Saturday Night Live alum Chevy Chase has come under fire recently. Current SNL star Pete Davidson slammed the actor on Monday while on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show.
Pete Davidson and SNL cast members slam Chevy Chase for his negative comments
The backlash towards the 74-year-old actor came after he slammed SNL in an interview with the Washington Post. “First of all, between you and me and a lamppost, jeez, I don’t want to put down Lorne or the cast, but I’ll just say, maybe off the record, I’m amazed that Lorne has gone so low,” he said. “I had to watch a little of it, and I just couldn’t f—— believe it.”
Chase continued on telling the Post that the sketch comedy show returning for its 44th season “means a whole generation of s—heads laughs at the worst f—ing humor in the world.… How could you dare give that generation worse s— than they already have in their lives? It just drives me nuts.” Chase then claimed the show went down hill after his exit. “Why am I saying that? Because I was in it? I guess.That’s a horrible thing to say. But certainly I never had more fun. I really loved it and enjoyed it. I didn’t see the same fun thing happening to the cast the next year.”
But that’s not all, if bashing the show and creator wasn’t enough the National Lampoon actor took shots at some of the biggest stars to come from SNL. He says Will Ferrell is “not funny,” Kristen Wiig was good because she was “pretty,” and Eddie Murphy did a good Stevie Wonder because they had the same skin color. Yikes.
“He’s a f— d—bag,” Davidson said.“F— Chevy Chase. He’s just a genuinely bad, racist person and I don’t like him. He’s a putz.” Pete Davidson then went on to defend his boss and creator of SNL Lorne Michaels “It’s disrespectful to Lorne, too, a guy who gave you a career,” continued Davidson, who did not ever share the SNL stage with Chase. “No matter how big you get, you can’t forget what that guy did for you.”
To add to Pete Davidson, former SNL cast member Taran Killam also reacted to Chase’s comments “I think everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Killam told Fox News “I think for comedy to stay important and relevant it needs to evolve and it needs to change over time, so I certainly understand if the comedy that [Chase has] been watching since he left is not to his liking, but I certainly don’t disagree that it hasn’t been as good since the first two seasons or that first one season he was on because I own that box DVD set. It’s at best uneven.”
Killam continued, “The tricky thing about SNL is, unless you participate in it, it’s really hard to explain how difficult, and complicated, and chaotic the process can be. But as soon as you’re on the inside, you understand how miraculous it is that the show even gets put together and airs on time. So, I give the show all the credit in the world for trying to adapt and change.… I think any show that’s been on for 44 seasons now and still has people tuning in is probably doing more things right than wrong.”
Chase has not yet responded to the criticism he’s received but this is not the first time that he’s been in hot water. Chase was also accused of being a racist by other co-stars while on the show Community including Donald Glover. Community creator Dan Harmon claimed Chase would often try to “disrupt” Glover’s scene during filming of the show, and had once said, “People think you’re funnier because you’re black.”
Donald Glover recalled to the The New Yorker about his time on Community with Chase. Glover said he viewed Chase as a legend who refused to recognize he was past the prime of his career. “I just saw Chevy as fighting time — a true artist has to be O.K. with his reign being over,” Glover said. “I can’t help him if he’s thrashing in the water. But I know there’s a human in there somewhere—he’s almost too human.”
