Tornado

Stewart Lee spends a significant portion of Tornado reacting to a Netflix metadata glitch that swapped the description of his stand-up series with the synopsis for the movie Sharknado. Using the error to question his place in the modern comedy landscape, he spins a self-referential narrative about how the streaming giant operates. It builds to a highly detailed impression of playwright Alan Bennett imagining a suburban Yorkshire home under siege by falling sharks.

Filmed at the York Theatre Royal in May 2022, the show was originally part of a double-bill tour delayed for two years by pandemic lockdowns. The delay did not soften Lee’s trademark hostility toward both his audience and his peers. He takes precise, petty aim at mainstream arena comedians like Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais, and Dave Chappelle, while pushing his crowd’s patience with a repetitive routine. When a Mumsnet reviewer complained that the bit went on “too long” (a critique Lee reads aloud and dryly dismantles), he incorporated the complaint into the show, mocking the very idea that there is a correct amount of time for a joke to last. The set was broadcast on BBC Two in late September 2022.