Featured Image Credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images. NBC
Topics: News, Film and TV
Charisa Bossinakis
Chevy Chase has revealed that he left Community because he didn’t find it ‘funny enough’ and didn’t want to be around ‘those people’.
The Caddyshack actor didn’t hold anything back in the latest episode of Marc Maron’s WFT podcast.
The comedian detailed his time on the American sitcom created by Dan Harmon and he admitted that there were huge creative differences.
“I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained,” he said.
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“Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good. It just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”
When asked specifically about his character, Piece Hawthorne, the former moist towelette tycoon, Chase said: “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.”
While the former Saturday Night Live star claims he left, numerous reports reveal Chase was fired following a dispute on set, leading the 79-year-old to call his co-star Donald Glover the N-word, according to The New York Post.
Subsequently, Chase’s character was killed off soon after in season five.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, the comedian admitted to acting like a ‘jerk’ on the NBC show.
“I guess you’d have to ask them. I don’t give a crap!” Chase laughed when asked about working with his colleagues on Community.
“I am who I am. And I like where — 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.”
A 2018 New Yorker profile on Glover revealed that Chase soon after apologized to Glover for his outburst.
Harmon added how the veteran comedian routinely sabotaged the actor's scenes out of jealousy.
“People think you’re funnier because you’re Black,” Harmon said.
“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.
"I remember apologizing to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-PC verbiage, and Donald said, ‘I don’t even worry about it'.”
Harmon recalled Glover later told him that a ‘true artist has to be ok with his reign being over’.
The New Yorker reached out to Chase, who said he was ‘saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light’.