The World of Karl Pilkington

A collection of some of Karl's best stuff from the podcasts, with one or two extra bits thrown in for good measure. I was familiar with a lot of the stuff because they were used in the animated HBO show, but it is still really funny. However, I think I found it funnier because I could recall the tone of the voices and the comedic timing from the podcasts and TV series. If I was going into this without already being a fan of Karl I don't know if it would come across as well. Because of this, and because it comprises of stuff already used in the podcasts and the HBO show, I would only really recommend this for completists like myself. Karl is bloody funny though.

Wavers between brilliantly funny and a little ho-hum - some of the banter between Steve Merchant and Karl Pilkington is genuinely very good. Ricky Gervais does a good job of playing the character Ricky Gervais (which seems to be the same in everything he is in).

Excellent if you're a Gervais/Merchant fan and, if you aren't, then take pleasure in the fact that you can get through the whole book in a couple of hours.

I'll admit that the presenter's elitism and and smugness really did begin to grate after a while...although maybe that's just part of the joke.

Ricky Gervais presents The World of Karl Pilkington is a book made up of dialogue between Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington, and is in fact, “the best of” The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts featuring Karl. Gervais calls Pilkington “the funniest man I’ve ever met”, and it’s easy to see why.
Karl Pilkington has hilarious takes on subjects such as re-incarnation, overpopulation, travel, metaphors, lazy inventions, and even monkey issues. He gives us such gems as this:

(from his list of Animals We Don’t Need)

“Jellyfish – they don’t know what they are doing. They just float about stinging stuff. They are 97% water, and they are always in water, so why not make em another 3% water and just make em into show more water……..drought sorted.”

This book is over 200 pages in length, and it provides me with non-stop laughter from beginning to end. Ricky and Stephen present Karl with a question to ponder in each segment/chapter, and you can almost envision the concentrated expression on his face as he tries to work out the answer, or how he feels about the subject in the question posed. His delivery suggests he’s either a comedic genius……..or an idiot. Gervais suggests it’s the latter.

Throughout the book, there are humorous illustrations drawn by Pilkington, as well as excerpts from his diary at the end of the book.

For fans of The Ricky Gervais Show, or An Idiot Abroad, (or Karl Pilkington, himself) this book is a must read show less

Karl Pilkington is truly entertaining, whether he wants to be or not. Some may find his thoughts to be utterly insane, but the thoughts are still incredible to hear out. I would strongly recommend reading this after you have listened to all of the podcasts, or watched An Idiot Abroad.

This book is a compilation of transcripts from interviews/conversations Ricky and Stephen had with Karl during the Ricky Gervais podcasts... and I give you fair warning, do NOT read this while drinking a liquid of any kind. It is hysterical... and I bet it would be even better heard live. If you enjoy Gervais' TV shows (The Office, Extras) AND British humor, you'll 'have a laugh' with this book. It was certainly an excellent diversion at the end of our busy, busy Christmas holidays.

On the downside, this book is largely made up of transcript excerpts of The Ricky Gervais Show podcast with only a small amount of material. On the other hand, it is really funny. Basically, if you like English humor, there's a good chance you'd enjoy this book.

If you are a Ricky and Co podcast fan, then this is wonderful! Full of quirky drawings and lists such as "which animals are useless" it's a sidesplitting read. You can actually imagine Karl's mumbling voice as you read.