Chevy Chase and National Lampoon's Vacation

[HappyGilmore]

SNL produced many stars. Chase among them.

I wish SNL would apologize. Chase, I never found particularly funny outside of Christmas Vacation and Vegas Vacation.

What's the appeal of the first? Not sure. I was too young when it came out...just seems to be a satire of a typical American vacation.

[Venomx73]

Clark: "Excuse me, could you please tell me how to get back on the express way?"

[claws]

Though he was good at playing dumb, but I never got the overall appeal of Chevy Chase. That said, I still enjoy most of his 80's movie. To me he was at his funniest in ¡Three Amigos! (1986), and I have a huge soft spot for Funny Farm (1988).
I couldn't get into the Fletch movies and he was rather forgettable in Deal of the Century (1983).
I'm in the minority here but Christmas Vacation is my least favorite Vacation movie.
Whenever I watch Vacation it brings back great, nostalgic memories because we used to do the exact same thing (except my dad isn't as selfish and dumb).

[crackers]

I'm a huge Chevy Chase fan and still love all the vacation movie particularly European.

I still think he is really funny in the Community series. I think his character is hilarious.

[Mofo Rising]

I'm not really a fan of Chevy Chase, but the appeal of the National Lampoon Vacation series is that Chase lampoons a very specific brand of middle-American a***ole. The stereotypical "ugly American."

I don't know how well it translates to other countries, but Chase's character is pretty instantly recognizable to anybody in this country. Funny? Depends on your viewpoint.

I will say, in deference to European Vacation, that I think the word "pork" as a verb should come back into common parlance.

[Conf]

Today I've watched John Landis' Three Amigos (after more than 20yrs) and unfortunately it's another bland comedy with no stand-out moments for Chevy (Steve Martin always steals the scene). It's not a bad movie, but it lacks punch.

[mrsskinner]

Conf, did your family ever take long car trips? Mine did and while we didnt  drive off the road or anything my dad did lock his keys in the car with the engine running. Thats what makes it funny to me -my mom taking bad video shaking the camera back and forth and things like that. Also every family has a "Cousin Eddie" who we like to think we're better than-kind of like Chevy Chase's character but really we're not. My personal favorite is Christmas Vacation Ive had holidays like that myself-last Christmas I actually dropped the turkey, stuffing dinner rolls and a plate of cookies on the floor and after we wrestled it from the dogs it was delicious. I dont think its just an American thing because really we're more alike than we are different in the world.

[fulci420]

Like many of the ppl in this thread i have never found chevy funny. Christmas vacation is ok but the original is completely devoid of humour imo. I think of all genres comedy ages the worst tho which could be a factor. Honestly i dont really find caddyshack that funny either, but this could also be a generation issue (i am in my early 20's).

[JoeTheDestroyer]

I enjoy the first three Vacation films, but Chevy Chase as a whole... not so much.  I find that he essentially plays the same character in every movie, and that his shtick gets old incredibly fast in some movies.  Case in point, Nothing But Trouble. 

[JaseSF]

It could be a generational thing indeed as personally I do find Chase funnier than a lot of modern day popular stuff like "Family Guy", "South Park" and some Adam Sandler films (although I guess he hasn't really had a popular film in a while either).

[HappyGilmore]

Nothing But Trouble is likely Chase's best work outside of Caddyshack.