Streaming viewers who’ve been binging throughChappelle’s Showon Netflix are now officially out of luck. In response to a request from Dave Chappelle, Netflix removed the program from its streaming service in the wee hours of November 24th.
Chappelle spoke on the subject when he recently hosted an episode ofSaturday Night Live,during his monologue. Viacom, the corporate owner of Comedy Central, had licensed outChappelle’s Showfor broadcast to Netflixwithout paying Chappelle. “I think that if you are f—-ng streaming that show,” Chappelle said on Instagram, “you’re fencing stolen goods.”
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The news about whyChappelle’s Showgot pulled down was delivered by Chappelle himself, who put up a clip of his standup performance on Instagram labeled “Unforgiven.” In the 18-minute set, Chappelle discusses various times in his life when someone has stolen something from him, starting with an incident when he was 15 when an older comic took one of his jokes.
The gist of it is that Chappelle signeda contract with ViacomCBS, which entitles them to do as they like withChappelle’s Show.When he abruptly quit the show in 2005, he also broke the terms of that contract, and also forfeited the money he was owed for the show’s production. He thus has no legal basis to object to them continuing to license it out for broadcast, although he doesn’t feel that the situation is morally correct.
Due to Chappelle’srecent partnership with Netflix, however, he has enough of a personal relationship with people there that he could call them and politely ask them to not broadcast the show. Netflix agreed, and subsequently pulledChappelle’s Showfrom broadcast. (The show is still available for streaming on other platforms, such as HBO Max and CBS All Access. Many of its most notorious sketches can also be seen on Comedy Central’s YouTube channel.)
Chappelle’s Show,a sketch comedy program, ran on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006. It primarily starred Chappelle, working alongside other performers such as Paul Mooney, Mos Def, Bill Burr, Sophina Brown, Amanda Rowan, and the late Charlie Murphy, in short pre-recorded sketches that dealt frankly with issues of race in America, drug addiction,and the entertainment industry. Many of the bits inChappelle’s Showbecame instantly famous, such as a parody ofFrontlinethat profiled a blind Ku Klux Klan member named Clayton Bigsby who had no idea he was black, and several have aged weirdly well.
However, at the same time, the popularity ofChappelle’s Showbegan to wear on Chappelle. He became vocally uncomfortable with being famous, as well as the long working hours that come with making a TV show. Most importantly, Chappelle’s stand-up shows were increasingly disrupted by fansscreaming catchphrases from the show at him. Chappelle eventually leftChappelle’s Showduring production on season 3, citing burnout and dissatisfaction, and largely dropped out of the public eye for several years.
Since then, he’s mostly avoided acting work in favor of his stand-up comedy, with the exception of a minor role in Spike Lee’s 2015 filmChi-Raq.Chappelle has also hostedSNLthree times. Famously, he was the host of the show immediately after, and which was largely a reaction to, Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 American presidential election. Chappelle also reprised several of his famous characters fromChappelle’s Showon that episode ofSNL,in a sequence thatparodied the debut of Neganon AMC’sThe Walking Dead.
On both Instagram andSNL,Chappelle has requested that his fans boycottChappelle’s Showuntil such time as its owners work out a new deal with him that involves his getting paid.
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