Happiness Quote by Chevy Chase

Comedy is the bait; legitimacy is the reluctant prize. Chevy Chase frames his career as an accident of temperament: he “went into this business for laughs,” as if show business were a bar he wandered into and never left. That shrug is doing real work. It’s a comedian’s classic defense mechanism - preempt the seriousness before seriousness can claim you, and before the audience can demand sincerity you don’t want to hand over.

The second sentence is where the ego and the unease meet. “I guess I don’t mind being an actor so much now” reads like a concession, not a triumph. Acting is presented as a side effect, a label he once resisted because it implies craft, discipline, maybe even vulnerability. For a performer who came up in sketch comedy - where speed and persona matter as much as “depth” - “actor” can feel like a cultural promotion that also threatens the original identity: the guy who gets the laugh. Chase’s tone suggests he’s made peace with being taken seriously, but only on his own terms, and only with a little emotional distance.

Context matters: Chase was one of the first breakout stars of Saturday Night Live and then a major movie lead, a pipeline that turns comedians into bankable “actors” whether they asked for it or not. The quote captures the uneasy bargain of fame in late-20th-century entertainment: you start as a clown, and the industry hands you a crown, then waits to see if it fits.