The Netflix/Dave Chappelle drama over his recent special, “The Closer,” doesn’t seem to be calming down anytime soon. And while Chappelle himself has stayed out of the discussion, the surprising villain that is seemingly coming out of this whole situation (in the eyes of the LGBTQ+ community, at least) is co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who unabashedly came out in support of Chappelle’s special, which many say contains transphobic material. Now, with the threat of an employee walkout looming, Netflix’s Sarandos is back with another memo, and this one doesn’t feel like it’s going to calm down the outrage anytime soon.
Again, if you haven’t followed the controversy surrounding Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer,” the short version is that LGBTQ+ folks saw jokes in the special that they deemed transphobic and dangerous, claiming the material could lead to actual physical harm against trans people. Sarandos immediately came out and supported “artistic freedom” and said that Netflix supports diversity and inclusion but also freedom for creators to make boundary-pushing material. Folks didn’t like that, and now, it’s being reported that employees at Netflix are threatening a walkout.
This all lead to a new memo from Sarandos (via Variety), where the co-CEO of the biggest streaming platform in the world not only defended Chappelle again, but he also took the idea of any real-world violence happening due to “The Closer” to task.
“With ‘The Closer,’ we understand that the concern is not about offensive-to-some content but titles which could increase real-world harm (such as further marginalizing already marginalized groups, hate, violence etc.),” said Sarandos. “Last year, we heard similar concerns about ‘365 Days’ and violence against women. While some employees disagree, we have a strong belief that content on screen doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.”
He added, “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.”
While the idea of on-screen violence leading to a rise of violence is a topic that has been raging for decades, especially as we see such a huge number of mass shootings in the United States, the idea of on-screen jokes leading to reinforcing stereotypes and adding to hate from bigots is nothing new. In fact, back in 2002, when Dave Chappelle himself walked away from Comedy Central’s “Chappelle Show,” he cited a situation where a white person watching the filming of an unaired scene depicting racist stereotypes, who laughed in a way that upset Chappelle, as one of the reasons for him stopping the show.
Clearly, 20 years ago, Chappelle knew that jokes have the power to make people laugh but not always in the right ways. So, when he says negative things about trans people and the LGBTQ+ community, the same would apply, right?
Needless to say, “The Closer” is still going to be a hotbed of controversy for the near future and Ted Sarandos isn’t doing much to help things at this point.
You can read the full memo sent by Sarandos below:
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. Also, we have many new colleagues who want to better understand the principles that guide our team’s content choices, especially with challenging titles like this.
Our goal is to entertain the world, which means programming for a diversity of tastes. This member-centric view has driven our growth over the last 20 years, despite all the competition, and remains Netflix’s north star today. We also support artistic freedom to help attract the best creators, and push back on government and other censorship requests. Our Entertain the World and Strategy Bets memos, which we’ve debated extensively, are clear about both principles – including the trade offs, i.e. that we’ll always have titles some members and employees dislike or believe are harmful.
With The Closer, we understand that the concern is not about offensive-to-some content but titles which could increase real world harm (such as further marginalizing already marginalized groups, hate, violence etc.) Last year, we heard similar concerns about 365 Days and violence against women. While some employees disagree, 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).
We’ve had these operating principles around pleasing our members and artistic expression for many years, and the team’s decision to put The Closer on our service was consistent with them. The variety and quality of our content is what members value most. 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. This will not be the last title that causes some of you to wonder if you can still love Netflix. I sincerely hope that you can.
-Ted