Clunkers from the Alan Partridge Canon

[The Bumlord]

The DVD menu alone makes IAP S2 worthwhile.

That's amazing!

With me, Caaaaarl Hooper

[Menu]

IAP2 is badly structured in lots of ways. Not least the fact that in Never Say Alan Again, his new slightly gay friendship with the blond manc builder is heavily featured. But in the very next episode Alan has to be introduced to the same character again - not even knowing his name. I don't think it's being played for laughs either and nobody mentions it on the DVD commentary - possibly because the commentary line-up changes in between the two episodes so it maybe didn't even register. If you watch the episodes in order though it seems glaring. That whole series often feels like fan-fiction rather than actual Partridge.

[Virgo76]

Alan in a fat suit (i.e. in I'm Alan Partridge S2 "flashbacks")
I never like fat suit humour and there was a bit of a spate of it around 2002.
a) he doesn't look funny in it and
b) he doesn't look anything like anything like anyone who has ever really existed. Fat or otherwise

[St_Eddie]

Alan in a fat suit (i.e. in I'm Alan Partridge S2 "flashbacks")
I never like fat suit humour and there was a bit of a spate of it around 2002.
a) he doesn't look funny in it and
b) he doesn't look anything like anything like anyone who has ever really existed. Fat or otherwise

It always irks me that the audience's reaction to the reveal of fat Alan is delayed, presumably due to a VT related issue on the date of the studio recording.

[H-O-W-L]

I also feel Fat Suit Alan makes light of what was legitimately a really low and dark point for the character in a grisly, arsey kind of way. Alan might be a twat but he's not a monster, and him suffering a mundane kind of misery like that (letting himself go, losing his marbles a bit) is really not something I laugh at.

[popcorn]

I'd never really thought about fat Alan before but yes, it is cartoonish and OTT and mean isn't it. All the breakdown and driving in barefeet and Toblerones would have worked fine without it.

[H-O-W-L]

Even when I first watched IAP when I was much younger (and even too young to get a lot of the jokes) I felt like Fat Alan was heartlessly cruel to the character.

[Konki]

It's worth it for Coogan's fat Alan voice.

[Twed]

Even when I first watched IAP when I was much younger (and even too young to get a lot of the jokes) I felt like Fat Alan was heartlessly cruel to the character.

This post is heartlessly cruel to old people.

[Cuellar]

In I Partridge he talks about the full English breakfasts and hot coffee sloshing around in the stomachs of himself and the Irish TV execs but in IAP he quite clearly orders '4 teas please' from the robot blond bastard from the future.

Fucking disaster.

[Twed]

"God made Adam and Eve, he didn't make Adam and Steve" seemed like a good line when I thought it was original, but it's not.

[JarrowMonkey]

Jesus, what a load of old fucking wank this thread is, why not pick apart Fawlty Towers while your at it

[Hey, Punk!]

Never really liked the 'Smell my cheese, you mother!' line, just makes me cringe a little bit. It might have been retroactively ruined for me by meme culture though, you know that would be repeated constantly by twats if it was aired today.

[Hey, Punk!]

Jesus, what a load of old fucking wank this thread is, why not pick apart Fawlty Towers while your at it

I don't appreciate his treatment of our German cousins, I've heard they're really organised.

[Menu]

Jesus, what a load of old fucking wank this thread is, why not pick apart Fawlty Towers while your at it

That bit when the Major and Polly riff comedically on St George and the Dragon. To complete silence.

[Menu]

Never really liked the 'Smell my cheese, you mother!' line, just makes me cringe a little bit. It might have been retroactively ruined for me by meme culture though, you know that would be repeated constantly by twats if it was aired today.

Agreed, it doesn't feel like an Alan thing to do, and is especially out of place after the sublime scene that precedes it. I suspect it may have been improvised on the day or something? Actually there's a similar bit in 'I Partridge' when, after Fernando is born, Alan runs down the maternity wing shouting "I'm a father, you mothers!". I just can't imagine him doing that. And it's not funny anyway.

[hermitical]

The DVD menu alone makes IAP S2 worthwhile.

To my shame I had never noticed the Amstrad E-mailer in the static caravan...

I wonder if lines like this sold it to him

With its bright LCD screen, full QWERTY keyboard and combining all the features of a hands-free telephone/digital answering machine with e-mail, Internet access, FAX and SMS text sending and more, the E-Mailer Plus packs a mean technology-filled punch <snip>
There is so much technology squeezed into this box, it's surprising it doesn't leak out over the table.

[Jockice]

The last series. On BBC1. Recently. That I've totally forgotten the title of. And haven't even got round to watching the last couple of episodes of. Sorry, but it just didn't do it for me.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

The bit where Alan approaches Susan's desk singing Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, and she then sings the next verse back at him, is weird rather than funny.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Agreed, it doesn't feel like an Alan thing to do, and is especially out of place after the sublime scene that precedes it. I suspect it may have been improvised on the day or something? Actually there's a similar bit in 'I Partridge' when, after Fernando is born, Alan runs down the maternity wing shouting "I'm a father, you mothers!". I just can't imagine him doing that. And it's not funny anyway.

I don't remember the "I'm a father, you mothers!" line from IP, but that is absolutely dreadful. Fernando was born in the late '70s? There's no way Alan, a young fogey from Norwich, would be aware of "mothers" as a profane colloquialism at that time. Yes, I know he's an unreliable narrator, but it doesn't even work on that level. It's clunky.

The cheese line works for me, though. It's the late '90s, Alan has presumably seen Pulp Fiction and what have you, so he probably thought calling Hayers a mother was a cool insult.

[The Lion King]

I always thought it was 'Smell my cheese, you knobber' and was disappointed when I found out the truth

[Menu]

I don't remember the "I'm a father, you mothers!" line from IP, but that is absolutely dreadful. Fernando was born in the late '70s? There's no way Alan, a young fogey from Norwich, would be aware of "mothers" as a profane colloquialism at that time. Yes, I know he's an unreliable narrator, but it doesn't even work on that level. It's clunky.

Exactly. Well put. And is even clunkier being sandwiched by such brilliance. Makes me cringe every time.

[Menu]

The last series. On BBC1. Recently. That I've totally forgotten the title of. And haven't even got round to watching the last couple of episodes of. Sorry, but it just didn't do it for me.

I sadly concur. I have no desire to watch it again, which is unprecedented for a Partridgeproduct.

[Menu]

The cheese line works for me, though. It's the late '90s, Alan has presumably seen Pulp Fiction and what have you, so he probably thought calling Hayers a mother was a cool insult.

It just feels lazy to me. Like a lot of IAP2. Not bad as such. Just lazy.

[Menu]

The bit where Alan approaches Susan's desk singing Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, and she then sings the next verse back at him, is weird rather than funny.

It's another example of the lack of effort, by the writers, into Susan's character. Why does she do that? She's basically just a cipher for Alan to say mad things at. Even in that short scene, her character changes about three times.

[St_Eddie]

I sadly concur. I have no desire to watch it again, which is unprecedented for a Partridgeproduct.

For me, I have the same thing with Alpha Papa.  I lent my DVD of it to a friend a few years back and lost touch with them.  Couldn't care less about buying another copy because I never want to watch that trash ever again.

[Menu]

For me, I have the same thing with Alpha Papa.  I lent my DVD of it to a friend a few years back and lost touch with them.  Couldn't care less about buying another copy because I never want to watch that trash ever again.

Interesting. I don't mind it too much but once I heard that, once again, the writing was a last minute job and a lot of it was literally finished the morning of filming etc, the flaws suddenly became apparent. Why is there a running theme throughout Partridge that the writing is a rush-job at the last minute? I mean, what else did the Brothers Gibbon have to do that meant they couldn't get started on the fucking ALAN PARTRIDGE film ffs?

[Jockice]

I sadly concur. I have no desire to watch it again, which is unprecedented for a Partridgeproduct.

I recorded every episode too thinking beforehand that this'll be something to keep and keep going back to. But what will probably happen now is that I'll forget about it and end up watching the last two episodes after finding them while clearing out my Sky Plus  on a Sunday afternoon in December when the weather's crap and there's no decent football on

[Armin Meiwes]

Yeah TTWAP was absolute dog shit. Prob the only thing of his that was objectively poor, even the film was.. not brilliant but watchable and had some funny stuff in it. I haven't given up on the possibility of him coming back again with something good given how excellent the books and MMM were.

[royce coolidge]

no no no no no no no no NO!