Broken-Down Chevy

Poor Chevy Chase. His TV talk show in the early Nineties became a Trivial Pursuit question. His movie career lapsed into such dreck as 1994's "Cops and Robbersons." Then an embarrassing Friar's Club roast in 2002 only highlighted what a friendless jerk he had become.

And now, this just in: Chevy Chase is still not funny. At a recent program for People for the American Way in Washington, D.C., the one-time "Saturday Night Live" star and current has-been apparently gave Whoopi Goldberg a run for her money in the category of Most Awkwardly Unfunny Rant by Comic. His arrogant prick persona, it seems, is as pungent off screen as it is on. Even his friend Buck Henry told Entertainment Weekly back in August, 2004, that "when he (Chase) is giving you a compliment, you just want to kill him. It's very strange and it's out of his control, not unlike Tourette's."

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that Chevy's meltdown at the People for the American Way ceremony came after following Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon onstage at the Kennedy Center.

"Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd," according to the paper.

"He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a 'dumb [expletive].' He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, 'I'm no [expletive] clown either. . . . This guy started a jihad.'

"Chase also said: 'This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck . . . and we still couldn't beat him with a bore like Kerry.'"

People for the American Way officials later called Chase's remarks "inappropriate and offensive." The organization's founder, Norman Lear, told the Post, "I thought it was utterly untoward, obviously unexpected and unscripted and all that stuff. And, uh -- it was Chevy Chase. He'll live with it, I won't."

The Moderate Voice succinctly wrapped things up with this take on the Chase performance:

"Political humor can be brutal if it contains wit. His didn't. ... It helps if a comedian is funny, not just angry. It's doubtful if we'll be seeing Chase in many high profile moves or TV programs, for a while at least."