Chevy Chase: Big Mistake to Let Sarah Palin on SNL

Chevy Chase, who has had a distinctly unfunny disposition for years, is so aggravated by Sarah Palin that he claims it was a big mistake to let her on Saturday Night Live. Chase, who also claims the biggest mistake of his life was leaving SNL after only a little over a year there, let his feelings be known in Access Hollywood:

NEW YORK, New York --

As a former cast member and “Weekend Update” anchor, Chevy Chase knows something about “Saturday Night Live” – and he wasn’t impressed by what he saw this Saturday night, when Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin made a much-hyped appearance.

“Quite frankly, it’s a big mistake to let her go on,” Chevy told Access Hollywood at the Give Food a Chance benefit in New York. “What was brilliant about [‘SNL’ chief] Lorne [Michaels] was that he had nothing written for Sarah and that apparently she cannot improvise herself out of a paper bag!”

And we remember just how (un)funny your Chevy Chase Show was since it was cancelled after just a month on the air.

“On ‘Weekend Update,’ that was her big chance,” he said. “Nothing.”

But Chevy was critical not only of Sarah’s comedic chops, but of the political campaign of her running mate, Sen. John McCain.

“The management behind McCain’s campaign has been dumb. This has only helped accentuate the problem of his judgment in choosing, in such a cynical way, a candidate like Sarah Palin for vice president. I think the last thing that they would want right about now is to have the rest of America knowing all that… to have her be seen on ‘SNL,’ certainly never there. If anything, you just want her to be seen just from a distance.”

“I’m sure she’s very bright,” he added. “But so is the Butterworth woman.” 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That was soooo funny...Not! Can I write down that line so as to remember never to use it, Chevy? 

It's strange that Chevy Chase is passing judgement on SNL performances since his former cast members from the show absolutely despised him as you can read in this 2002 People account about how they refused to show up for a Friar's Club roast of the unfunny "comedian" (emphasis mine):

During his stint on "Saturday Night Live" 27 years ago, and during his subsequent visits back, it was no secret that fellow cast members had little love for the ego-heavy Chevy Chase, now 58.

Those stories surface once again -- and often -- in the new book, "Live from New York: An Oral History of 'Saturday Night Live,'" by Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.

And it seems that Chevy's reputation rolls on. Tuesday's New York Times reports that at last weekend's Friars Club roast of Chase, his "SNL" costars were few and far between.

Producer Lorne Michaels, the show's executive producer, was at a "family engagement," an NBC spokesman told the paper. Chase costar Dan Aykroyd was at an out-of-town event for which he was being paid, said that comedian's spokesman.

Jane Curtin had declined appearing at the roast, says The Times, because she was expecting to be onstage in the Broadway farce "Noises Off," but then the show closed and she forgot to inquire about the event. "It wasn't a slight," her spokesman insisted to the paper. "The night just slipped through the cracks."

Presenters at the event also wondered aloud why such Chase "pals" as Steve Martin, Martin Short and Rodney Dangerfield were not on hand for the roast.

But Laraine Newman from the original "SNL" cast was there, as were such newcomers as Stephen Colbert, Todd Barry and Andy Kindler.

"I've never heard of half these people," Chase later told The Times. "I've seen bigger names on Mexican television." 

A miserable, unfunny man despised by those he worked closest with and Chevy Chase passes judgement on Sarah Palin?