The actor reacted to remarks in a new documentary about him using the N-word on set and having a “full meltdown,” claiming his costars were “too young to be aware of my work.”

Chevy Chase says his controversial *Community *exit was a ‘misunderstanding,’ insists ‘I’m not racist’

The actor reacted to remarks in a new documentary about him using the N-word on set and having a "full meltdown," claiming his costars were "too young to be aware of my work."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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January 1, 2026 4:56 p.m. ET

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Chevy Chase on 'Community' in 2009. Credit:

Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Chevy Chase says he's not to blame for his controversial departure from the NBC sitcom *Community*.

The debate over the events that led to Chase's 2012 exit has been reignited ahead of the release of *I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not*, a new CNN documentary about the actor that premieres Thursday night. In it, *Community *director Jay Chandrasekhar confirms reports at the time that Chase used the N-word on set and went into a "full meltdown," with his costar Yvette Nicole Brown distancing herself from the ordeal. But Chase sees things differently.

"It wasn't a bad experience. I just didn't think it was that good, the show," Chase told *The New York Times *in a joint interview with the documentary's director, Marina Zenovich, published Thursday.

When interviewer Nicole Sperling pushed back on Chase's reaction, reminding him that he had spoken positively about the sitcom during his time on it, he dismissed her remark, saying simply, "Oh, shut up."

However, after several more prods, he offered the fullest version of his side of the story in years.

Danny Pudi, Chevy Chase, Gillian Jacobs, Joel McHale, and Donald Glover on 'Community'.

Lewis Jacobs/NBC

When asked why his daughter, Caley Chase, claimed in the documentary that the comedian "loved" the writing on *Community*, he replied, "My daughter can go to hell." After he was asked how he felt when his turn on the show wrapped, he quipped, "I thought it ended great." Then the *SNL *vet set aside the snark and got a bit more candid.

"It was too great a misunderstanding of what I was saying and not saying," he said. "I thought that there was at least one person — and another who, for some ungodly reason, didn't get me, didn't know who I was, or didn't realize for one second I'm not racist. They were too young to be aware of my work. Instead, there was some sort of visceral reaction from them."**

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According to a new account Chandrasekhar relays in *I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not*, Chase's alleged tirade began with a "blackface hand puppet" storyline written for his character, the ignorant and abrasive Pierce Hawthorne.

Chandrasekhar claims that Chase "said something" to Brown, whom he already had a "history" with regarding race. "She got up and stormed out of there," the director says in the doc. "Chevy storms off, so the producer is like, 'We need Yvette in the scene, right?' I'm like, 'Yeah, she's in the next scene.' And he goes, 'Well, she won't come out unless Chevy apologizes to her.'"

According to Chandrasekhar, Chase then told him that he "didn't say anything" to Brown and proceeded to explain that he "used to call Richard Pryor the N-word, and he used to call me the Honky, and we loved each other." The director adds that after the press reported the alleged incident, Chase returned to set complaining, "My career is ruined! I'm ruined!" and never came back.

The comedian's latest response echoes his past comments disparaging *Community* and his refusing to apologize over former costars and collaborators' negative accounts of working with him.**

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Source: “EW Sitcom”