It’s so odd that Karl’s biggest concern as he travels the world seems to be not letting his willy get filmed. Why does he care so much?
Sometimes seeing what Karl does enjoy is just as entertaining as seeing him miserable.
Buried alive? Put on some Acker Bilk and beg for “peace and quiet.”
Karl loved the dwarf village. He was so hurt when Warwick criticized it.
“Swim With Dolphins” – While considering transvestism or transsexualism, he started fantasizing that if his girlfriend turned out to be a man, he could get her to “do her bit” by carrying more things!
He made a reasonably convincing woman, although “more social club than glamorous.”
“Whale Watching” – Fantasizing about being able to crap in a bucket, so you wouldn’t have to stop watching an important football match.
There’s a great interview with Karl, talking about his relationship with Ricky and Steve, how he feels about the whole thing, and his response to people wondering if he’s faking the whole thing, over at the AV Club.
Karl is something. One minute I’m half in love with him and the next I wanna punch him on the nose. And I’ve been seasick. That is not fun at all. I’ve also cut octopus. Not so horrifying.
My fave Karlosophy of the whale watching episode:
Why do did we spend so much money on HD? There’s nothing to see here, it’s all white. I could go blind! Although that wouldn’t be to bald to be blind out here. It’s all the same anyway.
“I am energy efficient. 'Cause I’m bald. … If she wants to save the world, she should shave her head.”
Karl trying to watch the King Kong DVD on a Telly with no picture: “it’s driving me insane. It’s the longest intro ever.”
Ha!
Apparently Karl believes that at some point, the majority of monkeys were gainfully employed.
No Karl, no! Don’t eat the poop! Gah!!!
I laughed out loud when he said the hippo looked like his girlfriend from the back.
I think that was one of my favorite ones this season. Loved how he tried to play Ricky at his own game by lying about the bungee jump.
I laughed when after he kept missing the hippo’s mouth with the bits of food he says, “I’m makin’ a mess of your kitchen. Well, there’s a hippo in it…” Also I bet Karl doesn’t know that more people in Africa are killed by Hippos than lions or crocs or elephants.
Also, in all the shows so far (including the first season) and all the places he’s been and the sights he’s seen, the happiest Karl has ever been was buying cheap clothes at the Uganda flea market! The way the cameramen couldn’t get him to stop wandering around looking for things to buy and head for their next gig!
This was my favorite this season… I missed out on last season. Was it better than this season?
Karl loved the flea market! Playing pool, dancing with the natives. Haha.
This is so true. I wanted to punch him when he said that he believed that his monthly charitable contributions were the cause of overpopulation in the world. It’s when he says shit like this that really makes me angry with him. He has this attitude that everyone else in the world should just die, dammit, so he can live more comfortably.
And his constant moaning of “How much can I do? How much am I meant to do?” No one is asking him to solve the world’s problems single-handedly, but when confronted with the scope of suffering in the world, his instinct is to say, “Fuck it, I can’t do everything, so we’re better off not doing anything.”
And also his moment on the phone with Stephen, when he started getting aggressive and sarcastic about the fact that it was Karl, not Stephen, who was in Africa helping out. Karl started a barroom swagger, with sarcastic sniffing and stammering. It reminds me of actual obnoxious pub crawlers who think they’re being very clever with their posturing. I don’t find it endearing at all.
I don’t know, he didn’t back down from helping to build that hut. I thought he would be moaning about it, but he seemed to be getting into it. I think he’s just dim about population problems. I don’t think he **means **to be offensive. His ignorants lets him off the hook IMHO.
I think it’s well past time that Karl can continue to be given the benefit of the doubt based on inadvertent ignorance. By now he’s seen more of the world than most people have. And he is in regular contact with at least two people who have worked very hard to disabuse him of his assumptions.
Karl isn’t just a jolly Manc lad cut off from the world. If nothing else, he watches television and, in particular, he is a fan of documentary-type programming. It’s not simple ignorance that he only really understands what he wants to understand.
I don’t know exactly what he said about the world being overpopulated, I can’t understand him half the time. Do you remember what he said exactly? Something about him not having kids if I remember correctly?
This is true, but I think that’s part of his appeal. He’s so close minded, and someone you would never go to for advice on anything. But I think deep down he has a good heart. He seems to like and get along with the people he meets. I think he really wanted to help. That’s why he agreed to pay for the huts after not bungee jumping. He wants to be charitable. He even said that a lot of his money goes to different charities. He might not want to be “hands on” charitable… but neither do I.
I don’t remember the exact words, but the instance I’m thinking of he was talking about how much he contributes to charity and he said something on the order of, “Sometimes I think I’m single-handedly causing the world’s overpopulation problem.” In other words, if he didn’t contribute as much money as he did, perhaps more people would starve to death or die of disease and thus the world would be relieved of excess population.
I think that’s at least partly because he didn’t want to be embarrassed.
Karl has been groaning about how much he gives to charity for a long time, long before anyone tricked him into hands-on charitable work.
One of his constant refrains is along the lines of – “I’ve been hearing about people starving in Africa since I was a kid and now every time I turn around, someone is asking for my bank information so they can get another monthly contribution out of me. We’ve been throwing money at this for decades; why does it only seem to be getting worse?”
It’s very common for Karl to express the wish that the world would be better off if a lot of people were just allowed to die. He brings it up in health care contexts too.
you’re right, I just re watched it. He said something like;
“Do loads of charity; helping old people, def kids, save the kids. If anything, I’d say I’m single handedly causing the world’s population problem, cuz I’m saving everyone. I’m like Superman.”
As ignorant as it sounds, I doubt he meant it to be insulting or mean that he shouldn’t give to charity. It just sounds like something stupid he would say.
I never heard him say this, not that I doubt you, but I would rather hear it in from him, and the context.
This week’s Karlosophy: I’m glad I live in the UK and not living the American Dream. If you’re living the dream, how do you know if you’re awake?
I think the two US shows were the least funniest. Perhaps it is because I enjoy his discomfiture in exotic locales and the US isn’t all that exotic to me. In fact I was all ready to find the Route 66 episode the unfunniest of either season-- until the end. I knew there was no way Karl was going to wing-walk and was not suprised when he refused to do it. Everything else that came after that had me laughing so hard tears were rolling down my face.