Ted Sarandos Defends Giving Netflix Comedy Specials to Dave Chappelle and Tony Hinchcliffe: ‘You Can’t Say That’s Not Funny’

Netflix head Ted Sarandos is once again sticking to his guns when it comes to the streamer’s comedy specials. During a conversation Friday at the Paley Center for Media in New York that TheWrap attended, the CEO defended giving comedy specials to both Dave Chappelle and Tony Hinchcliffe.

After the release of Chappelle’s 2021 special “The Closer,” the comedian came under fire for his jokes about the transgender community. Sarandos admitted that whether or not to stick by an artist are “never easy calls” and said that the decision to back Chappelle came down to “protecting free speech and free expression.”

“I knew that the art form itself always needed a safe place to try things out. Comedians define the culture in a bunch of ways, and they do that by figuring out where the lines are and the joke is,” Sarandos explained during the Friday event. “It’s the only art form that you know it’s working [because] it’s defined by the audience. If the audience laughed, it worked … You can’t say, ‘That’s not funny’ if 18,000 people are laughing. You can say you disagree with it. You could say that it offends you. You can say that it hurts you. But you can’t say it’s not funny.”

This is a line that Sarandos has taken before when it comes to Chappelle. But he doubled down on the sentiment when asked about Tony Hinchcliffe, the comedian who went viral for calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a 2023 Trump rally. Hinchcliffe also appeared on “The Roast of Tom Brady” and distributed his 2016 special, “One Shot,” on the streamer. Earlier this month, Netflix continued its relationship with Hinchcliffe, ordering three “Kill Tony” comedy specials as well as a new standup special from him.

When asked by Semafor co-founder and editor-in-chief Ben Smith if he is ever worried about crossing the line when it comes to comedy, the Netflix head took the “is the juice worth the squeeze argument.”

“If someone wants to stand on the street corner and talk all they want, that’s not a Netflix show. If you’re attracting a large audience and people are laughing at the work and it’s jokes — they’re just jokes at the end of the day. I think if we lose our ability to laugh at ourselves, we’re in trouble,” Sarandos said.

He then brought up the role of court jesters, members of the royal court who were responsible for entertainment.

“They knew how important it was to laugh at yourself. So preserving and protecting that role for comics is really important. You look back at Lenny Bruce, George Carlin and Richard Pryor — it’s amazing we’re having this debate about censoring comedians today,” Sarandos said, adding that Chappelle is “clearly in that class” alongside those listed comedy legends. “You may not like all the jokes, but there’s no denying that this is one of the greatest comedians of our time.”

Sarandos also assured Smith that Netflix has no plans of changing its content strategy as a result of the current Trump administration and that the company is “programming exactly the same.” The CEO also opened up about a dinner he had with President Trump, which was the first time the two had ever met.

“We had a nice, long dinner together. It was interesting,” Sarandos said. When asked if Trump was a “Netflix fan,” the streaming head responded, “He said that Melania and Baron were big fans.”

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