03/06/2024 03:50 pm EST
The enmity between Chevy Chase and the rest of the Community cast is no secret, but Joel McHale just highlighted a little-known story that brings things to a whole new level. McHale revealed that he and Chase had “multiple” fist fights on set, and in one, he actually dislocated Chase’s shoulder in the scuffle. McHale said that he wrote about all this in his memoir, but he discussed it further on Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside of You.
McHale said that fans who want more details on his feud with Chase should check out his 2016 book Thanks for the Money, which includes an entire chapter about Chase and “how to fight” him. He said that he and the older comedian fought often and it wasn’t uncommon for things to turn physical while filming Community from 2008 to 2012. He said: “There was pushing and shoving, yeah. it was advanced horseplay.”
“It wasn’t fun,” McHale went on. “It would get a little contentious. I got in trouble one time because I injured him. I dislocated his shoulder.” He explained that this happed while filming “a boxing scene” where McHale was supposed to punch Chase, and Chase complained that fight didn’t look believable on camera. He said: “He wanted me to punch him as hard as I could. I punched him in the hand with a left. Then he went down.”
McHale said that he never heard any direct response from Chase about this particular story, and he assumes Chase never read the book at all. He said that he “assumes” Chase knows that “he could be an a-hole.” Meanwhile, he shared his reaction to Chase’s commentary on Community during an episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast back in September. At the time, Chase said that the sitcom “wasn’t funny enough” for him to work on, and he “didn’t want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people.”
“Yeah, well, feeling’s mutual about your attitude and you didn’t have to be there,” McHale quipped. He admitted that he and his his other castmates had discussed that interview, and that Gillian Jacobs had been the one to say: “This was not a prison sentence. We were not conscripted into a war. You were being paid a lot of money and getting free food all day long. So you could just walk away.”
Chase left Community in November of 2012 after allegedly using a racist slur on set. They were in the middle of Season 4, and the show would continue without him from then on. Now that plans for a reunion movie are taking shape, Chase is the only original cast member who is not expected to return. That movie will be filmed this summer and will eventually premiere on Peacock.
For now, all six seasons of Community are streaming on Hulu. McHale’s book is available now in print, digital and audiobook formats. The movie begins production this summer.
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