Netflix pulled Chappelle's Show from its streaming library after Dave Chappelle asked them to, based on the fact that he wasn't receiving any royalties, Deadline reports. In a video posted to his Instagram, Chappelle railed against CBSViacom for selling the rights to stream the series to Netflix without him seeing any portion of the proceeds.
In the 18-minute-long clip, which was filmed at a recent stand-up performance, Chappelle discussed what happened with his beloved show.
“They (ViacomCBS) didn’t have to pay me because I signed the contract,” Chappelle said. “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. Perfectly legal ‘cause I signed the contract. But is that right?"
He then praised Netflix, because "when all those bad things happened to me," they didn't 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," he added. And you want to know what they did? They agreed that they would take it off their platform just so I could feel better.”
He also runs through a quick history of his entire career, detailing a time that an older comedian asked a then-teenage Chappelle to "borrow" his joke, which forced him to learn harsh lessons about the more cutthroat aspects of the comedy business after the comedian threatened him.
"I don't think about it every day because that was the worst thing that happened to me," he said. "I think about it every day because that was the first time someone ever did that to me. But in my career, it has happened many, many times since."
Chappelle's Show is still available on CBS All Access and the Comedy Central platform.
