# Do Americans get Alan Partridge? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2013, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408 "2013-07-24T20:10:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/41 "2013-08-20T23:13:28Z")
I’m a New Zealander and I don’t get him at all. > [@Banksiaman](#): > > I think the first we saw of Alan in Australia was Knowing Me, Knowing You, which was stuck in the dead zone by Channel 7 and at the mercy of cricket and tennis. > > He is still a bit obscure, but I think a lot of people like the extended universe of comedies his production company have put out - Gavin and Stacey, Nighty Night and anything else with Rob Bryden always fare well. > > As for getting him, we tend to think of Partirdge as a reasonably good take-off of [Norman Gunston](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Gunston), the master of unfortunate television compering. Oh so Coogan’s to blame for the Rob Bryden epidemic? A year or so ago you could almost guarantee that any Brit com shown here would have him pop up at some stage. Having said that I thought _Gavin and Stacey_ was great. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/42 "2013-08-21T01:31:57Z")
I’m glad his movie is at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. It doesn’t look like there is going to be a US release, but that’s no big surprise. Can’t wait to see it as soon as I can. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/43 "2013-08-21T02:24:44Z")
AHA! I fell for Steve Coogan after **24 Hour Party People and liked Hamlet 2 and loved The Trip**. I think I “got” Alan Partridge. He does make me cringe like Larry on Curb, but I love Steve Coogan so much that I am still rooting for Alan. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/44 "2013-08-21T16:30:13Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > hadn’t heard of him until now, but as an american I’m obviously far too stupid to “get” him. I apologise if something in my thread title offended you, although I’m at a complete loss to work out what it was ---
**Author:** ![Arch\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/45 "2013-08-21T20:51:57Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > [Dan](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7Na6z03tW4) is one of the funniest moments in TV. Ever. > > I like the show, but I find the laugh track to be overbearing. IIRC on Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Podcast (RHELSP) Armando Ianucci (co-writer and producer) confirmed that no laugh tracks were used on Partridge, they recorded a lot of it in the studio and the scenes that weren’t they recorded the audience reaction of them watching it on monitors. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/46 "2013-08-21T21:45:06Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > AHA! I fell for Steve Coogan after **24 Hour Party People and liked Hamlet 2 and loved The Trip**. I think I “got” Alan Partridge. He does make me cringe like Larry on Curb, but I love Steve Coogan so much that I am still rooting for Alan. Of the things I’ve seen him in, I liked **24 Hour Party People** and **The Trip** the best. ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2013, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/47 "2013-08-25T16:43:18Z")
On a tangent, there’s a BBC documentary called “Walking with Disc Jockeys”, about Radio One in the 1990s: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JWbZTOhoMZw/hqdefault.jpg "BBC Radio One - Blood on the Carpet (1)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWbZTOhoMZw) At the time Radio One had a bunch of DJs who had been hired in the 1960s and 1970s, and who were getting old; a new controller sacked most of them (John Peel excepted) and replaced them new talent. Alan Partridge was originally a parody of the older style of DJs, and I’m not sure if the US really has an equivalent. Were there national-level radio DJs in the States? I’ve always thought that the US has regional radio, most of which is automated. In the UK DJs for the main radio channels are famous people. But they tend to cross over onto television, and in fact most of them give the impression that they don’t care about radio or music; Alan Partridge was a parody of that, too. It was his ambition to be on television. The irony is that Dave Lee Travis, Garry Davies, Simon Bates etc were mocked for being more interested in light entertainment than radio, whereas their successors - Zoe Ball, Chris Evans etc, were even less committed to new music. And the few credible DJs the BBC hired tended to go off and do actual DJing, because in the 1990s it paid more than being on the radio. I’m digressing here. So, yes, Alan Partridge is a parody of a thing that doesn’t exist in the US, in a style that doesn’t make sense outside the context of UK TV comedy. And in a sense he’s not a coherent character - one the one hand he’s supposed to be a parody of vacuous c-list celebrities, on the other hand most of the humour comes from over-literal extended metaphors and wordplay that you would expect from a _sports reporter_, except that the sports reporting aspect of his character was totally downplayed post-_The Day Today_ and you wouldn’t imagine a sports reporter going on to be a national media star. I suspect that if they could reboot the character they would downplay or remove the sports aspect. That’s what happens when you extend a throwaway comedy character into a decade-spanning, multimedia art event. The contradictions build up until they create a vortex of implausibility that… I’m thinking of the end of _The Black Hole_, where they’re either dead or alive or in heaven or alive. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/48 "2013-08-26T08:45:10Z")
I’d guess that if you asked a cross-section of Americans (of all ages but even if you kept to 40+ year olds) to name some famous American DJs, most would look at you with a blank face, the savvier rest would name Wolfman Jack, Casey Kasum, Alan Freed and maybe Dick Clark, though he was better-known as a television personality rather than a radio personality. Some might name Dr. Demento. We just didn’t have that DJ was King structure. It would be even worse if you asked them to name a famous British DJ. I’d guess most would only come up with John Peel. > [@Bakhesh](#): > > I apologise if something in my thread title offended you, although I’m at a complete loss to work out what it was Don’t worry about it. I couldn’t see his eyes for his nose being so up in the air but I’m sure there was a permanent frown going on up there. In other words, a chronic xenophobic offenderati. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/49 "2013-08-26T09:01:43Z")
A British friend showed me some of his Alan Partridge. The show is very very funny, and I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t translate across the pond. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/50 "2013-08-26T11:10:08Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > > [@Gyrate](#): > > > > I recognize the subtle genius in the character but have never been a huge fan of the “comedy of embarrassment” style. It just doesn’t do it for me. > > That’s exactly it. I have enough in my own life to cringe at. I don’t get entertained by cringing at others. This. I’m a Bit who just doesn’t go for AP - just not my sort of humour however brilliant it is. For the record I can’t watch \*Curb \*and Larry David either :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/51 "2013-08-26T11:26:55Z")
There seems to be this common trope in British comedy, where one person says something horribly offensive or embarrassing, and the other person just sort of… sits there and takes it, with a pained look on their face. Ricky Gervais seems to specialize in this. Not only do Americans not think this form of humor is funny, they have trouble understanding why it’s \*supposed \*to be funny. I think it may have something to do with the class system. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/52 "2013-08-26T13:23:22Z")
Well, his origins were in The Day Today as a sports commentator, and this is class: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/qDB5Akd4-Z4/hqdefault.jpg "Alan Partridge - Horse racing commentary.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDB5Akd4-Z4) ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/53 "2013-08-27T00:57:23Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > I’d guess that if you asked a cross-section of Americans (of all ages but even if you kept to 40+ year olds) to name some famous American DJs, most would look at you with a blank face, The kids would name someone like Skrillex or Kaskade. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/54 "2013-08-27T07:35:07Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > There seems to be this common trope in British comedy, where one person says something horribly offensive or embarrassing, and the other person just sort of… sits there and takes it, with a pained look on their face. Ricky Gervais seems to specialize in this. Not only do Americans not think this form of humor is funny, they have trouble understanding why it’s \*supposed \*to be funny. I think it may have something to do with the class system. Nothing to do with class, everything to do with the difference between how a person sees themselves and how and others actually see them. I am a big fan of AP and to my mind it is a vehicle for Armando Ianucci to play with words as much as anything. I can’t put my finger on it or tell you how or why but most of the humour for me comes from what Alan Partridge says and more specifically the words and phrases that he uses. This is why he is sooooooo quotable. An example would be the link that Smid gave. If you listen closely you’ll hear where my user name comes from. Ianuuci has a genius for writing material like this, he just has an innate ear for it. And to complement it, Coogan has created a Partridge character that fits around those words beautifully. You see this repeated in other work like “the thick of it” and “Veep”. Less surreal in those cases but it is still centred around the language as much as any character. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/55 "2013-08-27T10:06:06Z")
> [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](#): > > So, yes, Alan Partridge is a parody of a thing that doesn’t exist in the US, in a style that doesn’t make sense outside the context of UK TV comedy. This chimes with me. I think it’s also interesting that Coogan used to have to dress _older_ to be Partridge, now time has more than caught up with him … hair included. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/56 "2013-08-27T10:17:55Z")
Equipoise writes: \> I’d guess that if you asked a cross-section of Americans (of all ages but even if \> you kept to 40+ year olds) to name some famous American DJs, most would \> look at you with a blank face, the savvier rest would name Wolfman Jack, Casey \> Kasum, Alan Freed and maybe Dick Clark, though he was better-known as a \> television personality rather than a radio personality. Some might name Dr. \> Demento. We just didn’t have that DJ was King structure. It would be even \> worse if you asked them to name a famous British DJ. I’d guess most would \> only come up with John Peel. It’s worse than that. If asked to name a famous D.J., I would have to try to remember one from my younger days when I actually listened to a lot of current music on radio. None of the ones you mention were familiar to me back then (although I suppose I knew Dick Clark from television). I guess that all I could come up with from back then was Tom Shannon on CKLW back in the 1960’s. And, embarrassingly, that was a Canadian station, not an American one. The most important station (in my experience) at the time was in Windsor, Ontario, about a hundred miles north of where I grew up in Ohio. It was across the river from Detroit and was maybe the main place to hear the Motown sound back then. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/57 "2013-08-27T10:19:03Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > hadn’t heard of him until now, but as an american I’m obviously far too stupid to “get” him. I’m an Englisher and don’t get him either - in fact I find him, in any of his guises, completely repugnant. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/58 "2013-08-27T10:37:26Z")
> [@Myglaren](#): > > I’m an Englisher and don’t get him either - in fact I find him, in any of his guises, completely repugnant. Agreed. I can’t stand Ricky Gervais either. This may have something to do that I was living in the US during the period when both Coogan/Partridge and Gervais came to prominence in Britain, but there is plenty of other British comedy from that time, and current today, that I like fine. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/59 "2013-08-27T11:09:55Z")
> [@Myglaren](#): > > I’m an Englisher and don’t get him either - in fact I find him, in any of his guises, completely repugnant. > [@njtt](#): > > Agreed. > > I can’t stand Ricky Gervais either. > … Oh, thank God, I thought it was just me 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/60 "2013-08-27T11:15:34Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > Oh, thank God, I thought it was just me 😃 He is far more popular internationally than he is at home. Most people in the UK think he’s a bit one-joke, and too smug by half [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408.md?page=4)