David Mitchell (comedian)

Mark’s attempts to reason his way through humiliation give Peep Show a comic engine that repeatedly collides with Robert Webb’s Jeremy. Mitchell makes self-justification sound elaborate enough to almost convince its speaker. For a different setting, try Upstart Crow, where his Shakespeare brings ambition and frustration into a historical sitcom. The comparison works particularly well if you enjoy verbal detail: watch how a complaint becomes a performance of intelligence, and how the other characters puncture the authority he is trying to establish.