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The World of Karl Pilkington [Hardcover]

Karl Pilkington , Stephen Merchant , Ricky Gervais
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
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Book Description

18 Sep 2006

A collection of the best moments from the ‘Ricky Gervais Show’ with further musings from Karl Pilkington, star of Sky 1’s ‘An Idiot Abroad’.

Karl Pilkington, the Confucian-like savant of the ‘Ricky Gervais Show’, has led an extraordinary and curiously individual life. As a kid growing up in Manchester he regularly missed school to accompany his parents on caravanning holidays and left without collecting his exam results: his family weaned him well.

Pilkington’s is a brilliant mind, locked inside a perfectly round head, and uncluttered by the unhelpful constraints of logic or common sense; factors that have led him to such dazzling insights as ‘you never see old men eating Twix bars’ or that the ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ was ‘an Adrian Mole sort of thing’.

In this pithy and hilarious book, Karl is in conversation with (the often bewildered) Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the writers and stars of ‘The Office’ and ‘Extras’, outwitting even these comedy Goliaths with his take on such contentious issues as charity, the lack of Chinese homeless people, reincarnation, the rights of monkeys and favourite superpowers.

Featuring Karl's original illustrations, imaginative scribblings, full-colour pictures sent in by fans, and the best conversations of the first twelve podcasts, this is a unique trip into the world of one of our most innovative thinkers, visionaries and prophets, or as Gervais and Merchant know him, ‘the funniest man alive in Britain today’.


Frequently Bought Together

The World of Karl Pilkington + Karlology + Happyslapped by a Jellyfish: The words of Karl Pilkington
Price For All Three: £20.68

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 229 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate (18 Sep 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0007240279
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007240272
  • Product Dimensions: 14.9 x 20 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 7,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

‘Not many idiots could make something this funny.’ Guardian

‘Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!’ Sunday Telegraph

Review

`Surely a Christmas best-seller.' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Scripts Of The Podcasts 21 Sep 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
First thing's first: this book is basically scripts of the podcasts. It does have a few cooky drawings and a slither of new content but, for the most part, if you've heard the podcasts, then you've heard this book.

"Happyslapped by a Jellyfish" is much, much better (and cheaper!).
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing. 6 Nov 2008
Format:Hardcover
I am a big fan of karl pilkington but this book was slightly disappointing. There is very little original content and 90% of the book is just transcripts from the podcasts, therefore, if you have ever listened to the podcast you will find yourself just flicking through pages.

If you have not read karls other books i would advise buying them instead of this one, if you have not listened to the podcast i would advise listening to them first and then if you have not had enough buy this book. The content is top notch it is just mostly unoriginal, a full diary would have been a million times better imo!
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50 of 59 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Fans will be disappointed by this lazy cash-in 25 Sep 2006
By Nigel Collier VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover
I'm a big fan of the Podcasts - having subscribed to series 2 and 3 on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed them. Yes, they're very formulaic now but no worse for that - in fact that's the point. The main problem with the World of Karl Pilkington is that it will appeal mainly to the fans of the podcasts, but that audience will perhaps be the most underwhelmed of any reader. The reason is that the book offers very, very little new material.

Comedy spin-off books tend to be either comedy books in their own right containing entirely new, original material (Goodies, New Statesman, Vic Reeves, John Shuttleworth, Young Ones for example) or are pure transcriptions (Porridge, Morcambe & Wise, Rising Damp). The World of Karl Pilkington is better suited to the former but I'm afraid is much more of the latter variety.

I had hoped and expected this book to mainly contain new, previously unbroadcast inane and obtuse musings from the spherical headed sage, with unseen extracts from his diary and fresh Da Vinciesque theories sketched out in his own childish hand (perhaps in an unsavoury faecal medium). Instead the bulk of the book comprises selected transcriptions of the podcasts (in miniscule typeface with massive line spacing on horrible glossy paper).

Script books can be enjoyable but are always ultimately lacking for obvious reasons. Watching Hancock, Barker, Fisher or Rossiter bring scripts and characters to life with their genius performances is superb. But you can still appreciate a Galton & Simpson, Clement & La Frenais, Ian Pattison or Eric Chappell script read cold since it evokes pretty well the performance you're familiar with.

That's where material like the Podcasts falls down: the comedy is almost entirely reliant upon the performance itself and no transcription (especially heavily abridged transcriptions as these are) can do it justice. The immediacy, interplay, context, pauses, corpsing and nuance are all lost. In fact the converse is really true of transcriptions of ad-libbed, dynamic material like this: familiarity with a sit-com can help bring a script to life when you read it yourself whereas familiarity with the podcasts just makes the transcripts feel more lifeless.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars what an idiot
A great read even if you have seen the tv series (the ricky gervais show). Full of facinating pearls of wisdom from the man himself.
Published 29 days ago by Adam Dowding
4.0 out of 5 stars like his humour
I enjoyed this book even though I haven't finished it. I am dipping in and out as that's the sort of book it is. I have read funnier books but I still like it a lot.
Published 1 month ago by Ann M. Owen
5.0 out of 5 stars Even funnier
Again another funny easy read book,if you like the series you will love the books,read both of them on holiday,they make you laugh out loud. Read more
Published 1 month ago by kathleen scott
5.0 out of 5 stars The world of Karl Pilkington
A light read with all the humour you expect from these three. It's a Brilliant read would highly recommend. 10/10
Published 2 months ago by Boo
4.0 out of 5 stars Karl Pilkington is a Leg End
A really funny book I really enjoyed it & I would recommend it fantastic funny book go buy it now
Published 2 months ago by Mike Blake
5.0 out of 5 stars Class :D
Absolutely brilliant is all I can say :) ...you will find yourself laughing out loud throughout the book, each conversation is guaranteed to make you laugh! Read more
Published 3 months ago by Christopher Desmond Edmunds
5.0 out of 5 stars smashing stuff - smashing price
cheers for sending this to me at a good price - my daughter reads littlebut she LOVES thisguy and if it makes her read.... can't ask for more! TA!
Published 3 months ago by mogsie
4.0 out of 5 stars Great but not my kind of book.
I ordered this book after listening to all the Ricky Gervais podcasts featuring Karl. Within doing my research I thought i'd buy the book and read more on the 3 characters. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. B. McMullan
4.0 out of 5 stars The World of Karl Pilkington
Received in time specified and was greatly appreciated by the person we bought it for (an avid Karl fan) who loves collecting hard back books!
Published 3 months ago by Deborah Levett
2.0 out of 5 stars The world of Karl Pilkington
I have no issue with Karl Pilkington per se. However, the pompous and belittling demeanour of Gervais and his sidekick are irritating beyond endurance. Read more
Published 3 months ago by David Nicholson
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