beween wallace and gorman

@ozoneocean He was playing the Moldovans at tennis!

@Tehjonny32 They write additional material for Peep Show

Max Fosh's KZfaq Channel in a nutshell

@dayiiv Hahahahaha. Win.

Love peep show, love Gorman, this isn’t a competition.

@cole003f I think you'll find that that particular comment required 'they're' and not 'their' in order for in to be grammatically correct. Mitchell and Webb are hilariously funny. A sort of modern day Fry & Laurie (of course the latter pair do come top though).

lol i have that pink top

@StickItUpYrBumGugle I've been wanting to ask these of you for ages since our little back and forth, 1)do you think Mitchell & Webb's sketch comedy is more or less funny then armstrong and miller's sketch comedy? 2) are you basing your judgement of them on the early That Mitchell and Webb Look, because I think the latter 2 series of the 4 are better (and the very first one was shit)?

Gonna say it ...I'd watch Cameling Round London!

What a random person to parody.

@MrPaperHands Ooh, I'm in Cardiff - sounds like a great idea :) I'll bring some jam, to help make the sandwiches when we scrape the peanut butter off at the other end. Health and safety will be a nightmare though - just think of the allergy situation, it's no good if 20% of the participants and passers-by swell up and explode halfway to Exeter...

That could be it, yes. Either way, it's a matter of opinion, if you don't like it that's fine.

I want to know what the wall of eggs is

I think the Googlewhack Adventure is much more comparable to Are you Dave Gorman? than Astrology Experiment. His buddy made a bet with him, he said no, he got drunk, and then started it. In Are you Dave Gorman, he and his buddy got drunk, made a bet, and started it. Whereas Astrology Experiment was made for the purpose of having a television show and involved no bets or getting-drunkedness.

@S0rasN0b0dy Which one?

@Experiment47 Most people take this a a comedy sketch and don't pull it apart as if it's an inaccurate serious piece of international fucking journalism.

Being Dutch I am not familiar with Tony Hawks or Dave Gorman, but somehow this sketch manages to touch on something more universal: lazy comedians and equally lazy broadcasters. Why take the effort to create some real original, insightful, funny material, if you can get rich and famous with some wacky ideas and make a reallity show out of it.

That car says "Politie" which is Dutch for "Police" so he could have asked the question in Dutch aswell

are you sure your not dave gorman? i happen to like both the dave gorman and danny wallaces, and the mitchells and webbs of this world, dave and danny just have a hightend sense of whimsy

"So how did the pandemic start, Granddad?" Me: 2:19

yeh it is more danny wallace

Yeh especially the stuff about "flatmates" getting involved... I actually quite like Wallace and Gorman's books but i admit that they are a bit cynically made

Are they not also taking the mick out of Tony Hawks, who seems to make a living out of various ridiculous bets. It must be easier than thinking up actual comedy.

While I do like this and think Mitchell and Webb are very funny, Dave Gorman is incredibly funny. I have seen a lot of his standup and always found it brilliant, his last show was not about a crazy bet or adventure, he was just being funny.

Pretty much mr.beast

Apparently the character was originally called 'Dan Gordon'. Hmm...

@StickItUpYrBumGugle I'm sorry I insulted you, comedy is subjective and I can't say that what Mitchell and web do is more or less funny then what Gorman does.... however I do think I can say with some degree of objectivity that what Gorman (and even more Danny Wallace) does is far simpler and easier to do and come up with then actually writing a sketch like these two do…. So I agree it is a very unfair comparison P.S if you don’t they are funny together you should try their radio show

It's like a less Lane version of Logan Paul.

@cole003f =Failed at making a comment that makes sense on KZfaq...oh dear.

I think this is funny. "Sleepingstitches" guy below should cheer up a bit, I hate youtube comments which try to sound clever and critical when they just look boring and gauche. Mitchell and Webb are great.

take it easy mate it's just a comedy sketch yeah?

what Dave Gorman does is just a more elaborate version of what the people on jack ass do which intern in just a more elaborate version of that time I tried to eat grass in primary school to get my class mates attention

i feel like this lacks the comedic punch when i dont know what it is based off^^

Why so?

What's this got to do with Tony Hawk?

Miaow! Saucer of milk for Mitchell and Webb!

I got thumbed, why?

I'm a fan of Dave Gorman and still found this funny, but I think they went over the top with the stuff about "I wish I could do these things without it furthering my career but no one will let me me.". Thats just bitchy.

And you fucking lose.

According to the word 'Politie' he should be speaking Dutch, not French. He got even that wrong.

i love dave gorman. i dont think its all that obvious its about him though. surely they would have gone for the mutten chop sideburns or suchlike. still funny though.

Stupid books??? They are hilarious, Yes Man was in my opinion as good as Are you Dave Gorman . . . you are obviously mistaken and i would expect to see a stark change in your opinion and attitude in the coming weeks before parents evening.

Wheres the skateboard...?

It can't be THE most depressing thing... I saw a video a guy made as tribute to his Ex-girlfriend because she dumped him. How about Kenneth Eng and his extraordinary racism and belief he's a dragon? Might be a trace of hyperbole in there.

About a funny as herpes. Come back when you can sort out a graph

wallace is great, gorman not so much

Oh look, it's Dave Gorman. Except, you know, actually funny.

But what in that makes it 'depressing'? KZfaq is a way of sharing video content with other users. If it wasn't on here you probably would have never seen it, much less have an opportunity to opine about it.

@cole003f You have no comedic taste.

Michell and Webb are funny but they can't touch Gorman! He's amazing. I'm sure this is just meant in good fun though.

Tony Hawk!! Without the s!

I really don't like Dave Gorman. I don't mind Danny Wallace so much.

I'm certainly not a huge fan of Mitchell & Webb - I think Peep Show is hugely overrated - but by the same token whilst i enjoy Gorman's work, I think the rise of this "trend of TV shows and books (where the) premise for them all is simple: Make an absurd bet in the pub, then make a huge wad of cash trying - and endearingly failing - to accomplish said bet, as the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary" is ripe for parody and this sketch is a good start.