Donald Glover cracks jokes on stage about Community co-star Chevy Chase calling him the N-word

Donald Glover has joked about his Community co-star Chevy Chase using the N-word.

The actor and musician starred opposite Chase across five seasons of the hit show, which also starred Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, and Gillian Jacobs.

Glover, 39, appeared at the 2023 Writers Guild Awards in New York on 5 March to present Atlanta executive producer Paul Simms with an honorary award.

During his speech, he recalled how the award that Simms would be receiving was named after former Saturday Night Live writer Herb Sargeant, who had starred on Weekend Update, hosted by Chevy Chase.

“Chevy Chase once called Herb one of the funniest writers working in television,” Glover said onstage. “Chevy Chase once called me… You know what? This is about Paul.”

Later during his speech, Glover recalled meeting Simms on the set of Girls.

“I asked Lena [Dunham], ‘Hey, what made you decide to work with Paul [Simms]?’ And she goes ‘Honestly, this n**** lets me do whatever I want,’” said Glover.

“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.”

A representative for Dunham told The Independent that she had never used the term. Glover has also confirmed that he was joking.

As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the comment is in line with earlier reports of Chase’s on-set behaviour during his time on the show with Glover.

In a 2018 interview with The New Yorker, Community creator Dan Harmon said Chase would try to disrupt Glover’s scenes and “make racial cracks between takes” because he was “jealous” of his co-star’s talent.

“I remember apologising to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-PC verbiage, and Donald said, ‘I don’t even worry about it,’” said Harmon at the time.

Glover added that he saw Chase as “fighting time”. Chase told the publication that he was “saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light”.

In 2012, a source told The Hollywood Reporter that Chase had “apologised immediately” after he used the N-word on set. The slur was not aimed at Glover or his Black co-star Yvette Nicole Brown, but used when Chase questioned dialogue in a scene with their characters, said the source.

Airing from 2009 to 2015, the NBC sitcom followed a group of adult students at a Colorado community college.

It was announced in September last year that the long-promised Community the Movie is going ahead.

Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong will all be returning for the film.

Glover, Chase and Brown are not yet attached to the project.