American stand-up comedian, Dave Webber Chapelle made a request that his sketch comedy series, “Chapelle’s show“ be removed from Netflix which the streaming platform promptly did.
This decision was based off the fact that he wasn’t getting paid.
In a stand-up video segment titled “Unforgiven” that he shared on Instagram, Dave spoke about how he called up Netflix and expressed his displeasure over their streaming of “Chapelle’s show”.
While recounting what went down, Dave stated that he had no rights or rights to revenue over the show as he had signed a legal deal some years back which transferred ownership to Comedy Central and subsequently Viacom, (Comedy central is owned by Viacom).
Thus, ViacomCbs were legally allowed to do whatever they wanted with the show, including licensing the streaming of his show on Netflix.
As it turns out, Netflix who were legally within their right decided to honor Dave’s request and take down the show.
Dave said, “People think I made a lot of money from Chappelle’s Show, When I left that show I never got paid.
”They (ViacomCBS) didn’t have to pay me because I signed the contract, But is that right?
“I found out that these people were streaming my work and they never had to ask me or they never have to tell me.
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“Perfectly legal ‘cause I signed the contract. But is that right? I didn’t think so either.
Praising Netflix for their compliance he continued, “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– 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.”
The show is however still available for streaming on ViacomCBS’s Comedy Central, CBS All Access outlets, and HBOMax.
Dave has gotten several awards throughout his career, including four Emmy Awards and three Grammy Awards not forgetting the Mark Twain Prize.
The Chapelle’s show which ran from 2003 to 2006 was co-written with Neal Brennan.
Dave quit the show during the production of the third season.
He has since carried on with performing stand up comedy across the United States.