Netflix is pushing back against stand-up comedian Mark Normand after he claimed on a podcast that the streaming giant’s executives pressured him to stop promoting a joke about Muslims on social media — and acknowledged on a call that Muslims are “dangerous people.”
Mr. Normand, whose second Netflix special, “None Too Pleased,” was recently released, made the allegations on his “Tuesdays With Stories” podcast. He said Netflix executives urged him to pull a clip about Muslims he had posted on social media, citing previous death threats and bomb threats the company received after another comedian made a similar joke.
“Well, last time a comic did a Muslim joke, we got bomb threats. We got death threats. They said they were going to kill us,” Mr. Normand claimed the executives told him, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Mr. Normand said he agreed to remove the clip from social media, but only on the condition that the executives verbally admit on the call that Muslims are “dangerous people.” He claimed they ultimately did so, though he acknowledged he was “half joking” during the exchange.
Netflix flatly denied that account. A source close to the streamer told The Hollywood Reporter that any suggestion a Netflix executive called Muslims dangerous is “not true, not correct, completely false.” The source added that the call in question was held between Netflix and Mr. Normand’s representatives, not Mr. Normand himself, making the back-and-forth exchange he described impossible. Netflix characterized the anecdote as “an embellishment.”
The source said the only accurate element of Mr. Normand’s story is that Netflix advised him, as a global company, to be mindful of the jokes and clips he used to promote the special on his personal social channels, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Mr. Normand is known for joking about a wide range of groups, according to THR, which described his style as playfully mocking different communities “rather equally.” His previous Netflix special, “Soup to Nuts,” was released in 2023.
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