Dave Chappelle said he’s willing to sit down with Netflix employees who organized a company walkout earlier this week in protest of controversial jokes he made in his comedy special, “The Closer.”.
In the show, released earlier this month, the irreverent funnyman declared “gender is a fact” and identified himself as a “TERF,” or “trans-exclusionary radical feminist,” sparking immediate backlash, including from Netflix employees who walked off the job on Wednesday.
But no one from Netflix or the employee group that led the staff walkout has contacted Chappelle or his team about setting up a meeting, the comedian’s camp reportedly said, disputing what the transgender woman who organized the walkout claims.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has stuck by the company’s decision to host the show, but admitted earlier this week that he “screwed up” in the way he communicated the decision to company staff.
In emails to Netflix staff earlier this month amid the backlash, Sarandos, who’s also the company’s chief content officer, said the company would not take down the show.
“We have articulated to our employees that there are going to be things you don’t like,” Sarandos said.