Miserably Happy

Trying to maintain a sunny disposition while obsessively following British politics is an unnatural lifestyle choice, and Tiernan Douieb looks like a man doing it under medical duress. Rather than turning his fury outward into ranting, he aims it sideways at his own media diet, wondering aloud whether retreating into a permanent echo chamber might simply be better for public health.

The material balances the grim political gridlock following the Brexit referendum with mundane irritations, including an impassioned argument about why tomatoes are wildly underappreciated. Douieb works with a mild, self-deprecating cadence that contrasts with the scorched-earth cynicism common in topical comedy of the era.

Filmed at 2Northdown in Kings Cross, London, and directed by Stefan Georgiou, the 59-minute show was released on NextUp in 2018 following an Edinburgh Fringe run at the Waverley Bar. Around this period, Douieb spent his weeks writing for BBC Two’s Frankie Boyle’s New World Order and hosting the satirical podcast Partly Political Broadcast.