When popular comedian Dave Chappelle asked Netflix to stop streaming his sketch comedy show, the company pleasantly surprised him by promptly complying with his request, the BBC reports. 

Chappelle's argument for having the show pulled from Netflix was founded on the fact that the agreement allowing the show to be streamed failed to include him as a payee. 

This dilemma was touched on in a clip from a recent stand-up gig Chappelle posted on Instagram, wherein the entertainer claims he "never got paid" royalties after the show's original run.

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He chastised Comedy Central's parent company ViacomCBS for continuing to make the show available on HBO Max.

"People think I made a lot of money from Chappelle's Show," the 47-year-old said in his routine. "When I left that show I never got paid."

He went on to explain that he was "desperate" when he signed his original contract, which stipulated in its terms that ViacomCBS and other parties would have the power to rebroadcast Chappelle's Show without being obliged to pay him.

"I found out that these people were streaming my work and they never had to ask me or they never have to tell me," he said. "Perfectly legal because I signed the contract."

The comedian joked that his great-grandfather William Chappelle, who was born in slavery in 1857, would have thought his descendent had been "bought and sold" more than he had been.

In the video he posted on Tuesday under the title Unforgiven, Chappelle claimed Netflix and HBO Max only decided to stream the series after his SNL hosting role was announced.

"The day I committed to [SNL], it gets announced that Netflix is streaming Chappelle's Show," he is seen saying. "Not just Netflix; HBO Max is streaming it too."

Chappelle said the news made him "furious," and that he had called Netflix to tell them "this makes me feel bad".

"And you want to know what they did?" he continued. "They agreed they would take it off their platform just so I could feel better."

The comic praised Netflix for going "above and beyond what you could expect from a businessman".

He said: "They did something just because they thought that I might think that they were wrong."

Chappelle's sketch series initially aired on Comedy Central from 2002 to 2006.