“Maybe Chevy Chase needs to Google ‘SNL Banned List’”: Internet reacts to comedian calling out SNL over 50th anniversary special exclusion

In the upcoming CNN documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the legendary eponymous comedian, actor, and writer shared being “hurt” by his exclusion from SNL50: The Anniversary Special, which aired in February.

“Well, it was kind of upsetting, actually. This is probably the first time I'm saying it. But I expected that I would've been on the stage too with all the other actors. When Garrett [Morris] and Laraine [Newman] went on the stage there, I was curious as to why I didn't. No one asked me to. Why was I left aside?” Chase, 82, shared.

The original Saturday Night Live cast member also asked why Bill Murray was there in the news satire segment Weekend Update during the anniversary edition, while he was not.

“I don't have an answer for that,” he added.

Chevy Chase also recalled sending a test to the showrunner Lorne Michaels about the exclusion, but later took it back and dubbed it “silly.”

“But it's not that silly. Somebody's made a bad mistake there. I don't know who it was, but somebody made a mistake. They should've had me on that stage. It hurt,” Chase added.

In the wake of his remarks, fans of SNL are now having diverse reactions. For instance, X user Cris Diokno, aka @cristeven, shared a post with a GIF and wrote in the caption:

“Maybe Chevy Chase needs to Google: ‘SNL Banned List’ he will see his name, Steven Seagal, Sinéad O'Connor, Rage Against the Machine, Elvis Costello, The Replacements, Martin Lawrence, & Robert Blake on Lorne Michaels’ not-invited SNL list.”

Several others joined the conversation and shared similar reactions.

“Isn’t Chevy Chase notoriously hard to work with on set & doesn’t get along with other actors? I guess he’s learning the hard way about karma & how people don’t like him! #ChevyChase #SNL,” a netizen wrote.

“My guess was that Bill Murray wouldn't participate if Chevy Chase did. And having Bill Murray significantly raises the profile of any event over the inclusion of Chase versus not having Bill Murray. So, they were like, uhhhhh. Again, that's an uninformed guess,” wrote another.

“Chevy Chase was on the show for less than two seasons. He last hosted in 1997 and was reportedly banned for his behavior and the way he treated the cast and crew. He has a history of bad on-set behavior and has stated he doesn’t care about it. He shouldn’t be surprised,” a user wrote.

Others defended the veteran comedian.

“A lot of people don't like Chevy Chase personally, but to exclude him from the 50th anniversary of SNL is just a rewriting of history. He had a HUGE presence on that show during their earliest, best years,” a fan wrote.

“What a travesty! Chevy Chase excluded from the SNL 50th Anniversary celebration earlier this year! What an incredible talent he is. As I watch clips from ‘Christmas Vacation’ here on X for the hundredth time,” another fan wrote.

“Chevy Chase should have been the first one in the special 50th anniversary,” an individual wrote.

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Is Chevy Chase banned from ‘Saturday Night Live’?

The answer is yes and no.

Chevy Chase joined the original cast of Saturday Night Live ahead of its debut in October 1975 and was one of the first breakout stars from the show.

He became famous during the first season for saying the iconic catchphrase “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” and for his comic portrayal of President Gerald Ford.

Later, Chase became the first host of the Weekend Update segment and became popular for his opening slogan, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not!” and ending with “Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!”

It is noteworthy that Chevy was meant to be a writer for the NBC sketch comedy show, but later became a cast member for two seasons, until his departure in 1976 to pursue an acting career and marry his longtime girlfriend Jacqueline Carlin.

During his SNL stint, the comedian even received two Emmys and one Golden Globe. He returned to the show in May 1977 to promote a primetime special for the network.

Next year in February, Chevy Chase appeared as a guest host but got engaged in a verbal and physical altercation with existing cast members, Bill Murray and John Belushi.

Since then, the Community star has had an on-and-off relationship with SNL and hosted eight times between 1978 and 1997. He even earned the ill-reputation that he was hard to work with and abruptly left the show only when it had begun to find its grip on late-night television.

In 1985, Chase faced backlash for allegedly making homophobic remarks at cast member Terry Sweeney, who was openly gay. Twelve years later, it was reported that he behaved unprofessionally with cast members, including hitting the back of Cheri Oteri’s head during a brief hosting duty.

This reportedly led Lorne Michaels to unofficially “ban” him from hosting the show ever again, which the creator/ producer later termed as “idiotic.” Cast member Will Ferrell even went on record to call Chase the “worst host” in SNL history.

But over the years, Chevy Chase has made cameos on the stage as a performer, according to Screen Rant.

It is noteworthy that despite his infamy, Chevy Chase was named by Rolling Stone as the tenth most influential cast member in SNL history in February 2015, calling him the “most underrated player.”

Meanwhile, speaking with The Washington Post in 2012, Chevy revealed telling Lorne that he was ready for a comeback. However, Michaels reportedly said he was “too old” for the gig.

“We’d had many people older than me hosting. What did he mean? I’ve never understood what he meant. Because I’d be very good and it would be fun for an audience to see me doing that,” he added.

Chevy Chase also mentioned that “denying” him his request, Lorne Michaels was disregarding his contribution to the show, claiming it was he who “made this show really go.”

Michaels, meanwhile, defended himself by saying that the proposal caught him by surprise as he was attending Chevy’s daughter Cydney’s wedding and his old friend was about to walk her down the aisle.

While Chase may have been excluded from the 50th anniversary edition of Saturday Night Live, he was part of the 25th and 40th celebrations in 1999 and 2015, respectively. He also appeared in a 2005 special by NBC, which revolved around the first five years of the comedy series.

Other appearances include a 2007 Weekend Update segment and a cameo in one of Justin Timberlake’s 2013 monologues.

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About Chevy Chase’s exclusion from SNL50: The Anniversary Special, his wife Jayni shared in the CNN documentary that showrunners told her husband:

“Up until that day, that there were two bits, they were going back and forth. And then, all of a sudden, 'No, there's no bit,’” she claimed.

Meanwhile, Lorne Michaels told PEOPLE:

“There were a couple of versions, and we went back and forth on that. There was also a caution from somebody, that I don't want to name, that Chevy, you know, wasn't as focused.”

Meanwhile, former cast member Martin Short revealed that there were “too many people to fill” from the “50 years of casts.”

Notably, in 2018, Chevy Chase told The Washington Post during an interview how disappointed he was with the current status of Saturday Night Live.

“I had to watch a little of it, and I just couldn’t f**king believe it. That means a whole generation of s–theads laughs at the worst f**king humor in the world. You know what I mean? How could you dare give that generation worse sh*t than they already have in their lives? It just drives me nuts.”

The comedian-actor-writer also called Jason Reitman’s 2024 movie Saturday Night “embarrassing.”

I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not will premiere on January 1 at 8 PM local time. It is directed by Marina Zenovich.