The world is a crazy place, with many perceived injustices, things that we don’t approve of and issues we are simply confused about beyond measure. We often keep these disjointed opinions to ourselves, but what if instead of that, we wrote them all down and somehow persuaded someone to publish them? Well, you might be left with something like this…
Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse takes us through the inner ramblings of the brain of comedian David Mitchell, covering a huge range of issues including politics, current affairs, celebrities, scandal and everything in between. It also touches on issues of culture and his own thoughts on contentious issues. Everything is weaved together with puns, jokes and anecdotes of his own experiences, as well as controversial talking points that he’s not afraid to put out into the world.
Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse can be summarised up in one simple phrase, and that’s its own title. Thinking about this book, any and all parts of it, makes it so much worse. You realise how much time you’ve spent reading its 300 pages and can only despair at the hours you will never get back. I can usually see the merits of reading a book, whether I personally have enjoyed it or not, but this book is one of the very few I can find simply no redeeming factors about whatsoever. Each short topic in this book, covering only a few pages each, feels like a rant from that one relative at every family gathering that you avoid for their choice opinions.
No position in this book lacks any form of logical progression or reason and many of his thoughts are fundamentally at odds with my own opinions. In one section of the book, he spends several pages criticising the notion that pole dancing is a legitimate form of dance or can be empowering, and attacks the creation of a group for it, in my opinion, needlessly and in a way that has more than a whiff of misogyny.
Now I know what you’re thinking: “Sophie, he’s a comedian. He’s bound to say slightly controversial things in order to get laughs, that’s what they do!”. And I may be prepared to meet you halfway on this if any, literally even one, joke in this book was actually humorous. If you’re familiar with David Mitchell from programmes such as Would I Lie To You?, you’ll be aware that long, highly educated rants are his major form of comedy. But they’re hit or miss when he’s speaking. When he’s written them down, they’re even worse. It doesn’t come across as comedy or even bad comedy, it ranges from bizarre argument to pointless rant to outright offensive comments at points.
There was no organisation to this book whatsoever, no logic or method in its writing and honestly, no reason for the book to have been written to the first place. It feels as if a fairly mediocre comedian was offered a book deal and took it for the sake of writing something, with no vision, no direction and having explored a range of his opinions, nothing worth saying.
I am an advocate for giving any book a try, even if it’s something you don’t think you’d like or is not your genre. But I don’t believe I have ever been so resolute about a book I have read before. This publication is nothing but shambolic, an absolute waste of the paper it is printed on. It has done nothing but fundamentally shifted my opinion of the author himself and his brand of comedy, as well as personal opinions he holds. I cannot express my dissatisfaction with this book enough and hope that I can persuade as many as possible to avoid this book and choose basically anything else to read in its place.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse (ISBN: 978-0-670-91996-3) was published in 2014
