Comedian Paul Whitehouse mugged at London cash machine
I keep thinking about the sheer mundanity of it. A cash machine behind a Sainsbury's is about as unglamorous a setting as you can imagine. Paul Whitehouse, the man who's spent decades making us laugh at the absurdities of everyday British life, gets hit by the most everyday kind of violence. There's a weird symmetry there, though I doubt he's laughing yet.
What gets me is how the story spreads. His wife posts on Instagram, and suddenly we're all part of this strange collective gasp. We feel a flicker of recognition because we've all stood at those machines, half-distracted, thinking about dinner or the weather. The randomness is the thing. It could be anyone, but it happened to him, and that makes it newsworthy. I'd want to know if he's okay, obviously, but also whether he'll turn this into material. That's the comedian's alchemy, isn't it? Turning a mugging into a bit about the absurdity of ATMs. I hope he does. It's the only way to make sense of it.