'I laughed more than I had in a long time' - Serena Terry on launching Mummy Banter and finding humour in dark times
Comedian Serena Terry visits Yorkshire on her tour later this year. Laura Reid speaks to her about what to expect from the show – and how it’s a lot funnier than it may first sound.
Last year, life threw comedian Serena Terry “a few curveballs”. Depression, the death of one of her best friends, the end of her marriage, the loss of her father and an ADHD diagnosis.
Her new show Therapy is essentially a recap of that turbulent 2025. “Just to stress, it’s a lot funnier than it sounds though,” notes the creator of TikTok channel Mammy Banter. "Us Irish people are kind of born with this innate coping mechanism of humour. That is how we process trauma. It's how I personally have always processed trauma.
"I don't know the science behind it. Maybe it's just being self-deprecating rather than feeling sorry for yourself and being able to kind of step outside of a pity party and say, well, do you know what? It's funny the way that happened, isn’t it? And laugh rather than cry.”
Over the last year, Northern Ireland-based Serena has tried many different types of therapy in a bid to improve her physical and mental health amidst the trauma and to calm the turmoil that comes with being a busy mum on the cusp of 40. She hopes audiences, including those watching her tour in Leeds later this year, will recognise themselves in her experiences and laugh at the chaos of navigating through them.
Her career in the entertainment industry has grown as a result of such relatability. Formerly a communications officer for a software company, Serena was introduced to TikTok by her daughter during the covid pandemic in 2020 and began posting light-hearted videos around the trials and tribulations of family life.
"I was sick of being on Instagram and Facebook comparing myself to everybody, seeing people making banana bread and doing home workouts and I wasn't doing any of that,” she says. “I was eating chocolate for breakfast. I was drinking wine every night. I was putting on weight. I was just struggling to survive. Not to mention the homeschooling of children and trying to work full time…
"Tik Tok when I downloaded it felt like a breath of fresh air... It was just videos of real people going through the exact same thing. And that's where the humour was. We were all struggling, but we were relating to each other within our struggles. The first night I downloaded it I spent hours laughing, more than I'd laughed in a long time... And then I started doing it and people started relating to what I was saying and the rest is history.”
Since then, she has amassed more than four million followers across her social media, opening the door to a stand-up career that has seen Serena tour the UK and Ireland and release two bestselling novels. “Then I came off tour in 2024 and I fell into depression and I didn't want to do anything,” she says. “I didn't want to leave the house. I didn't want to be on social media.”
A diagnosis of ADHD, starting medication and learning about how hormones can affect symptoms helped to get her out of the other side and Serena began planning her comeback. But then she was hit with a series of losses. “The universe said no,” she reflects now. “Everything just came to a standstill. So this is me trying to have a second comeback. And I'm doing that by talking about what happened last year...Not only is it therapeutic for the audience, it's therapeutic for me.”
- Serena Terry is at O2 Academy, Leeds on October 7. For tickets, visit serenaterry.com