# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**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, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/61 "2013-08-27T11:28:30Z")
Fwiw, I don’t know most people in the UK but the ones I do know don’t hold such a simplistic view of Gervais. Plus, they’re generally more interested in what he writes or appears in. ---
**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 27, 2013, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/62 "2013-08-27T12:02:15Z")
> [@Bakhesh](#): > > 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 Bear in mind, though, that the British love to hate their celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/63 "2013-08-27T12:28:44Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > Fwiw, I don’t know most people in the UK but the ones I do know don’t hold such a simplistic view of Gervais. Nope, he’s just a cock. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/64 "2013-08-27T12:31:09Z")
> [@seal\_cleaner](#): > > The Allen Partridge Project? Yeah, I scanned the title as “Do Americans Get Alan Parsons?” :smack: ---
**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, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/65 "2013-08-27T13:04:09Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Bear in mind, though, that the British love to hate their celebrities. Where would we be without such insights. ---
**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, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/66 "2013-08-27T13:05:10Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Nope, he’s just a cock. Thank you “most of the people in the UK”. ---
**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 27, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/67 "2013-08-27T15:48:42Z")
I think anyone who thinks Alan Partridge wouldn’t work in the US is overthinking it. ---
**Author:** ![AgProv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@AgProv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AgProv)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/68 "2013-10-24T21:32:44Z")
This is an interesting thread. Earlier today I watched a re-run of the American sitcom _ **Everybody Loves Raymond** _, which centres on the life and family of a New York sports correspondent, Ray Barone. The episode opened with Ray at work, interviewing an Asian-American ice dancer. He apologises for being a little ill at ease, as the last time he was in the ladies’ changing room, some other guys at school had thrown him in there as a gag. His interviewee tells him not to worry about it - then as he tries to interview her, he is further discomforted by the fact she is casually undressing in front of him. This being American TV we don’t get to see the detail, but it is clear she is getting undressed because her hand comes back into shot holding the ice-dancing dress, which is casually discarded. Now this is so like the scene in _ **The Day Today** _ where sports reporter Alan Partridge is interviewing a sportswoman in the changing room - and she casually undresses and changes clothes in front of him, reducing him to incoherence. It’s hard not to believe somebody on the ELR production team saw Alan Partridge doing this on TDT, and wrote it into Raymond. Which supposes Alan was not unknown in America in 1996-97. (The Raymond episode first aired in 1997; the Alan Partridge sketch beinhg homaged was first screened in 1994. So the time scale fits.) The more I think about it, the more I see a lot of Alan Partridgisms in Ray Barone: not to the same obnoxious extent, or else he’d never have kept a wife like Debra. But he blusters, tries to cover up little lies with big ones, gets ultradefensive when found out, and while lucid on paper gets a little bit incoherent in speech, especially when stressed. His loyal wife keeps him earthed and often rescues him from crass blunders of his own making, something not accessible to AP. So Patridge must have been known in America if one of its most popular sitcoms blatantly lifts a scene from one of his early shows? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/69 "2013-10-24T21:49:37Z")
> [@AgProv](#): > > So Patridge must have been known in America But only by New Englanders, it seems. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/70 "2013-10-24T22:37:58Z")
Oh my lord. Yes, I adore AP, though the earliest venue I’ve seen him in is the TV _Knowing Me, Knowing You_. Have seen IAP, IAP2, MMM, and _These Are the Places of My Life_, and certainly plan to see _Alpha Papa_ when it’s around here. But of all I’ve known of him, the best by far is the faux autobiography _I, Partridge_ – the audiobook, in particular. Coogan utterly inhabits the character as he reads, and it’s basically 7 hours of comedy both nuanced and slapstick. I’m greatly looking forward to the film and especially more of _Mid-Morning Matters_, which I believe does have a third series coming up. This has been quite a profitable few years for Coogan, including _The Trip_ as well, costarring the lovely Rob Bryden (whose _Marion and Geoff_ is one of my favorite shows ever–and oy, talk about dark!). ---
**Author:** ![Tante\_Dillie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Tante\_Dillie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tante_Dillie)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/71 "2013-10-24T23:02:09Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I’m American. I’ve seen a few of his shows. Nobody I know would recognize the name. Personally, I thought his stuff falls into the “mildly amusing” category. I’m not a huge fan. Ditto from me. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/72 "2013-10-25T02:51:50Z")
> [@AgProv](#): > > So Patridge must have been known in America if one of its most popular sitcoms blatantly lifts a scene from one of his early shows? Or at least known to one of the writers on the show. There’s lots of stuff that Americans are unaware was borrowed from Brit TV. The biggest examples may be _All in the Family_ and _Sanford and Son_, both of which were Americanized copies of British hit shows that Americans never knew about. (_Till Death Us Do Part_ and _Steptoe and Son_, respectively.) ---
**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:** [October 25, 2013, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/73 "2013-10-25T09:06:50Z")
The most famous example is how the original Saturday Night Live cast and writers were huge Monty Python fans, back when the Pythons were completely unknown in the States. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/74 "2013-10-28T18:56:52Z")
I’ve been over here 7 years now, but before I left New Hampshire, somehow I caught both series of _I’m Alan Partridge_ on cable, and I was hooked. For what it’s worth, I like Ricky Gervais in limited quantities, but the characters he plays always have such bile built up in them that I find it becomes unwatchable for me after awhile, as I grow to loathe the character. By contrast, with Coogan’s Partirdge, there’s still a bit of human warmth left in him. I saw _Alpha Papa_ opening week and, though there were only about 7 or 8 of us scattered through the theatre, we were all literally LOL’ing in unison at the funny bits. Would’ve sounded like _IAP_’s laugh track if there were a few more dozen of us. ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408/75 "2013-10-28T19:17:29Z")
Best scene from the Alpha Papa movie: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/RKbQ9TskXus/maxresdefault.jpg "Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa - Boardroom Clip") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKbQ9TskXus) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-get-alan-partridge/664408.md?page=3)