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March 28, 2024, 09:13:22 AM

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Karl Pilkington - Sick Of It

Started by Malcy, July 05, 2018, 10:17:55 AM

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H-O-W-L

Quote from: bgmnts on September 24, 2018, 09:24:44 PM
Yeah I just meant officially, so it was easier to get ahold of and could listen to offline.

There's a big fuckoff torrent (about 5gb) of all their shit on trackers and thereabouts

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Petey Pate on September 24, 2018, 12:34:45 AM
Any others?

Gets sick of pensioners moaning while driving a bus and turfs them all out on the street.
Gets sick of a special needs kid making a fuss while driving kids somewhere and sticks kids in a wheelie bin.

bgmnts

The idea that all along, since the old XFM days, Karl has just been a character depresses me so much.

Thomas

What if we say 'performative exaggeration' instead of 'character'?

Replies From View

Quote from: bgmnts on September 28, 2018, 03:13:37 PM
The idea that all along, since the old XFM days, Karl has just been a character depresses me so much.

To be fair, we did warn you.


Replies From View

Quote from: checkoutgirl on September 28, 2018, 06:41:55 PM
We've been through this.

I know, and it's self-evident enough that it's referenced more broadly nowadays - eg. Ian Boldsworth sometimes winding up Barry Dodds by saying he's "another Karl Pilkington character".

I don't think anyone's seriously doubting it; I merely said that Sick of It draws a line under any remaining argument.

Malcy

Only watched the first one so far but really enjoyed it. He's been putting videos up a bit recently. Latest one is a half hour one.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZZtMqJr6K94&t=19s

trabuch

Only watched one. I enjoyed it and laughed a couple of times (not bad for me). This is going to make re-listening to xfm stuff a bit more interesting. It's encouraging.


Petey Pate

Quote from: BRen on September 28, 2018, 12:28:28 PM
I really enjoyed the first couple of episodes, it reminded me of 15 Storeys High to a certain degree, that sort of bleak but absurd comedy style is something they have in common in my opinion.

And the first episode of both series is about moving a sofa. There was also an episode with a training baby.

I quite liked it.  I'd be curious to what Gervais thinks of it but I imagine he'd never comment on it publicly.

H-O-W-L

I really really liked this. It's sort of not a comedy in the traditional "ha-ha, joke, buildup payoff" way, it's more a comedy in its relatability combined with absurdist mundane-but-slipped setpieces. I really think this shows the brilliance Karl has always had in him for years that was really beaten down and blocked out by Gervais going "HAHA MANK TWONK" in his fucking shithead, classist way.

neveragain

It has a low-rent Curb Your Enthusiasm vibe about it.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: neveragain on October 01, 2018, 12:17:16 AM
It has a low-rent Curb Your Enthusiasm vibe about it.

With really polished production values. Curb had really neutral lighting and the sound was like Eldorado ran through a compressor.


checkoutgirl

Only caught the first episode. Not blown away by it to be honest but it's early days. I feel I should watch the first series to get a proper opinion on it. 15 Storeys is a good comparison though, the feel of it and the locations are similar. I'd say Karl got the idea for the sofa from 15 Storeys if I thought Karl watched that show which I'm sure he does not. Also Karl has a preoccupation with tipping and disposing of rubbish and the related regulations so this is all him. I think he did a bit about getting rid of a sofa on the radio and got miffed about all the questions the charity people were asking him.

Be interesting to see if he can break some new ground in this show.

Trojan_Jockey

Quote from: neveragain on October 01, 2018, 12:17:16 AM
It has a low-rent Curb Your Enthusiasm vibe about it.

Yes, I thought that too, although the stories didn't quite go the typical Curb way. In Curb, Larry would have definitely been caught wanking with the baby in the toilet.

Jockice

And after reading this whole thread twice I am once more forced to admit I don't only not find him funny, I can't even see why other people find him funny. Like Philomena Cunk, I literally don't get it in the slightest. I'm prepared to admit the fault is probably with me though.

bgmnts

I havent seen it but honestly i only find the three funny together. Gervais' first two stand ups were fine (most of the material is stuff from tbe radio show anyway) but honestly its the three of them together that is really funny.


H-O-W-L

Quote from: Jockice on October 01, 2018, 05:48:14 PM
And after reading this whole thread twice I am once more forced to admit I don't only not find him funny, I can't even see why other people find him funny. Like Philomena Cunk, I literally don't get it in the slightest. I'm prepared to admit the fault is probably with me though.

For me it's an almost pre-ghoulish fascination with such a humdrum small-town man being foisted into the limelight by a cunt like Gervais. For me I've never been interested in the Wacky Antics shit or the Lol Monkeys, Airy Fellas N That stuff, I've just been interested in seeing Karl's general perspective on life and his live-a-day attitude. It sounds sneering and look-downy but really it's just interesting to me. I feel Gervais was insufferably cruel to him though, in terms of what he did for Karl's public image. Yes, the man is popular and has made a mint off Gervais's podcasts, but he's popular as That Wacky Complete Fucking Idiot Brain Roundey Head Orange Bloke. Is that worth it, being popular and making money off being a dunce?

Part of why I'm watching this series is I hope Karl gets more chances to make himself some more seriousesque works like this.

Replies From View

But Karl was in on it the whole time when he was being "the round headed manc twat moron".

Constantly just turning everything into LOL SUCH AN IDIOT was weak impro, but still the dynamic and Pilkington's character were worked out between them, and Karl chose the direction it grew in just as much as Gervais and Merchant did.

jobotic

Quote from: H-O-W-L on October 03, 2018, 11:28:42 PM
For me it's an almost pre-ghoulish fascination with such a humdrum small-town man being foisted into the limelight by a cunt like Gervais. For me I've never been interested in the Wacky Antics shit or the Lol Monkeys, Airy Fellas N That stuff, I've just been interested in seeing Karl's general perspective on life and his live-a-day attitude. It sounds sneering and look-downy but really it's just interesting to me. I feel Gervais was insufferably cruel to him though, in terms of what he did for Karl's public image. Yes, the man is popular and has made a mint off Gervais's podcasts, but he's popular as That Wacky Complete Fucking Idiot Brain Roundey Head Orange Bloke. Is that worth it, being popular and making money off being a dunce?

Part of why I'm watching this series is I hope Karl gets more chances to make himself some more seriousesque works like this.

It's an act isn't it? Like John Shuttleworth is? Although I love JS and find Karl Pilkington tedious. Or loads of people - nothing wrong with that but i don't understand why people imagine that's who he is.


the science eel

Of course it's who he is. Fuck off with this crap.

jobotic

Alright mate. He's rubbish anyway.

colacentral

He's only a character in as much as Philip Schofield the Presenter of This Morning is a character. Does no one here play dumb sometimes or say something facetious just because it's funnier than being sincere? That's what Karl does.

Utter Shit

Quote from: Replies From View on September 28, 2018, 07:18:58 PM
I don't think anyone's seriously doubting it; I merely said that Sick of It draws a line under any remaining argument.

Not really. It's equally plausible - I would say more plausible given the way the persona developed - that he discovered his comic voice during the XFM shows and gradually built on it, to the point that he was eventually able to play it as a semi-fictional character. Sick Of It is the natural evolution from real person to exaggerated persona to semi-fictional character.

IMO the key to whether or not you think he's a character is the original iteration of Pilkington, when he was a behind-the-scenes producer on various XFM shows (which I think is important, as he's more or less the same on other shows as he is on the Gervais & Merchant show) with only occasional input. Everything since has been a gradual exaggeration of how he is on that - introverted, seemingly uninterested in being a public figure, slightly grumpy and with an odd view of the world.

I don't think anyone would say he hasn't exaggerated those characteristics over the years for comic effect, but that doesn't mean he's playing a character - as with most stand-up comics (who wouldn't be described as playing character), his persona is just the real him with the dials turned up. The idea that he's playing a character - ie. the persona he presents bears little or no relation to the real him - seems extraordinarily unlikely, particularly as that would mean he was playing a character even as a lowly producer with no major input across a variety of shows.

Don't get me wrong, there was definitely a point where the persona started to feel contrived - I distinctly remember first feeling this during the run of podcasts, but listening back you can start to hear it in in the XFM shows - but I don't think it's accurate to claim he was a character all along. If he was, it suggests an extraordinary level of long-term planning and foresight, as the beginnings of that character are there when he's just a background producer.

To me it seems way more likely that he had an interesting, slightly weird view of the world, someone - presumably Gervais as he was the one pushing it - saw the comic potential and it gradually mushroomed (/got rinsed to absolute fuck) from there.

the science eel

Christ, honestly, have none of you ever met people like this?

I had a good mate at poly - I called him Broom - and he had that same daft-but-funny personality you get with KP. He was from the same part of the world, too (Cheadle Hulme).


Replies From View

QuoteThe idea that he's playing a character - ie. the persona he presents bears little or no relation to the real him

Whose definition of character is this?  It certainly isn't mine.

Utter Shit

Well where are you drawing the line between him being a character and just an extension of himself then?

Replies From View

Quote from: Utter Shit on October 04, 2018, 12:37:51 PM
Well where are you drawing the line between him being a character and just an extension of himself then?

It's to do with repetition and pretence, and the level to which the character develops a backstory that is distinct from Karl's own and can be independently built upon.  This turns it from a persona to a character.

To me, the idea that he isn't a character is the belief that he is a clueless village idiot who doesn't know that he is funny, and during An Idiot Abroad was just filmed doing real things.