Mo’Nique is back in the news again! Mo’Nique is one of the “Queens of Comedy” and is an Oscar award-winning actress but I don’t know if she’s ever been as relevant as she is now! Seriously, she has a viral social media rant once every three months. First, it was a crusade against Lee Daniels who allegedly offered her the role of Cookie in Empire before Taraji P. Henson was brought on board. Then, she went at Tyler Perry and Oprah. Now, she’s going after Netflix.
According to Monique, Netflix is racist and sexist because she was lowballed on an offer to do a Netflix exclusive comedy special. She was offered $500,000 while Amy Schumer was offered $13 million and Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle were offered $20 million. In the video below, Mo’Nique explains her frustration. When asked why her offer was so low in relations to her resume, Netflix allegedly told her that they believed that’s what Mo’Nique would bring in as far as revenue in 2018 and that they don’t look at resume when making these decisions. Monique then says that they cited the resume of Schumer (sold out Madison Square Garden Twice, hit move over the summer) as the reason why they’ve offered her so much.
Monique, a graduate of Morgan State University, is uncompromising and calls things the way she sees them. However, it seems as if she’s overeaching. While Mo’Nique is a legend, she isn’t as hot as she was a year ago. Personally, I don’t think Mo’Nique at her peak (circa The Parkers, BET Awards hosting, Precious and The Mo’nique Show) would’ve been able to draw upwards of $13 million dollars. Amy Schumer is a hot brand right now and Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock are legends that have been largely silent in this post-Trump world. People will pay for what they have to say. People aren’t paying for Monique to go on a rant.
I understand how important valuing yourself is so I’ll say that maybe Netflix should add another $500,000 to their number and give her $1 million for a special and then work from there. But, Mo’Nique ain’t worth $13 million in 2018,. Everything simply isn’t a race or gender issue and we have way more important issues to confront than Mo’Nique getting mad because she’s being offered two in a half times more than most the people that work at my HBCU make in year in about an hour. First world problems for sure!
