Karl's Mam
Karl's Mam is the subject of many discussions on the show. Interestingly, she and Karl's Dad share a birthday, which is 11th May.
Among other things, Mrs Pilkington is known to fans as being an influence in Karl's interest and belief in the supernatural and the unusual.
Also notable is her unusual behavior towards family pets. Karl has claimed that although animals do not live long in the Pilkington household, they have a good life while they are there. He then corrected himself, remembering his Mam's cat, which was blinded in both eyes and run over repeatedly. This cat now vomits continually, so she shaved it to make it easier to clean. She would also accept insects as pets, like "Harry the Housefly", a fly (or multiple flies as Ricky contended) who was "just knocking about" in the house. She also kept a spider as a pet that came into the house and, to prevent her husband from killing the spider and then simply replacing it later, she put some Tipp-Ex (correctional fluid / white out) on its back. There was another situation where she stroked a bee to de-stress it after it came into the house on a hot day. Arguably the most famous story is the time she taped a dead budgie's feathers to a rock and placed the rock in the cage to keep the surviving bird company.
When Karl was a child, his mother was somewhat overprotective of him, once made him stay home from school because it was windy and she was worried about him being blown into the road. On another occasion she locked young Karl inside the house so he couldn't do his paper round on a snowy day. Karl attempted an ill-contrived escape through an upstairs window and had to be rescued by his Dad.
One of the memorable anecdotes involving Karl's mam was when the Victoria Plum incident, from his childhood. For Christmas Karl bought her this female figurine because "she's into gnomes". After it was purchased, wrapped, and placed under the tree, Karl pointed it out to his mam in a shop to see in advance what she'd think of it, to which she replied "it's horrible". On Christmas morning, however, she pretended to like it. Karl was nonetheless devastated, and he claims to be scarred for the rest of his life, to this day not liking to buy gifts for people.
Karl's mam is a fan of Elvis because, as she says, "he liked fat, ugly women".
Mentions on the Show
- 24 November 2001 - Karl talks about how his Mam has the same birthday as his Dad
- 08 December 2001 - Karl recalls advice given to him as a boy to not chase butterflies
- 23 November 2002 - Karl brings up his Mam listening for the first time and sending in her own Rockbusters clues
- 21 December 2002 - Karl tells the Victoria Plum story for the first time
- 11 January 2003 - Shaved Cat
- 18 January 2003 - Didn't ask questions when the doctor said Karl didn't have long left to live
- 24 December 2005 - Karl's Mam's budgie died the night before
- 31 December 2005 - His Mam put the dead bird's feathers on a rock to keep the other bird company
- Thanksgiving Podfather episode - Karl searches in London for UFO Data Magazine for his mam and chats with her about longer days in Mars