History Radio / KnowingMeKnowingYouWithAlanPartridge

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[[caption-width-right:400:AHHH-HAAAH!]]

[[StealthParody Fake chatshow]] starring Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge (formerly the hopeless sports commentator on ''TheDayToday''), the pathologically smug, hopelessly neurotic and completely incompetent titular chatshow host. The format was the standard light-entertainment variety show. Alan would emerge to a bellow of "Ah-HAAAA!" (reflecting the ABBA song "Knowing Me Knowing You" that was the show's theme) and would introduce and interview guests, music acts and variety performances.

However, the show was a savage and razor sharp mockery of the clichés, shortcomings and failings of the poorer chat-shows on television, perfectly lampooning the egocentric and smarmy hosts, bored and inappropriate guests, shallow and inane questions, and the overload of kitsch and cheesy set-pieces that abounded. And in the centre was Alan, utterly egocentric, convinced that he was the master of ceremonies but hopelessly out of his depth, completely lacking in charm, talent or sense of professionalism, and always completely losing what little control of his guests and employees he had managed to scrape together by the end of the episode ("... and on that bombshell...").

Guests would openly insult him, acts that he claimed were excellent (but had most likely never even seen) bombed hopelessly, and strange variety performances were the order of the day. One such performance was the live re-creation of the 1936 British Women's Olympic Hurdle team victory by the elderly surviving members of that team in an 'Olympic Stadium' that was little bigger than a child's sandpit.

Intensely popular in the real world, in Alan Partridge's fictional world the show naturally haemorrhaged viewers and was eventually cancelled when Alan shot a guest dead live on air. Given a chance to redeem himself in a ChristmasSpecial (''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule With Alan Partridge''), he mucked that up something special as well when he punched the Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Television. With a turkey. Live on television. Needless to say, his career at {{the BBC}} was finished, and when audiences next saw him in ''ImAlanPartridge'', it was as the hopeless failure he was always destined to be.

Based on a radio show of the same name, the TV series reusing many of the jokes and characters.
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'''Provides examples of:'''

* ActingForTwo: Most of Alan's guests were played by the same troupe of people (Rebecca Front, Patrick Marber, Doon Mackickan, David Schneider). The same troupe along with Steve Coogan all performed similar roles in the show's precursor, ''The Day Today''.
* AnnoyingLaugh: Liz Heron in the Christmas special.
* BorschtBelt: Alan interviewed Borscht Belt style comedian (who even uses this phrase) in the Las Vegas episode of the radio show. This being Alan, he failed to get most of the comedian's humour and then told an offensive Jewish joke.
* BritishBrevity: possibly only one season was ever planned, but at any rate they knew that the subsequent Christmas special would be the last episode, and made this a central part of the comedy.
* BullyingADragon: Either to or by Alan, it usually doesn't end pretty either way.
* CannotTellAJoke: The truly awful ventriloquist act of Joe Beazley and Cheeky Monkey.
* CaptainObvious: "That's the Eiffel Tower" Alan, while narrating clips of himself in Paris, modelling his "sports casual" clothing.
* ChristmasSpecial: ''Knowing Me, Knowing Yule''.
* CrapsackWorld: The show itself. While Alan is obviously awful, many of the guests are either rather horrible and egocentric people themselves and who enjoy winding Alan up for the laughs, or nice people who Alan somehow manages to offend and provoke an argument with until they end up becoming just as nasty with him as he is with them. Forbes [=McAllister=] is probably the most ghastly:
-->'''Alan Partridge:''' "Are you ''entirely'' motivated by hatred?"
-->'''Forbes [=McAllister=]:''' "Yes I am actually. That's quite a perceptive question."
-->'''Alan Partridge:''' "Thank you."
-->'''Forbes [=McAllister=]:''' "I hate you."
* DiggingYourselfDeeper
* EnemyMine: Alan and his house band, led by Glenn Ponder. At the end of one episode, Alan fires Glenn live on the air for not inviting him to a staff party which he had invited everyone else (included that week's guests) to. The next week, Alan reveals that Glenn filed a court injunction preventing his dismissal... and then goes on to do his weekly "light banter with the band" segment with a man who does not want to play along.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption:
* TheGhost: Roger Moore in the first episode of the TV series. Alan keeps expecting Roger to show up for the entire episode, and valiantly attempts to host a segment called "An Audience with Roger Moore", despite Roger's absence.
* HypnoFool
* IntoxicationEnsues: Happens to Alan in one episode of the radio series after he unthinkingly swallows a tablet offered to him by one of his guests.
* KarmaHoudini: A lot of the people on the show are suggested to get away with their outrageous behavior on air (though granted we never hear about them or their careers again). While Alan is shown to become a failure [[Series/ImAlanPartridge later on]], it's still kinda off scale to some of the stuff he commits on his show.
* KnifeThrowingAct: After a critic describes the show as 'moribund', Alan decides to prove them wrong by having himself strapped to 'Wheel of Death'.
* MisaimedFandom: In-universe; although most of the lyrics aren't played, Alan's choice of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by {{ABBA}} is questionable, since the lyrics depict a relationship that's falling apart and "this time we're through!" Of course, given Alan's interactions with most of his guests, [[FridgeBrilliance on another level this is perfectly appropriate.]]
** Alan's 'biography', ''I, Partridge'', expands on the joke by Alan explaining that his initial choice of song/title was "The Winner Takes It All"... a song which is about a woman sadly giving up on a relationship after a divorce. Of course, Alan just latched on to the title lyrics because they stroked his ego.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The most obvious one is probably Yvonne Boyd who parodies Vivienne Westwood, also Forbes McAllister is Michael Winner (he even mentions him as a rival) Keith Hunt seems partly based on Chris Evans, Lawrence Knowles is Max Clifford and in the radio series; Shirley Dee is Barbara Windsor, Sally Hoff is Liza Minelli and Conrad Knight's voice is basically a Roger Moore impression.
* ProductPlacement: This was mocked by Alan's constant, feeble attempts at placing 'subtle' placements for sub-standard products throughout his show. As his show (both real-life and fictional) was broadcast on the BBC, which being a public broadcaster has strict guidelines about that kind of thing, this often got him into a lot of trouble in the show. It was a key plot point in the Christmas Special, as he vainly attempted to plug Rover cars under the watchful eye of his boss.
* RacistGrandma: Alan unwittingly finds himself interviewing one when he interviews the 'The Olympic Golden Girls of 1936'.
* RecklessGunUsage: Alan Partridge once [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidentally shot an obnoxious food critic in the heart with an antique dueling musket on live television]]. It is this (coupled with his later punching of a [[TheBBC BBC]] programming executive in the face with a turkey) that ended his TV career.
** Lampshaded by Alan. How was he supposed to ''know'' it was loaded, ''who'' hands someone else a loaded pistol and ''why'' was it loaded anyway? Of course, while this clearly means that Forbes has some fault here as well, this doesn't let Alan off the hook entirely since, as any responsible gun user will tell you, the first rule when handling a firearm is always to assume it's loaded until you confirm otherwise.
* RunningGag: Pay attention to the size of Alan's signature on the "Knowing Me, Knowing You" sign as each episode passes.
** By the final episode, the main theme song is ''rewritten'' to squeeze in "With Alan Partridge" after ''every'' "Knowing Me, Knowing You".
** Alan mimes attacking the audience with a different weapon each week, with the level of mimed violence increasing with each episode. And the name of Glenn Ponder's house band always changes.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: In the show's reality, a major contributing factor to the failure of ''Knowing Me, Knowing You'' was due to it being scheduled against the ten o'clock news.
** Sort of splits since his show is suggested to have failed for perfectly normal and logical reasons, rather than repeated insulting and abusing (and at one point even killing) his guests and numerous other foul ups that should have earned Alan a long term prison sentence.
* SmarmyHost: Alan.
* SoundToScreenAdaptation: The show originated on BBC radio before its television incarnation.
* SpecialGuest: Subverted; in the first appearance, Alan promised an appearance by Roger Moore - who, of course, didn't show up. This had repercussions, as Alan angrily insulted him on air the next week's show (calling him a "towel thief")... and the week after ''that'', following a (fictional) injunction by Moore's lawyers, was forced to apologise on air. The other guests who appeared were fictional.
** Played straight in the Christmas special, in which Mick Hucknall really did appear.
* StealthParody: The radio show, which did not have a laugh track.
* StylisticSuck
* TalkShow: A spoof. And how.
* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Alan.
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** Lampshaded by Alan. How was he supposed to ''know'' it was loaded, ''who'' hands someone else a loaded pistol and ''why'' was it loaded anyway?

** As Alan does fairly points out, how was he supposed to ''know'' it was loaded, ''who'' hands someone else a loaded pistol and ''why'' was it loaded to begin with?

* DroppedABridgetOnHim

* BorschtBelt: Alan interviewed Borscht Belt style comedian in the Las Vegas episode of the radio show. This being Alan, he failed to get most of the comedian's humour and then told an offensive Jewish joke.

* TheGhost: Roger Moore in the first episode of the TV series. Alan keeps expecting Roger to show up for the entire episode, and valiantly attempts to host a segment called "An Audience with Roger Moore", despite Roger's absence.

* RacistGranddma: Alan unwittingly finds himself interviewing one when he interviews the 'The Olympic Golden Girls of 1936'.

** Sort of splits as BeyondTheImpossible, since his show is suggested to have failed for perfectly normal and logical reasons, rather than repeated insulting and abusing (and at one point even killing) his guests and numerous other foul ups that should have earned Alan a long term prison sentence.

* ThrowItIn: The horse that Alan brings on in the first episode takes a dump on the studio floor. This was unrehearsed, but seamlessly woven into the show thanks to the improvisational skills of the cast.

* CrapsackWorld: While Alan is obviously awful most of the guests are rather horrible themselves, with Forbes [=McAllister=] being the most ghastly:

** Half of the guests were nice people who Alan manages to offend in some way. The other half had absolutely no interest in playing along with his banter or the format of the show.
** In which case they shouldn't have agreed to come on the show in the first place.
*** [[ADayInTheLimelight A moment on TV]] [[AttentionWhore is a moment on TV]], not to mention most that don't want to play along certainly ''do'' [[JerkAss take enjoyment out of humiliating and belitting Alan on his own show]] ForTheLulz. Others seem willing to play nice until Alan [[BerserkButton presses a button]], [[BitchInSheepsClothing then it's war...]]
** What makes you think they knew what they were in for?
** The radio show implies that his assistants sometimes deliberately stuck him with dud guests.
** Add to that Alan and many of his guests are suggested to face few reprecussions for their actions on air (such as threatening or outright killing each other). This is a universe where a show like Alan's only went off air due to poor ratings.
*** Although the poor ratings were a theme, it went off the air because Alan accidentally killed a guest in his last show, and then punched his boss with a turkey in the ChristmasSpecial that was supposed to be his moment of redemption. The poor ratings contributed to the show's declining fortunes, but the clusterfuck of his last two episodes sealed the deal.
**** His career was not ruined directly through this however, the same boss being perfectly willing to give him a future in the BBC had his other showbiz ideas not been utter crap (add to that a repeated assault with a slab of cheese). And even then his replacement was willing to take Alan back in (had he not died a second short of signing him back in). Despite all kinds of surreal hell that happen in his work, Alan's career is implied to deteorate in a realistic manner of a forgotten media figure.