Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse

This is a collection of opinion pieces from a series of opinion columns written by British comedian David Mitchell for one of the English newspapers. In the audiobook introduction recorded in 2019, Mitchell notes the book was published in 2014 based on columns written since 2008, and comments about looking back at everything he'd complained about in the past.

"And who knows how comparatively lovely the terribleness of now may seem if things continue to go wrong with anything approaching their current rate. I suppose to continue the shit hitting the fan metaphor, which I know you're all absolutely rooting for me to do, this time of there being a coating of poo on everything will seem comparatively nice when we're all dying of cholera from having accidentally and repeatedly ingested it."

As I listened to this in self-isolation in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic after most of Australia caught fire and just as mass anti-racism protests and riots broke out globally, I could only agree with his assessment there.

That said, Mitchell's brand of humour is somewhat effete, upper-middle-class British complaint style. "Observational complaining" might be a good description. He does it pretty well and it's funny, but he's also very focused around British current events and politics so a reader who isn't British and isn't familiar with what was happening there at the time may be a little lost in places. So if that isn't you, be warned.

Overall though, in the midst of a pandemic and far worse things going on in current events, I'm afraid multiple hours of Mitchell moaning about pretty insignificant things just didn't really hit the mark with me. Possible I just picked the wrong time to listen to it.

Reading this book reminded me how much I love reading the Guardian. I started reading it in 2010 through word of mouth or rather when Arthur Dent mentions it in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. The wit from the columnists kept me hooked starting out with Charlie Brooker, Marina Hyde, and Hadley Freeman. I read through David Mitchell's pieces for the Guardian's sister paper, The Observer, but watching through that Mitchell and Webb Look last year prompted me to re-read his work in Thinking About It Only Makes it Worse.

I did not even realize that this was an anthology when I first started reading it, which I thought was clever--making this collection look like a self-help book at first glance. David Mitchell knows his satire and while Brooker and Hyde appealed to me five years ago, Mitchell's work ensnares me through his humorous, sometimes satirical, take on current events from politics to pop culture. Brooker's hyperbolic tirades on reality television pales in comparison to Mitchell's more subtle style: Modest, but effective!

I recommend this book to anyone who loves Mitchell and Webb!