Comedy feuds are no laughing matter.
The performers who bring us to hysterical tears can actually be a cutthroat bunch who
steal each other's work, trash each other in the press, and even, in some rare cases,
come to blows.
Watch on to find out more about the biggest beefs between comedians.
Bill Murray and Chevy Chase
When Chevy Chase abruptly left Saturday Night Live in its second season to pursue a movie
career, a number of his castmates were understandably bitter.
Bill Murray, who joined the cast soon after Chase left, expressed his displeasure with
Chase when he returned to host in Season 3.
According to the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, tensions built
throughout the week between the entire cast and Chase.
Murray set off a shouting match followed later by a physical altercation just before the
show went live.
Chase confronted Murray in Jim Belushi's dressing room and the two threw punches, though they
were quickly pulled apart.
Less than two years later, Chase and Murray buried the hatchet on the set of Caddyshack.
Decades after the spat, Murray downplayed the whole thing to Empire, saying,
"It was really a Hollywood fight, a 'Don't touch my face!' kind of thing … we all felt
mad he had left us, and somehow I was the anointed avenging angel.
But Chevy and I are friends now.
It's all fine."
Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia
Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia didn't quite come to blows in 2007, but their on-stage fight
over Mencia's alleged joke theft still stunned The Comedy Store audience.
It all started when Rogan called Mencia "Mensteala."
Mencia then stormed the stage and confronted Rogan.
Their colorful exchange was all caught on video, and it had a profound effect on both
of their careers.
Rogan was banned from The Comedy Store and was subsequently dropped by his agency after
refusing to apologize to Mencia.
But Rogan eventually emerged unscathed.
He went on to launch a successful podcast and even returned to The Comedy Store after
seven years away.
But for Mencia, the backlash was far more severe.
After the video went viral, Mencia was quickly labeled a joke-thief.
Less than a year later, his hit Comedy Central show Mind of Mencia was over.
However, Mencia has characterized his exit from the show and subsequent absence from
the spotlight as a self-imposed exile.
Norm MacDonald and Chris Kattan
Norm MacDonald is a tell-it-to-your-face kind of guy, so it's no surprise that his comments
about fellow Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan set off a bitter feud.
As MacDonald described Kattan to Rolling Stone in 1997,
"To me he seems gay.
He claims he’s not, but I’ve never seen, like, a guy who’s not gay seem so gay.
I don’t find him funny.
What can I say?
Never made me laugh."
To which Kattan responded,
"If Norm says I'm gay, then put in that I say he's an a------."
MacDonald was famous, or infamous, for being merciless when he found a soft spot.
The feud got bad enough that when MacDonald returned to host SNL in 1999, Kattan was noticeably
absent from the episode.
Kattan still had an axe to grind in 2015 during a radio interview when he accused MacDonald
of abusing an assistant.
However, a few months later, Kattan tweeted that their "feud" was "only for comedic purposes."
Joan Rivers and Chelsea Handler
Joan Rivers certainly earned her title of the Queen of Mean, and she didn't hold back
when talking about her former E! colleague Chelsea Handler.
But the younger comedian didn't exactly pull her punches either.
In a January 2012 interview with Howard Stern, she said,
"Joan Rivers, I mean, what the [bleep] do I care about Joan Rivers?"
The next day, Rivers showed up to the shock jock's studio and came out swinging.
"Number one, the girl made it on her back, [bleep]ing the president, we all know that."
"Number two, she's fine, she's ordinary.
She's not a genius."
A few years later, they were still going at it, with Handler telling The Guardian in June
2014 she didn't think of Rivers as a role model.
One month later, Rivers told Huffington Post that Handler started the whole thing.
Rivers died in September 2014 during a routine surgery, putting a tragic end to a beef that
was surely far from over.
However, in 2016, Handler gave Rivers a nod for paving the way for female comics.
"Joan Rivers and I weren't friends, but she did definitely open so many doors for me."
David Cross and Larry the Cable Guy
The beef between David Cross and Larry the Cable Guy was a lot more personal than most
comedy feuds.
In 2005, Cross told Rolling Stone what he thought about the blue collar comedian's act:
"It's a lot of anti-gay, racist humor — which people like in America — all couched in
'I'm telling it like it is.'
He's in the right place at the right time for that gee-shucks, proud-to-be-a-redneck,
I'm-just-a-straight-shooter-multi-millionaire-in-cutoff-flannel-selling-ring-tones act."
Unsurprisingly then, Larry the Cable Guy dedicated a chapter in his 2006 book GIT-R-DONE to say
that he was being attacked by a member of the PC police that didn't know his audience.
He cited Cross as one of those, quote, "humorless comedians who act like they're better than
everyone else."
Cross then hit back with a blog post entitled an "Open Letter to Larry the Cable Guy," in
which he said,
"I do know your audience, and they suck.
And they're simple.
And please don’t mistake this as coming from a place of bitterness because I didn’t
'make it' there or, I’m not as successful as you because that’s not it at all.
Since I was a kid I’ve always been a little over sensitive to the glorification and rewarding
of dumb."
Ouch.
Safe to say these two won't be playing any of the same venues any time soon.
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