Chevy Chase Would ‘Lose His Mind’ When the ‘Community’ Cast Was Funnier Than He Was

While Chevy Chase definitely won’t be in the upcoming Community movie — unless one of the characters happens to pull out a photo of their dead friend who masturbated himself into an early grave several years ago — its cast members are still fielding questions about the Caddyshack star.

Joel McHale recently appeared on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast, and while McHale never appeared on Saturday Night Live, his relationship with Chevy was obviously an area of interest for the two former SNLers. 

Spade asked if Chase’s bad behavior on the set of Community was “more of a rumor, or was he a bit of a pickle?” — possibly because Spade hasn’t used the internet in the past 11 years. “I’ve never answered any questions about him,” McHale joked before going on to describe just how frustrating Chase was to work with.

“He didn’t want to be there,” McHale explained, noting that the show’s 15 hour days were “too much for the man,” which forced the cast and crew to find ways to shoot around his absence. Despite his distaste for long hours, Chase would be intentionally disruptive during filming. “If things were going well, he would find a way to slow that down. He would throw some wrench in.”

Worse still, according to McHale, Chase “definitely didn’t like it when some people were funnier (than him), and he would kind of lose his mind a little bit.” Which is less than ideal when you’re working in an ensemble comedy.

Spade and Carvey relayed that they, too, had worked with former movie stars on sitcoms who weren’t necessarily used to not being the focus of everybody’s attention. Carvey had a difficult time with Mickey Rooney on the set of One of the Boys, and Spade co-starred with George Segal on Just Shoot Me! But as Spade recalled, Segal was “great,” and unlike Chase, he played the role of the bitter ex-star for laughs. “I used to work with Elizabeth Taylor, now I work with this fucking asshole!” Segal told the audience while gesturing toward Spade.

McHale did admit that Chase undeniably added something to Community in its early years. “When he was good, it was magic. And he’s so good. If you watch those first few seasons, he’s so funny.” But this is exactly why his terrible behavior was tolerated for so long; the cast and crew endured Chase’s “mayhem” so long as the “show was working.”

Possibly because he was speaking on an SNL-themed podcast, at one point McHale paused to add the caveat, “Chevy, if you’re listening or watching, I don’t think you would disagree with any of this.”

He also noted that he hadn’t really spoken with his former co-star since the show ended, except for a brief phone call to let Chase know that he would be playing him in the Netflix movie A Futile and Stupid Gesture.

“If I talked to him again, I’m sure he’d be like, ‘Fuck you,’” McHale theorized. “But he’d probably say that anyway, even if he was in love.”

Yeah, that checks out.