ONTD

2:55 pm - 02/06/2013

Joel McHale talks about working with Chevy Chase and the "N-word" controversy



Joel McHale stopped by The Howard Stern Show to promote Community’s new season

Chevy was a tumultuous presence on the set--there was no intervening: “When I’d try he’d just want to fight me. Like, physically fight me.” It’s still hard for Joel to understand why Chevy was such a pill: “I wanted to be like, ‘America loves you , dude. You’ve won.’”

Chevy often said he was above sitcom work: “He would say, ‘I’m a movie guy,’ and I’d be like, ‘Alright, movie guy...” Howard asked if Chevy was insane, but Joel shrugged--the hours are hard on everyone. But still: “It’s way better than being a citizen in Syria.” He also confirmed that rumors of Chevy’s on-set use of the n-word were true: “When he said it, I was like, ‘We are now at Defcon 1.’

THE TIME JOEL PUNCHED CHEVY CHASE

All of this made it difficult to hold back when they were filming a scene in which Chevy, pads in hand, trained Joel to be a boxer. As Chevy needled and needled and needled Joel to hit harder and not “like a pussy,” Joel resisted the temptation--for a while--and finally unloaded, when the scene was in the can, with a hard left: “I separated his shoulder.”

WHAT GOES INTO THE SOUP

Asked about his work on ‘The Soup,’ Joel said most of their targets don’t mind: “Without exception, every single reality star I’ve met has said, ‘Thank you for having me on. When can I come on again?’” The only person to threaten them? Tyra Banks: “We love her in that she gave us so much material. In that sense, we thanked her every week.” Bruce Jenner, allegedly, is also “not my biggest fan.”

Howard wondered if Joel had a favorite reality TV target, and Joel nodded, citing Whitney Houston’s work on ‘Being Bobby Brown’: “One of the biggest pop singers of all time was talking about her husband digging piles of shit out of her butt.The worst? Britney Spears and Kevin Federline’s boring, self-filmed ‘Chaotic.’ A former staffer would disagree: “For a year, we had a girl who watched every hour of the ‘Today’ show. She was like, ‘Guys? I’m going to jump off this deck.’”

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la_petite_singe 6th-Feb-2013 08:36 pm (UTC)
I am significantly altering my weekend plans in order to be home on Thursday night to watch this. I REGRET NOTHING [yet]

But ugh, Chevy. He really does seem like the worst. It's so awkward, because the entire rest of the cast seems to adore each other. I feel like some of them were excited to be working with a ~comedy legend~, and then they actually met him and it was like...not so much.
beaddddddsss 6th-Feb-2013 08:44 pm (UTC)
mte, bb
pineandapple 6th-Feb-2013 09:05 pm (UTC)
Lucky you. I have to wait until Friday because of timezones.

Have you read what Starburns said about him? Buzzfeed has a whole article about why he's a dick.
la_petite_singe 6th-Feb-2013 09:06 pm (UTC)
I need no convincing, believe me, but I haven't and I shall go look.
jaimelannister 6th-Feb-2013 09:55 pm (UTC)
I have to wait til Friday too. I'll probably watch it at 3am haha.
enlightenight 7th-Feb-2013 05:43 pm (UTC)
Biggest handicap of being in GMT+2.
jaimelannister 7th-Feb-2013 05:52 pm (UTC)
I'm just GMT, but IKR?
neonxstardust 6th-Feb-2013 11:00 pm (UTC)
ooh, what did starburns say?!
pineandapple 6th-Feb-2013 11:08 pm (UTC)
Oop, it was gawker after all. http://gawker.com/5899097/

"

Chevy mostly pissed me off when I was working on Conan back around '94. I had been working hard all week on a very complex desk piece. It played the segment right before Chevy came out and it did okay. After Chevy was introduced, he sat down, and the first thing he said was, "Wow, Conan, that bit [referring to the desk piece] sure was... stupid."

Also just to clarify, I get along with Chevy because I barely work with him and don't have him constantly ruining whole days when I'm there, like he does with the regular cast members. I view him now as a confused old man who can't really hurt me in any way. I understand why the regulars on Community and the full time writers hating him. If he wasted my time as much as much as he wasted their time, I'd hate him, too."
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