There's a reason that "The Ricky Gervais Show" is the most popular comedy podcast on the Internet: it's hilarious. The popularity of Gervais and Merchant probably didn't hurt in getting in noticed, but their endless jabs at co-host Karl Pilkington, who really is the star of the show.  If you've never heard the program, all you need to know is that Pilkington is like all of Gervais' dumbest characters combined.  I secretly suspect that some traits of those characters were based of Pilkington.

Now Variety is reporting that HBO is picking up the series and turning it into 13 half-hour animated episodes set to debut in early 2010.  I can definitely see their conversations lending themselves to animated romps as Pilkington describes bizarre situations and truths that never happened.  Also, as Gervais makes sure to point out in every episode, Pilkington has a "a head like a fucking orange," so that should be fun for the animators.

This will be Gervais' third re-teaming with HBO after the network rebroadcast his BBC series "Extras" and aired his comedy special, "Ricky Gervais: Out of England".  While I anxiously await this series, I'm even more excited for Gervais' upcoming film, "The Invention of Lying" (formerly known as "This Side of the Truth") which is slated to come out this fall.