Well…
I watched the Chevy Chase documentary on CNN and part of me wishes I hadn’t. It was probably a good teaching tool if you need to convince someone that too much in the way of drugs, liquor and success can make you do things you’ll have to live down if/when you make it to being clean, sober and no longer in as much demand. Most of these docs on comedians are built on the question, “Why was this person funny?” I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not attempted to answer, “Why was this person such an asshole at times?”
And the secondary question for me was and still is “Why did he allow this to be made?” Because it kind of set in stone that the first question was one that had to be asked. I felt sorry for the guy at times during it, not so sorry at other points. But then I’m not one of those folks who believe that drugs and drink are any sort of excuse for bad behavior.
Some of the current-day interviews with Chase were painful, watching him try to defend the indefensible. Years ago, there was a Comedy Central Friar’s Roast of him (not-very-good video linked here) that he sat through with a “Why the f*** did I say yes to this?” look on his face. This was a more severe version of that. It’s nice to see that he has folks who love him both personally and also at events like a screening of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. But over all, I wasn’t sure what to make of Chevy Chase and there were moments in the documentary when he didn’t seem to know either.
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