“What is art?” This was a question first asked almost a hundred years ago by artist Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ urinal piece.  What does Marcel have in common with Karl Pilkington? Well in this first episode of The Moaning of Life 2, Karl also asked and explored this question.  Funny, engaging and very cringe worthy, I thoroughly enjoyed welcoming Karl Pilkington back into my life once again. I should probably point out here that yes I am a Mancunian like Karl, so yes that probably explains why I love the fella so much!

In asking what art is, we saw Karl very entertainingly explore this concept by partaking in some unusual practices that the artists involved deemed to be art. The first one was ‘naked visual art’, where he met a woman who made artistic images via the use of naked bodies.  It really made me laugh when Karl said that line in my headline, “I can’t sort of contrtol them individually, they’re not eyebrows…they’re arsecheeks”.  Here he was responding to being asked to move his bottom in a certain direction by the female artist. I liked how he used his girlfriend as an excuse for not getting fully naked too(regarding seeing him naked, it’s the only privilege she gets from other people he said).  Complaining about the artist continuing to ask him to get fully naked he said(impersonating her initially to the crew), “I’ll take my knickers off if you take yours off…..HANG ON, WHERE’S THE ART GONE”? This early segment was a really amusing way to start off the new series.

Next we saw Karl do ‘performance art’ with a guy who lets say, was a little bit ‘out there’.  This resulted in them going to Time Square in New York City, to do a piece of ‘performance art’ in the evening.  It was hilarious but at the same time equally cringe worthy stuff. I could barely look at the screen it was that uncomfortable to watch(in a funny way).  I have not squirmed in my chair as much as that since watching Ricky Gervais being David Brent in The Office. Seeing Karl there in nothing but a fluorescent pair of green underpants, sunglasses and a motorcycle helmet, really was a funny sight. On top of that he was then shouting bizarrely, “SLOW DOWN” all of the time……COMEDY GOLD my friends.

His next trip was to see two guys who decorated dog poo that has been left on the streets, all in the name of art you understand.  Now as somebody who has a bit of a phobia regarding such stuff, I was not entirely sure how funny I was going to find this section if I am completely honest.  I need not have worried though because it was extremely funny.  Karl was a reluctant participant at first, however he quickly befriended the two guys and was soon really enjoying himself. That was until he trod in a pile of dog poo himself.  These two artists were clearly two well meaning guys.  Karl delivered another great line here when positively summing up what they did, definitely look out for it.

Other highlights included him going to an art gallery that had a shovel dangling in the air and a row of bricks on the ground, which bizarrely for Karl were also deemed as art.  The most impressive visual image of the episode was when thousands of birds came together in the sky somewhere in the Somerset countryside. This amazing visual sight was a great contrast against all the other stuff we had seen in the episode up to that point.  There was a sort of epic quality to seeing all these birds amass and fly together like that.

After watching the first series of this show, I came away thinking that it badly missed the banter and interplay between Karl and Ricky Gervais that we saw throughout An Idiot Abroad.  Therefore, I was not sure what I would really make of series two of The Moaning of Life.  I wanted to watch it but was not massively excited.  To my relief I really loved it as you will have gathered.  I thought Karl was hilarious throughout and delivered some fantastic one liners, like only he can.  I look forward to watching episode two! 4/5.