Netflix will keep Russell Brand’s comedy special Re:Birth on its platform, Page Six reported, days after the British comedian was convicted of rape. The streamer confirmed the 2018 special will no longer be recommended to subscribers and has been hidden from search. It has not been removed from the library.
Netflix Confirms Special Will Remain Available Despite Conviction
Netflix explained the decision in terms of choice. A Netflix source said the company prioritizes giving members control over what they watch and when, with recommendations and ratings there to guide them.
So the special is still there, just harder to find. Subscribers who type Brand’s name into the search bar will not see it surface.
Page Six framed the move as Netflix coming under fire for refusing to pull it.
Russell Brand Sentenced to 10 Years and 6 Months in Prison
Brand was sentenced on Monday to a total of 10 years and six months. He was convicted the week before of one count of rape and three further counts of assault, and was remanded into custody after the verdict on Friday.
He will be placed on the offenders registry for life.
Brand is being held at HMP Wandsworth in London. Kally Sahota, a senior solicitor at Sahota & Sahota Solicitors, told Page Six he will stay there until he is moved to another facility based on safety, security and rehabilitation needs.
His legal troubles may not end there. Page Six reported that a new accuser has come forward in the US, and that she is in contact with attorney Gloria Allred about her options.
Controversial Jokes About Parenthood in the Re:Birth Comedy Special
Re:Birth was built around becoming a father. Released in 2018, the comedy special had Brand riffing on parenthood, his political activism and the promiscuous life he said he had left behind. Critics gave it mixed reviews.
Brand married his wife in August 2017. By the time the special landed, the couple had one daughter, and a second followed in July 2018. A son arrived in 2023, making him a father of three.
Brand’s wife giving birth to their first child became a punchline in Re:Birth. He joked there “ain’t nothing like seeing a vagina coming out of a vagina” to make you re-evaluate your attitude toward people with vaginas. Labor, in his telling, changed how he saw women.
He also turned the camera on himself. He wondered aloud what he would tell his daughter about conformity and responsibility. “What happens if she grows up to be like me?” he asked. Worse, he said, what if she dated someone like him?
Watched today, that line lands differently. On stage, it was self-deprecation from a man selling a redemption story. A wedding, a newborn, a reformed bad boy reckoning with fatherhood. The whole special asked the audience to believe that becoming a husband and father had changed him. A court has now ruled on the man who told those jokes, and the stage persona and the conviction sit side by side in the same Netflix library.
Public Reaction to Brand’s Continued Streaming Availability
Page Six’s own headline called the birth joke heinous and said Netflix was under fire for keeping the comedy special up.
Netflix has not said whether the decision is permanent. For now Re:Birth stays in the catalog, unpromoted and unsearchable, while the man who made it sits in a London prison.
If you or someone you know is affected by the issues raised in this story, call the S*xual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
Sources: Page Six
