Yesterday, like many of you, I stumbled across the news of actress and comedienne Mo’Nique calling for a boycott of the hugely popular media streaming service Netflix. Whether you agree with the boycott or not it certainly confirms what we have come to know about her. She is willing to fight for hers, a truly admirable quality for someone who has blackballed in her industry. In May of 2017 Mo’Nique admitted publicly that she was blackballed in the industry by Oprah, Lee Daniels, and Tyler Perry  for what was perceived as unreasonable demands during the promo roll out of Precious. We used to applaud persons who knew there worth but I have not seen any positive reaction just a lot of side eyed memes at Mo’Nique.


This is how it all went down. Last week Netflix offered Mo’Nique a cool half million dollars for a stand up special. Over the past few years Netflix has really beefed up its programming and have paid several big names a lot of big bucks for their comedic content. You name ’em Chappelle, Gaffigan, Rock, Louis C.K., and yep Amy Schumer. It’s all the men but mostly the latter who appears to be the center of Mo’Nique’s claim of gender and racial inequality.

Even though Mo’Nique’s career has been kinda dry lately, not having a major movie role after receiving the Academy Award for her role in Precious, she has appeared as Ma Rainey in HBO’s, Bessie, and for the most part that has been about it, as of late, but she does have a number of other credits and for someone who has been blackballed she has been able to find some work. Remember she is a fighter. Schumer on the other hand has sold out Madison Square twice and had a couple of successful movies, one of which she wrote and produced. All of this was explained to Mo’Nique and I even believe she understood it, but she is a diva and wanted her resume considered in light of Schumers. One would also have to consider at one point she must have tried to renegotiate with Netflix but to no avail, because she brought up the fact that Schumer renegotiated. It is safe to assume there wasn’t much negotiating on Netflix’s part just platitudes, calling Mo’Nique a “legend”.

While this is just one parties side of the story it sheds light on how these deals work. Where do you fall? Honestly, I don’t think Mo’Nique deserves the paper as I have not seen anything stand up wise that would make me turn out to a performance. I don’t think she is a comedic legend. I dont think Schumer is either. It all comes down to an issue of relevance and unfortunately Mo’Nique isnt, but i’ll applaud her efforts but I personally won’t be boycotting.

 

DeWarren Smith