Joel McHale Dismisses Chevy Chase’s “Community” Digs: 'He Stopped Hurting My Feelings in 2009' (Exclusive)

Chevy Chase said on a podcast in September that the comedy he and Joel McHale starred in "wasn't funny enough for me"

Joel McHale is brushing off Chevy Chase’s recent digs about their former comedy series Community.

“He stopped hurting my feelings in 2009,” McHale, 51, who starred on the NBC and Yahoo! Screen series for six seasons from 2009 to 2015, quips to PEOPLE.

Chase, 80, appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast in September and aired his grievances about the show he departed during season 4 after allegedly making racist comments on set.

“I honestly felt the show wasn’t funny enough for me, ultimately. I felt a little bit constrained,” Chase told Maron during the interview. “Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good. It just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”

Related: Joel McHale Jokes His Family Doesn’t Recognize Him as He’s Home More amid Strike: ‘Who Are You?’ (Exclusive)

Chase played Pierce Hawthorne, a millionaire who goes back to community college with younger classmates played by Donald Glover, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown and McHale.

“I didn’t mind the character,” Chase continued about his time on the show. “I just felt that it was… I felt happier being alone. I just didn’t want to be surrounded by that table, every day, with those people. It was too much.”

Asked about those comments, McHale tells PEOPLE, “I was like, ‘Hey, no one was keeping you there.’ I mean, we weren't sentenced to that show. It was like, ‘All right, you could have left if you really wanted that.’ But yeah, you know Chevy. That's Chevy being Chevy.”

“I wrote about this in my book, but I was like, ‘Hey, the feeling's mutual, bud,’ continues McHale.

Indeed, in his 2016 memoir Thanks for the Money: How to Use My Life Story to Become the Best Joel McHale You Can Be, McHale recalled the tension between the two and the often-uncomfortable things Chase allegedly said on set, including racist terms and jokes about sexual assault.

McHale has also spoken several times about an on-set altercation he allegedly had with Chase, during which he accidentally dislocated Chase’s shoulder.

Related: 'Community' Movie Won't Have Paintball or Dungeons & Dragons, Says Creator: It Wouldn't 'Capture the Joy'

Nevertheless, McHale went on to portray Chase in the 2018 movie A Futile and Stupid Gesture, a biopic about National Lampoon founder Doug Kenney, who was a friend of Chase’s.

A Community spinoff movie is in the works, but McHale recently revealed on Kelly Ripa’s podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera that Chase would not be a part of it. (His character, after all, was killed off when Chase left the show.)

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” McHale responded to Ripa when she asked if the National Lampoon’s Vacation star would be joining Glover, Brie and other returning stars. “There weren’t any issues at all when we were making the show,” he said sarcastically.

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McHale, who hosts the new E! reality competition House of Villains, also voices Johnny Cage in the upcoming movie Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match, available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital Oct. 17.

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