Competition Prizes
Competition Prizes were a selection of prizes given out during the Xfm Shows as well as during the second series of the podcasts. They were often cheap and undesirable and were refered to as "Usual Tat". Very occasionally the gifts were valuable and those were called "Quality Prizes".
Usual Tat
These prizes were so-called because of their poor quality. They were usually unwanted DVDs, videos and CDs, as Karl often had to buy them out of his own money, and were often distributed as rewards for correct answers to features.
Memorable additions to the usual tat include:
- Ladder 49 - A DVD consistently given away on Series 4 of the Xfm show much to the bemusement of Steve Merchant and Ricky Gervais as they wondered if Karl had received a "job-lot" of them.
- Now That's What I Call Music! - Often shortened to Now!, these are a long-running series of various artists compilation albums. They usually contain only the biggest chart hits and were considered to be contradicting Xfm's alternative ethos.
- The Best Air Guitar Volume 2
- Scotland Rocks!
Other undesirable prizes were VHS versions of the movies featured in Karl in a Film, a direct-to-DVD sequel to "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (without Chevy Chase), mediocre films from Steve's outdated VHS collection, an "Only Fools and Horses" Christmas special (which included a miniature three wheel van), and a recent album from the 1960s rock band The Yardbirds. There also was a 3-disc set of the "Best of Inspiral Carpets" of which Ricky and Stephen could not understand how it could have been drawn out to three discs and the 'BBC's Wild Weather', a 2 VHS set...about weather.
Quality Prizes
Occasionally over the years the Xfm shows ran, some "quality prizes" were given to competition or feature winners.
The most notable of these were awarded at the end of Xfm Series 4. The prizes were a signed Spinal Tap poster, an original Matt Groening drawing of Homer Simpson quoted saying "I love Karl 'cause he's stupid like me", and a drawing of the three as Flanimals by the book's artist Rob Steen. The winner was decided by collecting the 6 names of the 6 Rockbusters winners of the series and placing them in a container for the final name to be drawn on the final show. The eventual winner of the quality prizes turned out to be living in Scotland, causing Karl to complain about "'Ow we gonna get 'em up there?"
In the second series of podcasts, with the return of Rockbusters, a signed picture of Karl was given away as a prize. Also, during The Podfather Trilogy, Ricky, Steve and Karl gave away an assortment of their merchandise including The World Of Karl Pilkington, "The Best Of The Ricky Gervais Show Series 1 CD" and an Extras scriptbook in Ricky's "Do you wan' 'em?" quiz.