Memes

Yeah, that bad blood between him and directors is what I'm talking about. He pissed off so many that no one wanted to work with him anymore which is why his acting career was non-existent for the past few years. He couldn't get a job so he ran off to silicon valley and started hanging out with the tech bros until they got annoyed with his shit too. His shit? Well that's the 'Chevy Chase' thing I was talking about. General arrogance, a belief that he's gods gift to mankind, over extending of his talent and intelligence and a routine shattering of any relationship he makes due to his own arrogance.

The tl;dr is that Chevy Chase got stupid famous, over reached, was rude to a lot of people who didn't want to deal with him anymore and he fell out of favor and into obscurity. He then came back with Community but was acting the exact same on the show so lost it all again.

The not tl;dr...

Chevy Chase was a comedic actor on SNL and got very very popular on it with a phrase "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not." Would do the Weekend Update and to great love. Was the most popular person on the show by a mile. He started doing movies and such and it all immediately went to his head. Couple seasons into SNL and he had a massively inflated ego and would throw his weight around wherever. Would insult whoever he wanted, do whatever he wanted and generally act like he was Gods gift to mankind. An insane amount of drugs was done as well (dunno about that when it comes to Ed Norton) and his arrogance became unmatched. He would argue with directors and other actors and pretend like he was the best thing in the movie because he was the A List star in it. He also did, during this period of great fame and assholery, two Comedy Central Roasts. The first one had a bunch of people from SNL and people he worked with who gently roasted him as this was during the days when it was based off of the Briars Club, a NYC old boys group that did a lot of these in roasts. For 5 years they made a deal with CC to air them. Chevys was one of the roasts. The deal ran out though and Comedy Central decided to make their own roasts. Chevy, liking the first one, decided to come back for another and Comedy Central was more than happy to oblige. Problem though. No one wanted to be on it. Chevy had run out of friends in Hollywood. He had pissed off too many directors and producers and shit talked his cast mates too frequently. No one liked him anymore. So the Roast was filled with nobodies. Now they're all fairly well known with Marc Maron and Stephen Colbert being amongst the roasters but at the time no one knew who they were. Colbert even talked about that in his roast section which broke Chevy. You can see his face visibly change throughout the roast. This is that section. I post it simply because of how fucking brutal it is.

Uh... Geez, I'm, I'm kind of at a loss here. I don't really know what to say. Uh, I know that these roasts usually involve a fair amount of good natured ribbing, but, uh, when I was asked to do this I was informed that this was actually gonna be honoring Mr. Chase, and I am appalled at some of the things that I have heard said about this man, and I don't, I don't really mean out here, I mean backstage, some really hideous, hurtful, hate filled things, you could never take back, and I just, I will not be party to it.

I'm sorry, I've gotta draw a line, because, who am I, to attack Chevy Chase? I don't know Chevy Chase, I have never met Mr. Chase, I'm actually, I'm uncomfortable calling him Chevy. The only thing I think of when I look at this man, is there, but for the grace of God, go I! Why would I tempt the comedy gods to strike me down like this? To leave me pale, and pear shaped, a humorless husk of my former self, haunting the halls of Hollywood like some sort of walking, waking cautionary tale, shapeless and odorless and colorless, gray on beige, a comedy lamprey just sucking the joy out of everything I touch? [long pause of heavy laughter from everyone] I won't do it!

Over the decades Mr. Chase and his fellow, original, Saturday Night Live... sketch-a-teers [pause for laughter] have found fame and fortune making us laugh, but for some of these people, it went to their head. We know that Dan Aykroyd has tried the dramatic arts, of course Bill Murray very famously over reached with "The Razor's Edge," but this man never forgot what got him wherever it is he thinks he is. He never, ever attempted to do anything that was in any way different than the last thing he did. And that is so refreshing in its sameness.

Finally tonight I'd like to offer a little bit of warning to the rest of the people who have to come up here and talk about this good man. Before you attack him, think! There may come a day, in your darkest hour, when you are a shadow of your, albeit paper thin, self, and when that day comes, I hope you are cheered up, by something that Mr. Chase so famously said: He's Chevy Chase, and you're not. And if that doesn't cheer you up, I don't know what will.

Edward Norton is the dramatic acting version of Chevy Chase. Massively talented, massively famous, and massively egotistical to the point of damn near losing everything and having to take a break before coming back. Whether he continues to shoot himself in the foot or not is yet to be seen.