Most people have grown tired of the presenter / producer / sidekick radio show format Steve Wright is credited with creating some years ago where the show is deliberately made to sound ad hoc and so ill-prepared and outrageous that’s it’s funny. Anyone that has listened to Chris Moyles on Radio 1 will know just how bad this format can be. However, the Ricky Gervais Show on XFM, London has reached cult status despite following this format and many people attribute it to one man, the show’s producer Karl Pilkington.
Karl Pilkington is a thirty-something born and raised in a working-class family from Manchester. He began his rise to fame at the Ricky Gervais Show on XFM (also featuring Gervais’s co-writer Steve Merchant – writers of the award-winning comedies The Office and Extras) gained steady popularity. Karl attracted further attention after Ricky made reference to him at the end of his stand routine, Politics. He recorded a brief discussion with Karl and added it in as as extra on the DVD of Politics thus raising awareness of Karl outside of the XFM fan base.
Ricky and Steve went on to record a series of twelve half-hour podcasts where they chatted with Pilkington about life, the universe and everything. The shows were available as free downloads through the Guardian website; the shows were so popular, receiving hundreds of thousands of downloads per week, they broke the world record for “most downloaded podcast”. Several months later they went on to record a second series of the podcast, this time recording only six episodes and charging a nominal amount for them. This time they were made them available through audible.co.uk and itunes. The Gervais / Merchant / Pilkington combination has become so popular it has achieved world-wide recognition and fans of Karl Pilkington are selling merchandise online featureing his “round, bald, Manc head” – a feature of Karl’s anatomy Ricky is famous for ridiculing.
What makes Karl Pilkington so funny?
His upbringing. Karl often regales Ricky and Steve with stories of his Manchester upbringing. His stories of growing up are comical in a way akin to Peter Kay stand-up. Any Briton born in the last few decades out of the upper classes can relate to the anecdotes – there are lots of them and they are expertly told.
Karl on his mum stroking a bee:
“She’d been out, sunny day and that. Got the washing off the washing line. She was bringing it in. Little bee sat on the top of the bed sheet or whatever it was. And she was in the kitchen with it and she goes, ‘look at that, little bee there’. And she started sort of stroking its head. And it loved it . . . it must have been a bit dozy, they get a bit dozy don’t they in the heat and that? And it stayed there on the sheet and she stroked its head for a bit. And she had to put it out, it didn’t go out. It didn’t try and escape. It was like: you’ve had enough now. And that was that, she sent it out.”
His lack of knowledge and understanding. Ricky studied Philosophy at University College London whereas Karl shirked much of the learning opportunities school afforded him. This chemistry is often the driving force behind discussions on the various shows. Ricky is clearly passionate and well-read on the philosophical and scientific theories they discuss whereas Karl continues to misunderstand and to misinterpret them.
Karl on Pavlov
“It’s like that fella who kept hitting the dog on the head with a stick . . . he kept doing it and eventually the dog went ‘I’m sick of this’ and wandered off.”
His opinions. Ricky comments on his Politics DVD that Karl has an opinion on everything. It’s evident how true this is from just a few minutes of listening to any of the shows. Ricky and Steve can broach the dullest and most mundane subjects and Karl will make a statement or ask a question that throws things into a new and hilarious light. Karl’s opinions are best personified in his diary which Steve reads from in the later shows.
Karl on the death of the Pope
“It’s the way they also said they’ve now got a new pope. He’s hardly new is he? Why didn’t they learn from the last one? They keep taking on old people! Me dad couldn’t even get a gig in B and Q and he’s only 60!”
Karl’s features. Ricky and Steve entrust Karl with the responsibility of coming up with the show’s quizzes and news features. The great thing about Karl’s games is that he thinks of the name first and then comes up with the structure of a game. Their most common Game is Rockbusters where Karl makes a“cryptic”clue of an artist of a band that the listeners have to get. He helps them out by giving them the initial(s) of the band or artist. Ricky constantly questions the use of the term “cryptic” and quite rightly so. For example one clue is, “The Jamaican fella didn’t want anything” and the initials of the artist or band are ND. The answer: Neil Diamond. Why? (This gives you an inkling into how “cryptic” the clues are) He didn’t want anything so he hasn’t got any demands . . . what’s another word for ‘No’ . . . nil . . . so he’s got nil demands . . . nil demand . . imagine the accent . . . Neil Diamond . . . some of them really are that tenuous. The best feature of all though has to be Monkey News, where Karl relates a story of spurious origin about a monkey doing . . . anything really. The hilarity is the mangled way in which the so-called facts are presented. You can measure the ludicrousness of Monkey News by some of the antics the monkeys are involved in: riding horses for gangsters, raiding banks, playing bass guitar, fire-fighting, building skyscrapers . . .
Karl on the monkey that went into space
“He went up there. He came back. He could never get that high again – you know what I mean? He tried other things. I think he tried to get a band together.”
To a varying degree Karl Pilkington has been accused of being artificial. They vary from saying Karl is an exaggerated version of an actual person to being a complete fabrication of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The most famous example of the latter is that of Chris Campling of the Times Online. Campling comments that because Karl “is never at a loss for words and is never thrown by Gervais cackling at him like a demented hen, and it all says only one thing to me: scripted”. Some of the grounds Campling uses for the shows being scripted are quite convincing. Some of the dialog is inconsistent, some of the material is repeated from one series of shows to another and the fact Karl is never lost for words and makes such funny comments on a live radio show does rouse suspicion. Make your mind up for yourself. They trio are so funny though it begs the question:does it really matter?
Love him or hate him Karl Pilkington has achieved cult status. The real question to ponder is not whether Karl is real or not but how much we credit Merchant and Gervais for the comedy. Even then, if Karl is fictional he’s the funniest man in the world and if he’s not . . . he’s the funniest man in the world.