Chevy Chase Called Dan Aykroyd the ‘Resident Genius’ of ‘SNL’ – Got Along With Everyone
Comedian Chevy Chase recalled the genius of Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live, sharing how some SNL sketches were filled with jokes but also Aykroyd’s deep knowledge of fine arts.
Chase and Aykroyd joined others like John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and more during the iconic groundbreaking first season of SNL. Chase left SNL in the middle of the second season, but can still recall Aykroyd’s genius woven into those early SNL sketches.
Chevy Chase calls Dan Aykroyd the ‘resident genius’ of ‘SNL’
Chase recalled how an SNL sketch about a painting in a museum sprang from a deep knowledge base Aykroyd had about art. “He is the resident genius of Saturday Night Live. I’m remembering Dan with a painting that he was talking about as if he was a museum guy or something,” Chase said on the Club Random with Bill Mahr podcast.
“And he’s discussing the finer points of the painting” he recalled. “There’s a nude woman in it and he never talks about it, but that’s all we’re looking at. It’s just perfect Dan.”
Dan Aykroyd has Tourettes and Aspergers
Aykroyd shared that he was diagnosed with Tourettes and Aspergers. “I was diagnosed with Tourette’s at 12,” he told Daily Mail in 2013. “I had physical tics, nervousness, and made grunting noises and it affected how outgoing I was.”
He added, “I had therapy which really worked and by 14 my symptoms eased. I also have Asperger’s but I can manage it.”
“It wasn’t diagnosed until the early 80s when my wife persuaded me to see a doctor,” he recalled. “One of my symptoms included my obsession with ghosts and law enforcement — I carry around a police badge with me, for example. I became obsessed by Hans Holzer, the greatest ghost hunter ever. That’s when the idea of my film Ghostbusters was born.”
Dan got along with everyone, but Chevy said John Belushi did not
Chase also said Aykroyd was the one SNL cast member who got along well with everyone. Which seemingly was the opposite of others like John Belushi. He recalled how Belushi stole his cocaine out from underneath him during an SNL sketch. “I had it on the piano of the stage,” he recalled. “So I’m just playing the piano, the crowd isn’t in yet, and it’s just sitting. After I played just a little bit, it’s gone. I had no idea how. Obviously, I was looking at my hands at the moment that John swooped in and took it. So I immediately said, ‘Belush, did you take my coke?’
Belushi replied, “‘No, what are you talking about?’ So about a month later, I’m invited to dinner at John and Judy’s apartment and I see my little vial empty and washed, just sitting on a shelf by the books.”
Despite the theft, Chase and Belushi remained close friends until Belushi’s death in 1982 from a drug overdose. Aykroyd was also very close to Belushi and told Daily Mail he still dreams of him. “I have vivid dreams of deceased friends like John Belushi and another who died in 9/11. I feel their energy around me,” he said.
