Netflix could reportedly add a content warning to Dave Chappelle special after walkout

Could Dave Chappelle's controversial new comedy special get slapped with a warning label by Netflix? It's reportedly on the table.

Netflix is considering whether to add a content warning to The Closer, Chappelle's latest stand-up special that prompted an employee walkout on Wednesday, The Wrap reports.

The streamer has been facing criticism over the release of Chappelle's comedy special, in which he makes numerous controversial jokes about the LGBTQ+ community and calls himself "team TERF," meaning trans-exclusionary radical feminist, while defending J.K. Rowling. A list of demands released by employees participating in a walkout included that Netflix add a "disclaimer before transphobic titles," which would "flag transphobic language, misogyny, homophobia, hate speech, etc."

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According to The Wrap, while Netflix is weighing a possible warning label for The Closer, there's also internal concern this could lead to the streamer needing to add similar disclaimers to many other stand-up specials on the platform. Should this step be taken, it would be a reversal for Netflix, as co-CEO Ted Sarandos just this week defended not attaching a content warning to The Closer in multiple interviews.

"Stand-up comedy is a pretty singular voice art form," Sarandos told Deadline. "The comedians will road test the material for some times two years before they record their special so we really don't get involved and interfere with the material itself, and I think it's consistent with a brand of stand-up comedy and certainly consistent with Dave Chappelle's comedy, so I don't think a warning card or an edit would've been appropriate."

Sarandos also argued to The Hollywood Reporter a disclaimer isn't needed because "the content is age-restricted already for language, and Dave himself gives a very explicit warning at the beginning of the show." He acknowledged to Deadline, though, that he "screwed up" with his earlier defense of the special by not more clearly recognizing the fact that Netflix's trans employees were "hurting very badly."