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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

Quote from: kalowski on February 25, 2019, 08:07:49 PM
Don't misunderstand me, I'm not condoning it, I just imagine that this is the kind of shit some blokes still get up to.
I agree, I just don't see how it contradicts my position I guess.

I do think that however you paint it, there's an element of "transpeople are an extreme weirdo sex fetish and it's funny that Alan is curious about them". It puts them into the same category as Alan's BDSM gear in the Peter Hayers daydreams he has.

I don't think it's actively hateful (for the time), I just don't think that humanising transpeople was a consideration at the time.

Didn't KMKYWAP handle the subject a little more sensitively? Alan was very much shown as the unreasonable person there.

kalowski

Quote from: Twed on February 25, 2019, 08:13:57 PM
I agree, I just don't see how it contradicts my position I guess.

I do think that however you paint it, there's an element of "transpeople are an extreme weirdo sex fetish and it's funny that Alan is curious about them". It puts them into the same category as Alan's BDSM gear in the Peter Hayers daydreams he has.

I don't think it's actively hateful (for the time), I just don't think that humanising transpeople was a consideration at the time.

Didn't KMKYWAP handle the subject a little more sensitively? Alan was very much shown as the unreasonable person there.
OK, I get you and agree with you. I think at the time trans people were seen as a curio so it's playing on that, but I am sure I thought myself that trans people were an odd fetishistic curio myself. I really wasn't confronted with my own thoughts on this until about three years ago, when a colleague was transitioning. I have no doubts that many people had similar simplistic views of trans people to me at the time. Viewed through that lens the joke is dated, but viewed through the lens of Alan's own inability to confront his desires it's funnier.

Twed

I think we agreed from the start then! The English language is crap.

Cuellar


Twed

Huh, weird. I'm tired. I know it's Johnny, why would I write Peter?

Cuellar


Twed

It's actually "Norfolk's maddest man". You've misremembered that quote.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: pish on February 25, 2019, 12:06:02 PM
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.

Not erased from my memory. I thought it was pretty funny on the whole.

Cuellar

I also liked the Milky Bar Kid bit, but mainly for Simon Pegg. Comic Relief bits always feel flat, but I thought it was admirably obscene/distressing.

Tikwid

Quote from: BritishHobo on February 25, 2019, 08:09:48 PM
Think other people on here before have said IAP2 doesn't work because everyone around Alan is even weirder than him. I'm watching the James Bond episode and I see what people mean. It's fucking great - I love how everything revolves around this stupid marathon - but there's something properly odd and bleak about all these strange people in his caravan at the end, Tex and the builder and the ex-copper, all listening to him bang on about Bond.
Agreed - Alan definitely works best when the people around him are either more normal, or weird but featured only in moderation, like his phone-in callers on MMM. "I live alone. I saw you once Alan...in front of a garden center"

As mentioned upthread the "ladyboys" stuff definitely hasn't aged well - it's a remnant of a time when trans women were percieved as a sexual curiosity, fetishised for what was in their pants and afforded nothing more and trust me I'd know. However, I wonder if Peter Baynham's Meteor Video exec in the same episode has aged in the same way - there hasn't really been much of an increase in electrolarynx awareness since then, and I can't claim to be familiar with the devices myself, but a quick comparison to the real things shows that Baynham's voice ("C͜͞H̷͟E̶͞E͞R̴̕͘͝S̢̀̀̀ ̡͘̕͜͜A̶̧͘̕͢L̶̨̛͝A͏N̕͡") is nothing alike. As hurtful a representation, or a different situation entirely?

(Also also, agree that the TFI Friday appearance isn't terrible - Alan's Tom Jones introduction is a thing of beauty.)

Shoulders?-Stomach!

The ladyboys stuff still works as that's Alan's mind, and the only other time it's mentioned is with Michael. Michael's dialogue is in keeping with what his character would think and say about them. I don't quite understand why we're expecting flawed small minded comedy characters dialogue to now be politically correct - the whole point is that they are not, and the audience aren't being asked to find either of their comments acceptable.

Mobius

This thread upsets me greatly, for some reason any slagging off of Partridge seems just wrong. :(

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: Mobius on February 25, 2019, 10:40:12 PM
This thread upsets me greatly, for some reason any slagging off of Partridge seems just wrong. :(

Mmm.

I can think of a few less good moments but some people really laying into IAP2 has been upsetting. That series is still, on balance, flat out funny.

It's been worthwhile discussing though as it's made me realise (along with the benefit of time) you can see the trend towards noughties weird/darkness creeping into some of the scenes in the series.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on February 25, 2019, 10:46:11 PM
Mmm.

I can think of a few less good moments but some people really laying into IAP2 has been upsetting. That series is still, on balance, flat out funny.

As previously stated, I strongly dislike series 2 of I'm Alan Partridge, but note that I never said that it wasn't funny because it absolutely is.  There's some phenomenal lines and gags in there.  Yet, I still strongly dislike it for reasons other than how funny it is.

Bennett Brauer

Even allowing for the fact that he's meant to be going a little mad in IAP2, moments like him unironically saying he prefers David Attenborough to Walt Disney: "At least he's more honest. He interviews real mice" (and "Animals never wore clothes") are just ludicrously far-fetched. But they still make me laugh even now and I don't care.

holyzombiejesus

Any time that Alan interacts with real celebrities or presenters is pretty cringey. It completely changes the focus of the humour. They've done him with Noel Gallagher, Bryan Ferry, Elton John, Roger Daltrey (was there a MMM for Comic Relief with a celebrity?) and I don't think any of them work very well. I'm in the minority here but I don't like the appearances on Clive Anderson, Jonathan Ross or Richard Bacon either. Obviously scripted and I think it shows.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Endicott on February 25, 2019, 12:10:07 PM
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.

Not Noel Edmonds, but it's a well known that many celb. DJs don't care much for music.

https://youtu.be/L6tBzY8EHgk?t=674

TheMonk

Quote from: magval on February 25, 2019, 12:42:44 PM
I also don't like when Simon Fisher asks if he's seen Citizen Kane and he replies "yes, I've seen every episode. Power to the people". Doesn't credit the audience, having him issue the catchphrase like that.
I don't remember this but it just made me laugh reading it.

popcorn

I think IAP2 is great and I wish they'd made IAP3.

holyzombiejesus

I really enjoyed IAP2 too. I think it suffered by being broadcast after The Office and that trend for more naturalistic comedy. There are some great bits in there and I've still laughed with it more than most comedies in the last 30 years.

Twed

I love IAP2. There is a lot to criticise, but overall it makes Alan a deeper character and it's a lot of fun. The criticism is mostly academic. It's sad to me that people feel this thread is a downer. I like criticising things love. I don't want perfect things.

kalowski

Quote from: Twed on February 26, 2019, 02:25:35 PM
I love IAP2. There is a lot to criticise, but overall it makes Alan a deeper character and it's a lot of fun. The criticism is mostly academic. It's sad to me that people feel this thread is a downer. I like criticising things love. I don't want perfect things.
People criticise IAP2 but it contains the "I've pierced my foot in a spike" routine, some of the greatest comedy that has ever been written.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Cuellar

It's got so many classic bits of the Partridge canon.

Mobius

The temperature inside this Apple Pie is over a thousand degrees

edit - shit this is the clunker thread.. I just read the previous few posts and started quoting IAP2

notjosh


Autopsy Turvey

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on February 25, 2019, 04:13:34 PM
I think radio Alan was probably supposed to be an undefined mid-forties already and they de-aged him when transferring him to TV.

"Have you got any pubic hair? ...I'm 37 and I've got plenty." I think Adam Wells just assumed Alan was older. Odd though that Alan missed the chance to stress that he's not that old.

I thought much of IAP2 was a kind of garbled mess, and the Bondathon scene is just mystifying, from having to believe that Alan has his Bond collection on home-taped VHS and keeps them all loose in a box without cases, to him going outside to stab some cereal boxes just so Michael can use the "cereal killer" howler. But the Milky Bar Kid interview was the only time my heart sank watching Partridge.

I still think it's a shame that his wife coming back from the dead was ignored in I, Partridge, there could have been fun explaining that one away. Even just something about Christopher Morris coming up with an April Fools prank that Alan found distasteful, but was too frightened and weirded out by him to refuse.

popcorn

Quote from: kalowski on February 26, 2019, 07:46:37 PM
People criticise IAP2 but it contains the "I've pierced my foot in a spike" routine, some of the greatest comedy that has ever been written.

I think this is one of the things that makes IAP the greatest Partridge for me. In the sitcom format, things can happen to Alan. It's not just comedy, it's also situation. You can send him on adventures, even if they only amount to things like trying to climb fences and piercing his feet on spikes, though that's high-octane by Alan standards. I really do think the character is strong enough to support stories, rather than just being a character study, however brilliant.

bradaaron87

IAP2 is fucking hilarious, but it does seem like a parallel dimension in the Alanverse where nonsequiturs abound and everyone's completely mental. Some great stuff, though — I laugh just thinking about it.

ajsmith2

Quote from: Autopsy Turvey on February 27, 2019, 01:44:31 AM
"Have you got any pubic hair? ...I'm 37 and I've got plenty." I think Adam Wells just assumed Alan was older. Odd though that Alan missed the chance to stress that he's not that old.



I forgot that line.. 37 in early 1993 matches up perfectly with a 1955 birthdate. Brilliant!

As for the Wells interaction.. I think it works as Alan (perhaps in the moment flattered by Wells seeing him as a contemporary, not thinking of what it meant in terms of being more decrepit) was pathetically trying to pretend he'd been part of the swinging sixties by virtue of having attended family gatherings as a 12 year old or whatever.