Donald Glover jokes about Chevy Chase using the N-word
Donald Glover has spoken out about Chevy Chase using the N-word during his time on Community.
Chase was previously accused of making “racial cracks” at Glover on the set of the series. According to a 2018 New Yorker profile on Glover, Chase “often tried to disrupt his scenes and made racial cracks between takes”. In response, Chase said: “I am saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light.”
The show’s creator Dan Harmon appeared to corroborate the claims at the time, saying: “Chevy was the first to realise how immensely gifted Donald was, and the way he expressed his jealousy was to try to throw Donald off.”
He added: “I remember apologising to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-P.C. verbiage, and Donald said, ‘I don’t even worry about it’.”
Speaking during an appearance at the 2023 Writers Guild Awards in New York last night (March 5) Glover made reference to Chase’s behaviour when he presented Atlanta executive producer Paul Simms with an honorary award.
“Chevy Chase once called [Saturday Night Live writer] Herb [Sargent] one of the funniest writers working in television,” Glover said onstage [via The Hollywood Reporter] “Chevy Chase once called me. You know what? This is about Paul.”
Later, when Glover recalled hearing about Simms after working on Girls, he mentioned Chase again.
“I asked Lena [Dunham], ‘Hey, what made you decide to work with Paul [Simms, an executive producer on the HBO hit]?’ And she goes ‘Honestly, this n**** lets me do whatever I want.’ And I remember thinking two things. One, Lena is using the N-word extremely liberally. Who does she think she is, Chevy Chase? And two, that’s the kind of producer I want,” he joked.
A representative for Dunham has since said via The Independent: “Donald Glover told a joke referencing Lena Dunham for last night’s WGA Awards. It included, for effect, language Lena never used, nor would use. Full stop.”
Meanwhile, Harmon recently hinted that the forthcoming Community film is set to be significantly different to the TV series.
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Damian Jones
NME