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Is Karl Pilkington 'Real'?

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StuBurns said:
It's bullshit. Lots of his stories from the podcast are featured in the XFM show with elements changed as if to improve the comedy, and there are multiple takes on the podcast despite them claiming there wasn't. I'm not even sure they met how they claim because in an early XFM broadcast Gervais said "in the years I've known you", after it had only been months.

I'm not saying he isn't kind of stupid, but it's certainly an act.
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Plus half the time Gervais is trying to convince people that Karl is real. It gets old.
 
For those that haven't heard it, when they are accused of Karl being a character made up by Ricky and Steve, their explanation was something like "If we made Karl up, why would we waste him on a tinpot radio with a couple hundred listeners?". It's a fair point.

StuBurns said:
It's bullshit. Lots of his stories from the podcast are featured in the XFM show with elements changed as if to improve the comedy, and there are multiple takes on the podcast despite them claiming there wasn't. I'm not even sure they met how they claim because in an early XFM broadcast Gervais said "in the years I've known you", after it had only been months.

I'm not saying he isn't kind of stupid, but it's certainly an act.
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I have no recollection of this, and I'd imagine I would have picked up on it or heard about it before. I don't suppose you have a link/show date for that?

Edit: tried to Google it, but found this comment on the same question as this thread asks on Reddit:
I saw an interview with Ricky Gervais (on the Daily Show?) and he said that when Karl started he was exactly like that, but now he's a lot more self aware and plays up to the image.

As you would expect, really.
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DerZuhälter;136422952 said:
C'mon people.

Who in his right mind would believe Chimpanzee News? It's an act.
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That's another bullshit thing. When it's introduced, it's Gervais that loves chimps, saying they'd be the dream pet, and Karl wants a scorpion or something. Gervais's claims to start monkey news, then later Karl does, and Gervais claims Karl stole it from the XFM breakfast show.
 
Never watched or seen him before, but I just listened to the blind date one, holy shit, that was hilarious.

I need more, I'm going to watch an idiot abroad, and obligatory -

CF4EXlb.gif


Love that GIF.
 
SixFourMike said:
For those that haven't heard it, when they are accused of Karl being a character made up by Ricky and Steve, their explanation was something like "If we made Karl up, why would we waste him on a tinpot radio with a couple hundred listeners?". It's a fair point.
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Not really? They went on to use him for a lot of things beyond that radio show.
 
So many incredible moments in the XFM shows. Still listen to a couple of them every day at work. On repeated listens, the podcasts don't stand up nearly as much as the radio shows

'You're a maniac!'


Seriously, if you haven't listened to them, and listen to podcasts, download them. They're stunning.
 
yes he is, i have listed to almost every XFM podcast, read all his books, seen pretty much every show he's been in, and he's never been any different. Nobody is that good an actor and in character for so many years, he's just himself, and that's why everyone loves him.
 
Rapstah said:
Not really? They went on to use him for a lot of things beyond that radio show.
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I find it hard to believe someone would use a character introduced slowly on a radio show that barely had any listeners then continue to use him every Saturday for 3 years before doing the podcasts for however long before An Idiot Abroad. For one thing they stopped the radio show to film season 2 and the Christmas specials of The Office, so for them to write the radio shows as well as their TV work and Ricky's stand up material would have been, again, far too much work for the reward.

If it did turn out to be fake, then it would be the greatest and most elaborate deception of all fucking time.
 
Definitely not an act. If anything, the guy at this point in his career knows the shit he says is funny... but you can tell when he's close to laughing. Though even half the stuff he still says he believes.
 
Yes he's real, I've listened to everything they've done, there's no way you can fake the stuff from the XFM shows. Though as Ricky has said, nowadays he's more self aware.

Yeah some of his stories (and Steve's) are different every time you hear them but do you honestly remember everything you said and did years ago? It's not like they listen back to the shows regularly like some people.

It did disappoint me that Karl said recently that it wasn't his dad who put the kid in the wheelie bin and it was someone his dad knew.
 
I reckon the number of people who believe it's fake correlates with the number of people who haven't listened to the XFM days.

Slowdive said:
Yes he's real, I've listened to everything they've done, there's no way you can fake the stuff from the XFM shows. Though as Ricky said, nowadays he's more self aware.

Yeah some of his stories (and Steve's) are different every time you hear them but do you honestly remember everything you said and did years ago? It's not like they listen back to the shows regularly like some people.

It did disappoint me that Karl said recently that it wasn't his dad who put the kid in the wheelie bin and it was someone his dad knew.
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Nooo! Maybe he's just saying that to get his Dad off the hook.
 
I've listened to everything (XFM shows through podcasts, Guide Tos, one-off podcasts), easily more than 10 times through. It is plainly clear that Karl is real as you go through the discovery of his strange mentality especially in the earliest XFM shows.

Certainly as time goes on and especially into the podcasts they retread some material. They also present him with situations that they know he'll react strangely to. And there are some instances when they seem to be rehashing conversations they had off-air, trying to keep them fresh for the listener but do come off a bit contrived. Through all of that I think Karl is a little bit in on the joke as time goes one, but I don't think there's much if anything you can point at and say isn't genuine.
 
Just remembered that XFM episode where Karl gets it in his head that the Eric Clapton song 'Wonderful Tonight' is about a guy in a wheelchair. They go through the whole song and there's absolutely nothing to suggest that it's about a disabled guy. Always cracks me up that one.
 
Loved the XFM material; I need to relisten!

Between Karl's philosophies and Ricky's laugh, I always end up in tears.
 
If you want real Karl Pilkington listen the last half of season 1 or the full season 2 of the xfm show where he really starts coming out of his shell.
 
Daffy Duck said:
Is there a link to good quality ones?
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Nothing strictly legal anymore. They were widely available for years until somebody either Gervais or XFM started pursuing it.

Still easily obtained though. And frankly considering you can't buy them anywhere and likely never will be able to I would never criticize someone for downloading them.
 
QuicheFontaine said:
Just remembered that XFM episode where Karl gets it in his head that the Eric Clapton song 'Wonderful Tonight' is about a guy in a wheelchair. They go through the whole song and there's absolutely nothing to suggest that it's about a disabled guy. Always cracks me up that one.
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oh my god, I just listened to that one. Hilarious.

"It's time to go home now, and I've got an aching h..."
"LEG"
 
He's definitely real, although sometimes he plays up the 'thick manc twat' schtick like when he tells a Monkey News story that is purposefully laughable.
 
QuicheFontaine said:
Just remembered that XFM episode where Karl gets it in his head that the Eric Clapton song 'Wonderful Tonight' is about a guy in a wheelchair. They go through the whole song and there's absolutely nothing to suggest that it's about a disabled guy. Always cracks me up that one.
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But there's also nothing that suggest that he ISN'T! ;) I mean there are some lines that I could see making Karl belive this. Her being so caring, and driving home (because he's drunk!)
Anyway whenever I hear that song nowadays I see it in my head as a disabled guy in a wheelchair...
 
I like the XFM shows especially given their relative stature now (and the fact that XFM was basically a shambles back then). The idea of them doing a radio show where Ricky Gervais talks on the phone to Stephen Merchant whilst he's in McDonalds buying burgers to stuff in Karls face in the next segment is quite funny.
 
Altazor said:
oh my god, I just listened to that one. Hilarious.

"It's time to go home now, and I've got an aching h..."
"LEG"
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Bahaha, best part

Lach said:
But there's also nothing that suggest that he ISN'T! ;) I mean there are some lines that I could see making Karl belive this. Her being so caring, and driving home (because he's drunk!)
Anyway whenever I hear that song nowadays I see it in my head as a disabled guy in a wheelchair...
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Lol, me too actually
 
Daffy Duck said:
Is there a link to good quality ones?
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Just search "xfm gervais series x episode y" on youtube. The actual first episodes with Karl including one where he forgot to turn the microphones on can't be found anywhere but the vast majority of XFM eps are on Youtube. Most episodes are about 45 minutes but the first one available is only 20.

It's a few episodes before Karl starts getting involved.
 
SixFourMike said:
Really? I've been through them all at least 3 times now and I don't remember ever hearing that. I don't suppose you have a link or remember which show it was, do you? I remember Karl getting the hump of course, and you can clearly hear "I hate him/it!" as it starts to fade out, and that's when they made the rules about Ricky only being allowed to squeeze his head between 1 and 3.
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That might be it and just me remembering it differently tbh, will try and see if i can find it.
 
Slowdive said:
Yes he's real, I've listened to everything they've done, there's no way you can fake the stuff from the XFM shows. Though as Ricky has said, nowadays he's more self aware.

Yeah some of his stories (and Steve's) are different every time you hear them but do you honestly remember everything you said and did years ago? It's not like they listen back to the shows regularly like some people.

It did disappoint me that Karl said recently that it wasn't his dad who put the kid in the wheelie bin and it was someone his dad knew.
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This is just not a good excuse.

It covers somethings, but not others. First time he talks about his Dad's friends, and there's Jimmy the Hat, they ask if he always wore a hat, and Karl says he didn't see him wear one, but he didn't see him that much, and they joke that maybe it's ironic. So when the story reappears, that's actually why he had the nickname. They tried a piece of material, they riffed on it, and the modified version was repeated.

I'll give you an even more blatant one. Anecdotes in the first person are more effective, a common theme in comedy writing is always tell story style jokes in the first person. So when Karl says his dad met a man that looks like Ken Dodd, and said 'nice to meet you Ken', it's not nearly as effective as when Karl later tells the story and makes himself the person who met the guy.

Memory isn't accurate, but it won't put you in a place your dad was. Maybe it happened to his dad, maybe it never happened, I have no idea, but it's blatantly purely comedy when it's repeated from the first person.

Other clear indications it's bullshit is characters who are attributed to things. Like when he first talks about getting a mattress from the back of a van, it's one of his dad's friends. Then when they've established his 'uncle' that has two TVs and sleeps in a boat, it becomes his old mattress, because it's a comical addition to the sleeping in a boat thing.

He says things which blatantly contradict other things. He said his dad cut a mattress, which fucked it up, so he had to replace it and the catalog company ripped him off. Then magically he suddenly has it again years later.

We'll never really know, but massive amounts of the show are completely made up. His brother never stole a tank, his dad didn't crash a train, and his friend doesn't live in a hole in the dirt.
 
I listened to a few of the podcast episodes and stopped listening. It all just seemed like an act and I wasn't getting any enjoyment out of it. Now if it was something like Comedy Bang Bang where he's clearly playing a character and everyone on the show is in on it, that I could get behind. But hearing Gervais be completely beside himself from the absurd things he says got old real fast.

Honestly, it's why I don't find 90% of standup comedians funny. Stop trying to pretend all of these crazy stories happened to you and be real.
 
I've got the complete Ricky Gervais podcast/radio show back catalogue and will NEVER tire of listening to them over and over again. Pure genius.
 
StuBurns said:
This is just not a good excuse.

It covers somethings, but not others. First time he talks about his Dad's friends, and there's Jimmy the Hat, they ask if he always wore a hat, and Karl says he didn't see him wear one, but he didn't see him that much, and they joke that maybe it's ironic. So when the story reappears, that's actually why he had the nickname. They tried a piece of material, they riffed on it, and the modified version was repeated.

I'll give you an even more blatant one. Anecdotes in the first person are more effective, a common theme in comedy writing is always tell story style jokes in the first person. So when Karl says his dad met a man that looks like Ken Dodd, and said 'nice to meet you Ken', it's not nearly as effective as when Karl later tells the story and makes himself the person who met the guy.

Memory isn't accurate, but it won't put you in a place your dad was. Maybe it happened to his dad, maybe it never happened, I have no idea, but it's blatantly purely comedy when it's repeated from the first person.

Other clear indications it's bullshit is characters who are attributed to things. Like when he first talks about getting a mattress from the back of a van, it's one of his dad's friends. Then when they've established his 'uncle' that has two TVs and sleeps in a boat, it becomes his old mattress, because it's a comical addition to the sleeping in a boat thing.

He says things which blatantly contradict other things. He said his dad cut a mattress, which fucked it up, so he had to replace it and the catalog company ripped him off. Then magically he suddenly has it again years later.

We'll never really know, but massive amounts of the show are completely made up. His brother never stole a tank, his dad didn't crash a train, and his friend doesn't live in a hole in the dirt.
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Maybe you're right, I know some stories are definitely exaggerated. Steve's party in Trafalgar Square story changes every time he tells it as well, one time it was because he was so tall they met back at him, and then it was because he was holding some balloons. Also I don't want to be pedantic but the first time Karl told the Ken Dodd story it was him who met him.
 
JoeNut said:
yes he is, i have listed to almost every XFM podcast, read all his books, seen pretty much every show he's been in, and he's never been any different. Nobody is that good an actor and in character for so many years, he's just himself, and that's why everyone loves him.
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This pretty much.

The only thing I've noticed is how the stories are repeated a bit, and ricky will bring them up as if they are new. But I do that too when I'm at dinner and you ask someone a leading question to tell a story vs asking them to recant a tale... Like when his auntie had wind for 5 minutes. Or seeing her broken tennis ball. But from Ep 1 of xfm to Derek (or whatever hes done) at the end of the day he started off an isolated mank. The HBO show seems to be just the XFM shows edited down for effect.

Things like "Do we need em" and White Van Karl really expose that its just some dude. They didn't even let him speak too much early on. When he was actually "producing."

Karl, despite not seeming so, does enjoy the attention when he tells his background stories. But I don't think there is any dishonesty there aside from nicking mars bars. If hes regurgitating a story, its at a request from Ricky/Steve. I do think he embellishes a tad, surely. And he likes getting a rise out of Ricky in this severely weird straight faced way.

The fact that its 2014 and people are still asking means 1 of two things..

1. Karl Dilkington is just severely bone idle.

2. Ricky & Steve are geniuses.
 
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