Donald Glover Calls Out Community Costar And Doesn’t Pull Any Punches
Donald Glover went after his Community co-star Chevy Chase at the Writer's Guild Awards for making racial comments on the set of the hit comedy.
Donald Glover is most well-known for being part of the ensemble on the award-winning comedy Community, which aired for six seasons and an upcoming movie, but he’s also an accomplished musician as the Childish Gambino and a leading man in his own right on Atlanta. While presenting at the Writer’s Guild of America award show this week, he demonstrated a sense of comedic timing and carefully planned revenge. While presenting an award, Glover took a swing at Chevy Chase, his former Community co-star, regarding an infamous comment that can’t be reprinted here.
In the video, Glover says, “This award was named after Herb Sargent, a writer who worked on [Saturday Night Live] and came up with the “Weekend Update” with Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase once called Herb one of the funniest writers working in television. And Chevy Chase once called me… you know what, this is about Paul.” Bringing up the infamous confrontation that resulted in Chase leaving the hit comedy while standing in a room of Hollywood’s most powerful and popular writers is a brutal takedown of the once-popular comedian.
Dan Harmon, the creator of Community, has shared stories about Chevy Chase making racial jokes during scenes with Glover to throw off the younger star. According to Harmon, one of the comments that can be printed was Chase telling Glover, “People think you’re funnier because you’re black.” That’s just the tip of the alleged iceberg, which, over the years, has been corroborated by other stars of the groundbreaking series.
In a profile years ago with The New Yorker, Donald Glover said of his Community co-star, that Chase was “fighting time … a true artist has to be okay with his reign being over.” Before getting the role of Pierce as part of the Greendale Community college ensemble, Chase was a forgotten star, far removed from his heyday in National Lampoon’s Vacation, Fletch, and Caddyshack. According to Glover, the older actor was always bitter about his new role as the “elder statesman” on the show and felt he should be the leading man.
When the show started, Joel McHale was the leading man, but over time, the ensemble took over with some episodes featuring Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, Allison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, and Yvette Nicole Brown. The show’s real strength came from the amazing cast, which only became more pronounced following Chase’s exit in Season 4. According to reports, it was during the filming of the fourth episode of the season that Chase dropped a racial slur, leading to his firing by NBC.
One year later, Donald Glover left Community, but it was on good terms with the cast and crew, to the point he’s returning in the upcoming movie. Chase is not, according to Harmon, legally allowed onto the set; though he may be exaggerating the situation, it’s clear that the one-time hottest act in comedy is not welcome. As Glover’s statement reminds everyone, Chase’s legacy in Hollywood today is supposedly that of a bitter racist.
Meanwhile, Donald Glover continues to be in demand, with a potential appearance as The Prowler in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse following his cameo in Homecoming that strongly hinted his character was the uncle to Miles Morales, the second Spider-Man. Community fans, MCU fans, Atlanta fans, music fans, and comedy fans are all united in hoping that Glover appears in the MCU proper as Aaron Davis.
His next major project is filming Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a series adaptation of the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie hit movie. Chevy Chase appears in Zombie-Town as his next major project.
