The community may be a popular cult classic that refuses to die, but Chevy Chase prefers to forget that he was involved in it. And the feeling is probably mutual .
In the latest episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Chase admits that he didn’t think the community was “funny enough” for him and that he felt “embarrassed”.”
Maron and Chase are having a wide-ranging conversation about Chase’s life and career when the host addresses the community and realizes that it must have been a big deal for Chase at the time.
“Ah… Chase answers. “I kind of forgot about it.”
Maron makes a comment about how “they wanted Chevy Chase” and Chase, somewhat ambivalently, allows: “Right, they wanted me. So I said Okay.”
Chase played millionaire fanatic Pierce Hawthorne for the first four seasons of Community , but left the show after allegedly using a racist slur on set. In March 2018, former Community colleague Donald Glover revealed in a New Yorker profile how Chase tried to disrupt his scenes by making racist and insensitive jokes in between shots to scare him off.
Maron is trying to get Chase to say something positive about his experience in the community, but the best he can get is for Chase to admit, “Honestly, I didn’t think the show was funny enough for me at the end of the day.”
“I was a little embarrassed,” he continues. “Everyone had their things, I thought they were all good, but it just wasn’t dull enough for me.”
Chase clarifies that he didn’t care about the character, only that he “felt happier being alone in a way. I just didn’t want to sit at this table with these people every day.
Maron then calls series creator Dan Harmon “intense” and alludes to Chase’s longtime rivalry with him, asking if things are okay between the two.
“I have no idea if we are all right. I’ve never been bad,” Chase replies. “He’s kind of boring. He’s angry. He called and apologized. I love him now.”
When asked about his reputation for being difficult, Chase doesn’t seem to know what Maron is talking about.
“I don’t think people really felt that way,” Chase says.
That’s what they do. And to prove it, Maron cites the infamous 2002 Friar’s Club Roast, a brutal case in which Chase was verbally abused by people he barely knew, since no one else showed up. “I don’t think people knew me at that roast,” Chase told Maron.
Finally, the former Clark Griswold admits: “I don’t know what my reputation was like among the people. I always assumed that I was fine.” However, this is a different song from the one he sang last year, when in an interview with CBS this Morning the question was raised whether he was an “idiot” .
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“I don’t give a shit! I am who I am. And I like it… who I am,” Chase said at the time. “I don’t care. And it’s a part of me that I don’t care. And I’ve been thinking about it a lot. And I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”