Little Fat Man Who Sold His Soul

I can’t get this song out of my head. It’s from the second season of Ricky Gervais’ newest show Extras. I’ll try to catch you up. Gervais plays Andy Milman, a struggling actor who spends the first season working as an extra while being humiliated by the ‘real’ actors, and well meaning but daft friends who never fail to put their feet in their mouths or his. Andy is the brightest and most socially considerate among his group, but he’ll still find a way to sabotage his own efforts to get ahead, and somehow still remain at the bottom rung of his career. Despite this, at the end of season one he convinces the BBC to produce the sitcom he’s written. It looks like Andy’s written a show that is a realistic and funny cousin to The Office, and we’re left optimistic for his future.

Sadly tho, as we begin season two we learn that the BBC has turned it into a cheesy catch-phrase sitcom like only they can. Andy plays the lead, and while the show gets good ratings it’s so bad that he still gets no respect from his peers. If anything, his situation is worse because instead of being anonymous and rejected, now he’s notorious and actively disrespected. He’s in a new social scene, and no one wants him there.

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