While presenting an award at the Writers Guild Awards (WGA) on Sunday, Donald Glover—aka Childish Gambino—took a moment to shed light on the racially-insensitive commentary that Chevy Chase would allegedly use while on the set of Community.
Donald brought the matter up while presenting an honorary award to Paul Simms, who serves as one of the executive producers on Atlanta, which Glover created.
He went on to recall initially meeting Paul while guest starring on Girls, and he shared a made-up story of Lena Dunham praising Paul Simms by supposedly telling Donald, “Honestly, this n***a lets me do whatever I want.'”
“I asked Lena [Dunham], ‘Hey, what made you decide to work with Paul [Simms]?’ And she goes ‘Honestly, this n***a lets me do whatever I want.'”
He followed this statement up by saying, “Lena is using the N-word extremely liberally. Who does she think she is, Chevy Chase?”
And I remember thinking two things. One, Lena is using the N-word extremely liberally. Who does she think she is, Chevy Chase? And two, that’s the kind of producer I want.”
While Donald was joking about Lena—whose reps were sure to tell The Independent that she “never used, nor would use” the N-word—he seemed to be more serious about Chevy, as he also appeared to suggest that Chase directed the slur towards him.
“This award was named after Herb Sargent, a writer who worked on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and came up with ‘Weekend Update’ with Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase once called Herb one of the funniest writers working in television. And Chevy Chase once called me… you know, this is about Paul.”
We have to note that this isn’t the first time that Donald Glover has spoken on the subject.
Back during a 2018 sit-down with The New Yorker, Donald Glover said that Chevy Chase would make “racial cracks” while on set by saying things like, “People think you’re funnier because you’re Black.”
In response to the matter, though, Chevy Chase made it clear that he’s unbothered, as Variety reports that the 79-year-old brushed off the comment by saying that he is who he is, and he simply isn’t concerned about any backlash at this point.
“I don’t give a crap. I am who I am. And I like who I am. I don’t care. And it’s part of me that I don’t care. I’ve thought about that a lot, and I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”
What do you think about the overall situation between Donald Glover and Chevy Chase?
