The Moaning of Life

Only discovered Karl this year in lockdown. Where has he been all my life? He's hilarious so down to earth. He's right cheered me up in lockdown

If you are a fan of The Idiot Abroad Series (Named Ironically, I believe) you would absolutely know what you are getting into. It's the Great Karl with his artistic, toned down, humble, crazy and underdog qualities. If you are unaware of Karl and his work I would say you would end up liking him. In this Series titled the Moaning of Life Karl sets out to find the meaning of life while moaning (I guess with Ricky and Steve's absence a little less) about it.

Karl explores throughout the series about Marriage, Happiness, Reproduction, Money and Death. He kind of in a beautiful way express the point that all human lives are usually lived in a state of, functional nihilism. That in fact Very few of us believe that human life is devoid of all meaning and that all we should do is answer to our base urges and fulfill our basic desires and just live on about do your job (As in Karl's own words). And he also points out the fact that most of us act as if we believe that. Like they could all like, contribute to cancer research or write a novel or puzzle through quantum mechanics or plant trees or fight wild fires or harvest food for the poor. But they don't usually do any of that stuff. Most of them spend their free time by, like, watching television, playing video games, or searching for happiness and meaning of life etc.., To people who might think just from the trailer, reviews and summary that this is boring Travel Documentary. I will put it simple, it is not. It's a bloke from England going around the world trying to find the meaning of life in the most funniest ways possible, presenting us with the out of the norm view from different culture and people. The funny aspect of the Series is the highlight and I guess that's why it works. You laugh, you cringe, you envy, you moan, you cry and most importantly you think.

After watching "An Idiot Abroad", I wanted to see more of Karl's adventures, so I binge-watched "The Moaning of Life" in one afternoon and I gotta tell you - it's even better than what I've expected. In this series, Karl explores five important aspects of life (marriage, happiness, kids, vocation & money and death) as they are dealt with in different cultural contexts. Karl is a bit more relaxed and in a better mood than during the filming of AIA, since he decided where to go, who to meet and what to do. This is a sort of popular anthropology as it is amusing, educational and philosophical at the same time. I share some of Karl's views on marriage and children, so it was fun to watch his musings. It seemed to me that I would probably experience those situations in a similar way as Karl. Too bad that there are only five episodes, I would really like to see more of Karl.

Hilariously funny sometimes, other times it's down right weird, like his seeming obsession with sitting on the toilet. However every now and again he hits the nail right on the head and says things that are bang-on right. Only he is one of a very small minority who actually has the guts to say it. Good on him !!! I wish a few more people had the guts to stand up and speak up against those people who abuse their positions of power and their money to keep the unfair status quo.

This show is even better than Karl's last one. The insights are wonderful to watch as they unfold - evolve - grow. I loved his last series (An Idiot Abroad), with all the comedy. Karl has grown out of his distaste of all things foreign, not quite embraced those cultural differences, yet shows his courage to not only seek to understand the culture, explore the differences - more than that, through his experience - he attempts to apply his brand of practical culture in order to better understand those cultures around him. We all do it - but in his not so eloquent style, he helps us all work our way through it as he shows us how it could be done.

What this series does is take it to the next level, to give it that philosophical advantage, without missing the whole point - life and all the things we do are weird, wonderful, and most of all (most of the time) - funny. Great job and I expect it will continue with great success. Kudos.