- - “SNL” Alum Terry Sweeney Responds to ‘Rotten’ Chevy Chase After Comedian Said He’s ‘Lying’ About Homophobic Incident in the '80s

Virginia ChamleeJanuary 1, 2026 at 3:13 AM

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Terry Sweeney; Chevy Chase -

SNL alum Terry Sweeney is responding to Chevy Chase's comments in a new documentary regarding a homophobic incident alleged to have happened in the 1980s

Sweeney was Saturday Night Live's first out gay cast member during its 1985-86 season

In a new documentary, Chase is asked about allegedly pitching a skit about the AIDs epidemic that would feature Sweeney

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Terry Sweeney is responding to a homophobic incident involving Chevy Chase in the 1980s.

Chase is reminded of the incident in a forthcoming documentary— I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not — by director Marina Zenovich, who brings up claims that the comedian had proposed Sweeney appear in an SNL sketch mocking the AIDS epidemic during the 1985-86 season of the show.

“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 tells the 82-year-old actor and comedian.

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Chevy Chase

When Zenovich asks Chase about the incident in the documentary, and Sweeney's claims that Chase later apologized after being told he had to — the comedian he responds that Sweeney was "not telling the truth."

“My memory is that he 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 f---ing life," Chase says in the documentary, which premieres Jan. 1.

“Terry Sweeney, he was very funny, this guy. I don’t think he’s alive anymore," Chase adds in the documentary.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, 75-year-old Sweeney, via instant message, responded to Chase's remarks, writing, “Don’t you think he is saying this and making himself look more like the ass he is!!!”

“It all reflects rightly horribly on him!” Sweeney told the outlet of Chase’s comments in the doc.

Sweeney also responded to the documentary recounting how Chase was abused by his parents as a child as a reason why he has been so notoriously difficult to work with, telling THR: “Boohoo … poor screwed up kid … so THAT’s why he’s so rotten!!!!!!!”

Sweeney was Saturday Night Live's first out gay cast member during its 1985-86 season.

Elsewhere int he documentary, SNL creator Lorne Michaels speaks to the incident, saying, “I think Chevy was just being Chevy. He would say things that were funny, and he would assume you were comedy people, and he could speak that way. You know, we would say terrible things, because that’s what would make us laugh.”

Other controversies from Chase's career are also explored in the doc — including a 2012 incident on the set of Community in which Chevy used the N-word and was then fired from the show.

Jay Chandrasekhar, who directed several episodes of the comedy series, recalls witnessing the 2012 incident in the documentary, saying the events can be traced back to a “blackface” hand puppet bit written for Chevy's character, Pierce Hawthorne.

At the time, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Chevy was “frustrated” with the direction Pierce was going as a character and used the N-word "when questioning the dialogue.” THR also clarified that while stars Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown, 54, who are both Black, were present for the scene and incident, “The slur was not directed at them.”

Recalling his side of what happened in I’m Chevy Chase, Chandrasekhar says, “I know that there was a history between [Chevy and Yvette] around race, and she got up and stormed out of there. 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.’ ”

Chandrasekhar says Chevy then returned to the set but claimed he “didn’t say anything."

“He 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 recounts of Chevy's words.

Chandrasekhar then recalls that, later that day, someone leaked that there was a “racial incident” on set to THR. And when the cast returned to set after the leak, Chandrasekhar says Chevy came “storming onto the set, and he goes, ‘Who f----- me over?’ … ‘My career is ruined! I’m ruined!’ Like, it’s a full meltdown. ‘F--- all of you!’ "

"And I’m like, ‘Alright, let’s shoot the scene.’ He never ended up coming back after that,” adds the director.

PEOPLE has reached out to both Chase and Sweeney for comment.

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