Until now, in New Zealand at least, Karl Pilkington has inhabited the periphery of comedy fandom, known mostly in this country to the most knowledgeable aficionados who have downloaded his podcasts.
Most, I'm guessing, would be unaware of the Pilkington phenomenon, though not the two comedians he works with.
For the two other points on the comedy triangle of the aforementioned podcasts are Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, two of the funniest men to have cropped up on television in the past decade.
They are, of course, the names behind The Office and Extras, of which little more needs to be said.
This year, Pilkington will make it to the small screen, thanks to whatever terribly clever programme buyer at TV3 realised they were on to a good thing.
Thank you, TV3.
An Idiot Abroad, Karl Pilkington's world tour, is one of the highlights of this year's fare on that channel, fare that includes a contemporary take on Hawaii Five-O, which I am definitely going to try out.
For those who are unaware, Pilkington is a Sony award-winning, Emmy award-nominated English radio producer, best known for producing and co-presenting The Ricky Gervais Show on London radio station Xfm from 2001 to 2005.
His discussions with Gervais were later released in a series of somewhat legendary podcasts.
An Idiot Abroad begins with Gervais and Merchant, in a very flash office, explaining their plans for a new show to Pilkington.
The show's genesis, apparently, was Gervais' and Merchant's outrage that Pilkington had written off the Seven Wonders of the World as "a bit s**t".
Their plan is to send him on a tour of the world.
To get an idea of the Pilkington phenomenon, his reaction to a picture of the pyramids may help.
"If that were on my road, the council would say `pull it down; it's a death trap."
Or, as Gervais says of the Manchester-born Pilkington: "I don't know the politically correct term ... moron.
"He's a round, empty headed chimp-like moron.
"I think it would be amusing to send him round the world.
"I want him to hate every minute of it for my enjoyment.
"It's one of the funniest, most expensive practical jokes I've ever done.
"And it's going to be great."
So Pilkington, who had been spending the day "hanging around", is sent to China, despite his views on Chinese people.
"They just wreck everything.
"They make things weird.
"The chicken; why is it orange in Chinatown?
"Everything we've done, they want to do it weirder."
And that is just the start of his intelligent commentary on places overseas.
The rest - if you like this sort of thing - should not be missed.
