Dave Chappelle’s Comedy Central series, Chappelle’s Show, suddenly evaporated from Netflix last November, and Dave did not hold back in letting his fans know why that was the case. As he revealed at the time in a hot-dropped Instagram video, Netflix yanked the show at Dave’s request. He discussed how ViacomCBS (which owns Comedy Central) had done him dirty (and used a contract to justify doing so) by failing to compensate him when licensing his show to Netflix. He had no beef with Netflix, which he insisted had never steered him wrong, and they continued that vibe by honoring his request (HBO Max soon followed suit by pulling the show from their catalog as well).
At the time, Dave implored his fans, “I’m begging you, please don’t watch that show… boycott Chappelle’s Show. Do not watch it unless they pay me.” Well, Dave got paid. As he revealed in another video dropped during the dead of night, the show is back on Netflix as of Friday, February 12. He thanked his fans for doing as he asked (to stop watching the show), and as a result, Comedy Central will return Dave’s license to him and also “paid me millions of dollars.” As a result, he’s thrilled to “know where my power lies.” Here’s what happened, in Dave’s words:
“I asked you to stop watching the show and thank God almighty for you, you did. You made that show worthless because without your eyes it’s nothing. And when you stopped watching it, they called me. And I got my name back and I got my license back and I got my show back and they paid me millions of dollars. Thank you very much.”
Chappelled also thanked both Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos for honoring his request (even though Netflix had paid plenty for their license) and ViacomCBS’s Chris McCarthy for undoing that dirty deal. “After all these years,” Chappelle declared. “I can finally say to Comedy Central, ‘it’s been a pleasure doing business with you.'”
It’s unclear where Chappelle recorded this video, although it may have been in Austin, where he previously cancelled dates after testing positive for COVID-19. He doesn’t recount his experience with the virus, only to say that he feels better, and he criticized those who criticized him for touring during a pandemic. Well, no one ever accused Chappelle of not speaking his mind.
Watch Chappelle’s new video in full below.
