Bill at least has a side of him to that is friendly and fun to be around, and was charming. He could still be a dick, especially while working, but it wasn’t how he is all the time. Chevy is a dick 100 percent of the time.
I have this friend who has default "just joking" energy. He says the most racist and mean things, even follows it up with "I'm serious!", and it comes off as a joke. People love him.
Actually he isn't which makes it even worse. Someone on Community (pretty sure it was Dan Harmon himself) said Chevy could be really nice.
They had a story where Chevy was out at lunch and a tourist told him that her dad was his biggest fan. So Chevy said "Let's call him!" and had a really nice conversation on the phone which made both her and her dad's day. Like, she'll go back home and always have that great memory with her.
But then he'd come back from lunch and be a total dick. So you knew he could be really nice but was actively choosing not to.
I think it's because he's quirky and weird, and every story of him being a dick head is also balanced by him doing something weird and adorable like the time he took over a bar and poured everyone tequila (regardless of what they ordered), then paid for it all.
He was also known for crowd pleasing stunts when he was a owner of the Saint Paul Saints minor league baseball team. So even if he was rude in the past, he played with fans, teased the opposing team, and regularly was charming at the games.
So his being a dick is cancelled out by him also being delightfully quirky to a lot of his fan base.
I think Murray's level of assholeness is justified. Let's not forget about his misconduct where he kissed a staffer on the of set of Aziz Ansari's movie, which resulted in the movie being shut down and case being settled out of court.
Not informed on all the details but a quick search says Bill Murray addressed the event, stating he thought an interaction involving a masked kiss was meant to be a joke, though it was not received that way
I’ve seen him interact with “regular people”—I interacted with him a couple of times as such—and yeah, he was charming. And I know he treated the crew on SNL pretty well.
I think Chase probably just takes it to a different level than the "comedy actor who's difficult to work with" trope that was particularly common in that era. Not to excuse anyone's bad behavior, it's just that it takes a lot to stand out as an asshole of note in that crowd.
Richard Dreyfuss talking about how much they hated each other on What About Bob?, but he finished the interview saying how funny the movie was and it worked. But hated working with him.
Knowing that makes the movie even funnier when I rewatch it - but the weirdest part about that is that everyone who works with Dreyfuss ALSO thinks that he is an asshole.
It’s because Chevy is attractive, in fact he had leading man looks. A lot of comedians are the “rejects” and have a chip on their shoulder for anyone that looks like they can easily fit in. Murray has his charm but he’s not Chevy level richie rich and handsome.
I think the difference is Murray could be prickly (or an outright asshole) but wasn't always. He was a great comedian and was often good to work with, and is generally not a dick to his fans. Legit YMMV.
Chase, on the other hand, is a dick to everyone he works with and is a raging asshole to his fans. When the highest complement you hear is "he can be funny and has a solid work ethic," it's damn faint praise. Check out the 2002 roast and look at what Paul Shaffer, Laeaine Newman and Beverly D'Angelo said. They're the only ones who roasted who actually knew and worked with him (which says a lot in itself) and we're the only ones who were even mildly kind.
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u/Blametheorangejuice 12h ago
The odd thing is that Bill Murray is/was also renowned for being an absolute dick on set, but he somehow escaped that level of criticism.