Chappelle, Netflix Stoke a Little More Controversy

Netflix continues to not distance itself from Dave Chappelle despite the comedian's courting of controversy. Chappelle will headline a show at the streaming company's 11-day comedy festival, the Netflix Is a Joke Festival, next year, Rolling Stone reports. The festival takes places in various venues across Los Angeles between April 28 and May 8, and Chappelle's show will be at the Hollywood Bowl. Netflix has not commented specifically on the inclusion of Chappelle, whose comedy special for the company has been called transphobic, NBC News reports. Some of the comedy shows will be filmed for later streaming on Netflix, Deadline reports. As for the rest of the more than 130 artists performing, Vulture calls the festival "the 'Avengers, assemble!' of the comedy world." (See the full list here.)

As the Hollywood Reporter notes, the controversial Chappelle special, The Closer, was the last of a six-special package Netflix ordered from Chappelle, and "until now it wasn’t clear if Netflix was going to do more business with the comic after the controversy." Writes Imara Jones on Twitter, "This is not a surprise. @netflix said that it would stand by Dave Chappelle as long as he keeps the money flowing. And they’ve decided to platform his anti-trans hate yet again in a new venue. Their values are clear." (More Dave Chappelle stories.)