Newly Leaked Chevy Chase Phone Rant to ‘Community’ Creator Dan Harmon Surfaces Online (Audio)
Olivia Owen A new tape detailing the depths of Chevy Chase‘s dissatisfaction with his role on the NBC cult hit sitcom has emerged.
Chase, who left a vulgarity-laden tantrum on the voicemail of series creator and showrunner Dan Harmon, which then went viral after Harmon played it publicly at a comedy show, calls Community a “f—king mediocre sitcom” that suffers from a serious disconnect between what happens on set and what is seen by the audience.
Chase’s reps told the website Celebuzz, which first posted the tape, that the audio is over a year old.
“The other part of the disconnect is obviously, you don’t get my humor at all, or what it is I do that’s funny, that actually makes people laugh,” he says. With this, Harmon agrees, but Chase continues with his complaint. “There are two choices. One is the story line — like everybody gives a s–t about the f—king story when they don’t even know who the characters are — or there’s make people laugh.”
Chase says that all the suggestions and on-set jokes he makes are cut out during editing.
VIDEO: Community Cast Interviews at PaleyFest 2012
“It’s cut down. For what? So people can follow the story line between Joel [McHale] and Gillian [Jacobs]? About love affairs and kissing? Come on man, you’re missing the point,” he says. “This is not my kind of comedy. I thought you hired me for what I can do that’s funny. You’ve got to give me some range.”
The complaints continued, with nary a word from Harmon.
“I should have had this talk with you face to face, but I didn’t want to because I really like you. I think your writing is great. I think everything you do is great,” Chase offers. “But the problem really is Dan that you’re not there when we shoot, and you’re not there when we edit… And if you want me on this show again, I have news for you: I don’t want it. It’s just a mediocre f—king sitcom. I want people to laugh, and this isn’t funny. And it ain’t funny to me, because I’m 67-years old and I’ve been making people laugh a long time, and I’ve been doing it a lot better than this.”
It’s unclear who leaked the tape; last week, Harmon issued an emotional apology on his blog for playing the voicemail to a crowd at a stage show in Los Angeles.
“It was in that venue, months ago, that I made the horrible, childish, self-obsessed, unaware, naive and unprofessional decision to play someone’s voicemail to me,” Harmon wrote. “He didn’t intend for 150 people to listen and giggle at it, and I didn’t intend for millions of people to read angry reports about it. I was doing what I always do, and always get in trouble for doing, and always pay a steep price for doing. I was thinking about myself and I was thinking about making people laugh.”
