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Community Director Offers Insights Into Chevy Chase/N-Word Incident

Community director Jay Chandrasekhar offered some insights into the on-set incident between co-stars Chevy Chase and Yvette Nicole Brown.

Published Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:37:04 -0600

by Ray Flook

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Aside from having all starred in Community (and set to return for Peacock's Dan Harmon and Andrew Guest-penned follow-up film), what else do Donald Glover (Troy), Ken Jeong (Ben Chang), Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley), Joel McHale (Jeff), Gillian Jacobs (Britta), Danny Pudi (Abed), Alison Brie (Annie), and Jim Rash (Dean Pelton) have in common? None of them was interested in going on the record to discuss their co-star Chevy Chase for filmmaker Marina Zenovich's documentary, I'm Chevy Chase, and You're Not. However, director Jay Chandrasekhar shared some insights into the 2012 on-set incident that led to Chase being fired from the popular NBC series.

Reportedly, Chase took issue with a "blackface" hand puppet that Chase's Pierce Hawthorne was going to utilize and "said something" to Brown. "I know that there was a history between [Chevy and Brown] around race, and she got up and stormed out of there," Chandrasekhar shared. "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.'" But according to the director, Chase didn't see a reason for an apology.

"He [Chase] goes, 'You know, me and Richard Pryor, I used to call Richard Pryor the N-word, and he used to call me the Honky, and we loved each other.' And I'm like, 'I know, man, I love that bit.' I said, 'You know, can we just have a little apology?' He goes, 'For what?' " Chandrasekhar shared. From there, it was alleged that someone leaked to The Hollywood Reporter that a "racial incident" took place on the set, which would see Chase reportedly having a "full meltdown" when the cast and production team resumed filming.

The director claimed that Chase came "storming onto the set, and he goes, 'Who f***ed me over?' … 'My career is ruined! I'm ruined!' Like, it's a full meltdown. 'F–k all of you!' And I'm like, 'Alright, let's shoot the scene.' He never ended up coming back after that." Chandrasekhar added, "It was out in the open that Chevy Chase was a little difficult on 'Community,' and I'm being nice, People were talking about it, enough that creator Dan did that thing at the wrap party." During the wrap party, Chase was greeted by Harmon and others in attendance with the chant of "F**k you, Chevy!"

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