‘Chappelle’s Show’: Why Netflix Isn’t Streaming One of the Show’s Season 2 Episodes
Chappelle’s Show may have a new home on Netflix. But the streamer — which carries all three seasons of Dave Chappelle’s sketch comedy series — is noticeably missing one season 2 episode. Here’s a breakdown of why Netflix is not streaming “The Internet & Moment in the Life of Lil Jon.”
‘The Internet & Moment in the Life of Lil Jon” appeared on season 2 of ‘Chappelle’s Show’
The sixth episode of season 2, “The Internet & Moment in the Life of Lil Jon,” features some of the series’ most popular sketches. As the title suggests, it includes “A Moment in the Life of Lil Jon,” a sketch in which Dave Chappelle plays Lil Jon checking in for a flight at the airport.
The episode also includes the debut of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong,” in which Chappelle’s character Darius is beaten by a black-belt martial artist after trying to defend his girlfriend’s honor at a nightclub. Humiliated, Darius is forced to move in with his grandmother, who isn’t shy about hooking up with her boyfriend in the house.
The sketch, “If the Internet Were a Real Place,” is also featured in the episode. In it, Chappelle imagines the internet as a mall, where he encounters places that offer pornographic content, illegal music downloads, and dating matches.
The episode’s guest star is facing charges of rape
In “If the Internet Were a Real Place,” Chappelle meets pornstar Ron Jeremy, who leads him into the porn section of the mall by inviting him to watch Paris Hilton’s infamous sex tape. According to the Daily Beast, when Jeremy was charged with sexual assault in June, Comedy Central and CBS pulled the season 2 episode from their catalogs.
Both Netflix and HBO Max carry Chappelle’s Show, but “The Internet & Moment in the Life of Lil Jon” is missing from both streamers. And it’s most likely due to Jeremy’s appearance in the episode and the nature of his criminal charges.
As reported by Reuters, Jeremy faces “a total of 11 counts of rape, eight of sexual battery and 16 other sexual offenses.” If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 330 years to life in prison.
The ‘Chappelle’s Show’ episode isn’t the first to be excluded from Netflix because of controversy
Netflix may have excluded the season 2 episode of Chappelle’s Show from their catalog, but this isn’t the first time the streamer has removed content due to controversy. In June 2020, Netflix quietly pulled one of the most popular episodes of Community.
The episode, “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons,” featured Ken Jeong’s character, Chang, dressed as a dark elf. His skin is painted jet black to look like the mythical creature, and the insinuation of him being in “blackface” is addressed by Yvette Nicole Brown’s character, Shirley.
The Community episode has not been added back to Netflix’s catalog. And it doesn’t look like the missing Chappelle’s Show episode will return either.
