‘Community’s’ Joel McHale on Chevy Chase’s ‘N-Word’ Outburst

*Prior to exiting NBC’s “Community,” Chevy Chase let off some steam in an onset outburst in which he used the N-word – a moment co-star Joel McHale recently discussed with Hoard Stern.

“He didn’t want to be there,” McHale said on Stern’s SiriusXM radio show, noting that the veteran comic actor also had no interest in ever really talking.

“When I would try, he would just try to fight me,” McHale recalled. “He physically wanted to fight me.”

As for Chase’s on-set N-word outburst last October, McHale said it was Chase’s way of protesting his character’s racism, but McHale was quick to point out: “You shouldn’t be throwing it around on set…When he said it, I was like, ‘We are now at Defcon 1.’”

Meanwhile, “Community” returns for its fourth season tonight, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. on NBC.