Chevy Chase appeared on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast (via Rolling Stone) and claimed that “Community,” the NBC sitcom he starred on for 83 episodes, was “not funny enough for me.” Chase played millionaire Pierce Hawthorne on “Community” for four seasons. His costars on the Dan Harmon-created comedy included Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover and Ken Jeong.
“I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained,” Chase said. “Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good. It just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”
Asked about his character, Chase added, “I didn’t mind the character. I just felt that it was…I felt happier being alone. I just didn’t want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people. It was too much.”
Chase was fired from the show after using a racial slur on set. Cast members such as Donald Glover have spoken out in the past about Chase’s problematic set behavior. Chase said on the “WTF” podcast he has no ill will against Harmon for axing him from the show.
“I have no idea if we’re okay,” Chase said, noting he hasn’t seen Harmon since 2012. “I’ve never been not okay. He’s kind of a pisser. He’s angry. He called and said he was sorry. I love him now.”
Was Chase difficult to work with? “I don’t think people really felt that way,” the comedian told host Marc Maron. “I don’t know what my reputation was among people. I just always assumed I was okay.”
Chase told CBS Sunday Morning last year that he “doesn’t give a crap” about headlines and former co-stars painting him as problematic on set. “I guess you’d have to ask them,” Chase responded when asked at the time if stories about him being a “jerk” are unfounded. “I don’t give a crap. I am who I am. And I like who I am. I don’t care. And it’s part of me that I don’t care. And I’ve thought about that a lot. And I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”
Glover told The New Yorker in 2018 that Chase repeatedly made racist jokes on the “Community” set. According to the profile, Chase “often tried to disrupt” his scenes with Glover by making “racial cracks between takes,” one of which was the following: “People think you’re funnier because you’re Black.”
“Chevy was the first to realize how immensely gifted Donald was, and the way he expressed his jealousy was to try to throw Donald off,” Harmon said at the time. “I remember apologizing to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-P.C. verbiage, and Donald said, ‘I don’t even worry about it.’”
“Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson called Chase “a fucking douchebag” in 2018 after Chase criticized the current “SNL” cast. Davidson added, “Fuck Chevy Chase. He’s just a genuinely bad, racist person and I don’t like him. He’s a putz.”
Harmon and the “Community” cast are currently gearing up to reunite for a long-awaited film version of the sitcom. McHale told Variety in June that Harmon and co-writer Andrew Guest had almost finalized the film’s script before development paused amid the Writers Guild of America’s strike. The film is set up at Peacock.
Listen to Chase’s full interview on the “WTF” podcast here.
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