In case any of you were wondering, Chevy Chase still has thoughts about Community. Lots of them. That he’s willing to share with you and everything. At length. Probably even, like, if you just run up to him on the street and said hi. You could be all “Whoa, you’re Chevy Chase. Some weather we’re having, huh?,” and I bet he’d be like “Here are 20 things I do not like about working on a television show, which I will casually litter with backhanded compliments aimed at people I currently work with. Furthermore, I reserve the right to expand the list to 50, which I will and already have in my head.”
Case in point, here’s an excerpt from an interview with Huffington Post UK (emphasis mine):
Q: Do you enjoy doing TV?
Well, what else have I done, besides a lot of movies? I prefer movies because the money is better and certainly because you really know where you stand when you are making movies, and I have made a lot of them: 50 something, I don’t know. The hours in this kind of show are not commensurate with the actual product.
The hours are hideous, and it’s still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television. That’s my feeling about it. I think the reason I have stuck around is because I love these kids, the cast – they are very good. It’s not like I am working with the great innovators of all time, but at the same time, they are my friends and I am out, and one of my daughters is out here, and wants to be in the business, so she is living with me. I will have some time off and I will be looking for a film, which I think will be my next thing, my next move. [HuffPo UK]
Cool story, Chevy Chase. And that doesn’t even include the part where he calls taking the role “a big mistake.”
Now, here the thing: I am a little — A LITTLE — conflicted about all this. One on hand, I like very much when people are honest in interviews. Writing for a TV website means I spend a lot of time reading Q&A’s with actors and actresses, most of which are nothing more than marketing and public relations buzzwords. “I loved working with Dave Whatshisbutt. I’ve been a fan of his since [insert independent movie the subject has never seen]. What a professional blah blah blah.” It would be infuriating if it kept my attention long enough to upset me. So when someone sits down and actually starts firing from the hip and naming names and getting RAW, it makes my day. This is why I think Charles Barkley should be on TV 24/7, like The Truman Show but with more turrible golf swings.
However, on the other hand, JESUS CHRIST, Chevy Chase. That’s about enough outta you on the following subjects: Community, Dan Harmon, sitcoms, the state of television, your castmates, and what is and is not funny. You have proven that you are incapable of discussing them without being a total wiener about it, so you have officially lost the privilege. From now on, when some interviewer asks you about any of those topics, just politely decline or talk about Fletch or Caddyshack or something. Those are fine. For now.
Oh, and never do anything like this ever again (UPDATE – Upon review, this might not be an insult. Or maybe it is. It’s tough to tell. I’m just so used to him being a dick that my brain gets stuck on that setting.):
Q: Have you seen Louis CK? Do you think he’s funny?
Yes, I’ve seen Louis CK. I wouldn’t in any way make a degrading remark about Louis CK, but the question is do I think anyone is funny? And the answer is not too many people. He might fit right in there.
We all good here? Great. Good talk.
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He actually says that CK is one of the “not too many funny people” out there, so I guess that’s a good thing right?
Good point. Updated.
It’s getting harder to defend Chevy Chase. This is coming from a die hard Chase fan. Yes, he’s speaking his mind. But he’s a bit of an arse about it.
If someone like me is starting to give up on you as a human being, you’d better straighten up Chasey Boy.
haha ditto!
MOM! GRANDPA CHEVY IS TALKING CRAZY AGAIN!!!
All said and done, the guy’s a bit of a douche! Can’t even defend him these days!
I can’t wait to see him at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
He’s gonna’ pratfall all over that empty chair.
This just in: Old man has old man opinions
He’s a pretty hardcore Democrat actually. Just a reminder that because someone agrees with your political opinions does not make them a good person.
Dammit, Chevy, stop ruining Sparky Griswald for me.
Seriously! Chevy is one of my favorite comedic actors of the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s but man he’s a cantankerousness dick.
So people who like television entertainment are low born idiots but “Fletch Lives” is high art?
I love it when people have a non-cookie cutter opinion too, but why the hell does he have this opinion about Community and sitcoms in general? He’s on a sitcom that actually takes risks and tries to be creative and silly while also maintaining its heart. And sitcom as the lowest form of television? Sure, Two and a Half Men, Two Broke Girls and Big Bang Theory exist, but that’s more on the creators for making awful shows than sitcoms on the whole. Also, “celebreality” shows exist, too.
I want to hate on Chevy here but all I can wonder is what would Arianna Huffington sound like with a British accent? Like a cat with marbles in its mouth? Like Lady Diana having a stroke?
The only good thing about Chevy continuing to make a complete ass out of himself is that it makes things more believable when Pierce acts like a complete ass on the show
“I wouldn’t in any way make a degrading remark about Louis CK, but the question is do I think anyone is funny? And the answer is not too many people. He might fit right in there.”
High praise indeed from a man that built a career out of tripping and falling down.
Chevy can’t hold Louis CK’s jockstrap. Also that dickhead isn’t gonna get a movie unless he does a voice over for a kid’s cartoon or some retarded shit like that. Play Pierce and shut the fuck up!
On reading the entire interview, it’s really not that inflammatory to either Community or sitcoms in general. I tend to agree with his assertion that Community is funny, but not rewriting the rules of television comedy. It is, and it isn’t. Aside from mentioning that he used to be in movies, roughly 50 times, he seems pretty genuine and more or less content with his work other than not making enough money.
The more interviews I see/read from Chevy, the less and less I think he’s acting when he plays Pierce (slightly racist, out of touch, old, etc).
I thought re-runs of “Vegas Vacation” were the lowest form of television.
Cops And Robbersons is the lowest form of movie.
On one hand, Chevy Chase is a pompous, cantankerous asshole and it seems like he’s always been that way, going back to when he was on SNL.
On the other hand, if he wasn’t such a pompous, cantankerous asshole, he may have never left SNL, and the world may have never really discovered his replacement.
So I guess what I’m trying to say thank you Chevy Chase for leading us to finding Bill Murry, who is superior to you in every conceivable way.
I always wondered why it was that Chase has always been regarded as one of the most hated people in Hollywood.
Now I have a pretty good idea.
chevy has this old school comedy prejudice that comedy can only be funny if its in film. These people exist, and they clearly don’t care or pay attention to whats actually on tv because theyll forever just assume it’s the lowest form of art. I think a better question to chevy would by why he thinks that sitcoms are so bad and why any movie that he’s been in as been soooooo much better. I love caddyshack but I don’t see the difference between a great movie like caddyshack, and 4 episodes of it’s always sunny in philadelphia, in terms of the talent involved to write it, and the comedic execution by its actors. chevy needs to shut up and appreciate the fact he even gets paid to be on tv because I’m pretty sure the only reason he got the job was out of some sort of pity for his current career status
One more question, Chevy, you pompous overrated douchebag: have any of your “50 movies” been released since 1989? You’re lucky people know your name.
Chevy who?
That thing about his daughter living with him reminds me of the episode with Katherine McPhee, which is a good thing of which to be reminded.
When Chevy Chase talks in interviews, I always wish he’d do a sequel to Memoirs of an Invisible Man, but instead of not being seen, no one can hear him and he has to method act the shit out of it.
Chevy always been an ass, even if he didn’t mean to be.
Though I felt a little bad for him during his Roast. He had it coming.
Never been mildly amused nor entertained by Chase. So he doesn’t make my short list of the very funny people out there.
“it’s still a sitcom on television, which is probably the lowest form of television”
That would be a lot more effective if he hadn’t said the EXACT. SAME. THING. about late-night television after the complete and utter implosion of his show in the 1990s. I guess for Chevy, the “lowest form of television” means “whatever avenue he’s failed at most recently”
Guys this man made Karate Dog, so back off.
i like the implication that he finds himself hilarious. reading words other people wrote.