Celebuzz obtained a voicemail that Chevy Chase left Dan Harmon sometime last year, in which the cranky comedian calls “Community” a “f*cking mediocre sitcom” and says, “I want people to laugh, and this isn’t funny.”
Other notable excerpts:
I’m doing sh*t in that f*cking place in that wheelchair and it’s cut down, down, down, down. So it’s what? So people can following the f*cking story between Joel and Gillian and love affairs and kissing? Come on, man! You’re missing the f*cking point! I mean, this is not my kind of comedy. I thought you hired me for what I do that’s funny. You’ve got to give me some range.
I should have this talk with you face to face but I didn’t want to because I really like you. I think your writing is great. I think everything you do is great. But the really problem is, Dan, that you’re not there when we shoot and you’re not there when they edit so you don’t even know what you have.
If you want me on this f*cking show again, I got news for you, I don’t want it! It’s just a f*cking mediocre sitcom! I want people to laugh and this isn’t funny. It ain’t funny to me because I’m 67-years-old and I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve been making a lot of people laugh a lot better than this.
Basically, Chase’s problem is that “Community” too often chooses romantic subplots over pure comedy, and as someone whose biggest claim to fame is “SNL,” which is nothing BUT jokes, he doesn’t get why Harmon and his editors pick heart over humor. That, and he’s upset his material never make the final cut. AND he’s an old, “get off my lawn” grump. Listen to the full voicemail here, and then let’s remember the time Chase starred in Cops and Robbersons. Now THAT’S comedy.
