The new documentary I’m Chevy Chase, And You’re Not gave us a largely unvarnished look at the life of the famous comedian, complete with his somewhat controversial professional life. It also revealed new details about his personal life, including heart problems in 2021 that put him in a brief medically induced coma.
During the film, Chase’s daughter Caley discusses the situation dealing with her father’s health problems from her own perspective. It was clearly a somewhat terrifying time, as the long-term consequences were far from clear. It wasn’t until her dad made a very old, and very bad, joke that she began to relax. Caley Chase explained…
The doctor had warned us we might not get him back, we don’t know how present he’ll be. You know, prepare yourselves for the worst. He woke up, all he could do was use his voice, ‘Agh, agh agh.’ And it was just him waking up it was like a new birth. Then, the nurse came in to like switch some stuff up and she said, ‘I’m gonna have to put this in here.’ And he said, ‘That’s what she said.’
Never has such an awful joke likely sounded so wonderful as it did when a weak Chase found the energy to make a suggestive comment to a nurse after being awoken from a week-long coma. I don’t know Chevy Chase personally, but the guy is a dad and a comedian, so one has to assume he’s a master of the dad joke... even when he’s not in the best shape.
Seeing Chevy Chase in the documentary itself shows us that, by and large, he’s still in pretty good shape, all things considered. As his daughter mentions, the Fletch actor might, for all intents and purposes, no longer be himself when he woke up. And it's possible he might not have woken up at all. If that had been the case, we wouldn’t have been able to get this new look at his life and career.
That’s not to say that Chevy Chase hasn’t had to deal with the consequences of his medical issues. Chase admits to having some problems with his memory and needing to be reminded of things. The documentary’s director has even suggested those memory issues may have something to do with the fact that Chase doesn’t remember certain interactions, such as his feud with fellow former SNL performer Terry Sweeney, the same way as others.
While there may be some lingering issues for the actor, one can only imagine his family was more than happy to hear him utter one of the most clichéd jokes ever. It’s exactly what we’d all probably expect Chevy Chase to say, revealing he was doing just fine.
