Comedy is Pain

A Review of Snelson #1–2

Today, I’m reviewing the first two issues of a comic about a cancelled comedian on the edge of death and complete obscurity. There’s a lot to talk about in the first two issues as the main character, Melville Snelson, rides on the windfall fame of being cancelled before finally admitting that he has cancer.

But no, you all want to see if I’m going to make a reference to Dave Chapelle.

I have to inform you my mind has instead been turning to the recently departed comedian Norm MacDonald, who Chapelle dedicated his most recent special to.

The fact that the first two issues of this new limited series from Ahoy Comics got me thinking of so many comedians is a great sign that Snelson: Comedy is Dying by writer Paul Constant and artist Fred Harper is going to be a compelling if often farcical story once finished. Now that I’ve said that, you can bear with my observations about a real comedian.

Though he was still relatively young, Norm MacDonald was already an old curmudgeon in many ways who seemed to gain more fame trolling other comics than with his TV shows and specials. I found his point of view on comedy to be…