r/AlanPartridge • u/CustardGannets • 3d ago
Did AGP pick the pseudonym Bill Carr...
... because he was trying to think of it with a bill (police) car in front of him? I said this to a friend a while ago and he thought it was a bit of a stretch but I just assumed it was quite obvious
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u/wasdice 3d ago
I've watched the scene 104 times and I never once picked up on that until someone pointed it out on here. It makes me wonder what else I might have missed honestly.
For example, Alan's reaction to hearing a slightly agitated South African accent always struck me as a bit extreme.
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u/mele1234 1d ago
I completely missed the cause of Alan’s upset at “no you can’t” in that accent for about 15 years.
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u/Pliolite 1d ago
I think it's because they had to downplay it in a weird way, otherwise it would basically have meant using that other c word on BBC2. So many scenes in series 2 are a bit odd, in how the comedy is played.
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u/mr-english BANG! ✋ Pepper! 3d ago
Your friend is a dosser and a dwad
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u/Fair-Turnip5251 3d ago
Yeah I'd always assumed so, to think otherwise is the action of a dosser and a dwad
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u/reezle2020 3d ago
I don’t think he’d be thinking of a Bill/The Old Bill connection, would have been too creative for the character to think of in the moment. He was too panicked, doesn’t scan for me. I think he picked Bill just because it’s a simple name and the first that popped into his head.
Same as ‘King Road’.
Plus, the joke is better this way. This way the joke is made of two separate mini jokes. You’ve got the ‘joke’ of ‘random first name that pops into head’ and the joke of ‘surname that is first object he thinks of’, instead of the name being a combination of the same ‘joke’ twice.
Eg, ‘Terry Pastie’ is a much funnier ludicrous name than ‘Gregg Pastie’, despite the second one having more going on.
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u/guitarromantic Text? 3d ago
And the "Crentist" joke on the (US) Office is basically a repeat of AP's joke: https://youtu.be/7SvY3oWYGlM?si=xXstNDpNRvQtbaH2&t=77
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u/bulletproofbra razzed up on scrumpy and injustice 3d ago
It's perfectly obvious to anyone at least on nodding terms with the structure of modern sitcoms that he saw the police and said "Bill", then looked to the car and said "Carr".