Responding to questions about why Netflix would book Louis C.K., a comedian whose behavior the streamer once characterized as “disturbing,” Netflix says that it wants to give audiences the “option.” Last month, Netflix announced a reunion with C.K., whom they stopped working with in 2017 after the comic admitted to sexually harassing his female openers and colleagues. Speaking to Variety, Netflix stand-up comedy chief Robbie Praw says it’s now about giving subscribers the “option” to watch the best comedy from someone who Netflix once characterized as displaying “unprofessional and inappropriate behavior with female colleagues.” We’ll allow Praw, a self-described “Seinfeld dork” whose most anticipated show at the fest is a live episode of Ari Emanuel’s podcast featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, to explain:
“Part of the job of my team is we listen to the type of stand-ups people want to see, but we also spend a lot of time looking at who’s selling tickets all around the world. Louis has had a really impressive run for the last two years, and he has a great special right now, so we’re excited to see it on Netflix this summer […] When our members sit and open up Netflix, they have a decision to make of what they want to watch. This is just about giving them an option to see a really popular comedian that they may want to watch who’s still putting out great stuff.”
Netflix isn’t afraid of controversy. It seems like only yesterday its own employees staged a mutiny due to the streamer’s continued overpaying for Dave Chappelle specials that LGBTQ+ advocates call “hate speech disguised as jokes.” (It was actually five years ago.) But the Netflix Is A Joke festival has made no qualms about booking abject racists, homophobes, Islamophobes, antisemites, and conspiracy theorists, so why shouldn’t the company book Louis C.K.? In 2017, the once-revered comic confirmed the allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct from several of his female openers, who had accused him of using his status as a revered, headlining comedian to masturbate in front of them. “The allegations made by several women in the New York Times about Louis C.K.’s behavior are disturbing,” Netflix spokesperson Karen Barragan told USA Today in 2017. “Louis’ unprofessional and inappropriate behavior with female colleagues has led us to decide not to produce a second stand-up special, as had been planned.” In the years since, Louis went independent, and much of his audience followed him. He never made good on his promise to “step back and take a long time to listen,” but he did describe poverty in India as “functional” on Jim Norton’s podcast last week.
But Netflix doesn’t care about what comedians say so long as people will watch them. In a blog post over the weekend, journalist Seth Simons named 111 True Things About The Netflix Is A Joke Festival. Those facts include Shane Gillis saying, “I hate Black people; I’m not Black. I hate Jews; not a fucking Jew bone in my body,” Tony Hinchcliffe calling his opener Peng Dang a “filthy little ch**k,” and Theo Von, who used to lift weights with his neighbor David Duke, shouting out the bravery of Nick Fuentes. Netflix does not care whether giving these guys a soapbox is a good idea, so long as it gives Netflix subscribers the option to be poisoned with white supremacist ideology in the form of crowd work, podcast banter, or blatant racism told in the cadence of a joke. And if that weren’t bad enough, the company isn’t even planning on doing an Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney this year.
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