The World of Karl Pilkington: Amazon.co.uk: Karl Pilkington, Stephen Merchant, Ricky Gervais: Books

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Karlology by Karl Pilkington
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Happyslapped by a Jellyfish: The Words of Karl Pilkington (Know Your) by Karl Pilkington
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Product Description

Guardian Guide
'Not many idiots could make something this funny.'

Sunday Telegraph
'Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant!'

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comedy(2)

humour(1)

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ricky gervais(1)

Customer Reviews

51 Reviews

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (51 customer reviews)

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45 of 54 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 (Newcastle upon Tyne) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Podcast - Average Book, 23 Sep 2006

By	Alex Hawke - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having listened to all of the Ricky Gervais podcasts and watched the video podcasts. I find myself a little disappointed with the book. I opened it up and almost straight away found myself reading one of the scripts from one of the podcasts. I had heard that some of the book was going to be podcast scripts, but most of this book seems to be podcast scripts. This is somewhat annoying as reading this sort of comedy isn't quite as funny as hearing it, especially when you have already heard it.

This said the book has its good moments, with some hilarious drawings and brilliant diary extracts. Although I would have a look in the book before you actually buy it, so you can decide if it is worth your five pound note or not.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Evening this is the Monkey News., 10 Jan 2007

By	C. Mcsloy "I baptised a dog" (Nowhere in particular today) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I got this for Christmas and read it on Christmas day and Boxing day laughing all the way. Particular highlights are Pilkington's Monkey News story about the zoo keeper who took his mate the monkey home at night with him, and Pilkington's general inability to grasp the non-literal meanings behind popular phrases like "people in glass houses...". Which he thinks means you shouldn't go chucking stuff about.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Funny - You don't need to be a fan of the office
At my advanced age (40) there are very few books nowadays that get me literally laughing out loud. This is one of them. Read more

Published 1 month ago by P. J. Bragg

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun for the idiots amongst us!
I was quite late in joining the world of Podcasting as a fan. My first introduction was The Ricky Gervais Show and within minutes realised the funniest thing about it wasn't... Read more

Published 8 months ago by D. Moore

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing.
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,... Read more

Published 8 months ago by G. Bunch

2.0 out of 5 stars Scripts Of The Podcasts
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... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Sid Roberts

5.0 out of 5 stars Infinite monkeys and the game of swingball
In this book, Karl goes some way to prove Ricky's theory that monkeys can indeed create true works of literary greatness, whilst being hampered by an orange shaped head.

Published 15 months ago by Mr. D. J. J. Daniels

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr K. Dilkington
Karl Dilkington has the worlds roundest head, i mean it, you put karls head next to an orange, and you get confused which is which! Read more

Published 15 months ago by Me D. G. Ellis

5.0 out of 5 stars The start of something...round
This book features some true classics...such as, the big headed frog boys, the pigheaded woman of Manchester square and little gems that will guide you with your life. Read more

Published 15 months ago by S. D. Lambert

5.0 out of 5 stars Pilkoids!!
If you are reading this Ricky I'm a huge fan of you and your work. Even more so of karl and his citrus based cranium.

1. What would Karl do if he was a slug? Read more

Published 15 months ago by J. Harwood

5.0 out of 5 stars Comic Legend!!!!
Love the book!!! I would be even more impressed with Karl if he did some more podcasts. A true legend!!!

Published 15 months ago by Christopher Fairweather

5.0 out of 5 stars Pilkie for President in '08!
America needs Karl now more than ever. In this upcoming election, we need someone who can tackle the REAL issues that keep Americans up at night. Read more

Published 15 months ago by M. Ginion

› See all 51 customer reviews...

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	58% buy the item featured on this page: The World of Karl Pilkington 3.8 out of 5 stars (51) �7.00
	22% buy Karlology 5.0 out of 5 stars (7) �5.84
	18% buy Happyslapped by a Jellyfish: The Words of Karl Pilkington (Know Your) 4.5 out of 5 stars (34) �7.49
	2% buy Extras - The Special [DVD] 4.7 out of 5 stars (20) �4.98


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