No, Lena Dunham Did Not Use The N-Word in Front of Donald Glover — That Was Chevy Chase

Chris Rock with a recent entry in the annual “jokes at award shows going uncomfortably wrong” tradition.

At this past Sunday’s ceremony for the Writers Guild of America Awards, Glover presented his colleague and industry icon Paul Simms with the honorary Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence. Considering Glover’s love of creating comedy that makes stiff white people squirm, it came as no surprise that his speech in front of the esteemed audience contained a couple off-color jokes regarding a certain slur and its supposed use by a couple controversial comedy figures.

Glover made a joke involving a certain former castmate as well as Girls creator Lena Dunham, who has also worked with Simms, saying, “I asked Lena, ‘Hey, what made you decide to work with Paul?’ She goes, ‘Honestly, this n---- let’s me do whatever I want.’ I thinking two things: One, Lena is using the N-word extremely liberal with me. Who does she think she is, Chevy Chase? And two, that’s the kind of producer I want.” 

In the days since the ceremony, media outlets have been blasting headlines to the tune of “Lena Dunham Denies Using The N-Word On Donald Glover,” prompting Community star was just trying to punch up a speech at an awards show with some playful shock humor. 

“Weekend Update” with Chase, which Glover addressed by quipping, “Chevy Chase once called Herb one of the funniest writers working in television. And Chevy Chase once called me – you know what? This is about Paul.”

Sadly, Glover’s jokes have been misconstrued to the point of entirely obfuscating the praise he was attempting to give to his producer and friend Simms. In addition to his work with both Glover and Dunham on What We Do in the Shadows – plus, he presumably doesn’t use the N-word nearly as much as Chevy Chase.