Joining me today, we have Stephen Merchant. >Hello. And the

>>92763303

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RICKY, LET HIM SPEAK

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>>92763378
innit weird, I got popular in tinier time than you.

What's Karl's problem anyway?

Look, all I'm sayin' is: Babies. Do we need 'em?

KARL YOU'RE A FUCKING MORON!

>>92763303
>mank

>>92763747
HEAD LIKE A FOOKIN' ORANGE

>>92763303
Where are you guys watching this? The KnobAtNight channel closed a while ago

>tfw you agree with Karl on something
One of the few things that had me question my sanity

>>92763747
he was actually right half the time but had problems expressing things correctly

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>>92766607
>Karl wants to put a giant mirror on the moon to see the earth
>Ricky says it wouldn't matter because the moon rotates
>even though the same side of the moon always faces the Earth

>>92766572
9cartoon

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RIP

turns out, little monkey sitting there

>>92763747


He was raised by weirdos and skipped school a lot.

>>92763747
He caught a human-sized parasite and hasn't been able to shake it off for a decade.
Seriously, fuck Gervais.

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We keep seein' all these people killed on the telly from muslamic terror and that, yeah? But still we're more people on the planet now than we ever were before.

How's that fit together then, huh?

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Is amazing.

>>92763303
>mank
stupid american

>>92763303
>So... There's this Samurai fella, nice guy
>One day this demon... thing, just goes and ruins his family
>He says you know what, I've had enough a' this
>He trains, all his life to kill the demon
>He's just about to do it, then the bloke gets sent to the future last second
>He's not feelin' too good, but he adapts ya know he gets better finds himself a nice girl
>They have a good chat, right
>Turns out she's the demon
>And he's just feelin horrible
>He keeps on living, waits a few decades
>He finds himself another nice girl, thinks to himself this is great yeah?
>Well get this right
>It was the demon again

>>92763747
He was a reasonably intelligent introvert who didn't care about putting on airs or looking smarter than he was. He was paired up with two reasonably intelligent extroverts who really, really cared how the world saw them and constantly stifled themselves to try and be more socially acceptable. They then tried to get Karl to see the world their way and it never worked.

>>92767389
t. Karl

>>92767438
Where are all these 3D Karl pics from?

>>92767470
An Idiot Abroad.

>>92767470
He did two travel shows. One called Idiot Abroad and one called Moaning of Life.

There's also some live action sketches and interviews he's done with Gervais that you can probably find on youtube.

>>92763747

He doesn't think anything through to the end and when he does he arrives at the wrong conclusions.

Is Karl a cration of Ricky and Stephen?
Is he just a comedy genius who never broke character?
Or is he sincere?

I want to believe such a man exist, but it can be difficult.

>>92767966
Have you listened to the XFM shows? He was clearly sincere early on but he started putting on a bit of a character as things went along.

Karl has great movie ideas.

>>92768003
I would watch the half brain one

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It's the end of the world and this guy *blocks your path*. What do you do?

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>>92763747
he had a fat deformed cringe factory leeching off his performance
fortunately for him he's milking it quite well all on his own, now

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>>92767306
Well, alright Karl, first of all...why is he copping it off with demons anyway? I mean, I know, in this odd little age we live in, a 'demon' is considered anything with horns and if you go out on halloween it's just half of it's girls in horns anyway...

But if we're talking like, Japanese demons...which are, let's be honest, fucking terrifying- you've seen The Ring right? Terrifying film, now I can't imagine...anyone wanting to get their rocks off with that.

So either you're lying, or we've finally found someone with worse relationship taste than Suzanne- Sorry that's a bit harsh.

But then to go and do that again...I mean did the writers not stop and think 'hang on a minute, doesn't this bloke have a precedent for wanting to sleep with the forces of evil? Maybe, just maybe this is a BIT weird'.

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>>92767306
>>92768272

>>92763747
He's from Manchester.

>>92767002
You're talking shit

>>92766572
>KnobAtNight channel closed a while ago
Wait, what? I swear I watched that last month. I know for a fact I only started watching stuff this year.

>>92768099
It would get annoying eventually

>>92768375
what's the deal with manchester anyway? who else is even from there?

>>92767481
>>92767505
Is it just me, or is Idiot Abroad not much fun? I've watched the first five episodes of season 1, and it just feels cruel. Like, they aren't just mocking Karl for being close-minded and enjoying his ridiculous world-views. He's being put into shitty fucking situations that even devout world travelers would fucking hate.

Fuck you Rick, let the poor guy float in the Dead Sea for a little while! He still has to deal with someone else's gob so you're getting your drama!

>>92768026
>>92768003
I love how they fucking ripped apart his Tom Cruise idea without ever realizing that it's already been done. Karl basically described a more mainstream version of Being John Malkovich.

>>92768539
I only know about Karl, the guys from Oasis and I think the bassist of Joy Division

>>92768555
>He's being put into shitty fucking situations that even devout world travelers would fucking hate.

thats the whole point of the show. when I was a kid my parents took me to see Stonehenge, but I was tired, hungry and it was raining/sleeting. When we finally got there I said it was just a pile of rocks and wanted to go home. My parents thought my take on it was hilarious

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>>92768555
Season 2 is a lot funnier, I thought. Since he knows what's happening this time, he has nobody to blame but himself for anything that happens to him, so it feels less mean and more amusing. Also, they put him into better situations for him to make an ass out of himself with.

>>92768701
>Oasis
the one hit wonder band?
>Joy Division
overrated hipster shit honestly

>>92767306
You're talking shite.

>>92768928
Holy shit. Okay, if that's season 2, then I'm definitely watching again to get there. That's fucking hilarious.

>>92768928
Season 3 is fucking garbage, though.

>>92768701
The late British Bulldog was from Manchester

>>92768973
>the one hit wonder band?
Yeah

>overrated hipster shit honestly
Yeah, I agree.

I've always liked the bass work though, which he carried on to New Order after that.

https://youtu.be/Bof2iXwBEZ0

>>92769060
Churchill was born outside of Oxford.

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>>92768928

>>92769050
Warwick was shit but S3 did show how nice of a person Karl is, especially with the Spider Sisters situation.

>>92767389
He is not "reasonably intelligent". He really is absolutely dim. Part of the appeal of the show is that it is absolutely not polite to make fun of people with poor education and little to no reasoning skills when you have both. There is a vicarious thrill in watching two very intelligent men slay the guy over and over.

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>>92767306
>>92768272
that was neat.

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>>92763303
Would the show have been funnier if it was just Karl and Stephen?

>>92768973
Joy Division's live bootlegs were much better than their studio albums imo

>>92769374

Ricky and Steve arent particularly bright either

>>92769374
Except that's not what happens at all. It's been pointed out time and again the episode where Ricky brings up Karl having a clone and Karl asks which one is the real one. Ricky and Steve laugh this off and call him an idiot, but Karl without any education or philosophical understanding hit upon the classic clone philosophy problem. If there two copies of an individual and both have the exact same memories, then how can you ever possibly decide which one is the clone? And more to the point, does that distinction even matter anymore?

>>92769575
Ricky Gervais is a prick, but he does move the show along. Stephen Merchant is more of a reactive figure. He only initiates the conversation half a dozen or so times in the entire show.

>>92769575
Would the three stooges have been funnier if it was just Larry and Curly?

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yfw Steve is also the voice of Wheatley

>>92769575
I'm not sure what to think of Stephen. I think he's a little less obnoxious then Karl but mostly because he's the unnotable "that guy" of the group. I do like that he's willing to share embarrassing stories about himself whereas I'm pretty sure Ricky would have an aneurysm if he ever thought about not blowing smoke up his own asshole for even one second.

I feel like Ricky genuinely wanted to portray Karl as an actual idiot but it backfired because Karl isn't as dumb as he seems at first

Karl is probably dyslexic and has trouble phrasing things, that and a lot of Brits spend so much time speaking in slang they have difficulty actually speaking proper english

>>92768555
Idiot Aboard is for enjoying Karl's suffering and nothing less.

>>92769626
I thought the same but I was just wondering if Steve would've taken the initiative more often if Ricky wasn't constantly shrieking at the top of his little rat lungs. The format needs a straight man obviously but the straight man doesn't have to be a cunty banshee acting like everything Karl says is mindbogglingly stupid. Think more of a Stephen Fry/Alan Davies on QI dynamic.

>>92769618
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaxWAwdJMA4

>>92769709
>Think more of a Stephen Fry/Alan Davies on QI dynamic.
I don't think that applies. Alan Davies isn't stupid, but he's incredibly funny. He's taken the role of the fool on QI just because he's quicker with a joke than a well-thought out response. It gives some leeway for the rotating panel to either think of a real answer, or deliver a punchline. Nobody else feels obligated to do either thanks to Alan's presence, so the whole show flows naturally.

>>92769575
nah, Rick is the only reason why the show is funny.

>>92769618
I noticed that too, but do you really think that Karl has the intellectual capacity to understand that issue with any real depth? or to understand that this issue may be more than mere science fiction if a sufficiently powerful computer was ever able to "map" the superposition of ever single particle of a living being and "teleport" them by creating them out of transmitted information? He hits on the idea, but at the level that an 8 year old might.

His IQ is probably in the neighbourhood of 100 or so. Not an imbecile, but scarcely more than functional in society.

>>92768973
>Oasis
>the one hit wonder band?
Er... they're definitely not a one hit wonder in England. Even in America they had Champagne Supernova and So Sally Can Wait or whatever it was called.

>>92769807
Well, his idiotic laughing is infectious. There's certainly that.

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>>92769642
yfw steve is part of /co/ because of his part in logan

>>92769709
Stephen already is the straight man. And Ricky's pretentious babbling and dismissive nature helps your root for Karl and see the strange kind of insight he sometimes has (while other times he's just making orange juice).

Actually >>92769631 put it really well. MoeKarl's an irritating figure who only pretends to be any less of a numbskull, but he's kind of the key to the whole dynamic.

>>92769827
I'm not saying he's educated. No, he wouldn't understand anything you've said. But he is naturally smart enough to hit on the basics of the problem without prompting. There's a difference between intelligent and educated. You need both, but there are plenty of people out there with extensive education who are rock fucking stupid when presented with something outside of their knowledge-base. Karl doesn't have that problem. He doesn't know anything, but he's actually very quick to identify and interpret problems or logical fallacies via his own intuition. What I'm saying is that Karl is not stupid. He's horribly uneducated, but his natural intuition and thought-processes are actually better than most people. He hits on some really valid and deep points more often than not but doesn't know how to express them nor does he understand the full ramifications of them.

>>92769805
I'm not saying Alan's stupid, when I made the comparison I was more focusing on Fry's more subdued reaction whenever dumb shit is said. I just think Ricky detracted so much from my personal enjoyment of the show that it would've been fine with just Stephen acknowledging the stupidity and nodding along.

>>92769865
>And Ricky's pretentious babbling and dismissive nature helps your root for Karl

Fair point. He's still really obnoxious though.

>>92769921
So basically Karl is a /co poster. Got it

>>92769617
For two guys who are comedy writers and tv entertainers, they are exceptionally well read in areas of general science - so it's fair to call them well educated. I go out on a limb and call pretty much anyone who can make a living as a comedian (especially if they do improv or standup) "smart" in the sense that they are quick witted and have strong reasoning skills. I don't think you can survive in that industry without that. So by those two metrics, yes, they are pretty "bright".

>>92769941
>he's actually very quick to identify and interpret problems or logical fallacies via his own intuition.
>/co/ poster

>>92769934
Fair enough. Sorry, I didn't think you were implying that Alan was stupid. I meant more exactly what I said. The Fry/Davies dynamic is clearly intended to make QI work with a larger rotating panel. They both roles in order to get the best performances out of the others, and they don't deviate from those roles. Ricky, Stephen, and Karl aren't playing roles. They just are who they are.

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The machine that would let your doctor feel everything you feel is fucking genius.

I got to meet Karl once at a book signing event. I convinced my girlfriend to go with me even though it was her birthday and she didn't even know anything about him. The line was long but it moved pretty quickly, and I had a packet of crisps, so I wasn't bothered. As I got to the front I realized no one showed up after us, so I thought "brilliant, maybe I'll be able to have a conversation with him". He seemed a bit short when I got closer, and I asked my girlfriend "that's weird, innit?" but she just sighed and rolled her eyes so I couldn't be bothered to talk to her.

Want to know the weird part though? So we get to the front of the line, I tell him I'm a huge fan and rummage in my bag for the book, and my girlfriend starts going mental. I couldn't be doing with that so I told her to stop her screaming. She pointed at Karl and said he wasn't human, and I laughed because that's always the joke with Karl. But I finally get a good look at him and guess what? little monkey fella.

And that's this thread's monkey news.

>>92770001
It really fucking is. Especially if you combined it with regular diagnostic machines that we currently have. I went to ER three times before being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder years ago. I constantly felt like I was suffering a heart-attack, but my EKG results were all completely normal. It took a doctor who actually had experience with what I was talking about to get me on some anti-depressants which ultimately resolved the problem. Having someone understand that I'm not talking out of my fucking ass and "feeling" the symptoms would have gotten me treatment much faster.

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>>92768272
>>92767306

>>92769921

I would describe Karl as insightful or intuitive, according to your argument. He's certainly not THAT intelligent and as others have said he's not exactly educated.

He's like a Goofy; not much logic or reasoning skills and certainly no book learning, but because he's simpleminded he often displays hints of brilliance because he can make these intuitive mental leaps to perceive these issues, but he can't explore them in any more depth than a cursory examination because he just doesn't have the processing power to do so.

Rick and Steve aren't that much more intelligent but their education blinds them. Karl has attempted to make what I thought were valid arguments in some cases only to be shouted down by Ricky and dismissed by Merchant simply because conventional wisdom stated otherwise.

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>>92770035

>>92769709
>Think more of a Stephen Fry/Alan Davies on QI dynamic
You mean Toksvig/Davies nowadays

>>92768539
Its more to do with the North of England

We're a miserable bunch of oddballs

>>92770117
I still like it

>>92768157
>reddit_wolverine.jpg

>>92770117
Wait, what? As a fucking Yank, I watch QI online. Are you saying that Fry left the show?

>>92768043
Give it the KICC

>>92770228
Over a year ago.

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>So theres this show called The Loud House
>it's pretty much about this huge family living together in one house
>it's mostly about this kids, theres like 12 of 'em
>11 girls, 1 boy
>the boy, Lincoln, seems like a nice fella. Doesn't really cause much trouble
>but then you have the sisters, and half of them are absolute mental
>one of em', Leni, she's the ditzy one, the typical blonde
>the other one, Luna, she's the prankster of the family, the funny one
>but honestly, I don't find her funny
>it's nothin' but bad puns, and it's like after awhile they get annoying
>like alright, it was funny at first, but now its too much
>your the funny one, think of new material, you shouldn't use the same schtick every episode
>theres this April Fools episode, and she goes absolute mental with the pranks
>nearly kills the others
>even the parents are like "don't want none of tha' "
>and then theres the other 9 of em, but they really aren't important or anything, nothing really sticks out about em'
>the rocker one, the sport one, the goth one, its already done hundreds of time, no need to care about em'

>I can't even imagine myself being the father of 12 kids, i'd have none of it.
>1 or 2 is alright, but having 12? Too many of em', to many mouths to feed
>even worse, you have to teach each child the same things as you taught the other
>Like, you teach em' how to drive, and then you think its over and next thing you know the other kid wants to drive. Same thing over and over again...
>If suzanne ever says "I want 12 kids", i'd show her this. It'll snap her right out of it.

>>92763378
lol

>>92770292
Fuck.

>>92768539
the smiths
the fall
happy mondays
the stone roses

>>92770331
>the fall


The fall are a meme band

>>92770363
EY THERE FUCKFACE

best thing to ever come out of punk music imo

oh shit I forgot frank sidebottom

>>92768099
>>92768482

My wife says dumb shit like Karl all the time. It's still entertaining

>>92763303
>Mank
It's Manc

>All these KARL IS SECRETLY A GENIUS! posters

The reason Rick and Steve always made fun of him was because he could never grasp big ideas. Like, they'd be talking about an old proverb or a greek philosopher or something and out of nowhere Karl would inject something about fucking snails. That's the joke. That's why they had an entire radio show about this.

>>92770879
He's not a genius, but Steve and Rick are just as stupid. They just read more books, but there's no indication that they actually understand it anymore than Karl does. Rick, Steve, and Karl are the same fucking level. They're all idiots. Rick and Steve just have the benefit of some more education, but they're stupidity closes them off to some actual avenues of thought because they don't accept that they have more to learn.

>>92770324
I miss him but it's not so bad. Plus next season has 4 Bill Bailey episodes.

>>92770879
Regardless, Karl's very creative and has a lot common sense (which Ricky admits at one point)

>>92770959
Yeah Ricky and Steven are the definition of middlebrow

>>92770959
Speaking of Ricky and Stephen, why are they so obsessed with pointing out potential gay moments with Karl to make him uncomfortable and admonish him anytime he says anything that MIGHT slag off a gay guy, but they're just as uncomfortable and angry when the same shit comes their way? They want to pat themselves on the back for being progressive but they are horrified at the idea that a guy might chat them up or someone would accuse them of watching a football game together as them being secretly gay.

In general, why are British entertainers like this? They love to be camp and make gay jokes at their expense over the awkwardness of the situation but are super uncomfortable with anything that might actually suggest they're gay. It always seems backwards and stupid, either just have fun and laugh it off or admit your uncomfortable and leave the issue be.

>>92763747
quick rundown on Karl Pilkington

>XFM bows to him
>In contact with primates
>Possesses bullshit detection abilities
>Owns radio and telly globally
>Direct descendants of the ancient English royal blood line
>Will bankroll the first cities on Mars (Pilkinburg will be be the first city)
>Own 99% of jellyfish DNA editing research facilities on Earth
>First designer babies will in all likelihood be orangeheaded manc cunt babies
>said to have an IQ of 70, such intelligence on Earth has only existed deep in dirty council estates in Manchester

/r/ rule 63 Karl.

>>92771473
Word is he can maintain a telepathic connection with various insects, too.

>>92771556
And no one can read his mind because he has already prepared a strategy to prevent it.

>>92771634
He's the most amicable supervillian

>>92763303
Greentexts have been ruined for me as I've basically read them in my head as Karl. His stories have too much in common with them, it's like I hear a little "Be me, right?" every time I read one now.

>>92763747
he's obsessed with little monkey fellas

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>>92770991
>Bill Bailey
That's not bad. I like Bill a lot. Ah. I'm glad that I know so I won't be surprised when I inevitably see it, but Fry sold the show to me. He has that kind of soft authoritarian demeanor where you just accept and believe everything he says which I think works perfectly for the show. I know that's not at all what he was going for and he'd probably hate that description, but I just liked that about Fry.

Maybe it's an American thing.

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>>92771507

>>92772035
I loved that episode because of how invested Karl got into this hypothetical when put on the spot.

>>92771312
Ricky was in a boy band so there's a pretty good chance he was molested, or at least propositioned a lot, and Steve had a terrible time with women so he probably went through at least one period of "oh shit am I secretly gay and in denial??" in his life.

>>92763378
You think that was the face he made when he was nutting inside Peggy Carter?

>>92768539
Manchester is like the UK verison of New York except replace gun related crime with knife related crime.

Also so many fucking homeless people.

>>92772220
>Also so many fucking homeless people.
So, it's like every single city on the planet?

>>92769618
Karl is right all the time.

>>92772220
>Manchester is like the UK verison of New York except replace gun related crime with knife related crime.

And suicide bombings.

>>92770775
I'm glad you're happy.

>>92772017
Fry had a kind of school teacher demeanor where he could scoff at the antics going on while still occasionally endulging in it, and anytime he got a bit too authoritarian the panelists knocked him down a bit for a laugh. It was like a combination schoolroom and poker match.

Sandi definitely gives off more of a schoolmarm feeling, especially with Alan who she treats a lot nicer and encourages him more than Fry did in their dynamic. It's actually kind of sweet because it's like someone is interested in his oddball thinking rather than saying "no". I feel like Sandi also is a bit snappier in running the show because it seems to move a lot more naturally rather than "ANYWAYS LETS PUT THE ANTICS ASIDE FOR THE NEXT QUESTION" that Stephen often used. They're different, but I like how both of them led the show, and QI didn't suffer for the change at least to me. Sandi was one of my favorite panelists anyways.

>>92770879
Karl's entertaining and doesn't pretend to be smart, unlike Steve and Rick, so when he's wrong it's just fine, unlike those two shrieking cunts.

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>>92771673

>>92772017
It's Bill Nye the Cuckold Guy now.

>>92772017
I like Toksvig a lot better as the host than as a guest because she's really smart and has a lot of cool stories but isn't particularly funny. I mean I'd still prefer Fry obviously, but she works fine. And she works well with Alan.

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>So there's this girl, right?
>Raised in a cave and such.
>And y'know she has to kill this fella, name's Jack.
>He's a samurai - but y'know, like, time traveller.
>Anyway she meets him and he's not such a bad bloke
>So she's like 'that's a bit weird innit, he's not such a bad bloke'
>anyway turns out she kills her mum and ends up snoggin this Jack fella
>and she wants to help him save the world y'know
>she she's all helpin him fight a demon, right
>but the demon is her dad
>bit much, innit?
>anyway she sends Jack back and he kills the demon, but that erases her
>but then who sent him back?

>>92772557
>the panelists knocked him down a bit for a laugh.

They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is