From James Acaster’s lowest ebb to encouraging words from Radiohead, our critics suggest popular culture about picking yourself up and carrying on
There is no shortage of standup that takes the raw material of hapless, disappointing life and turns it into laughter. That’s a sizable part of what comedy does. But for big, big laughter fashioned from pretty severe instances of disappointment, look no further than James Acaster’s career-best 2018 show, Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999. It takes two low moments in the Kettering man’s life (being dumped by his girlfriend in favour of, er, Mr Bean; and being dumped by his agent after an on-air PR gaffe) and – in two hours of gasp-inducing, gut-bustingly funny standup – recasts those disappointments as mere staging posts on the route to comedy glory. Brian Logan
