Karl Pilkington is finally getting his own sitcom
"I find that if you just talk, your mouth comes up with stuff."
Karl Pilkington is getting his own self-penned sitcom on Sky 1 - a look into the life he might have led if he’d never met Ricky Gervais or Stephen Merchant or appeared on the Ricky Gervais podcast.
Karl Pilkington: Sick of It, written by Pilkington and Richard Yee, follows a fictionalised version of Pilkington - a middle-aged man dumped by his long-term partner and forced to move back in with his elderly aunt.
Karl’s “closest companion” is the voice in his own head – a misanthropic “inner self” that says what Karl is really thinking without offending anyone around him.
The voice “guides, criticises and dispenses his unorthodox philosophy of life”.
“For most people the inner self is there to help make decisions but mine mainly confuses me and pushes me in the wrong direction,” Pilkington said. “I’d say that doing this series was inner self’s idea. I’ve only just realised that I’m playing myself twice but only being paid once. Like I say, my inner self doesn’t really look out for me.”
The show is one of a bunch of new comedy shows due to appear on Sky – other shows include The Reluctant Landlord, comedian Romesh Ranganathan’s new sitcom.
“As well as starring, Karl and Romesh will each write these often personal (but always funny) stories that will sit in a new 10pm half hour slot that’s dedicated to edgier and more mischievous comedies,” a spokesperson from Sky said.
But to tide you over before the new show starts, here are a few of Karl Pilkington’s best moments.
- “[Jellyfish] are 97% water or something, so how much are they doing? Just give them another 3% and make them water. It’s more useful.”
- “It would be spiteful to put a jellyfish in a trifle.”
- “The other day I was thinking - because I get a lot of headaches - I was wondering whether the head should be where it is. Because, at the end of the day, it’s probably the heaviest part of your body, right? And yet it’s at the top as opposed to, I don’t, dangling at the bottom somewhere.”
- “I really can’t believe what a state the Pyramids are in. I thought they had flat rendered sides, but when you get up close, you see how they are just giant boulders balanced on top of each other, like a massive game of Jenga that has got out of hand.”
- “There is no need for ants to have the ability to fly”
- “If you sit in a bath of pineapple chunks, it can kill you. That’s well documented.”
- “Neil Armstrong, that spaceman, he went to the moon but he ain’t been back. It can’t have been that good.”
- “Parrots have gone a bit quiet since pirates have gone.”
- “A slug is always on its own. It’s a lonely insect.”
(Image: Rex)
