The ‘Bojack Horseman’ Creator Says Netflix Made Him Change A ‘Dumb’ Joke Because It Might Upset David Fincher

In a 2019 interview with the New York Film Academy’s The Backlot podcast, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos explained how he convinced director David Fincher to make House of Cards the streaming service’s first original, non-licensed series.

“We got the meeting to go in on Monday morning, [I] sat with David, and I just said, ‘The answer is yes and we’ll give you two seasons with no pilot and no notes. So what you technically could give us 26 hours of your home movies, but you have to put your name on it,’ and the bet was that someone who really cared about their brand would really make it great if you gave them the freedom to do that. And that’s what we did,” he said.

Netlix prides itself on the “no notes” philosophy, but apparently that doesn’t apply for every movie and TV show on the streamer. “Still mystified that apparently Dave Chapelle’s deal is that he says whatever he wants and Netflix just has to air it, unedited. Is that normal, for comedians? Because Netflix once asked me to change a joke because they were worried it might upset David Fincher,” BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg tweeted. He’s referring to the controversy surrounding Chappelle’s The Closer, the comedian’s sixth and final special for Netflix under a deal he signed years ago. (Do I need to recap the controversy? Please say no.)

Bob-Waksberg continued, “Just looked up the cut Fincher joke because I actually couldn’t remember it. Turns out it was a whole scene! Netflix was right to note, it’s a dumb scene. My point was it’s silly for a network to pretend their hands are tied when it comes to the content they put on their network.” He’ll share the joke if “100 people respond to this tweet with pics of donations they made today (any amount) to Trans Lifeline,” which you can do so below.

If the joke involves FINCHer’s last name, it would work better on Tuca and Bertie anyway.