Comedy And Capitalism: Netflix Goes All-In On Unwoke Comedy

Remember Comedy Central?

The channel dedicated to 24/7 laughs gave us �South Park,� �Key & Peele,�
�Tosh.0,� �Chappelle�s Show,� and more.

Today, it�s a graveyard of reruns and �The Daily Propaganda� with Jon
Stewart.

Comedy needs a helping hand in our woke world, and YouTube and TikTok can
only do so much of the heavy lifting.

Enter Netflix.

The streaming giant has been delivering stand-up specials and original
sitcoms for years. Nothing new there, at least on paper. Lately, however,
Netflix brass have taken the task more seriously.

And it�s paying off, big time.

The streamer is home to comedy�s biggest stars (Sebastian Maniscalco), rising
players (Nate Bargatze), and even woke wonders (Hannah Gadsby). Its �Netflix
is a Joke� festival series, which just wrapped its second gala, is a who�s
who of comedy giants. The event churns out even more original content aimed
at our funny bones.

Netflix stand-up specials took on a special significance near the end of
2021. Dave Chappelle�s �The Closer� ignited a firestorm on the Left.
Progressives raged against him mocking the trans community, ignoring how the
Ohio native honored a deceased trans comic at the special�s end.

The streamer�s comedy bona fides hung in the balance. Would Team Netflix
cave, cancel the special and cut ties with someone considered the best living
stand-up?

Remember, this was during the post-George Floyd mania, a time when offensive
sitcoms got memory holed and comedians feared the wrong joke could end their
careers.

Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos initially stood by Chappelle. Then, he got on his
Schwinn and furiously backpedaled via The Wall Street Journal. He said he
�screwed up� in his initial response to the blowback, adding that people were
hurt by jokes.

�To be clear � storytelling has an impact in the real world . . . sometimes
quite negative.�

Somehow, some way, Sarandos and co. stiffened their collective spines and
rebuffed the Cancel Culture swarm. Netflix even extended its ties to
Chappelle.

We�re starting to know exactly why that happened.

A new Deadline.com report shows how challenging comedy is irresistible to
Netflix subscribers. Turns out, aggressively unwoke comedians draw eyeballs
on the platform. A lot of them.

Comedian Matt Rife isn�t as combustible as Chappelle, but he�ll veer into
challenging topics when necessary. �Matt Rife: Natural Selection� delivered
the biggest viewing numbers of 2023�s second half with 13M hours viewed.

That�s despite an alleged outcry over Rife�s domestic violence joke that hit
social media shortly after its debut.

Other huge performers included Ricky Gervais� �Armageddon,� which drew more
than 8M hours between Christmas Day and December 31. Another mega hit?
Chappelle�s �The Dreamer,� generating 2.1M hours in just one day.

Shane Gillis, the comic canceled by �Saturday Night Live� for offensive
jokes, joined the party. Twice. His �Beautiful Dogs� special scored with
subscribers, and his just-released comedy series �Tires� opened strong,
standing tall against fan favorite �Bridgeton� with less media adulation.

Few performers capture the cultural tug of war between comedy and space
spaces better than Gillis. Even �SNL� admitted the error of its ways and
invited him to host the show earlier this year.

Netflix welcomed him with open arms. Funny is funny.

And if Netflix needed more excuses to ditch the woke mob, Nikki Glaser gave
it one. Her recent HBO special, �Someday You�ll Die,� smashed a streaming
record for the venerable platform. Glaser�s blistering set at the recent
�Roast of Tom Brady� likely boosted those numbers.

She took zero prisoners with her bawdy gags. Neither did anyone else. Comedy
Central used to be the home of rip-roaring roasts.

The Brady roast happened, where else, at Netflix.

Netflix�s comedy embrace makes perfect sense. We�re starved for unexpurgated
humor, the kind you�ll never see on �Saturday Night Live� or �The Late Show.�
It�s why podcaster Joe Rogan, a center-Left comic who loathes the �woke mind
virus,� holds such sway over the culture. It explains how the digital space
propels formerly unknown talents like Tim Dillon and Andrew Schulz into the
top-tier of touring comics.

It also explains why Louis C.K., cast out of Hollywood for admitting to gross
sexual acts in front of multiple women, can still sell out Madison Square
Garden.

He doesn�t follow the rules, and he never has.

The streamer knows ignoring part of its potential audience is a terrible move
in today�s challenging economic climate. Plus, Netflix no longer has the
streaming space to itself like it did just a few short years ago. It�s
fending off ferocious challenges from Peacock, Disney+, Max, and more. Those
platforms aren�t as comfortable with �problematic� storytelling and yuks. At
least not yet.

Netflix is. And it�s doing the best financially of them all.

Why? Capitalism. Give �em what they want.

The streamer still delivers woke content on demand. The channel featured a
second Gadsby event, �Something Special,� last year. How it performed is
anyone�s guess.

Its documentary lineup leans to the Left. You won�t see rebellious
documentaries like Nick Searcy�s �The War on Truth,� �The Fall of
Minneapolis,� or �Police State� on the platform. Maybe ever.

It still acknowledges half the country leans in the other direction. Even
better? Many viewers on both sides of the ideological aisle are exhausted by
the woke bylaws.

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Let's go Brandon!