Comedian and podcaster Marc Maron ripped into Netflix for its refusal to stand with the trans community, arguing that the streaming platform’s decision to air Dave Chappelle’s comedy specials shows “how fascism works in business.”
“Fascism is good for business,” Maron said on Sunday’s episode of “Pod Save America.”
“Like Netflix,” he continued. “Netflix will just co-opt anybody that can take that algorithm. I used to do a joke about it. Netflix can become ‘Reichflix’ very quickly.”
Maron said the “pivotal moment” was when the trans community and allies criticized Netflix for airing comedian Dave Chappelle’s 2021 special in which Chappelle made transphobic jokes. Netflix employees organized a walkout to demand the special be taken off the streaming service, but ultimately, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos refused to remove the program.
Maron said Netflix realized the trans community wasn’t going to affect its bottom line.
“That is how fascism works in business,” Maron said.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shortly after the controversy in 2021, Sarandos said that Netflix tries to “support creative freedom and artistic expression” and that he would classify hate speech as “something that would intentionally call for physically harming other people or even remove protections.”
Maron acknowledged that Netflix has a robust catalog with some LGBTQ+ shows and movies, but argued that those shows and movies don’t get the “big deals” or get renewed.
He added that today’s talented comics are operating “in the shadow” of what he called “tribalized comedy,” calling out Joe Rogan specifically as “the arbiter of what comedy is.”
But if “woke is dead,” Maron continued, then anti-woke comics can’t “claim the victim mantle” anymore.
“What do you have to keep beating these people up for?” he asked. “Some of them are losing their rights. Some of them are being literally killed. Some of them are being deported, and these are all the big funnies for you guys who claim to be victims of this horrible policy. So then, why not stop now?”
Maron has been critical of comedians who had President Donald Trump on their podcasts during the lead-up to the 2024 election. In Maron’s 2025 HBO special, he joked that if Adolf Hitler were alive today, the Nazi dictator would probably appear on comedian Theo Von’s podcast. Maron then dove into an impression of Von.
Maron said on “Pod Save America” that he had to think about that joke before including it because there’s a stigma around being critical of another comedian.
“The impression was good enough,” Maron said. “The jokes I put [in with] him talking were funny. I’d be hard-pressed to think that he didn’t think it was funny.”
Maron was also critical of comedian Bill Maher, who frequently criticizes politically correct or “woke” moments in culture. Maron said that he’s “always had a problem” with Maher’s “tone” and his “desperate chasing of relevance.”
“[It] kind of makes the whole undertaking feel desperate,” Maron said of Maher.
Maron hosts the “WTF” podcast, which is ending its run in the fall after 16 years.
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