In a recent interview, Netflix representatives entirely refuted comedian Marc Normand’s allegations that an executive suggested Muslims were “dangerous.”
The issue arose after Normand claimed Netflix executives instructed him to remove jokes about Muslims from his comedy specials to avoid potential backlash against the platform.Hollywood Reporter reported.
Currently featured in There will be a story on Tuesday!, Normand discussed his Netflix comedy special, Mark Normand: I’m not very happy with any of it.
“We had to do a conference call,” Normand explained. “There were 18 people on the call, and they said, ‘Bad news. We’ve rewatched the special, and we want you to take out the Muslim jokes.’ When I asked why, they mentioned that a previous Muslim joke had led to a bomb threat and death threats. The studio was damaged. They didn’t want to go through that again. I thought, ‘We need to defend this joke.’
Later, he noted that executives shifted their focus, wanting only to remove jokes from social media promotions, rather than from the show itself.
“They said, ‘You need to separate from social media… That’s where it all starts,’ Normand recalled.
“I responded, ‘I get it, but I want you to admit on this call that these people are dangerous, or I’ll re-post,'” he said, “I mean, I was only half-joking. They replied, ‘We can’t do that,’ and I wondered why. They said, ‘That’s offensive.’ I just wanted them to acknowledge it openly. It seemed like they were pretending to be virtuous while acting differently. I aimed for them to express their fear. And, in a way, they did.”
However, after Normand’s podcast discussion, Netflix denied making any such statement.
The streaming service told Hollywood Reporter that they advised him to be cautious about the clips and jokes he used to promote the special on his social platforms. They firmly denied that they had ever suggested Muslims were dangerous, labeling Normand’s claims as “not true, not correct, and completely false.”
Interestingly, Normand wasn’t even on the call directly; a Netflix representative was discussing the issue with his manager at the time.
In his special, Normand humorously comments on his neighbor’s daughter, saying, “First she went through a promiscuous phase, and now she’s into Muslims.” He added, “I thought, ‘Hey, she’s with a Muslim, that’s fine. But is she going to stop smoking weed?'”
After delivering the joke, he jokingly scolded the audience, saying, “Oh, that’s a Muslim joke! You laughed at the Jewish stuff, so just roll with it.”
