Comedian David Mitchell launches hilarious rant about the elderly – claims they have a “monopoly” on death

COMEDIAN David Mitchell has launched a hilarious rant about the elderly, claiming that the group have a “near-monopoly” on death.

The Peep Show and Would I Lie To You Star? was speaking on the RHLSTP with Richard Herring podcast last month when he revealed his feelings on OAPs.

The 49-year-old discussed his frustrations with the older generation in modern society, explaining that the number of elderly people nowadays has made getting old “uncool”.

Video shows Mitchell speaking to podcast host and fellow comic Richard Herring over video call as on-screen text reads: “Why getting old isn’t cool anymore”.

BAFTA winner Mitchell explains: “Basically, the elderly nowadays are looked after better, really, than they have been at any point in history.

“And yet, we feel now that the elderly are in an unfortunate position – care homes are under pressure and this sort of thing.

“And one of the reasons for that is that now old people have a near monopoly on death.

“Being old used to represent – in the middle ages – being a survivor. It represented life, you’re someone who cheated death, you weren’t one of the many people who died in childhood or in middle age.

“You represent life. Now, this notion of being old represents death and it’s obviously a side effect of something very good, that we have much longer life expectancy.

“But it does mean that all the deaths seem to cluster in the older generation.”

The clip from the podcast was shared to social media on Monday with the caption: “David Mitchell’s rant about ageing and death.”

Mitchell’s rant is supported by Statista stats that show that from post Second World War Britain (1945), the average British life expectancy was 64.1, however by 2020 that figure had risen to 81.15.

Pamela Cobb from the ONS added however: “Life expectancy has increased in the UK over the last 40 years, albeit at a slower pace in the last decade.

“However, the coronavirus pandemic led to a greater number of deaths than normal in 2020.

“Consequently, in the latest estimates, we see virtually no improvement in life expectancy for females compared to 2015 to 2017 at 82.9 years, while for males, life expectancy has fallen back to levels reported for 2012 to 2014, at 79 years.

“This is the first time we have seen a decline when comparing non-overlapping time periods since the series began in the early 1980s.”