25 Years On, Fans Still Loop Old Episodes of The Ricky Gervais Show — Here's Why, According to a Psychologist

British radio station XFM's The Ricky Gervais Show turns 25 this summer — and it's also been a quarter century since producer Karl Pilkington first spoke into a microphone in a makeshift studio. The weekly show, hosted by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Pilkington, went off the air long ago, yet a dedicated group of listeners keeps cycling through the same batch of old episodes. Far Out Magazine looked into why, bringing in a psychologist to explain the pattern.

Old tapes still on repeat 25 years later

The show now mostly circulates online under the name "RSK on XFM." According to Far Out, its continued growth in listenership isn't driven by marketing or new material — it's existing fans re-listening on their own, treating a local weekly radio programme as something they return to year after year.

The show's running jokes still work as in-jokes among fans: the Ladder 49 DVD giveaway, the segment "The Rice is Right," recurring guest Paul 'The Party Animal' Parker, and Gervais's habit of cutting Pilkington off with "play a record." The Far Out writer notes that casually mentioning narrative songs like "The Killing of Georgie" or "Babushka" among colleagues was enough to identify a fellow fan.

A psychologist's take: familiarity lowers cortisol

Far Out spoke to Dr Michael Swift, founder of Birmingham-based Swift Psychology and head of counselling at the Uprawr Mental Health Foundation. He told the outlet that "familiarity reduces uncertainty," which in turn calms the nervous system.

Swift explains that in an environment of information overload and constant choice, knowing in advance the emotional arc of what you're about to experience creates a sense of predictable control. Research shows that repeated exposure to familiar content can lower cortisol, the body's primary stress hormone — which he says explains why so-called "comfort media" gets revisited again and again.

He adds that every time a listen genuinely reduces stress or helps regulate mood, it reinforces the brain's reward circuitry a little more, binding stimulation and soothing responses together through repetition until they become habit. Over time, the brain starts treating this kind of content as a tool for self-regulation — which is why the same episodes can double as comedy and as background noise for falling asleep.