It's Karl Pilkington's world...

… we just want to get the hell out.

Karl Pilkington is the – well, you could call him an idiot savant were he savant in anything – that Ricky Gervais transformed into an international star on his podcast, in which he allowed Karl to spout his bizarre and querulous world view, whereupon Gervais and Stephen Merchant (Gervais’ writing partner on “The Office� and “Extras�) would roundly excoriate him for his imbecility. Karl would just sit there and dumbly, numbly accept the abuse. Some accused Gervais of “inventing� Karl’s character (arguing that no one could really be that stupid, suggesting that those making the accusations don’t travel in my circles), a charge he steadfastly denies.

Gervais has thoughtfully assembled some of Karl’s pearls of wisdom into book form, “Ricky Gervais Presents The World of Karl Pilkington,� a spastically hilarious compendium of what Gervais himself deems “drivel.�

Consider this exchange, in which Karl offers his theory on population control (imagine Karl’s voice a dopey, soft-spoken mumble, Merchant’s filled with even-handed incredulity and Gervais’ etched with mounting mock-outrage):

Karl: It’d be good if what happened was, to control it, a man and a woman, right, they’re born and that, they enjoy their life, they learn a lot. They live to be about 78 at that point.
Ricky: So specific. …
Karl: So I’ve had my innings, I live to be 78, but then, just as you die, you have a little baby inside you and, as you die, your life carries on. …
Ricky: Sorry – are you mental? I have never heard such drivel.
Karl: You’re saying that, but if (Isaac) Newton said it you’d go, ‘Hmm, interesting.’ That’s what annoys me.
Steve: Karl, he never would. He would never say it and that’s the point. …
Karl: With my way, babies aren’t being born left, right and center. It’s controlled so that as someone dies, someone’s born.
Steve: But Karl, stop. Whose responsibility is this?
Karl: Look, if you don’t wanna do it, we won’t do it. …
Ricky: What I like is, he said to you, ‘Look if you don’t want to do it, we don’t need to do it.’ As though if you were up for it, we’ll sort it out. …
Steve: So your solution is that 78-year-old women have little babies inside them and as they slip away into death, the little babies are born?
Ricky: And who looks after the baby, because it is a pretty good system having a baby while you are young enough to look after that baby. …
Steve: I mean, that system has been working for years. But wait a minute, Nature, put that on hold, ’cause Karl Pilkington’s got an idea.
Karl: That’s what it was. Just an idea. …
Ricky: I saw a similar sort of theory written out on a wall, but it was written in s#!t.

But here’s the beef: Gervais has gotten awfully greedy while milking Karl for all he’s worth. Initially, the podcasts were free; then, they started charging for them. Fair enough; Karl has to make a living some way. But now, this book – a small, slender trade paperback that just recycles bits from the podcasts one has presumably already paid for (the podcasts, by and large, were recycled from bits Gervais, Merchant and Karl did for a British radio station), costs a whopping $20, with little value-added content aside from some sketches Karl has done, apparently with colored Bic pens. And on top of this, Gervais is releasing a “Best of� the podcasts, with an hour of new material, forcing rabid fans to once again buy something they’ve already paid for.

Gervais is becoming the George Lucas of comedy.

Perhaps sensing this – or, perhaps, needing an outlet to market his new product – Gervais is offering three new free podcasts, the first of which is available here.