Mo’Nique heads to Showtime for new, stand-up comedy special

Comedienne takes shots at Netflix in her new special, further ruffling the feathers of the streaming service while her discrimination against them is in full swing

In the promo for "Mo’Nique & Friends: Live from Atlanta," Mo’Nique taunts Netflix, which she is currently suing for gender and racial discrimination.

Dawn Onley

Jan 21, 2020

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Mo’Nique is headed to Showtime for a new stand-up comedy special, her first in a decade.

In the promo for Mo’Nique & Friends: Live from Atlanta, which will air on Friday, February 7 at 10 p.m. ET, Mo’Nique taunts Netflix. She is currently suing the platform for gender and racial discrimination. The comedian says Netflix lowballed her for a comedy special while paying other comedians much more, according to WBAL.

It is unclear what Showtime is paying Mo’Nique for her special.

“They tried to shut a b**** out. They tried to make a b**** disappear. But you can’t keep a good b**** down,” Mo’Nique says about Netflix in her Showtime promo clip.

Mo’Nique’s Showtime special runs for an hour and was shot at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta. The special features several guests, including Donnell Rawlings from Chapelle’s Show and new comics, Prince T-Dub, Tone-X, Correy Bell and Just Nesh.

The show comes as Mo’ and Netflix are embroiled in an ongoing feud, with the comedian taking offense when the network reportedly offered to pay her $500,000 for a comedy special while paying other comedians much more, including Amy Schumer, who was reportedly paid $13 million for her Netflix special, and Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Ellen DeGeneres, who were each said to have gotten $20 million per Netflix special. Mo’Nique’s complaint also mentions Jerry Seinfeld, who reportedly earned $100 million from Netflix, Eddie Murphy who is said to have received between $60 and $70 million and Wanda Sykes, whom she doesn’t mention a contract value, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

In November, Mo’Nique filed a lawsuit accusing Netflix for racial and gender discrimination and retaliation. Last week, Netflix fired back calling Mo’Nique’s claims “nonsensical.” Further, Netflix says Mo’Nique has never justified to them why she thinks she should command the same pay as Murphy or DeGeneres.

“[H]er Complaint contradicts its core premise by noting that other persons of color, other women, and another African-American woman (like Plaintiff) have been paid substantially more money to create comedy specials for Netflix’s streaming service than what was offered to Plaintiff,” Netflix’s attorney Crystal Nix-Hines wrote in a court motion. “And Plaintiff fails to explain why she was entitled to be offered what the stars to whom she compares herself were offered for creating such comedy specials.”

Nix-Hines adds that Mo’Nique’s “retaliation theory is, indeed, nonsensical. Plaintiff appears to claim that after she made a public call for a boycott based upon an opening offer that Netflix believed was fair, Netflix had an affirmative obligation to increase its offer, without a counteroffer from Plaintiff, and apparently without any limit on the amount of the offer Plaintiff could demand.”