Whatever Happened To: Karl Pilkington

[Seagullsim]

Well? Plucked from his nice, secure radio producers job, created and manipulated by Gervais, to a point where he was everywhere a few years ago - writing books, doing travel shows, acting in sitcoms etc. Now what? I remember a trailer for a new Sky sitcom back at new year, to be screened 'early 2018', yet I don't think it's ever come to light.

Has he disappeared?

[Famous Mortimer]

Hopefully he realised the transitory nature of his super-fame and saved his money.

[Zetetic]

Rumours that Sick of It has been prevented from broadcast following a superinjunction relating to the depiction of sexual assault during the production of a comedy podcast are completely unfounded.

[Shit Good Nose]

I love how these days if a celeb isn't mentioned for about 6 months they've either given up on life, disappeared off the face of the earth, or their careers have hit rock bottom.  Or all three.

[Replies From View]

I love how these days if a celeb isn't mentioned for about 6 months they've either given up on life, disappeared off the face of the earth, or their careers have hit rock bottom.  Or all three.

So you're saying he's been working on Sgt Pepper?

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

He Pilked too soon.

[Famous Mortimer]

I love how these days if a celeb isn't mentioned for about 6 months they've either given up on life, disappeared off the face of the earth, or their careers have hit rock bottom.  Or all three.

Do you? That seems a strange thing to love.

[Shit Good Nose]

Do you? That seems a strange thing to love.

Yep.  Gives me the right horn.

[tag]wanking thread[/tag]

[Custard]

Didn't he say he wants to sod off after that last series of his "documentary" show? I swear I saw him say that on some TV interview

He strikes me as someone who knew very well that it wasn't gonna last forever, and didn't really seem too arsed about it either. I bet he made a sizable amount of money from it all, and he's the tightest man on earth, so he can probably live quite well of it for the rest of his life

I still think An Idiot Abroad and The Moaning Of Life are great. Far funnier than anything Gervais has done in the last 15 years.

And I mention Gervais cos this is CaB, and it's the law

[Ignatius_S]

Sick of It is due to be shown in Autumn. I don't recall Sky saying it was going to be early 2018, but if it did, it's not unusual for a show's transmission date to be later than what's initially touted. My memory might be playing tricks but pretty sure that this was the case with Car Share and there was some speculation here that this indicated the show was a turkey - there was certainly some discussion about 'what happened to Peter Kay?'

[Ignatius_S]

I love how these days if a celeb isn't mentioned for about 6 months they've either given up on life, disappeared off the face of the earth, or their careers have hit rock bottom.  Or all three.

Or haven't been on telly - quite common for that to mean they couldn't be working on anything else.

[yesitsme]

I heard Karl Pilkington is seriously ill.

Pillkington if you will.

Pwillinkgton.

[gmoney]

I remember a trailer for a new Sky sitcom back at new year, to be screened 'early 2018', yet I don't think it's ever come to light.

It's due to air in September.

[Malcy]

Yeah I don't see the point in this. He had up coming projects and he isn't really a media whore so he'll appear when he has something and I don't doubt it will be brilliant.really looking g forward to it. Thing is with Sky, they announce stuff ages in advance then it appears 18 months later and you go 'ohhhh yeah, I remember hearing about this'.

[Replies From View]

The problem with Karl Pilkington is that since 2001 he's had about ten ideas and he's used them all up in exactly this way:  at least twice each on Xfm; once each on the Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, repeated in animated form; once each in those short Channel 4 musings; once each on An Idiot Abroad and once more each on Moaning of Life.

Sick of It will be a checklist of let's get rid of jellyfish, king size twix are massive for dwarves, put sausages in a toaster, have toad forced on you, a white wedding should be in a laundrette, some elderly Aunt farting for five whole minutes, shaving a cat to make cleaning it easier, being fascinated with insects/lizards and assume they want to be fed hobnobs, misunderstanding evolution in a range of silly ways, and a childhood fight over something trivial.

I'd love to be proved wrong.

[Brundle-Fly]

Apparently, he made a couple of million out the shows and books so I'm sure he's quite alright.

[The Lion King]

The problem with Karl Pilkington is that since 2001 he's had about ten ideas and he's used them all up in exactly this way:  at least twice each on Xfm; once each on the Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, repeated in animated form; once each in those short Channel 4 musings; once each on An Idiot Abroad and once more each on Moaning of Life.

Sick of It will be a checklist of let's get rid of jellyfish, king size twix are massive for dwarves, put sausages in a toaster, have toad forced on you, a white wedding should be in a laundrette, some elderly Aunt farting for five whole minutes, shaving a cat to make cleaning it easier, being fascinated with insects/lizards and assume they want to be fed hobnobs, misunderstanding evolution in a range of silly ways, and a childhood fight over something trivial.

I'd love to be proved wrong.

I'd say the moaning of life dug him out of that xfm/podcast idiot savant rut and he became much more human and very likeable. He is great without Ricky Gervais, look forward to seeing his sitcom

[Replies From View]

I'd say the moaning of life dug him out of that xfm/podcast idiot savant rut and he became much more human and very likeable. He is great without Ricky Gervais, look forward to seeing his sitcom

I agree about Moaning of Life, but I hope it represents the very last of him reusing his old ideas/observations.

[Enzo]

Sick of It is due to be shown in Autumn. I don't recall Sky saying it was going to be early 2018, but if it did, it's not unusual for a show's transmission date to be later than what's initially touted. My memory might be playing tricks but pretty sure that this was the case with Car Share and there was some speculation here that this indicated the show was a turkey - there was certainly some discussion about 'what happened to Peter Kay?'

Dead, mate.

[DSBoy]

Here's the trailer now:
https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/karl_pilkington_sick_of_it/

Hmm... not sure, but I'll give it a go.

[Artemis]

As other have implied, he's always been a bit of a one trick pony, and the trailer for 'Sick of It' follows that trend. Ostensibly someone thrust into the limelight because Gervais found him funny, he was great when fresh on the radio show/podcasts, but it's been diminishing returns. For as long as there's an audience willing to put up with variations of the same theme, I guess he'll have a product.

[phes]

I'd love to be proved wrong.

Me too. He fits into that category of people who I enjoy watching and am relatively happy to do so without picking everything apart. But as Artemis points out, if it's just another iteration of the same components then I think even for me it'll wear thin.

I'm very encouraged though by the idea that it will be exploring a side of Karl that it barely ever apparent, his positive side. I really hope this adds some depth to it and is not just a gimmick

[Ptyx]

btw, any update as to why Gervais stopped mentioning Pilkington and Merchant? Did they really have some sort of fallout?

[Noodle Lizard]

btw, any update as to why Gervais stopped mentioning Pilkington and Merchant? Did they really have some sort of fallout?

They've all sort of said the same thing:  "We're just following our own things now".  But it's not especially convincing, since Gervais would tweet constantly about his bald little manc friend until he suddenly (wisely) left Derek at the beginning of season 2, despite his character obviously being prominent in the entire season's script, his lines and subplots hastily re-purposed for Kev ("I build robots now, Derek").  Merchant admitting he hadn't even been asked about the David Brent movie - as well as it not including even allusions to any characters Merchant had a part in creating - makes me all the more certain that they don't talk at all anymore.

[up_the_hampipe]

Gervais said he wrote Karl out of Derek because he was too nervous about acting http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a563364/ricky-gervais-on-karl-pilkington-derek-exit-he-was-too-nervous-to-act/#~pawrlWfKUxkOIk

And now he's acting in the leading role of his own sitcom. Hmmm.

[Dead Soon]

Gervais said he wrote Karl out of Derek because he was too nervous about acting http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a563364/ricky-gervais-on-karl-pilkington-derek-exit-he-was-too-nervous-to-act/#~pawrlWfKUxkOIk

And now he's acting in the leading role of his own sitcom. Hmmm.

Acting. He wasn't fucking acting. You could have comprised virtually all of Dougie's footage from behind-the-scenes, pre-take, post-take moaning from the genuine Karl.

[Mobius]

Yeah it doesn't really make sense because Karl had been on camera loads by that point. He's never struck me as nervous, more just 'not arsed' plus if he was nervous why would be be talking loads on radio every week when as a producer that wasn't his job, plus doing little comedy things on channel 4, chat show appearances.

I thought Karl basically said at the time he stopped doing Derek because Ricky kept holding him down and farting on him.

[Clownbaby]

That sounds a lot more plausible to be fair

[Timothy]

Trailer for new Pilkington show is up.

My only comment:

Rudy from Misfits was great wasn't he?