Boycott The Chappelle Show

[Gordie]

At the request of Dave himself.

Dave Chappelle is asking people to boycott his show. Viacom/HBO are streaming it without paying him. Netflix recently picked up the streaming rights from Viacom and started showing it also. Chappelle contacted Netflix and explained how he isn't being paid. They immediately stopped streaming the show.

When Chappelle pitched his show to HBO years ago, instead of being polite and professional and either just simply accepting or refusing his pitch, they said "What do we need you for?" Now 15-20 years later, HBO is streaming that show and making money from it without paying Dave.

 

[Push The Button]

That is what lawyers and agents are supposed to be for, to protect artists from this sort of mistreatment. HBO has been overpriced relative to what they offer for years now. I hope things work out for Dave.

 

[thribs]

Interesting but who is Dave Chappelle?

 

[Kai "the spy"]

To be clear, legally Dave has no standing, and he acknowledges this himself. Because the contracts for The Chappelle Show were written before streaming was a thing, so there's nothing about streaming royalties in them. His point is, even if it's legal, it's still not right.

 

[Gordie]

To be clear, legally Dave has no standing, and he acknowledges this himself. Because the contracts for The Chappelle Show were written before streaming was a thing, so there's nothing about streaming royalties in them. His point is, even if it's legal, it's still not right.

True in some part. he signed a contract. But iirc it was Comedy Central he made 500M for. He should have gotten half I believe. They told him because the show made so much money, it was out of the realms of the contract so we are only going to give you 10%.

What they did to him, taking advantage of someone who had children to feed, and then ripping him off that way is what I call evil.

 

[Gordie]

Dave Chappelle

Here you go.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Chappelle

 

[Kai "the spy"]

HBO Max pulls the Chappelle Show after higher-ups talked with Chappelle. Looks like the ball is in Viacom's court now.

 

[Gordie]

HBO Max pulls the Chappelle Show after higher-ups talked with Chappelle. Looks like the ball is in Viacom's court now.

Awesome. Thanks for posting this update.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

To be clear, legally Dave has no standing, and he acknowledges this himself. Because the contracts for The Chappelle Show were written before streaming was a thing, so there's nothing about streaming royalties in them. His point is, even if it's legal, it's still not right.

Nothing about control over "other media" releases?

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Well, I haven't read the contracts myself, but apparently no.

 

[valkyrie013]

This isn't a super rare thing, many people don't get what they were contracted for from the movie companies.. sometimes due to "Hollywood Math" that a movie making 1 billion dollars actually lost money..
Haven't read the contract, so if there is nothing in there for streaming, it must go to whatever was in there for rebrodcast/other media if there is one, if there is not, then there must be a new contract to ammend the original if the studio wants to use it for streaming.
Hopefully this gets worked out where Dave gets some money.

 

[Mojochi]

When Chappelle pitched his show to HBO years ago, instead of being polite and professional and either just simply accepting or refusing his pitch, they said "What do we need you for?" Now 15-20 years later, HBO is streaming that show and making money from it without paying Dave.

IIRC, the version of it told by Neal Brennan (His Chapelle Show cowriter) at Dave's Mark Twain Prize event was more like "What do we need you for, when we got Chris Rock?" Essentially bragging that they'd already reached their racist black comedian quota (of one), & in that way he was of no use to them.

That said, that program is probably the best selling property to ever come out of owning Comedy Central, & Viacom is lawfully free to sell it anywhere they damn well please, just as Dave is free to leverage companies he does business with to not buy it, if they want to continue having good faith relations with him in the coming future

Personally, I think the show should go away. They've obsenely cashed in on it for 2 decades, & the legal loopholes of new formats & language like "in perpetuity throughout the universe" etc.. is pretty underhanded dealings.

However, I doubt it will. Not long ago I saw them running it on bloody Pluto TV, which is a free streaming platform, which means it's out there for cheap, & they had it alongside Nikki Glaser's & Chris Hardwick's shows, because they probably move all that shit in bundles & the flagship of them is Chappelle's.

What's worse is the name rights. He can't even put his own last name on a new show, without possible legal battles, because their show is called Chapelle Show. Contracts aside, no one should ever be able to have greater claim over your damn name.

 

[ED-209]

He killed me as "Reggie" in the Nutty the Professor, the scene between him and Murphy (Buddy Love version) is comedy gold.