Chevy Chase Admitted This Is One of the Stupidest Things He Ever Said
Self-awareness has never been Chevy Chase’s strong suit. So when the comic actor raises his hand and admits, “I said something stupid,” we should probably pay attention. That’s what happened when Chase sat down with Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast two years ago, as reported by Far Out, calling out his own bad behavior during a 1980 talk show appearance with Tom Snyder.
Snyder was in full celebrity schmooze mode that night, noting that people in Hollywood were calling Chase the next Cary Grant. The SNL star didn’t necessarily take it as a compliment. “I said, ‘That’s crazy, there’s nobody like Cary Grant and there will never be another Cary Grant and I understand he was a homo,’” Chase told Maher. He didn’t stop there, referring to Grant with a sarcastically cheerful, “What a gal!”
Given 40 years or so to reconsider his words, Chase confessed that “it was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever said.”
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No argument there — Chase acted like a real a-hole. But the stupidest thing that Chase ever said? His homophobic remarks about Grant barely crack the top 10. Let’s not forget these other entries in the Stupidest Things Chevy Chase Ever Said Hall of Fame:
- To young Robert Downey Jr: “‘Didn’t your father used to be a successful director? Whatever happened to him? Boy, he sure died. You know, he sure went to hell.’”
- To gay SNL cast member Terry Sweeney: “I’ve got an idea for a sketch for you: How about we say you have AIDS, and we weigh you every week?”
- Again to Sweeney: “You’re gay, right?” Sweeney replied in the affirmative, asking if there was anything he could do for Chase. “Well, you can start by licking my balls.”
- To a female SNL writer when he was hosting in the ‘90s: “Maybe you can give me a hand job later.”
- To Community co-star Donald Glover: “People think you’re funnier because you’re Black.”
- To a female Community co-star, according to Joel McHale: “I want to kill you and then rape you.”
- About the state of Saturday Night Live, circa 2018: “A whole generation of shitheads laughs at the worst fucking humor in the world.”
And that’s just the verbal stuff that someone bothered to write down. Don’t forget that Chase has gotten into honest-to-Pete fistfights with comedy costars like Bill Murray and Joel McHale. And when Rob Huebel introduced himself to childhood hero Chase, he got a slap to the face for his trouble.
It’s hard to argue with Chase when he says his Cary Grant remarks were stupid. But “stupidest” is a tall mountain to climb, especially when you have a history like his.
