Dave Chappelle says he has his long-running beef with Comedy Central on rights Chappelle’s Show is over. The surprise announcement came during a 10-minute performance with the title Redemption Song Posted late Thursday night on Chappelle’s Instagram account. The clip closes with the news that the sketch comedy is returning to Netflix from today.
Netflix started airing Chappelle’s Show on November 1, but withdrew it on November 24 after the comedian complained that Comedy Central’s owner ViacomCBS had licensed the show without his approval. “I called them and I told them that it makes me feel bad. And you want to know what they did, ”Chappelle said in a clip posted to Instagram on the morning of November 24th. “They agreed that they would take it off their platform so that I would feel better.” Netflix, which has been broadcasting stand-up specials from Chappelle since 2016, has a lucrative contract with the artist worth tens of millions of dollars.
Now, three months later, and 15 years after Chappelle famously walked out of the show that aired between 2003 and 2006, we have a resolution. According to Chapelle’s story, Comedy Central reached out to him to make things right.
‘I never asked Comedy Central for anything. If you remember I said ‘I’m going to my real boss and I came to you’ because I know where my strength lies, ” Chappelle said to the Redemption Song audience. ‘I asked you to stop watching the show and thank goodness for you, you did. You made that show worthless, because without your eyes it is nothing. And when you stopped watching, they called me. And I have my name back. And I got my license back, and I got my show back, and they paid me millions of dollars. Thank you.”
Chappelle went on to thank Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix for his ‘courage’, and Chris McCarthy of ViacomCBS for ‘making up for the past’.
“Finally, after all these years, I can finally say to Comedy Central, ‘It was a pleasure to do business with you,’” Chappelle concluded.
How about a fun game of shirts vs. blouses?