Chevy Chase was effectively playing Chevy Chase on Community, but I’m not sure which version was worse.
This one?
I found it accidentally while looking up James Van Der Beek who played himself (sort of ) in Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23.
I just remembered an offbeat one-- in the 1987 German film ‘Wings of Desire’ Peter Falk played himself as an actor in Germany filming a movie. But it’s been a long time since I saw the movie, so I didn’t remember details. The IMDB listing for Wings of Desire describes the character version of Peter Falk as “sensitive and perceptive”, so rather than playing a worse version of himself, it sounds like he played the best version of himself.
I’m going to argue against this one. Wil Wheaton didn’t really play “Wil Wheaton” as evil on TBBT. Sheldon was the only one who thought he was evil.
OK well, maybe in his first appearance at that card game tournament at Stewart’s comic book store when he lied to Sheldon about his grandma being dead. But generally he was pretty likeable.
Likewise, Frankie Boyle is said to be a calm, kindly man outside of his persona. I tend to believe that, because he was much less bitter, angry, and dark during his run on Taskmaster.
Eh, I seem to remember that the TBBT version of ‘Wil Wheaton’ was generally kind of a jerky douchebag. In any case, I accept it as a perfectly cromulent example of the OP.
The character was a bit more complicated than that. The movie is about an angel who incarnates, and then learns what it is like to be human. Among the people he meets is another former angel, who became human, went to Hollywood, and became the star of Columbo.
Oh, so Peter Falk sort of played himself, but as a fallen angel. I totally forgot that part!
Come to think of it, that movie might be worth a rewatch.
While you’re at it, watch the sequel, Far Away, So Close! It’s not as “Art-with-a-Capital-A” artistic as the first movie, but it’s more fun.
Warwick Davis played a worse version of himself in Life’s Too Short and a better (probably) version of himself in Billionaire Boy. And was in Extras as himself as well.
How jerkish “Wil Wheton” was tended to vary across his appearances. I mean, at one point he deliberately caused Leonard and Penny to break up so that his team could win a bowling match. That’s pretty bad. Later on, he started coming across as more pleasant, treating the gang as his friends and appearing in that cinema classic Serial Ape-ist 2 with Penny.
There’s also Brent Spiner, who earned his spot on Sheldon’s list when he tore open his collector’s item package of Data and said “Hey, remember when we used to make these guys masturbate?”
I remember that. I’m surprised Brent Spiner hasn’t done more comedy-- I remember him being funny in that role, and he was a guest on a podcast I listened to a few years ago, where he was also very funny-- he did a hilarious, spot-on impersonation of Patrick Stewart.
He was literally an angel (fallen, but not in a Satanic way) helping another angel. I think that was definitely a better version.
Alice Cooper played the murderer on Monk as himself. But, that was basically a figment of Monk’s imagination.
I found a couple like it but not exactly what I remembered. My memory might be faulty. This is the oldest one I saw.
You’re in for a treat, when Spiner returns to the role that made him famous.
I suspect Karl Pilkington was playing up certain aspects of his personality just a wee bit on The Ricky Gervais Show and An Idiot Abroad.
I was wondering why nobody mentioned Harris, but a search shows you did right off the bat.
Not sure if it counts but Chris Elliot played himself on David Letterman and Get a Life. I can’t say if those really were worse versions of him since he plays all parts that way and maybe he’s not acting at all. His father Bob Elliot may have been doing the same thing on Get a Life when he played Chris’s father.
Astonishingly good at it, IMO. One of the funniest series in recent memory.