The business issues caused by a controversial Dave Chappelle comedy special are apparently anything but funny.
Transgender Netflix employees are planning an Oct. 20 walkout from the streaming service in response to a bevy of ongoing issues that all connect back to 48-year-old Chapelle’s “The Closer,” according to the Verge.
The most prominent of the problems was the suspension of a trans senior software engineer, Terra Field, who slammed Chappelle for his humor about trans people in a viral Twitter thread.
A source told The Post that Field was suspended not for the tweets but instead for intruding, along with two others, into an executives-only meeting.
Field has since been reinstated “after finding there was no ill-intent” in her attendance, she posted.
“I’m going to take a few days off to decompress and try to figure out where I’m at. At the very least, I feel vindicated,” Field tweeted.
Despite that, Netflix’s trans employee resource group is still moving forward with a planned walkout next week, according to the Verge, which obtained their internal memo.
“Trans Lives Matter. Trans Rights Matter. And as an organization, Netflix has continually failed to show deep care in our mission to Entertain the World by repeatedly releasing content that harms the Trans community and continually failing to create content that represents and uplifts Trans content. We can and must do better!” a leader of the movement reportedly wrote.
Adding fuel to the fire, co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended Chappelle in an email to employees amid the debacle this week.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos drew a firm line on keeping Dave Chappelle as part of Netflix.Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images“You should also be aware that some talent may join third parties in asking us to remove the show in the coming days, which we are not going to do,” Sarandos wrote, adding that the special is “an important part of our content offering.”
A follow-up Sarandos email, obtained by the outlet, also reportedly stated: “This will not be the last title that causes some of you to wonder if you can still love Netflix. I sincerely hope that you can.”
In response, walkout organizers allegedly sharply called out their higher-ups, writing “our leadership has shown us they do not uphold the values to which we are held,” according to the Verge.
Chappelle himself has become infatuated with “being canceled,” recently telling a large crowd at the Hollywood Bowl, “I love it.
“I don’t know what to tell you, except I’m a bad motherf – – ker,” he said.
Along with praise from comedian Damon Wayans, 61, Chappelle’s jokes were also defended by transgender comedian Flame Monroe, according to TMZ.
“All of this ‘What you can say and what you cannot say’ is ridiculous … I absolutely do not think that the special should be taken down off of Netflix,” Monroe said.
Chappelle was also described as an “LGBTQ ally” by the family of his late trans comedian friend Daphne Dorman.
