Terry Sweeney Slams Chevy Chase Over Alleged AIDS Joke
The former SNL cast member responds to a new documentary revisiting an alleged AIDS joke and Chase’s denial.
Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay cast member of Saturday Night Live, had some harsh words for actor Chevy Chase, a member of the show’s original cast who has returned to host multiple times.
“Chevy is one of those turds you flush down the toilet but it comes back up again and again,” the 75-year-old Sweeney, best remembered for his exaggerated impression of First Lady Nancy Reagan, told the New York Post.
Sweeney’s comments come as a new CNN documentary, I’m Chevy Chase, and You’re Not, directed by Marina Zenovich, is set to premiere on January 1 at 8 p.m.
The documentary chronicles the now-82-year-old comedian’s life, including his rise from breakout SNL star to leading man in movies, his three marriages, substance abuse, heart failure that led to a coma, childhood abuse, depression, and a long history of on-set disputes, including clashes with the entire cast of the NBC comedy Community.
Among the disputes was an alleged spat with Sweeney, who was part of SNL’s Season 11 cast — dubbed the “weird year” by fans.
In the documentary, Chase addresses the alleged incident after a prompt from Zenovich. The encounter occurred in 1985, when he returned to host the season’s second episode.
“You said something to Sweeney like, ‘Oh you’re the gay guy. Why don’t we ask if you have AIDS. And every week, we weigh you,'” Zenovich says.
“Terry Sweeney, he was very funny, this guy. I don’t think he’s alive anymore,” responds Chase.
Zenovich reads Chase an excerpt from Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. In the book, Sweeney recounts the incident, saying Chase entered his dressing room to apologize for the AIDS joke but was “furious that he had to apologize to me.”
“None of that’s true, I would remember that. That I was angry, that I had to apologize to him? Good god, Chevy, what’s wrong with you. Of course I — that’s just not true,” Chase responds. “My memory is that [Sweeney] is lying, is my memory. He’s not telling the truth. That isn’t me. That’s not who I am. And if I am that way, my life has changed, because I have to live with that now for the rest of my fucking life.”
“It all reflects rightly horribly on him!” Sweeney texted The Hollywood Reporter in response to Chase’s denial.
Sweeney also expressed little sympathy for Chase regarding the abuse he allegedly suffered as a child, which the documentary suggests as a possible explanation for why many colleagues and co-stars have clashed with him or consider him “an asshole.”
“Boohoo … poor screwed up kid … so THAT’s why he’s so rotten!!!!!!!” Sweeney said.
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