Gay SNL star Terry Sweeney blasts Chevy Chase for suggesting AIDS skit

The openly gay Saturday Night Live veteran Terry Sweeney is speaking out about an offensive AIDS sketch Chevy Chase suggested during the 1980s.

Sweeney, 75, called Chase an 'a**' over his behavior while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Chase and Sweeney for comment but has not yet received a response. 

The painful episode was referenced in the new CNN documentary I'm Chevy Chase And You're Not, when the film's director Marina Zenovich jogged Chase's memory about the incident by pulling from Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live As Told By Its Stars, Writers, And Guests, an oral history of the iconic sketch comedy series by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.

Chase, 82, had returned to host SNL in the mid-'80s after becoming a breakout star when he appeared on the show's inaugural season, but his infamously difficult behavior manifested when he pitched AIDS-related jokes to Sweeney — who had come out before he starred on the 1985–86 season — in the midst of the pandemic.

'You said something to Sweeney like, "Oh, you’re the gay guy. Why don’t we ask if you have AIDS. And every week, we weigh you,"' Zenovich told Chase during her interview.

The documentary then cuts to SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels, who defended Chase. 

'I think Chevy was just being Chevy. He would say things that were funny, and he would assume you were comedy people, and he could speak that way,' Michaels said. 'You know, we would say terrible things, because that’s what would make us laugh.' 

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The documentary cut back to Chase's interview, in which he was anything but apologetic or introspective.

According to USA Today, Chase laughed awkwardly after he was reminded about the AIDS joke.

'That's the worst,' he admitted, before declaring, 'Terry Sweeney, he was very funny, this guy.'

Chase added, 'I don’t think he’s alive anymore,' before clarifying that he hoped Sweeney was dead, 'Because I don't want you talking to him about this.'

Sweeney — who declined to participate in the documentary — sounded astounded by the exchange in instant messages to THR. 

'Don’t you think he is saying this and making himself look more like the a** he is!!!' Sweeney wrote. 'It all reflects rightly horribly on him!'

Sweeney was hired as a writer by SNL shortly after he graduated from college based on strong reviews that some of his drag performances around New York City had received.

Although he was hired during a brief period when Lorne Michaels had left SNL, the show's creator had returned later in the '80s, and he bumped Sweeney up to cast member for the 1985–'86 season, making him the first openly gay male actor on SNL, as well as one of the only openly gay actors on network television in general at the time.

However, Sweeney was primarily featured in skits featuring gay stereotypes or requiring him to perform in drag, and he was often slotted in sketches that aired later in the broadcast, where SNL's weakest sketches are traditionally programmed. 

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In the documentary, a crew member then suggests reading some of Sweeney's recollections of his brief time working with Chase on SNL.

'Oh, this is great, thanks. This will make my day,' Chase replied.

While speaking to Shales and Miller for their oral history Live From New York, which was published in 2015, Sweeney described Chase as a 'monster' and claimed that the Vacation star 'insulted everybody' when he returned to host SNL.

He went on to recount how the Vacation star was convinced to drop by his dressing role to apologize over the tasteless AIDS joke, even though Sweeney thought he seemed 'furious that he had to apologize to me.'

Sweeney also alleged in the oral history that Chase asked him to lick his testicles during his week with the show. 

'None of that's true,' Chase claimed in his own interview from the book. 'I would remember that … that I was angry, that I had to apologize to him. …

'My memory is that he is lying, is my memory. He’s not telling the truth,' Chase insisted. 'That isn’t me. That’s not who I am. And if I am that way, my life has changed, because I have to live with that now for the rest of my f***ing life.' 

However, Chase admits in the documentary that he suffers from memory loss brought on by a health crisis in 2021 in which he was in a coma for eight days due to heart failure. 

'It's just that it affects your memory,' Chase said in the documentary. 'So, I have to be reminded of things.

'These are my first few final days home. I can only say how happy I am to now be back with my family, I'm feeling proud,' he added. 

Chase said that he was 'in the hospital [for] five weeks,' though he didn't reveal at the time that he had been in a coma after experiencing heart failure.

While speaking to USA Today, Zenovich opined on the potential impact of Chase's stated memory problems on his repeated denials in her documentary.

'I think what happened with his memory loss plays a huge part,' she said. 'The circuitry kind of stopped and restarted again, and maybe some things got lost. Especially those things you don't want to remember.'

Elsewhere in the documentary, Chase looks back on how he was abused by his parents as a child, which is suggested as a possible reason why he has such tempestuous relationships with his collaborators.

However, Sweeney was unmoved by the revelations. 

'Boohoo … poor screwed up kid … so THAT’s why he’s so rotten!!!!!!!' he wrote.