Joel McHale reacts to Chevy Chase’s ‘Community’ bashing: ‘No one was keeping you there’

Joel McHale isn’t bothered by Chevy Chase‘s recent comments about their comedy “Community.”

The 80-year-old “Saturday Night Live” alum made headlines last month on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast where he said the show “wasn’t funny enough.”

McHale, 51, told People recently that Chase “stopped hurting my feelings in 2009.”

“I was like, ‘Hey, no one was keeping you there,’” he continued. “I mean, we weren’t sentenced to that show.”

“It was like, ‘All right, you could have left if you really wanted that.’ But yeah, you know Chevy. That’s Chevy being Chevy,” the “Spy Kids: All the Time in the World” actor said.

“I wrote about this in my book, but I was like, ‘Hey, the feeling’s mutual, bud,’” McHale added.

In McHale’s 2016 memoir, Thanks for the Money, he looked back on Chase’s alleged inappropriate behavior on the “Community” set.

The comedian left the NBC show after Season 4 in 2013 after reportedly using a racist slur toward costar Donald Glover during filming and following a heated confrontation with its creator, Dan Harmon.

“I just saw Chevy as fighting time — a true artist has to be OK with his reign being over,” Glover, 40, told the New Yorker in 2018. “I can’t help him if he’s thrashing in the water. But I know there’s a human in there somewhere — he’s almost too human.”

In response, Chase told the outlet at the time: “I am saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light.”

Chase appeared on Maron’s radio program in September where he recalled that the series made him feel repressed.

“I felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately,” he said.

He continued: “I felt a little bit constrained a bit. Everyone had their bits and stuff. I thought they were all good, but it just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”

The “National Lampoon: European Vacation” actor starred as billionaire Pierce Hawthorne, while McHale portrayed protagonist Jeff Winger.

A “Community” sequel film is currently in production, but McHale divulged on Kelly Ripa’s podcast “Let’s Talk Off Camera” that Chase would not be included as his character died on the show.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” he explained when she wondered if Chase would be coming back. “There weren’t any issues at all when we were making the show.”

Glover, as well as stars Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs and Yvette Nicole Brown, are set to return for the movie.