Whenever one signs up for a new streaming service, it's never just for the content that the service currently offers, but the promise of new shows, movies and different licensed content being added on a regular basis which will make the streamer worthwhile. We are all in binge mode, especially now, so it always helps when entire runs of a series are added so that we can dig in and lose ourselves for however long we need to. Recently, though, the Comedy Central hit Chappelle's Show was added to both HBO Max and Netflix, but fans have noticed that one episode is missing, and now we know why.
Chappelle's Show only ran for two full seasons, but its 28 episodes are legendary among Dave Chappelle's fans, as well as comedy lovers everywhere. With so few installments already available for viewers to watch, those who remembered the original run of the show (which aired from 2003 through 2006) easily noticed that a full episode was missing when the sketch comedy landed on HBO Max over the weekend. According to The Daily Beast, it turns out that Season 2, Episode 6 has been left out of licensing deals because of recent legal action against guest star Ron Jeremy.
This particular episode of Chappelle's Show featured three sketches, one of which guest starred porn performer Ron Jeremy, which was titled "If the Internet Was a Real Place." The late February 2004 episode saw Jeremy play a version of himself as he guides Chappelle through a physical manifestation of the internet. Because of who Jeremy is, the sketch featured a lot of sexual content as he led Chappelle around an increasingly salacious world, all of which reads quite differently now that the guest star has been charged with several counts of sexual assault, and more.
In June, Ron Jeremy was charged with sexually assaulting four women, and it wasn't long before his episode of Chappelle's Show was removed from all of Comedy Central's platforms, as well as CBS All Access, where the show is also available to stream. Late October saw Jeremy hit with additional charges, including 11 counts of forcible rape, eight sexual battery by restraint counts, one count each of sodomy and penetration by a foreign object on an unconscious victim, and lewd conduct with a 15-year-old girl (along with several other counts amounting to a total of 20 charges involving 13 women) in Los Angeles County.
ViacomCBS signed over non-exclusive streaming rights to Chappelle's Show after those initial charges were filed in June, and the decision was made to withhold the episode from the deals due to the company's standards and practices. Three separate anonymous sources with knowledge of the streaming deals confirmed that those behind both HBO Max and Netflix were told that the episode would not be a part of the deals.
Companies have been known to put some problematic episodes of their programming in the vault, so it's hardly a surprise that the Ron Jeremy guest-starring episode would be kept out of streaming deals and yanked from other platforms where it had previously been available. Earlier this year, ViacomCBS also left five episodes of South Park out of its deal with HBO Max because they featured depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, while several streamers removed an episode of Workaholics after guest star Chris D'Elia was accused of sexually harassing multiple teenage girls.
As of right now, there appear to be no plans to allow the Ron Jeremy episode of Chappelle's Show to stream or to simply remove him or edit out his sketch. For now, if you want your viewing of the series to be complete, you'll have to buy the episode on YouTube or Amazon. In the meantime, feel free to see what's new on the small screen this fall and what's coming up early next year.
