The stand-up comedian explains he 'never got paid' for co-creating, starring in and executive producing 'Chappelle's Show' after departing Comedy Central due to creative differences.
- November 25, 2020
AceShowbiz - Netflix bosses have pulled all episodes of Dave Chappelle's old sketch show from the streaming service at the funnyman's request.
"Chappelle's Show", which originally aired on U.S. cable network Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006, only recently became available to Netflix subscribers to watch, but the cult comedy series disappeared from the platform on Monday night (November 23) - and on Tuesday morning, Chappelle explained why.
He shared a video clip from a recent stand-up gig on Instagram, explaining how he "never got paid" for co-creating, starring in and executive producing his show after departing the ViacomCBS-owned network due to creative differences.
Chappelle insists the non-payment was legal because it was all part of a contract he signed when he was a desperate young comedian with a baby on the way, but he's still sore about the fall out, particularly as TV executives continue to cash in on his popularity with non-exclusive licensing deals - like the one they agreed with Netflix representatives.
However, when he found out "Chappelle's Show" was on Netflix, the platform he recently worked with for three lucrative standup specials, he addressed the issue with company executives, explaining how he earns no royalties - and they agreed to dump the "stolen" series.
In the Instagram footage, titled "Unforgiven", he tells the audience, "That's why I like working for Netflix. I like working for Netflix because when all those bad things happened to me, that company didn't even exist. And when I found out they were streaming 'Chappelle's Show', I was furious.... How could they not know?"
"So you know what I did? I called them and I told them that this makes me feel bad. And you want to know what they did? They agreed that they would take it off their platform just so I could feel better. That's why I f**k with Netflix. Because they paid me my money, they do what they say they're going to do, and they went above and beyond what you could expect from a businessman."
"They did something just because they thought that I might think that they were wrong," he added. "And I do - I think that if you are f**king streaming that show you're fencing stolen goods."
Although "Chappelle's Show" is no longer on Netflix, it remains available on the Comedy Central and CBS All Access platforms, as well as HBO Max.
