Customer Reviews

The World of Karl Pilkington

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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!).

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!

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.

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.

I bought this as my 1st kindle book love the idiot abroad loved the podcasts. The guy is the stupidest genius in the world and his views are fascinating good podcast re-read

Just as funny to read as to listen to. Laugh out loud stuff, Karl's view of the world is certainly entertaining and unique.

I hate reading books in a play or screen-type setting and this is how this book is published. I love all these gentlemen (perhaps too much), and wanted to read their interactions but alas... 2006, Where was I 5 years ago?

The book transcribes some of the best of Karl Pilkington from the podcasts as well as one or two from the XFM days (horse in the house!). So no new material here but you get to see lots of Karl's drawings and photostatic images of his diary (he writes in CAPITAL LETTERS). If you love Karl then you'll love the book, simple as that. A funny read for when you're on the can but nothing more. That said the brilliance of the three shine through better via audio as you get to hear Ricky's impersonations and near constant hysterical laughter, and Karl's heavy Manc accent making ordinary sounding words funnier ("there's a lot of faffin'", "grippage", "rum'n'gin"). It's still funny to read though even if you're familiar with the anecdotes and makes for an easy and funny read. And it's only a penny on marketplace! Alright?

I was infact looking forward to this book , me being a huge fan of the podcasts and XFM shows and all !

I was hoping to looking forward for some new content/material from the mind of Karl Pilkington , but I have heard everything in this book before on podcasts / XFM radio show recordings. I was hoping they'de at least be compiled in a different way ( I was hoping this to be a complete publication to be karls' diary entries actually ) than just a direct quoting of what was said on show.

But the problem is , after listening to the podcasts / XFM recordings so many times ... reading it in book form , just isn't as funny as listening to the trio in audio format, as there are many missing elements/energy in audio form that make this material all the more funny.

I was hoping for more of Karls wisdom on a wider range of topics ... not a rerun.

There is some new content in a way however ..... the charming illustrations and handwriting of Karl Pilkington himself !

His illustrations are just full of character , just like himself !

I'm actually rather impressed , and think Karl should go into illustrating and maybe writing childrens books ! Because his style would suit it ! Or even a cartoonist in a newspaper !

Karls' illustrations alone make this book worth a look at for any podcast/XFM fans !

But who knows what the rest of the world will make of the strange observations/thoughts that can be found in this book.

Unfortunatly no new real content though , besides seeing the handwriting and artwork of Karl himself ..... but that alone is probably enough to warrant a purchase for those that long time fans of Karl !

When I brought this book, i expected it to be full of Mr Pilkington's "unique" views on the world around him but instead i was thoroughlly disappointed. All this book contains are conversations from the first series of the Ricky Gervais' podcast, which can be easily downloaded for free on itunes. Now and again the book will offer a page or two of Mr Pilkington's exclusive ideas which haven't been heard anywhere else, but it isn't an aspect that is worth the money. If you really want the full potential of this book then you should just download the podcast because at least then you can get the full potential of Mr Pilkington's "genius."