Karl Pilkington

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Karl Pilkington (born September 23, 1972 in Manchester) is a English radio producer previously best known for producing The Ricky Gervais Show on the radio station XFM. After leaving XFM, Pilkington has reached an international audience through his appearances with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant on The Ricky Gervais Show podcast.

Gervais has repeatedly denied suggestions that Pilkington is an invented character, claiming that Karl's unique qualities are beyond his powers of imagination. Pilkington's remark "I could eat a knob at night" (made during a conversation about the 'bush tucker trials' in I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, in which a celebrity ate a kangaroo penis) has spawned much Internet interest, as well as merchandise and music. His comic appeal consists of completely deadpan delivery coupled with an ill-conceived view of the world, and his unintelligent comments, such as the time when, presented with the idea of having a doppelgänger of himself for a day, he asked "How would I know which one I was?" Additionally, Pilkington's physical appearance, especially his "perfectly round" head, is often the source of great amusement for Gervais and Merchant.

1 Biography
2 Personality
- 2.1 Fictional character?
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Bear in mind that much of the biographical information in the below sections is based on Karl's broadcasts, and as such may have valued entertainment value over strict accuracy.

[edit] Childhood

One of Pilkington's most cherished memories of his childhood were of going to bed. "I used to love goin' to bed as a kid," he has said. He can recall two instances where he laughed himself to sleep because he was so giddy and excited about bedtime. At those moments, he thought to himself, "I couldn't believe me luck".

[edit] Adolescence

Pilkington left school without collecting his exam results. According to Gervais, Pilkington attained a single "E" GCSE grade in History, which surprised him as he had no recollection of actually taking the exam. The excitement of this news was tempered somewhat by the discovery that he had not received grades for any of the GCSEs he actually does remember sitting as unfortunately he never registered for the exams, such as his Art GCSE where he recalls making a "little clay man with his arms in a car". Karl was also charged with littering crimes when he was 14 for throwing his BMX in the local river, he was released uncharged but did have to do community service looking after an elderly lady called Veria until she died.

Pilkington spent many weeks of each year living with his mother in a caravan in Porthmadog, Wales, missing several weeks of school as a result. His father, who worked as a taxi driver (on a four-days-on, four-days-off shift pattern) would join them when he could. Karl is surprised he's "not Welsh" given the amount of time he spent there.

Pilkington went through a number of jobs, his favourite being his paper round. Karl's school and its catchment area were near a chemical power plant. This could explain his inherent fascination with freaks ("I just like odd stuff"), as the school contained a couple of (unrelated) pupils who had "big heads", webbed hands and feet (both of whom would not befriend each other because it would be "too obvious"), together with a boy with a pigeon chest and a boy with a father with "big eyelids". Karl left school when he was 15, and began work as a printer.

[edit] Adulthood

Pilkington was initially an off-air producer of The Ricky Gervais Show, which was broadcast on Xfm, but his antics and opinions soon led to him joining Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais on-air. Some of Pilkington's most popular contributions to the show include "Monkey News", a gathering of the week's news about monkeys, which is generally spurious, inaccurate and almost always about chimpanzees; "Rockbusters", a take-off of 1980s game show Blockbusters, in which Karl provides 'cryptic' clues (described by Stephen Merchant as 'craptic' clues) regarding the identity of a musical group or personality for the audience to work out, which is generally hampered by the fact that the clues are near-incomprehensible and generally don't work for the answers; "Knob News", a spin off of Monkey News, with the feature containing "knob-related news", such as "a man who grew a knob on his arm"; and "Karl's Diary", in which excerpts from Karl's diary are read out. His poetry has also been read on-air. Other features normally tie in with Karl's eccentric interests and theories, such as "Do We Need Them?", normally about Karl's dislike of animals deemed to be irrelevant; "Cheeky Freak of the Week", a rundown of Karl's favourite freaks; and "Songs With A Story", in which Pilkington analyses the story of a popular song, claiming that he only likes songs "with a little story goin' on and that" (such as Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight," which is Karl has interpreted as about "a little fella in a wheelchair" based on what Gervais and Merchant deride as 'no evidence at all').

During his stint at Xfm, both Gervais and Merchant mocked Pilkington's professionalism, due to the fact that the prizes and the quizzes themselves were poorly made, albeit because he made them during his few days present at the station, and that he took frequent holidays from work. This was also pointed out by Gervais, who claimed that Pilkington had ruined a man's career due to his laziness. Despite these criticisms, Pilkington continued to work for Xfm despite the fact he had left for a four-week hiatus.

Pilkington's baldness is a regular comic theme in his dialogues with Gervais and Merchant. He attributes this to the stress of living in London, knowing too much (Pilkington is notable for denouncing knowledge as "hassle") and putting up with Gervais' constant bullying, which involved constant berating and unstoppable head-squeezing. Gervais claims that he cannot help squeezing Pilkington's head, as it is "perfectly spherical" – however, Pilkington insists that he doesn't like having his head squeezed, or "squoze"-a word Karl believes to be real.

Aside from his apparent stressed out status, Pilkington also claims that he suffers from a bad back that – it was revealed in a recent podcast diary entry – was a consequence of trying to, as he says it, "kick me height", a phrase which he uses like a well-known expression and describes kicking his foot up until it's higher than his head, a very strange thing to do (Pilkington landed on his back, damaging it).

[edit] Future career

In December 2005, Karl left his producing job at Xfm after 10 years of service where he was head of production. Karl claimed he is considering two prospective offers of employment – a paper round and dog walking. He was formerly producer of the Russell Brand show on 6Music on Sunday lunchtimes but, according to a false rumour, quit the programme 10 minutes into the second show due to some comments Russell made to him. The actual reason for Karl's departure, as confirmed by Brand's co-presenter Trevor Lock, is that 6Music's desire to release a downloadable podcast of the show conflicted with Karl's commitment to the Ricky Gervais Podcast. Karl has since appeared (via the phone) on the Russell Brand Show, talking about his holiday visit to a historic resort in Lyme Regis, Dorset and his recent viewing of Brokeback Mountain.

Recently, Gervais published a book entitled The World of Karl Pilkington (ISBN 0-00-724027-9) released on 18 September 2006. The book comprises some of the best conversations featured in the Podcasts, as well as original ideas and drawings by Karl. Some of these can be seen on the second and sixth video podcasts. Other souvenirs that have become cult items surrounding Karl are the Karl Pilkington Head T-Shirt, due mostly to Ricky's requests in the first season of the podcasts that it would be amazing to see everyone wearing a T-Shirt with Karl's perfectly round head on it.

Karl has recently been active in the media industry, producing a number of "3 Minute Wonder" programmes for Channel 4 entitled "Some Thoughts by Karl Pilkington" and doing a voice-over for several recent PlayStation Portable television adverts in the UK.

[edit] Personality

It should be noted that the following is based largely on Karl Pilkington's persona as presented on the various radio shows and podcasts that he has participated in with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and that debate exists as to whether this is Pilkington's true personality, an exaggerated persona based on his own personality for comedic and entertainment effect, or even a complete fabrication (as some have suggested - see section below).

In the radio shows and podcasts, Karl Pilkington is described by Gervais and Merchant as a 'village idiot', and much of the humour comes from Pilkington's lack of understanding of the world and its workings, coupled with a vague resistance to learning new information, but also believing anything he reads on curious internet sites (see Monkey News) to be fact. Both Gervais and Merchant are frequently and loudly amused by Pilkington's numerous eccentricities and comical misunderstandings, whilst simultaneously being easily frustrated and quickly angered by his apparent ignorance and refusal to learn or accept any facts that contradict his own perspectives. In the radio shows and podcasts, Gervais in particular will frequently be driven to distraction and even rage by many of the points Pilkington makes in one moment, only to be reduced to helpless hysterics by another a moment later.

Pilkington is notable for developing theories and telling stories (particularly in his famed 'Monkey News' segments) that are highly exaggerated, surreal and involving events and issues which he has clearly misunderstood and misinterpreted but which he nonetheless appears to believe with absolute certainty. These stories frequently involve events that are physically impossible, or at least highly unlikely (such as monkeys piloting spacecraft equipped with banana dispensers) and frequently become completely nonsensical due to Pilkington's own misunderstandings and misinterpretations, coupled with his tendency to make large, unexplained leaps of faith and logic in the process (such as granting animals qualities of intelligence, social interaction and purpose that they do not in fact possess). He also has a tendency within these stories to neglect to provide important dates and details, and instead to substitute them with vague and unhelpful phrases (such as "In the olden days, right, there was a short hairy fella..."), which frequently makes his reliability questionable at best; his refusal (and apparent disdain for) providing concrete - or even accurate - facts and interpretations frequently lead Gervais and Merchant to accuse him of collecting all his information on any chosen subject merely by reading a headline or a dubious piece of information on the Internet and then constructing a story about it in his head.

In keeping with his quotation that 'knowledge is almost annoying', Pilkington frequently bemoans various discoveries and facts that he learns (usually from Gervais and Merchant) as being pointless and of limited value, being used only to complicate life. He is frequently dismissive of (or even resistant to or annoyed by) the various facts and information that he is provided with, and appears to advocate limiting knowledge and personal discovery as much as possible. However, he frequently bases his conclusions on a misunderstood, over-simplistic, or even entirely inaccurate perspective on what he is talking about. When provided with a fact or a question, Pilkington will frequently misinterpret what he is being told or asked. This results in an inaccurate translation of what he is being told or a complete tangent from the point that actually is being made. Gervais in particular often attributes this to what he calls Pilkington's mental "filter," describing it as a process in which Pilkington receives sensible, accurate information and mentally translates it into what Gervais and Merchant frequently describe as 'absolute twaddle' (jokingly describing it as sounding like a "discordant piano" or "Those Czech cartoons from 1963 with people hitting woks for sound effects").

Pilkington's anecdotes about his family are often a source of much amusement to both Merchant and Gervais, due to the highly eccentric portrayal of his upbringing and relatives that they depict, and their consequent relationship to his current persona. According to Pilkington, his father once crashed a train into Manchester Central Station; his mother shaved one of their cats after it kept being sick; his Uncle Alf slept in a rubber dinghy instead of a bed (he also used two televisions: one with no sound but picture, the other with no picture but had sound); and his non-blood related uncle "Tattoo Stan," who tattooed his own arms, resulting in very good tattoos on his left arm, but the ones on his right arm were "rubbish" (due to his being right-handed). He claims his Auntie Nora's feminine parts were "like a split tennis ball" after a young Karl inadvertently looked up her dress and also that his brother Mark was thrown out of the army for driving to the shops in a tank to buy a packet of cigarettes.

Pilkington is sometimes mentioned in interviews that Gervais gives, and is often on the receiving end of Gervais's practical jokes. When asked who was the funniest person he knew, Gervais said Karl Pilkington, whom he mentioned was "the funniest man alive in Britain today." In addition, Pilkington appears in a twenty minute interview on Ricky Gervais's live stand-up comedy DVD, Politics.

A stencil in Augusta, Georgia, of Karl Pilkington and his famous soundbite "I could eat a knob at night".

Karl recently reached new heights of fame by commenting that he could "eat a knob at night" during a discussion on the podcast about I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, a British reality TV show in which contestants had to eat a kangaroo's penis. Karl stated that, whilst in the morning he would be unable to face the appendage due to having a weak stomach, he would more than likely be able to stomach it in the evening. His phrase "I could eat a knob at night" has since spawned dance music remixes, T-shirts and other merchandise, as well as discussion on many websites and thousands of search engine hits.

[edit] Fictional character?

Although Merchant and Gervais publicly maintain that the personality he displays in the podcasts is genuinely that of Karl Pilkington, speculation has raisen that Pilkington is a fictional persona created and scripted by the two. In particular, Chris Campling, a journalist writing for the The Times, has speculated that Karl Pilkington is not a real person, but an actor portraying the role of a scripted character created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant^[1]. Campling pointed towards the fact that Pilkington's views on Chinese people had been stated on Gervais' radio show, before he stated the same thing on his interview with Gervais, on the Politics DVD, which Campling found suspicious. Other evidence has since been put forward, such as Pilkington discussing his boredom in an Edinburgh hotel room on the XFM show, but then later professing in a later podcast that he hasn't "even been to Scotland yet".

Furthermore, there are instances of anecdotes being told at different times, with conflicting details, yet Gervais and Merchant act as though they are hearing it for the first time. An example of this is the story Pilkington tells about a girl in primary school who was upset because he tore her dress. This is mentioned first on the XFM London radio show in 2002, and later in the Guardian Unlimited podcast series. The second time the story is told, there is significantly more detail and humour and it conflicts with what was said three years earlier.

There are plenty of other examples where material is recycled from early radio programmes, such as stories of Pilkington's childhood, which despite having being told in 2002, are described as revelations by Gervais on the podcast. However, this could be explained by the fact that many people do not know about the early XFM radio sessions, and that information is being repeated for the benefit of 'new listeners'; the recent Podcasts can be viewed as "cultivated" XFM shows, with only the best and funniest parts included. Also Stephen Merchant has, during the podcasts, repeated stories from the XFM radio show.

There is also a noticeable change in Pilkington's on-air demeanour. On the XFM show, he occasionally laughed at jokes made by Gervais, and occasionally stands up for what he has just said, or objects to being ridiculed. In the podcast however, Pilkington deadpans perfectly, and rarely objects to the barrage of abuse suffered under the cackling Gervais. This argument cannot ultimately prove that Karl is a fictional character. More likely, it may be because Karl is exaggerating certain aspects of his persona for increased comedic effect.

On April 24, 2006, The New York Times ran an article about Ricky Gervais and the podcast which described Pilkington's behaviour as a well executed "deadpan comedian" routine which "crosses Ali G and Steven Wright."^[2]

Merchant and Gervais themselves have repeatedly denied claims that Pilkington is a creation of theirs, claiming that Gervais encouraged him to bring up his view on Chinese people because it has comedic value. Merchant also stated that he would be ashamed if the radio show was scripted. Ricky agreed, stating, "We spend three months on a half-hour script, how could we script a two-hour show every week?" Merchant added: "If we came up with a character as good as Karl, we would never use him on a poxy little radio station like this one (XFM London)".

Pilkington himself has stated that "I am a real person, if I was just made up you wouldn't be able to see me, would you?"