While reflecting on his time on the hit TV series Community, Joel McHale recalls having an “altercation” with co-star Chevy Chase while on the set.
During his appearance on Michael Rosebaum’s Inside of You podcast, McHale was asked if there were any physical or verbal incidents with Chase while on the show’s set.
“It would get a little contentious,” Joel McHale explained. “It would get to this point where I’m like, ‘OK…’ I got in trouble one time because I injured him. I dislocated his shoulder.”
McHale also recalled there being “multiple times” where a physical altercation between him and Chase would involve shoving or pushing. “It was an advanced horseplay,” he declared. “You know, horseplay, and then it always turned into sex. It wasn’t fun.”
Joel McHale was previously open about his on-set issues with Chase. In his 2016 memoir Thanks for the Money, McHale did a “step by step” on how to “fight Chevy Chase. McHale stated Chase never reached out to him about that section in his book.
When Rosenbaum asked him if Chase knows he’s an “a—hole,” Joel McHale pointed out that he “would think so.”
Community ran for six seasons from 2009 to 2016. The show starred McHale and Chase as well as Ken Jeong, Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, and Danny Pudi.
Joel McHale’s Co-Star Chevy Chase Previously Stated He Didn’t Think ‘Community’ Was ‘Funny Enough’
During an appearance on the WTF podcast in 2023, Chevy Chase stated he didn’t think Community was enough.
“I felt a little bit constrained a bit,” Chase explained at the time. “Everyone had their bits and stuff. I thought they were all good, but it just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”
In his recent podcast appearance, Joel McHale shared his response to Chase’s 2023 comment. “My response to that was, ‘Well, yeah the feeling is mutual about your attitude, and you didn’t have to be there,’” he noted. “He’s like, ‘I didn’t want to be around the table with those people.’ And like Gillian would say, ‘[The] feeling’s mutual.’ This was not a prison sentence. We were not conscripted into a war.”
McHale then added, “You were being paid a lot of money and getting free food all day long, so you could just walk away.”
Chase was fired from the show before its sixth and final season. He allegedly used a racist slur towards Donald Glover while filming. He also had a confrontation with the show’s creator, Dan Harmon.
Glover, who appeared on the show as Troy, claimed that Chase used the N-word while ranting about his issues with the character. Chase didn’t deny using the slur during an interview with the Washington Post years later.
“I could have said it,” Chase declared. However, he also pointed out he had been a fan of Glover the entire time they worked together on Community.