A former “Saturday Night Live” cast member is calling out Chevy Chase for a cruel and tasteless joke the comedian said to him 40 years ago.
The 82-year-old comedian, who became a star during the show’s first season in 1975, is the subject of a new CNN documentary, “I’m Chevy Chase And You’re Not,” that recounts various aspects of his life.
The documentary examines his long history of offending his co-stars, but one particular remark he made to a cast member while guest-hosting during the 1985-86 season still stands out for its unnecessary viciousness.
The remark was an exchange Chase had with Terry Sweeney, the show’s first openly gay cast member, and it looms so large in “SNL” history that Marina Zenovich, the documentary’s director, was obliged to bring it up while interviewing Chase.
“You said something to Sweeney like, ‘Oh, you’re the gay guy. Why don’t we ask if you have AIDS? And every week, we weigh you,’” she reminded Chase, who responded, “Terry Sweeney, he was very funny, this guy. I don’t think he’s alive anymore.”
In the documentary, “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels attempted to downplay the offensiveness of making AIDS jokes to a gay man at the height of the AIDS crisis.
“I think Chevy was just being Chevy. He would say things that were funny, and he would assume you were comedy people, and he could speak that way,” Michaels said. “You know, we would say terrible things, because that’s what would make us laugh.”
But the 75-year-old Sweeney had a different opinion when asked to comment by The Hollywood Reporter.
Sweeney didn’t hold back, telling the publication, “Don’t you think he is saying this and making himself look more like the ass he is!!!”
According to the “SNL” oral history book “Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests,” Sweeney said Chase later came to his dressing room to apologize for the joke, but was “furious that he had to apologize to me.”
In the documentary, Chase insisted that Sweeney was lying about the incident.
“My memory is that he is lying, is my memory. He’s not telling the truth,” he said. “That isn’t me. That’s not who I am. And if I am that way, my life has changed, because I have to live with that now for the rest of my fucking life.”
The documentary also suggests that Chase’s rudeness has its roots in abuse he faced in his childhood, but Sweeney wasn’t buying that excuse.
“Boohoo … poor screwed up kid … so THAT’s why he’s so rotten!!!!!!!”
You can see the trailer for the documentary, which debuts Thursday, below.
