Karl Pilkington (born September 23, 1972 in Manchester, England)
is an English radio producer perhaps best known for producing the
radio show that brought together the writers
of The Office, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.


Pilkington was initially an off-air producer of the show, which
was broadcast on Xfm, but his antics and opinions soon led to
him joining Merchant and Gervais on-air. Some of Pilkington's most
popular contributions to the show include Monkey News (news which is
supposed to be about monkeys, but is almost always about
chimpanzees), Rockbusters (which is really 'Blockbusters' with a
word change), Do We Need Them?, Cheeky Freak of the Week and Songs of Phrase.


Pilkington is sometimes mentioned in Ricky Gervais interviews,
and is often on the receiving end of Gervais's practical jokes.
In addition, Pilkington appears in a twenty minute interview on
Ricky Gervais's live standup comedy DVD, Politics.


Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington were reunited for a six-week
weekend slot on Xfm that ended on July 2, 2005.


Karl is frequently referred to by Ricky Gervais as 'a little
baldy manc'. It should be noted that Ricky has a particular
obsession with squeezing Karl's head -a habit Ricky developed
on the skull of comedian Robin Ince. Stephen Merchant and Karl
have a difficult relationship, primarily because Ricky enjoys
provoking Karl into expressing his opinions on Steve being "a
bit odd looking".


Karl's believes most of his stories to be fact, despite
reading about them on the internet, only reading the headlines
and not the whole article. He always forgets important details,
substitutes dates with phrases such as "In the olden days,
right, there was a short hairy fella...". Ricky and Steve insult
and enjoy Karl with equal vigour, mainly for his earnest
conviction while telling his farfetched stories and spurious
theories as though they are fact.

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