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September 23, 2010, 7:00 AM

Chevy Chase: What I've Learned

The comedy icon, starring in the second season of Community, on his drug history (low-level), his time on SNL (brief), and why eggs are the greatest food

By Cal Fussman

[more from this author]

chevy chase

Chris Buck

Marge is a terrible name for a mistress.

My father was the funniest guy I ever met. I'm not sure if I stole his stuff or if I inherited it.

My stepfather was a psychoanalyst. You might think he'd have known better than to hit kids.

You could knock my teeth out and break my nose and there'd be something funny about it to me.

Billy Murray and I came to fisticuffs, but we never really ended up hitting each other. We tried, but Belushi got in the middle and we both ended up hitting John. And if anybody deserved to be slapped in the forehead it was John, for instigating it all.

The best advice I can give you about falling is to never land.

I never shot things up or freebased. I was pretty low-level when it came to drug abuse. I checked myself into the Betty Ford Clinic after my nose started to hurt.

Love is huge. But if you're talking about men and women, it's got to start with the most initial obvious attraction that warthogs go through. Look at that ass! That's what keeps the world spinning. There's your God.

I'm still in love with my wife the way I was when I fell in love with her thirty years ago. That's luck.

How much more do you have to write about Jonah and the whale and that poor guy with pimples — Job! Good reading, but it all comes down to the golden rule: Do unto others...

My favorite food is eggs. I like 'em over easy on a muffin with a little ham. I can have four of those every morning. I eat more eggs than anyone I know. How can you not love eggs? It's our birthright.

I'm about as bright on Community as I was in school.

I went to college with every intention of being a doctor. I was redirected by my grades. That, and a fake radio show that I improvised with some friends. Wasn't even on the air.

I don't think eggs are so filled with cholesterol as people think. The problem comes in with how they're made, the sauces and that kind of stuff. I could be wrong.

I remember the first "Update" I did on Saturday Night Live. They had big cameras back then, and you were looking into a huge lens. I wasn't nervous at all because I looked right through that lens and imagined the faces of the seven funniest people I knew. It never occurred to me that millions of people were watching. What I did was just for the eight of us.

It takes somebody smart to play somebody dumb.

It's all timing — Nixon leaving. Ford handed the presidency. Luckily for me, Ford kept on tripping over things. I didn't make any attempt to do an impression of him. I would simply take a nice fall or hit my head out of nowhere and get huge laughs for it. People used to joke that it really hurt Ford in the election he lost to Carter. It was close, and someone said I got a point in the New York primary.

I left Saturday Night Live after that first year. I never wanted to work for more than a year on anything.

What makes a home home? Animals, and a little bit of clutter.

I wish John were alive today. I'd love to see. Would he have kids? Would he be a grandfather? What would he look like? What you realize is, there aren't that many funny people in the world. You lose a guy like Belushi... ah, it's hideous.

Children force you to grow.

Michael O'Donoghue was a great writer and thinker. He's the guy who put the line on the National Lampoon: "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog." He had a line that summed it up. But you have to understand that Laraine Newman had the biggest honker. After a year or two, she left the show and had her nose done. She looks great. It's now a normal nose. Not that big nose that we all knew. One day, I was at Michael's house and he was commiserating. He said, "We've lost John. We've lost Gilda. We've lost Laraine's nose."

It will eventually be discovered that the more you sleep, the healthier you are. Which means you'll really be at your healthiest when you pass away.

A good name for a mistress would be close to a man's name so that nobody would know. Like... Conane.

There's no vacation from being a parent.

I always fly first class. To remind myself.

Live a life of grace. You'll be a better person for it, and so will your children.

Break as few bones as possible and make as much noise as you can.

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