The last couple of decades have been truly unkind to Chevy Chase. The highlight of his career in the 90s (in my opinion) was being able to share the small screen with the Digital Underground; more recently his attempts at a comeback were fueled by bitterness and and a stint on Law and Order as a racist Mel Gibson-y celebrity. And didn't he have some kind of late night talk show? But maybe it's all just karmic payback for all those feuds with the entire cast of SNL (especially Bill Murray, with whom he was involved in a back stage bitch fight) and his legendary enormous ego.
Growing up, I knew him from better times. His vacations were comically disastrous, he wore a caballero outfit well, and even Funny Farm had me in stitches. Still, I never found him attractive. He was just the old guy who danced nerdily in the video of my least favorite Paul Simon song.
As an older person I finally got around to seeing Caddyshack and immediately fell prey to the hidden charms of his smug smile and smart ass remarks – he reminds me of lesser and less wise boyfriend choices of the past. Watching Fletch this last weekend (see this week's song pick for more about that) I was reminded that I might want to include him here, despite his possible foibles as a human. He's at least a devoted family man who has a gripe with Kevin Smith, so he can't be all bad right? Um, right?
But what do you think?