Karl Pilkignton is an eccentric dude, but he's not stupid. He was head of production at XFM when he met Ricky Gervais, the person he was on screen on Idiot was part of a character he developed while doing Ricky Gervais' radio show.

Yeah he's that person, the character is based on him cause Ricky and Steve Merchant found his behavior hilarious. But he was already successful when he started it, and all the shit about him not waiting to come back was for more seasons was BS. He had revenue share from the beginning, that show was stupid business for them and Sky One.

You can see his real acting right after Idiot ended on Derek. Then he came back to Sky One to do more "Karl" work on Moaning Life. Then he did a truly scripted version of his Karl character on Sick of It.

Trust me, he's is and was in on it.

I always thought Karl was in on it and playing up being that thick headed

actor acts

Lemmites: What! is this real?

As a huge fan at the time, I agree with OP.

However, I cannot agree with other commenters that Karl would be an actor or "in on the joke". In the early XFM shows he seeps into the show ever so slightly and awkwardly. Ricky tries to pull him in, but his contributions to those first 5 to 10 episodes seem hesitant, timid and minimal. It just does not feel scripted or even discussed beforehand.

You're stupid