Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge

Satire, satire, satire...A very funny send up of the dreaded ubiquitous chat show. Actor Steve Coogan plays show business blight, Alan Partridge, a thoroughly unlikeable character who hosts an odd assortment of meaningless guests on his ridiculous chat show that is ridiculously titled, Knowing Me, Knowing You. The title of course is taken from the ABBA song of the same name, and Partridge himself mysteriously uses the A-Ha refrain from the song as his personal catch phrase. Completely idiotic but completely funny and eerily cogent. Alan Partridge the man likewise is as completely idiotic as he is pompous, condescending, moronic, cruel, vindictive and completely out of touch with reality. He also just happens to be 24 karat comic gold. In Alan Partridge, Coogan has created the perfect embodiment of an entertainment show-biz phony, cardboard jackass. An all too familiar character that sadly we as viewers now accept as normal. His pathetic C minus guest list parades one low-level pseudo-personality whacko after another. Said guests are all so excellently portrayed, that not being English, I initially was unable to tell if the people were actual Britsh celebs or not. Though Coogan is definitely top banana, the show in actuality is more troupe sketch format a la Monty Python then a solo tour de force. We see the same 4 or 5 actors switch disguises to portray each and every guest, with only a few exceptions sprinkled in now and again. They all deserve equal credit for the show's success. Knowing Me, Knowing You is the Sammy Maudlin bit from SCTV taken on as an entire show. Personally, I never got enough of Sammy Maudlin.

In terms of this type of fare, there is no American counterpart. Forget that satire itself has very little in the way of broadcast outlets, American entertainment simply does not or will not go after its own a la the Brits. That might well be because producers think American wont laugh at show business parody, but somehow cynicism makes me seriously doubt that. Even the terrific Larry Sanders show, ostensibly a similar type satire of the chat show genre, though hilarious, never once made Larry Sanders himself look professionally incompetent. To be fair, Knowing Me, Knowing You, is a fictional chat show of the type we don't really have in America, as its a hybrid of a Letterman format with a Regis daytime format. They may not have them in England either. Evening chat shows are likely in America to be very stiff, formal and almost nerve wracking as the hosts do their very best to keep celebrities ill at ease, in further glorification of the said host. I wont argue with success. So though the satire might be hard to relate to, the comedy makes that fact immaterial. I will say that if you have an aversion to British comedy in general, you will not change your opinion after watching this show. Yet the converse is definitely true. British comedy fans, this is what you live for!

When I first watched this show, I wasn't sure. My friend told me how funny it was but at first it seemed a bit normal. However, I gave it a chance and watched some more. It was too late, I was hooked.

This show is brilliantly written and the jokes are so different to other comedies it feels refreshingly different. It does require a different view point for it's comedy but when looking from that perspective, this show stands tall.

The character himself, Alan Partridge, is a wonderful creation and Steve Coogan has cemented his name in comedy history. I love everything about this character and can quite easily watch this show over and over again.

The funniest thing is, you seem to be laughing at Alans crashing career which is sick but you just don't care.

The best part of this show was the ABBA medley. Truly brilliant.

This is comedy at it's very best. The supporting characters are truly wonderful and as for Alan Partridge himself, fantastic and brilliant.

AHA.....

Steve Coogan is Alan Patridge (A-HA) in this parody of talk shows using England's famous perchant for dry humor. Poor Alan doesn't have much luck with any of his guests in the 6 episode series, and his handling of said guest is what makes this series worthwhile and I frequently found myself laughing at the deftly scripted show. I can't believe how great British comedies can truly be and most of the 'comedies' in my native land of, America can be so truly dreadful. The differences truly seem like night and day. If this had an American counterpart it would likely be "the Larry Sanders Show", but whereas that deals with the behind the scenes of a talk show as much, if not more so than in front of the camera, this one just deals with the talk show proper and I believe I like both the aforementioned shows equally.

My Grade: A-

DVD Extras: Disc 1) Commentaries on all the episodes (which are frequently as funny as the shows themselves) ; Promos for BBC America, and "Little Britian"

Disc 2) the 46 minute "Knowing me, Knowing Yule" special (with optional commentary); 16 minutes of the Test shoot with optional commentary; 5 minute, 16 seconds of Alan rambling on; 3 skits (totalling 6 minutes and 15 seconds) of Alan's appearance on BBC's "Comic Relief 1995"; 9 commercials for the TV show; photo gallery; Cast & crew Bios; and Trailer for "Men Behaving Badly" & "Manchild"

Elevated from his radio show onto television this is presenter Alan Partridge's big break to take the art of chat to new heights. Unfortunately from the faulty studio fountain onwards it's all downhill for his ambitious project.

KMKY is six episodes of chat show spoof comedy heaven. There are too many funny bits to list but my favourite is the political debate where harrassed Conservative candidate Adrian Finch finally loses his nerve with the 'Bald Brummies' candidate and turns violent.

It is probally true that many presenters have skeletons locked away in the cupboard, but with Alan the skeletons tend to be released on camera, to ruin things for him every time. Maybe the real genius of the series is the fact that I have met people who genuinely believed that Alan was for real.

A program delivering a laugh a minute ratio is a rarity, which makes Knowing Me, Knowing You all the more essential viewing.

I have rarely laughed so much. Maybe Derek and Clive and some M.Python but Alan Partridge is consistently hilarious. I find him even more loathsome than George of Seinfeld and that takes some doing. What a loser! But brilliantly written, and the timing is impeccable.Vintage British comedy which is making me snicker as I write this. Some scenes such as his cross country run to get away from his stalker, and his baying in the car park for his so called friend that he has caught sight of, oh the mans incorrigible! Every now and then in ones life you hear a song that you wish you could have written, you see a painting that you wish you could have painted and similarly........... comedy. Brilliant,brilliant, brilliant.