tricycleracer: Like 10 years ago my girlfriend waited on him at Blue Hill Stone Barns. With his wife at the table, he told my girlfriend that he wanted to lick stevia off of her nipples.

/CSB.

Did she let him? Were waiting!!

verbaltoxin: So which part is Valkenvania? The "Pretty much Alabama," "Swamps and Toxic Waste," or "Pineys Everywhere?" The area seemed to be more like Centralia, PA than anywhere else.

Yeah, Wiki suggests Centralia. From personal experience, I'd guess Hunterdon county, since redneck population increases the closer you get to Pennsylvania. But if the ride is from NY to Atlantic City, they're likely somewhere in the Pine Barrens.

/I have officially given this way too much thought

Spies Like Us has a bit about "Soulfinger" by the Bar-Kays, and a strip trivia round with the Russians that revolves around early rock and roll. That fits with the Ayroyd-as-screenwriter model, and he was indeed featured as a writer on that flick.

What about Mr. Detroit?

CoonAce: What about Mr.Doctor Detroit?

FTFY

I sent my CSB story to gawker about Chevy Chase, I'll share the email here:

Hello Max, loved the Gawker run-down of Chevy Chase and his history of intense mutual dislike with just about everyone in the world, I have a silly little Chevy Chase story of my own to share. It's not a great story, like some of the ones you feature, but it does show that the man is pathologically cruel to absolutely random strangers as well.

So back in 1989, it's the summer of my graduation from high school with classmate Lilith A--- (Don't use her full name please, I haven't been in touch with her in years, but I know she values her privacy, but if you care to look us up to check the story you'll find us in the '89 yearbook/alumni lists of -----) and we have decided to spend a couple weeks with friends at my parents summer house in Amagansett NY, the part of the Hamptons where newly-successful ethnic New Yorkers like Jews and Greeks bought second homes in the 1970s to emulate the old-money types in East Hampton. Lilith and me are having lunch at Astro's Pizza, a family owned institution in Amagansett that still serves the best slices on the island in my opinion 40 years on. We're at the counter chatting and waiting on our slices, talking over the buzz of the two dated stand-up arcade games in the corner (Ms Pac Man and Gorf) when Chevy Chase walks in and walks in front of us at the counter without saying a word (You know, like, "Have you ordered?" "Is this the line?"; Simple courtesies). He's incredibly tall and even more incredibly dressed in all-whites, tennis whites if I recall correctly, something that you just never saw in that laid-back beach community back then: Dressing like that was what people did at country clubs to meet dress codes, it just looks ridiculous and ostentatious on main street.

I know Chevy Chase by sight because I was a fan of SNL back then (like pretty much every teenage boy) and had seen all of his movies, but Lilith had grown up with minimal cultural contamination on a hilly farm in Santa Cruz CA, where her folks were environmental lobbyists and green-home retrofitters, so she had no idea who the tall rude gentleman was. We get our slices shortly and take that first perfect bite standing at the counter, behind Mr. Chase, still, and predicably both get a bit cheese burned; Lilith remarks to no-one in particular something along the lines of "Don't you hate it that no matter how many times you buy a slice, you never learn, and always burn yourself?", and I was in the process of agreeing with her, as I did with everything she said, being 18 and in conversation with a girl, when Chevy Chase spins around and literally snarls at her: "What? What are you saying? You actually think that's a funny observation?", sneers at her, and then turns his back on her before she can so much as draw breath to reply. Lilith is totally crushed, gone from simple enjoyment of a summer day to having been rounded-on by this physically imposing (The guy is like 6'5" to her petite post-teen 5'6"), inexplicably hostile, asshole. I just look at her helplessly and shrug, mutter something like "Dick" and we both chuckle and leave the pizza store.

Later I tell her who it was who was such a prick to her, needlessly, and she forgives him, sweet hippie child that she was, as being someone obviously under stress and "out of balance". But me, I think as small and petty a slight as it was, it still rankles for being so undeserved and so cruel, and portrays a personality who actually thinks the whole world revolves around him, and knows or cares what he does for a living. The guy has achieved success beyond what any other reasonable person would feel secure in achieving, and yet still has to insult teenagers randomly in order to prove something. Bizarre.

Anyway, that's my little chevy chase story, sorry it isn't an insider glimpse into his work life or whatever, but it affected me and my friend negatively back then, in the same way my first mugging and my first hostile encounter with a seriously mentally ill person did ("The Hugging Bandit", on UPenn's campus in 1990, but that's another story), so yeah, Chevy Chase is a dick, and in his personal life, seems to spread ill-will wherever he goes,

Jay P--,

Chevy is a doucebag. A friend of mine used to manage the movie theater in Bedford, NY back in the 90s and he would always try to jump the line, then get pissed when my friend would tell him, "Yes, I know who you are. No, you're not getting special treatment. Get back in line." He'd, also, be a total dick to anyone who dared to approach him.

/not so CSS

fusillade762: d_the_sandman: Nothing But Trouble is terrible, to be sure, but it doesn't hold a candle to Modern Problems, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I don't know the story behind the making of that film, but it has to involve some legendary levels of PCP ingestion on the part of the director and screenwriter, and possibly a legally blind editor. Either way, something tells me a book-length story can be told about whatever happened to make that thing happen.

[i10.photobucket.com image 640x352]

Everyone knows that was a cheap knock-off of:

FeedTheCollapse: de facto Community thread?


I thought last night's episode was pretty awful. If they had used more of the "documentary footage" instead of the voice-over parts, it probably would've worked much better. Instead the voice-over parts took up a bulk of the episode and it felt like 4 minutes of deleted scenes from the previous episode padded out into a 23 minute episode.

have you ever watched frontline? thats exactly what happens.

The_Sponge: where Chase tries to blame the huge flop Nothing But Trouble on poor Dan Aykroyd

A list of Dan Aykroyd's crap movie decisions is long and undistinguished.

Ghostbusters 3 will just add to the list.

TheGhostofFarkPast: ThisIsntMe: Confabulat: He's always complaining he doesn't like the show or even sitcoms in general. So why is he on one? Did he spend all his Fletch loot?


No

Link (new window)

hey moron just because a website claims to know what he made doesn't mean he is actually still sitting on it.

I once saw photos on a real estate website of the piece of land he was selling, or had sold at one point. It was quite a posh spread, so I quite believe that he's worth lot$.

Funny thing is I never heard any stories of him good or bad until the last few weeks here on fark. Thank you fark.

Mattevil: bel4sucks: gingerjet: A whole paragraph about what Starburns thinks.

He's a writer and producer for the show, why not?

Dino (Starburns) has actually been behind a lot of modern comedy from The Ben Stiller Show to Mr. Show to the epic writing staff of the Dana Carvey Show to the early days of Conan. He's proabably be way more successful if he wasn't so self destructive (marrying his dominatrix for example).

And Moral Orel, seriously one of the darkest shows ever on American television, a pretty scary metaphor for his own marriage problems.

/one of my favorite shows ever

After RTFA, I like Chevy Chase even more.

FeedTheCollapse: I thought it got a bit better towards the end, but midway through the first act I was thinking "fark, the whole episode is going to be this way, isn't it?" To me, the episode was pretty typical of a complaint I've had since season 2 in that it's an otherwise intelligent show that frequently feels like it tries too hard to come off as intelligent to the detriment of actually being funny. (see also: Mixology Certification and to a lesser degree Critical Film Studies ). It frequently feels that the idea of making a parody of a subject is the joke in and of itself.

It probably helps to have an idea of what they are parodying.

The whole PBS Ken Burns/Civil War documentaries, right down to the "pledge drive" at the end.

Perhaps I found the show funny because I knew what they were aiming at.

ODDwhun: Actor_au: Chevy Chase won Dungeons and Dragons... and it was Advanced!
He plays Pierce nearly perfectly and has a really good chilling voice when he plays evil.

My favorite thing I've seen Chase in for a long time was season 2 of Chuck. He was awesome as evil Steve Jobs. I really wish he would do more villainous roles.

He does a really good villain, loved him in Chuck too

// Misses Chuck

The Civil Pillow War shot high, but just didn't hit. I don't think they'll ever top Remedial Chaos Theory, but they came close a few times (Annie breaking Abed's Dark Knight DVD, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the Western themed Paintball episode, the second part wasn't very good.) Changlorious Basterds were great, but the rest of the episode was meh. And 30 Rock was terrible, after three amazing episodes this season, this might have been one of the worst 30 Rock episodes they ever made (except for Pete's birthmark, a Swastika made out of penises.)

peterthx: FeedTheCollapse: I thought it got a bit better towards the end, but midway through the first act I was thinking "fark, the whole episode is going to be this way, isn't it?" To me, the episode was pretty typical of a complaint I've had since season 2 in that it's an otherwise intelligent show that frequently feels like it tries too hard to come off as intelligent to the detriment of actually being funny. (see also: Mixology Certification and to a lesser degree Critical Film Studies ). It frequently feels that the idea of making a parody of a subject is the joke in and of itself.

It probably helps to have an idea of what they are parodying.

The whole PBS Ken Burns/Civil War documentaries, right down to the "pledge drive" at the end.

Perhaps I found the show funny because I knew what they were aiming at.

I hope people got that, because it was so over the top, slap you in the face with it's obviousness, that I don't see how you couldn't. Not just the Ken Burns documentaries, but any documentary about an old war ever made.

I haven't always been a fan of them doing the really conceptual episodes, for example I thought the paintball episodes in season 2 were unbearable. I like the show when it's just the clever sitcom about a misfit group of college students.

Trocadero: And 30 Rock was terrible, after three amazing episodes this season, this might have been one of the worst 30 Rock episodes they ever made (except for Pete's birthmark, a Swastika made out of penises.)

30 Rock has been really patchy this year, alternating between a tired, past it's prime sitcom and the great critically acclaimed sitcom it is when firing on all cylinders. But even in a weak 30 Rock episode, there is always 2 or 3 just ridiculously good jokes that come out of nowhere, and if you aren't paying attention you might even miss them because they are tossed off so quickly.

Lsherm: proteon: The people who have the strongest and most sudden obsession with him seem only to know him from Community.

Just so you guyses know, prior to being dug up as the token old-comic in leiu of Betty White, he had a kind of lucrative career in film some dialogue of which has gone on to become cultural idioms - and prior to even that he was a popular television actor. Asshole or no.

It's just what he's doing now. I've known Chevy Chase was a complete asshole since 1978.

His biggest problem, as Jon Lovitz has pointed out, is that his parents never cut him off. He made it in showbiz without the panic of failure, because he always had money to fall back on.

Checy Chase, like it or not, is the worst example of a living limousine liberal. Worse than Sean Penn. He's never had to earn a goddamn thing. He's the Mitt Romney of comedy. He did bad movies because it didn't matter - he just had to work to file taxes every few years.

Chevy Chase is part of the idle rich. He'll work when he needs to, but he doesn't really care about crafting anything.

Nicely put.

peterthx: FeedTheCollapse: I thought it got a bit better towards the end, but midway through the first act I was thinking "fark, the whole episode is going to be this way, isn't it?" To me, the episode was pretty typical of a complaint I've had since season 2 in that it's an otherwise intelligent show that frequently feels like it tries too hard to come off as intelligent to the detriment of actually being funny. (see also: Mixology Certification and to a lesser degree Critical Film Studies ). It frequently feels that the idea of making a parody of a subject is the joke in and of itself.

It probably helps to have an idea of what they are parodying.

The whole PBS Ken Burns/Civil War documentaries, right down to the "pledge drive" at the end.

Perhaps I found the show funny because I knew what they were aiming at.



it's parody was rather obvious. But your statement kind of underlines what i was saying: the joke is in the idea of the parody, not so much what is said or done in the actual episode. I find that lame as it feels like the writers' session essentially consists of "okay, someone write an episode that parodies Civil War docs. Go!" and all the jokes are half-assedly forced into this concept.

i think the concept could've worked had made the doc scenes more prominent than the voice-over scenes, though.


Trocadero: And 30 Rock was terrible, after three amazing episodes this season, this might have been one of the worst 30 Rock episodes they ever made (except for Pete's birthmark, a Swastika made out of penises.)



30 Rock has been noticeably hit or miss this year, but I didn't think last night's episode was that bad.

Wow you people are tremendously mediocre crybabies. After reading that article I have gained ten fold more love and respect for Chevy.

Why don't you all just go out with each other, shake hands, and chuckle about how funny it is to burn your mouth on pizza. Bunch of plebs.

Trocadero: The Civil Pillow War shot high, but just didn't hit. I don't think they'll ever top Remedial Chaos Theory, but they came close a few times (Annie breaking Abed's Dark Knight DVD, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the Western themed Paintball episode, the second part wasn't very good.) Changlorious Basterds were great, but the rest of the episode was meh.

Considering that people never thought they would top the chicken fingers episode, then they produced the original paintball episode....
or that people thought they would never top the Advanced D&D and then produced the documentary episode ALA Modern Family,
or that people thought they would never top the 2nd paintball episode with Sawyer and then produced Remedial Chaos Theory and the documentary episode ALA Heart of Darkness....

I think it's very possible they can top themselves when they have a history of escalating greatness.

(Also your chronology is out of order if you think paintball and D&D were attempts to top Chaos Theory)

FeedTheCollapse: i think the concept could've worked had made the doc scenes more prominent than the voice-over scenes, though.

But then the parody would be lost because the whole Ken Burns shtick isn't footage or recreations but long voiceovers over pans of still photos.

Trocadero: And 30 Rock was terrible, after three amazing episodes this season, this might have been one of the worst 30 Rock episodes they ever made (except for Pete's birthmark, a Swastika made out of penises.)

30 Rock has been noticeably hit or miss this year, but I didn't think last night's episode was that bad.

I don't think I've ever seen an episode of 30 Rock that was outright bad. Just meh. Last night to me was kind of meh (Jack was wasted) and the fact that Tracy had something stuck up his nose for years reminded me of that episode of The Simpsons where Homer had a pencil up his nose and that's really what makes him stupid, all the way to the point of re-inserting the pencil/object to make things status quo again (ye ole reset button).

peterthx: FeedTheCollapse: i think the concept could've worked had made the doc scenes more prominent than the voice-over scenes, though.

But then the parody would be lost because the whole Ken Burns shtick isn't footage or recreations but long voiceovers over pans of still photos.

then the concept itself is flawed.

Chevy Chase raped my dog.

deadsanta: I just look at her helplessly and shrug, mutter something like "Dick" and we both chuckle and leave the pizza store.

+1 internet points for lack of ITG embellishment
-2 internet points for missed opportunity

moonage daydream: And Moral Orel, seriously one of the darkest shows ever on American television, a pretty scary metaphor for his own marriage problems.

I have to farking agree with you on that though it did help me find out The Mountain Goats are awesome and Tallahassee is a fantastic album.

cannibalparrot: proteon: It's not enough to be interested in tales of this old comic who we'll never meet, azmoviez: The odd thing is Chevy got old in a real hurry. I know he is actually old now, but somewhere around Funny Farm he seemed to be 70. These days he seems like he's 90. I can't help but think this recent incident might literally be the final nail in the coffin.

This sounds so much like political rhetoric. Do you want to see him voted off of Community? Would you like to be part of voting whoever is on as a replacement?

Don't you think he looks tired?

One golf clap and one sonic screwdriver to you, sir.

Mattevil: bel4sucks: gingerjet: A whole paragraph about what Starburns thinks.

He's a writer and producer for the show, why not?

Dino (Starburns) has actually been behind a lot of modern comedy from The Ben Stiller Show to Mr. Show to the epic writing staff of the Dana Carvey Show to the early days of Conan. He's proabably be way more successful if he wasn't so self destructive (marrying his dominatrix for example).

HIS NAME IS ALEX!

Keith Olberman = Chevy Chase

peterthx: FeedTheCollapse: i think the concept could've worked had made the doc scenes more prominent than the voice-over scenes, though.

But then the parody would be lost because the whole Ken Burns shtick isn't footage or recreations but long voiceovers over pans of still photos.

Trocadero: And 30 Rock was terrible, after three amazing episodes this season, this might have been one of the worst 30 Rock episodes they ever made (except for Pete's birthmark, a Swastika made out of penises.)

30 Rock has been noticeably hit or miss this year, but I didn't think last night's episode was that bad.

I don't think I've ever seen an episode of 30 Rock that was outright bad. Just meh. Last night to me was kind of meh (Jack was wasted) and the fact that Tracy had something stuck up his nose for years reminded me of that episode of The Simpsons where Homer had a pencil up his nose and that's really what makes him stupid, all the way to the point of re-inserting the pencil/object to make things status quo again (ye ole reset button).

Yah, last night was the first time I've ever used the tired phrase "Simpsons did it." I don't think last night's episode was the worst 30 Rock, but it was not good. Community was possibly the worst episode of the show (close second to that boat episode). 30 Rock started to get kind of bad for me last season though. It picked back up for me this season, and now just keeps going back and forth between good and bad. Really it's the same with Community though. They are still superior comedies than most of the others out there in my opinion, but they are definitely hit or miss episode to episode.

I wish they'd both stop trying to push the weird envelope. I think they saw that people liked the weirdness and neuroticness of certain characters and how they worked really good at the beginning in small doses, but then they decided they should make every episode about that weirdness. Unfortunately the weirdness only works when it's mixed in with some form of reality and normalcy. Otherwise the show just becomes so over the top ridiculous that it's not really funny anymore, just kind of stupid. It's like Chang, he works in small doses, and I definitely want to see him in more episodes, but I don't want entire episodes of only Chang. They've done this with Abed. Increased his weirdness and made Troy weird with him that what was once cute and endearing is now just annoying to me.

And then on 30 Rock they've taken a character like Tracy that was a dumb person with some outlandish behaviors (mocking celebrities), and instead of just interjecting his ridiculous requests and extremist behavior into an otherwise normal situation like they did at the beginning, they made him into a full on retard who everyone indulges. His character and the characters' reactions to him have crossed the line of what is something that might happen in their somewhat strange world to this is just so unbelievably dumb, even in their world this is ridiculous. It's still funny sometimes, but it's definitely overdone. On the other hand Jenna's ridiculousness doesn't bother me because it's just random scenes revolving around her narcissism so maybe I just don't like the Tracy character anymore, I don't know.

Either way, the weirdness aspect of both of these shows is just too much sometimes. It's like eating straight up sugar, sorry but I need it cut with something in order to be able to stomach it.

Craig_Kreist: Checy Chase, like it or not, is the worst example of a living limousine liberal. Worse than Sean Penn.

Wow. If he's worse than Sean Penn he must be really, really bad.

Yeah.. what a douche Seann Penn.. Not doing anything with his life..
Wait. What? oh yeah.. he was in the trenches, helping out with Katrina victims, Haiti earthquake relief, and helping out with other natural disasters all over the world..

Worse example indeed.

PillsHere: Otherwise the show just becomes so over the top ridiculous that it's not really funny anymore, just kind of stupid. It's like Chang, he works in small doses, and I definitely want to see him in more episodes, but I don't want entire episodes of only Chang.

I don't really want to see Chang anymore. I get kind of annoyed when I hear him mentioned in the show as he was turned from one of the best characters on the show into one of the worst. I don't mind Troy and Abed weirdness (though it works better when centered around Abed), but Chang just feels like they have no idea what to do with the character, but they still write subplots for him.

FeedTheCollapse: PillsHere: Otherwise the show just becomes so over the top ridiculous that it's not really funny anymore, just kind of stupid. It's like Chang, he works in small doses, and I definitely want to see him in more episodes, but I don't want entire episodes of only Chang.

I don't really want to see Chang anymore. I get kind of annoyed when I hear him mentioned in the show as he was turned from one of the best characters on the show into one of the worst. I don't mind Troy and Abed weirdness (though it works better when centered around Abed), but Chang just feels like they have no idea what to do with the character, but they still write subplots for him.

Yah I could see that. His character was better before. I meant more so when we see him pop up, it's for a small bit. I really didn't like that whole thing where he was living with Jeff - it was way too much of him. It was funny when he showed up to the D&D game dressed up, but he wouldn't have needed to talk for it to be a quick funny moment.

JimmyFartpants: Keith Olberman = Chevy Chase

Car and Driver discuss The Chevy Olbermann

The guy who never really did anything memorable besides some stupid vacation movies pissed a lot of people off, huh? Who woulda thunk it?

Does anyone remember watching his Fox late night show back in '93? I remember actually feeling embarrassed for him.

SixPaperJoint: [blogs.laweekly.com image 500x336]

Frowns on Chevy's shenanigans.

"Bad jazz band" my ass!

Any band that would name itself after a fictional mechanical dildo is okay in my book.

TheGhostofFarkPast: ThisIsntMe: Confabulat: He's always complaining he doesn't like the show or even sitcoms in general. So why is he on one? Did he spend all his Fletch loot?


No

Link (new window)

hey moron just because a website claims to know what he made doesn't mean he is actually still sitting on it.

His family had more money than God before he ever told a farking joke. Even if he has managed to spend his own film earnings he still would have more money than you or I could imagine. It's the big reason he has been a dick from the start. He never has been afraid of being fired or ever really needing anyone because acting was a hobby to him, not a necessity.

farkityfarker: Does anyone remember watching his Fox late night show back in '93? I remember actually feeling embarrassed for him.

Sorry, I was sick the week that it was on, and went to bed early.

carmody


I read "Live from New York," an oral history of SNL, and pretty much everybody who ever worked with Chevy Chase considers him a colossal piece of shiat.

is there any good / heartwarming stories in that book about anybody?

or is it just rant after negative rant ?

/never read it. slightly interested.

pixeled: Wait. What? oh yeah.. he was in the trenches, helping out with Katrina victims, Haiti earthquake relief, and helping out with other natural disasters all over the world..

You can't possibly be serious that there isn't another side to that equation, can you?