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Clunkers from the Alan Partridge Canon

Started by Twed, February 24, 2019, 09:13:51 PM

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Twed

The entire Alan Partridge oeuvre is probably my favourite comedic work, and that's why the bad bits stick out. What are they for you?

IAP Series 2: The big about Michael having sex with an older woman. Not at all funny, and a bit ageist and cruel.

MMM Series 2: Alan offering the kids Annie Lennox tapes, before correcting himself because "you're all Robbie Williams now". Come on, nobody's that stupid. We know Alan knows that it's not 1996.

IAP Series 1: Ladyboys. Not actually unfunny now, just uncomfortable. The core of it is stil good--Alan being secretly attracted to something that he needs to overtly show disgust over--but it's tainted by the stench of TERFs and a generally better modern-day understanding of trans-people.

St_Eddie

#1
Generally speaking; I'm Alan Partridge (series 2) and Alpha Papa.  Although I think that they're, in their own right, funny, I do consider them to be really fucking bad additions to the Partridge canon.  The former is too broad and the latter is a betrayal of the character and a painfully typical TV-to-movie adaptation.

ToneLa

IAP2 is ace but could be a different enterprise and lose nowt. Albeit risk a few accusations of plagiarism

The movie is literally a different enterprise unless you forego the mattering of such things as characters, plot and hair as if nothing except the brand matters

Tony Yeboah

The car accident scene from IAP s2e1. Terrible editing, rushed dialogue and it makes no sense when Alan tells Lynn that she's broken her neck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYE0f0oVvM

imitationleather

#4
Quote from: Twed on February 24, 2019, 09:13:51 PM
IAP Series 1: Ladyboys. Not actually unfunny now, just uncomfortable. The core of it is stil good--Alan being secretly attracted to something that he needs to overtly show disgust over--but it's tainted by the stench of TERFs and a generally better modern-day understanding of trans-people.

While I don't think it's a storyline that would work in 2019, wouldn't say it's really aged that badly because it's not laughing at ladyboys. The humour is Alan Partridge being very uncomfortable with the idea of exploring his sexuality. A bit like (or exactly the same as) Mark watching the gay porn in Peep Show a few years later.

Or maybe I'm a massive transphobic bastard. I dunno.

Twed

I do think it relies on the idea that transgender people are nothing more than an extreme sexual fetish. Although I suppose that in the context of Bangkok's tourist industry that might be true (I have to admit to not knowing).

BritishHobo

I've been watching I'm Alan Partridge this weekend, and it really does stick out like a sore thumb, especially with the more recent stuff. Maybe that's unfair. But I've gone through MMM, Nomad, Scissored Isle and all that in the last few months, and it's just mad how over-the-top IAP looks in comparison. I think because everything else (film apart of course) sticks so closely to only seeing Alan in the TV/radio shows he does, a broad sitcom following him outside of that looks so strange to me now - even though it was the first Partridge thing I ever saw.

It's kinda nice and weird to see this thread as well, because literally today I've been thinking about the ladyboy stuff and wondering what other people think of how it's dated. Saying that, The Inbetweeners 2 ended on a big joke about the lads feeling up some Thai women only to find they've only got bloody big cocks!!!!!!!!!!!! So comedy still leans on it as a trope.

St_Eddie

I think that it might have been Armando Iannucci who said in an I'm Alan Partridge commentary that "Alan's not gay but he's afraid that he might be".  A wonderful and on point observation, I thought.

notjosh

Quote from: Twed on February 24, 2019, 09:13:51 PMMMM Series 2: Alan offering the kids Annie Lennox tapes, before correcting himself because "you're all Robbie Williams now". Come on, nobody's that stupid. We know Alan knows that it's not 1996.

Yep, this really bothered me. Would make more sense if he started by offering them Robbie Williams CDs then correcting to something circa 2008 (Franz Ferdinand?).

Also in IAP series 1, Alan references the album The Best of the Beatles, which doesn't even exist. Not sure how the writers missed that one.

machotrouts

Quote from: Twed on February 24, 2019, 09:13:51 PMMMM Series 2: Alan offering the kids Annie Lennox tapes, before correcting himself because "you're all Robbie Williams now". Come on, nobody's that stupid.

Just a year or two ago, someone I know wrote a novel with a scene where a 15-year-old girl practises 'Creep' by Radiohead on a guitar. Her editor told her that she's out of touch and this was too dated a song for a teenager to like, which is perhaps not unreasonable, but she then somewhat undermined herself by advising her that "today's angsty teenage girls are all listening to Avril Lavigne".

Steptoes_Son

Quote from: notjosh on February 25, 2019, 07:05:55 AM
Yep, this really bothered me. Would make more sense if he started by offering them Robbie Williams CDs then correcting to something circa 2008 (Franz Ferdinand?).

Also in IAP series 1, Alan references the album The Best of the Beatles, which doesn't even exist. Not sure how the writers missed that one.

I thought the best of the beatles thing was that the joke was on Alan - he's a radio DJ but he can't even name any actual Beatles albums so he names a best of - which doesn't even exist!

Alpha Papa is the weak point for me. It's not awful at all, but for the most part Alan seems braver than I would have thought

greenman

Quote from: Twed on February 25, 2019, 12:28:58 AM
I do think it relies on the idea that transgender people are nothing more than an extreme sexual fetish. Although I suppose that in the context of Bangkok's tourist industry that might be true (I have to admit to not knowing).

I mean to be fair again that's though Alan's(and Michaels) eyes, it feels less negative and more a little dated that its from a time where that's the only way transgenderism that mentioned that often in more mainstream media.

QuoteI thought the best of the beatles thing was that the joke was on Alan - he's a radio DJ but he can't even name any actual Beatles albums so he names a best of - which doesn't even exist!

A bit of a view into Alan's taste generally I'd say, you could image him only owning "best ofs" and maybe a few "greatest rock anthems".

ajsmith2

I don't think the Robbie Williams reference is misjudged at all. Sure, no one thinks it's 1996 anymore (Williams had only released his false start cover of George Michaels 'Freedom' by 1996 anyway) but Williams imperial era of huge inescapable success extended from the late 90s well into the early to near mid 00s. He was a big enough deal for long enough (but crucially just passe enough) that it works imo, at least as well as the Def Leppard and UB40 references did in 1997.

mr. logic

Thinking Sherlock Holmes was a real person.

thraxx

Quote from: ajsmith2 on February 25, 2019, 08:08:21 AM
I don't think the Robbie Williams reference is misjudged at all. Sure, no one thinks it's 1996 anymore (Williams had only released his false start cover of George Michaels 'Freedom' by 1996 anyway) but Williams imperial era of huge inescapable success extended from the late 90s well into the early to near mid 00s. He was a big enough deal for long enough (but crucially just passe enough) that it works imo, at least as well as the Def Leppard and UB40 references did in 1997.

That's true but also, courtesy of the Chart Music podcast, I only just realised that Robbie's heyday is nearly 20 years ago. 20 years! For me it's perfectly reasonable that Alan hasn't noticed the passage of time, 2003 feels like yesterday. And As Taylor Parkes said, the only thing that's changed since then is that we've got better mobile phones.

pigamus

Am I the only one who thought MMM Series 2 was the weakest Partridge by far? It felt very forced and uninspired to me - nowhere near the level of Series 1.

Phil_A

Quote from: Tony Yeboah on February 24, 2019, 10:39:28 PM
The car accident scene from IAP s2e1. Terrible editing, rushed dialogue and it makes no sense when Alan tells Lynn that she's broken her neck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYE0f0oVvM

From what I've read the editing of IAP2 was a bit of a nightmare for Iannucci, and I think you can definitely see that on screen. I remember people who went to the recording of the final episode pointing out that they'd shot a completely different ending in the studio, none of which made the final cut (replaced instead by Alan attending his book pulping).

I haven't got the DVD so I don't know if any of this is on there, but it does speak to a somewhat troubled production.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/armando-iannucci-im-not-alan-partridge-118586.html

ajsmith2

Always thought the Milky Bar Kid interview with Simon Pegg from 2005 was weak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk-NlvY6O4k

Anything from the wilderness years 2003-2009 where the character had been mainly put out to pasture except for guest spots like this seems a bit rubbish. No one at the time could have foreseen the 2010s Renaissance and at the time these seemed like the last squeezes from the toothpaste tube.

Shaky

Quote from: Twed on February 24, 2019, 09:13:51 PM
The entire Alan Partridge oeuvre is probably my favourite comedic work, and that's why the bad bits stick out. What are they for you?

IAP Series 2: The big about Michael having sex with an older woman. Not at all funny, and a bit ageist and cruel.


Maybe, but it's also exactly the kind of thing a broken ex-squaddie would do.

Swoz_MK

Alpha Papa - playing bass like he's Victor fucking Wooten.

BritishHobo

Quote from: ajsmith2 on February 25, 2019, 09:01:50 AM
Always thought the Milky Bar Kid interview with Simon Pegg from 2005 was weak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk-NlvY6O4k

Anything from the wilderness years 2003-2009 where the character had been mainly put out to pasture except for guest spots like this seems a bit rubbish. No one at the time could have foreseen the 2010s Renaissance and at the time these seemed like the last squeezes from the toothpaste tube.

I like that they're there though. It's nice that the character has some actual wilderness years where his career is basically non-existent apart from some little appearances on Comic Relief and the like.

Bennett Brauer

Quote from: Steptoes_Son on February 25, 2019, 07:35:14 AM
I thought the best of the beatles thing was that the joke was on Alan - he's a radio DJ but he can't even name any actual Beatles albums so he names a best of - which doesn't even exist!

I suspect notjosh was doing a silly joke. Something there's far too much of in this forum these days I'm sorry to say.

Pancake

It's only a short bit but the all the sad songs from that artist 'because you left me' is old fashioned joke comedy unworthy of it's inclusion in a Partridge work

Pancake

Quote from: pigamus on February 25, 2019, 08:42:54 AM
Am I the only one who thought MMM Series 2 was the weakest Partridge by far? It felt very forced and uninspired to me - nowhere near the level of Series 1.

Probably not the only person but definitely in a very small minority of one

pish

This was so bad that it's virtually been erased from virtually everyone's memory:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3iw0j7

Alan Partridge hosts TFI Friday. A whole episode. Live. Presumably Coogan flying solo without any Gibbons' backup.

Cringe.

Endicott

Quote from: greenman on February 25, 2019, 07:54:38 AM
A bit of a view into Alan's taste generally I'd say, you could image him only owning "best ofs" and maybe a few "greatest rock anthems".

Always assumed it was a dig at Noel Edmonds, who didn't even own a record player.



I do hope I haven't made that up, I'm sure I read it somewhere. Maybe he just didn't have a record collection.

alan nagsworth

Re: Best of The Beatles, I was always fairly certain that this was a smart little joke about sacked ex-Beatles drummer Pete Best, who did actually release an album called Best of the Beatles in 1966. The album's title is merely a play on words and it contains no actual Beatles songs, something which allegedly irked a lot of fans who didn't bother to read the song titles before buying it. I assumed this was the same thing that had happened to Alan and so his opinion was completely misinformed.

Morrison Lard

Oh god, not this frigging best of the beatles stuff again.

Quote from: pish on February 25, 2019, 12:06:02 PM
Alan Partridge hosts TFI Friday.
Fucking dreadful stuff.
Got a pretty shit reception on here at the time.

For some reason I've never liked the shooting Forbes McAllister bit.

Twed

Quote from: ajsmith2 on February 25, 2019, 08:08:21 AM
I don't think the Robbie Williams reference is misjudged at all. Sure, no one thinks it's 1996 anymore (Williams had only released his false start cover of George Michaels 'Freedom' by 1996 anyway) but Williams imperial era of huge inescapable success extended from the late 90s well into the early to near mid 00s. He was a big enough deal for long enough (but crucially just passe enough) that it works imo, at least as well as the Def Leppard and UB40 references did in 1997.
That doesn't excuse him initially thinking the kids might want Annie Lennox cassettes (Cassettes! Alan is a DJ, he knows they're not listening to cassettes and music from when HE was young), and I still find the Williams thing a bit rich. Alan does live in the world, he witnesses modern things and is uncomfortable with them. He'd be more likely to assume they all like grime and then get some detail about that wrong.

Twed

Can we please not do Best of the Beatles again, there was already an interminable thread about it, please go and find that.