Humor & Life Quote by Chevy Chase

Physical comedy is sold as consequence-free chaos, but Chevy Chase punctures the illusion with a wince. A “good pratfall” is supposed to look like gravity briefly became fun; the joke lands because the body didn’t. Chase lets you hear the price tag anyway: broken bones in both hands, pain that resurfaces in the most ordinary social ritual, the handshake. The line turns a classic comic currency into a long-term mortgage.

The intent is double: a backstage confession and a flex. He’s warning you that slapstick isn’t effortless while also claiming authority over it. Only someone who’s taken that hit - and kept taking it - gets to frame injury as an aftertaste to applause. The subtext is about performance labor, the stuff audiences rarely credit in comedians because the job is to look like you’re not trying. Chase’s delivery (implied by the phrasing) treats damage as an anecdote, which is itself a comedian’s coping mechanism: convert pain into a clean, repeatable bit.

Context matters. Chase’s persona, from SNL’s Gerald Ford tumbles to Fletch-era physical bravado, was built on a patrician confidence that could afford to look foolish. This quote slyly undercuts that cool: the body keeps receipts. It also nudges at fame’s feedback loop. Fans reach for his hand as if the handshake is a tiny tribute; for him it’s a trigger, a reminder that the public’s intimacy can literally hurt. The punchline isn’t the fall. It’s the lingering impact, carried into every meet-and-greet.