Analysing Karl

Dim-witted, daft and often described as being paradoxically the funniest man alive and an idiot, Karl Pilkington has been propelled into the hearts of the nation with a unique brand of comedy that he himself often doesn’t realise he's instigated.

Or does he? This is a question that has been circulating (unanswered) among pub circles and with friends ever since Ricky Gervais' podcasts first became popular. Even though he is purposefully branded as a "bald-headed buffoon", is the man behind the onslaught of witticisms an idiot, or is he actually some sort of comic genius?

Yes

Some of the best comedy buffoons' to come out of Britain are geniuses. Sacha Baron Cohen, John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson and many more have all forged their own brand of whacky comedy and are all, consequentially, Oxbridge educated.

Gervais (University College London) and Merchant (University of Warwick) are also from Ivy-League type Universities, but their paths met when they joined xfm under the guidance of producer Karl Pilkington, who was later revealed (on the show) to have little more than one GCSE.

But it's not the grades that make the genius, and as John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Bill Gates will tell you, University isn’t everything. What makes Karl appear to be genius-like to me is his ability to regurgitate the same brand of humour with such prowess on a consistent basis.

Phrases such as "parrots have gone a bit quiet since pirates have gone", or his stance on art "Stop looking at the walls, look out the window," are not the remarks of a simpleton, but the remarks of a genius imitating a simpleton for comedic value. 

And Gervais would certainly know a lot about that. His portrait of fictional character David Brent was so life-like it was almost true, and he could have easily taken the same character to interviews and into other roles making us all believe that he himself really was the boss from hell.

In my mind, the question with Karl all boils down to consciousness. Does he know he's doing it? And the likelihood of that is that yes, he does. After multiple podcasts, a HBO series and a few trips around the world, you start to think it's too much of a good thing to be a coincidence.

 Ok, maybe his character has also morphed into his own personality, but no more than Brent has rubbed off on all of us. We often take on the role of comedians to make our own comedy accessible. Whether it be Brent, Keith Lemon or Borat, joking through established comedy characters is a standard part of our lives, and as Karl is the founder of his own comedy character, it's hardly surprising that he'd keep up the act.

No

He would be laughed out of an Oxbridge interview and he has never shown the slightest sign of being intelligent.

But!...

He is painted out to be thick, and he's not paid to say anything intelligent. Just like you wouldn’t expect Borat to recite the works of Albert Einstein, Karl is a character which uses the notion of not being intelligent to fulfil a purpose. And in this way, Gervais and Merchant will do all they can to push idiot stereotypes on him.  

Bald headed buffoon, chimpanzee Karl and the rest of the witty putdowns play into the hands of his character. The questions are hardly standard either. Each one is designed to open up the creative- albeit misshaped- avenues of Karl’s mind, digging away at which animal he’d most like to talk to, or how we’d wash up if we didn’t have thumbs.  

In my mind, Karl is not an idiot, not abroad nor at home, he is a comedic genius that has forged a type of character comedy that uses the notion of stupidity as a platform. He might not have a Nobel Prize in his future, but in comedy realms, he will long be remembered for consistently performing at the highest level using a unique brand of comedy, and that my friends, is not the work of an idiot. 

By Jack Peat