Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

On a flight to London last summer, I got bored and checked out my flight's poor selection of entertainment options, and the one I ended up enjoying the most was a one-hour mockumentary special called Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life. Alan Partridge is a character played by English comedian Steve Coogan, whom after some Wikipedia-ing I realized I knew from the movie Night At The Museum. The special was so funny, I watched it again on my flight back (honestly, I was hoping there were more episodes and also, wtf Virgin, how are there the exact same movie options on flights going both directions?). Obviously he's English, and most Americans' familiarity with modern British comedies are Ricky Gervais and the Simon Pegg Cornetto trilogy. But forget subgenres for a second, this man is blatantly funny and very talented at what he does. That's not to say every Partridge project is a 10 – fuck if I know, I've only seen two – but you get what I'm saying.

Partridge is a (kinda) old, (kinda) clueless radio personality, and Coogan has had several different TV specials involving the character. Alpha Papa was the first project in this Partridge family to be released worldwide theatrically. Oddly enough, I went to the movies while in London (because I got bored, no really) and this movie was playing. Crazy thing is movies there literally cost 18 pounds. That's fucking 30 US dollars! For one ticket! Granted it was a Saturday night and it was easily the nicest movie theater I've ever been in, featuring leather recliners as the seats (literally) and coffee tables in between every two seats to hold the food you can order from the restaurant/snack bar outside. I ended up seeing Kick-Ass 2. Because I loved the original and wanted to, but I also saw a ton of ads for it while traveling in Europe. So much for all that ad money spent though because I was the only person in that giant theater except for this mom and her two teenage kids. It was uncomfortable for all of us and that was even before the movie started – if you've seen the movie, you know what I mean.

Anyway, Alpha Papa is cool. There's definitely some funny parts and it's generally ridiculous in an enjoyable way. It's about a crazy guy taking the radio station hostage, but it's also about corporations coming down on the little man/local radio station. I feel like it could have been funnier if it wasn't targeted at a worldwide audience and it included jokes about Wales and shit (lots of cracks at Irishmen though that I pretended to "that's so true" at), but that's probably slightly insensitive for me to suggest. I also technically wasn't paying so much attention as I just had it on in the background while I finished Byron Crawford's XXL anthology Writin' Dirty: An Anthology. But still, check it out if you get a chance. And if you fly Virgin Atlantic within the next 10 years, that same hour special will probably available as well.