Stand-up History

[mtvessel]

Apr 2024
Unruly - David Mitchell – Michael Joseph, 2023
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If you come at the king, you best not miss. The definitive humorous history of Britain, 1066 And All That, was written almost 100 years ago, and no-one has ever managed to match its density of jokes and its subversive take-down of both the great man and enlightenment models of history. This book, by someone I shall be forced to tag as "David Mitchell (comedian)" to distinguish him from the novelist of the same name, is a better attempt than some, but still misses by miles.

The thing is, I like David Mitchell. His ubiquitous presence on panel shows usually makes them funnier than they would otherwise be, and while he is no great actor, he is definitely watchable. He studied history at Cambridge and the scholarship shows, particularly in the pre-1066 section where he provides a potted history of the Anglo-Saxon kings and the evolution of the concept of kingship from the head of a mafia-style protection racket to the divinely ordained ruler of England. But he insists on calling this section "Pre-Willy" which is an indication of how lame and laboured the jokes are. They don't improve in the remainder of the book, which goes up to Elizabeth I and then somewhat arbitrarily stops. It is a decent history, but severely lacking comedically.

Personally I blame the Horrible Histories books and TV show for the current fad for stand-up history. Both are excellent, but their success has led publishers and producers to conclude that history has to be presented as skits and comedy routines in order to be engaging, even for adults. Take, for example, You're Dead to Me, with its "history corner" and "comedy corner", which has probably surpassed In Our Time as Radio Four's premiere history show (and which, to be fair, can be quite interesting if you can get past the title and the setup). I don't blame comedians for taking the money and running, or historians for trying their hand at comic writing, but it's all so unnecessary. History is absurd on its own. The people of the past believed mad things. Just tell us in their own words what they thought. That's all you need to do.