Netflix CEO Stands by Defense of Dave Chappelle Special; Employees Plan Walkout Next Week in Protest
Rich Polk/Getty Images for Netflix
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stood by his defense of Dave Chappelle’s latest special in a memo to staff.
Chappelle has received serious criticism for his comments about the trans community in The Closer. He called himself a member of “Team TERF” and defended J.K. Rowling, who was similarly criticized for transphobic commentary.
Sarandos stood by the special and said in an earlier memo, “Distinguishing between commentary and harm is hard, especially with stand-up comedy which exists to push boundaries. Some people find the art of stand-up to be mean-spirited but our members enjoy it, and it’s an important part of our content offering.”
There has been some notable internal backlash and reports of a Netflix employee group calling for a walkout next week.
The Verge first reported that Netflix’s trans employee resource group is planning the walkout next Wednesday, October 20:
“Trans Lives Matter. Trans Rights Matter. And as an organization, Netflix has continually failed to show deep care in our mission to Entertain the World by repeatedly releasing content that harms the Trans community and continually failing to create content that represents and uplifts Trans content. We can and must do better!” wrote a leader of the trans ERG in an internal organizing message.
On Wednesday night, Variety obtained a follow-up memo from Sarandos sent on Monday, telling staff in an email, “We know that a number of you have been left angry, disappointed and hurt by our decision to put Dave Chappelle’s latest special on Netflix.”
The key part of Sarandos’ defense is that “we have a strong belief that content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm”:
The strongest evidence to support this is that violence on screens has grown hugely over the last thirty years, especially with first party shooter games, and yet violent crime has fallen significantly in many countries. Adults can watch violence, assault and abuse – or enjoy shocking stand-up comedy – without it causing them to harm others. We are working hard to ensure marginalized communities aren’t defined by a single story. So we have Sex Education, Orange is the New Black, Control Z, Hannah Gadsby and Dave Chappelle all on Netflix. Key to this is increasing diversity on the content team itself.
In his special, Chappelle makes harsh jokes about many different groups, which is his style and a reason his fans love his comedy and commentary. Stand-up comedians often expose issues that are uncomfortable because the art by nature is a highly provocative. As a leadership team, we do not believe that The Closer is intended to incite hatred or violence against anyone (per our Sensitive Content guidelines).
He said releasing Chappelle’s special was consistent with their commitment to artistic expression and added, “Our hope is that you can be hugely inspired by entertaining the world, while also living with titles you strongly believe have no place on Netflix.”
