The first time I saw Three Amigos, I was about 13-years-old. As I watched Martin Short, Steve Martin, and some other guy battle El Guapo in a Mexican village, I thought to myself, “This movie is really funny. But I can’t stand that smarmy guy with a chin.”
And let me do the 8 Mile thing here and tell you all the terrible facts about my irrational Chevy Chasetred (Chevy Chase hatred, fyi) before you can use them to diss me in a rap battle:
1) I have never seen Caddyshack.
2) I do not like any of the National Lampoon movies.
3) I will turn off old Saturday Night Live episodes if I see Chevy Chase in a sketch.
4) I don’t consider Katrina as big of a disaster as Nothing But Trouble (which, to be fair, was more Dan Aykroyd‘s fault than Chase’s).
5) I found the first season of NBC’s Community basically intolerable because Chevy Chase was in it.
So obviously, I am biased when it comes to cornball, slapstick humor of Chevy’s. But this season of Community changed me. I suddenly started laughing at Pierce’s storylines, especially the episode about the hipsters (and oh my god, the Christmas episode!). Once Chevy Chase was immobilized in a wheelchair, his character got 100 times funnier. Maybe it’s because the show’s producers realized that the only way to keep Chevy from improvising trips and pratfalls as to keep him from moving entirely. Whatever it is, it’s working.
And oddly enough, it’s working retroactively. Recently, I caught part of the Three Amigos again, and realized that I was actually laughing at parts that Chevy Chase was in.
Still, no amount of good humor can make up for the Chevy Chase Show. So what about you? Do you think Chevy Chase is getting a second wind as a comedian, or is he still falling flat?
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