{"id":383113,"date":"2026-01-02T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T07:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/383113\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T07:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T07:01:08","slug":"snl-alum-remembers-chevy-chase-insult-40-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/383113\/","title":{"rendered":"SNL Alum Remembers Chevy Chase Insult 40 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former \u201cSNL\u201d<\/a> cast member is calling out Chevy Chase<\/a> for a cruel and tasteless joke the comedian said to him 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

The 82-year-old comedian, who became a star during the show\u2019s first season in 1975, is the subject of a new CNN<\/a> documentary, \u201cI\u2019m Chevy Chase And You\u2019re Not\u201d<\/a> that recounts various aspects of his life.<\/p>\n

The documentary examines his long history<\/a> of offending his co-stars,<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The remark was an exchange Chase had with Terry Sweeney, the show\u2019s first openly gay cast member in its history, and it looms so large in \u201cSNL<\/a>\u201d history that Marina Zenovich, the documentary\u2019s director, was obliged to bring it up while interviewing Chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou said something to Sweeney like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re the gay guy. Why don\u2019t we ask if you have AIDS? And every week, we weigh you,\u2019\u201d she reminded Chase, who responded, \u201cTerry Sweeney, he was very funny, this guy. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s alive anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the documentary, \u201cSNL\u201d creator Lorne Michaels attempted to downplay the offensiveness of making AIDS jokes to a gay man at the height of the AIDS crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cYou know, we would say terrible things, because that\u2019s what would make us laugh.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the 75-year-old Sweeney had a different opinion when asked to comment by the Hollywood Reporter.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sweeney didn\u2019t hold back, telling the publication, \u201cDon\u2019t you think he is saying this and making himself look more like the ass he is!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the \u201cSNL\u201d 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 that Chase later came to his dressing room to apologize for the joke, but was \u201cfurious that he had to apologize to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the documentary, Chase insisted that Sweeney was lying about the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy memory is that he is lying, is my memory. He\u2019s not telling the truth,\u201d he said. \u201cThat isn\u2019t me. That\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The documentary also suggests that Chase\u2019s rudeness has its roots in abuse he faced in his childhood, but Sweeney wasn\u2019t buying that excuse.\u201cBoohoo \u2026 poor screwed up kid \u2026 so THAT\u2019s why he\u2019s so rotten!!!!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

You can see the trailer for the documentary, which debuts today, below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former \u201cSNL\u201d cast member is calling out Chevy Chase for a cruel and tasteless joke the comedian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[71599,88,68284,12015,185409,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-383113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-chevy-chase","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-lorne-michaels","11":"tag-saturday-night-live","12":"tag-terry-sweeney","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}