Is it time we cancelled cancel culture?| Eva Wiseman

Some of those who have been cancelled seem to have developed an aura of glamour - and made a lot of money. We need to rethink this...

Man, I love being cancelled," said Dave Chappelle to a crowd of 19,000, after his Netflix special saw a member of staff walk out in protest at the way they'd handled complaints for his jokes about trans people. Leaked internal financial data revealed that Netflix had spent more than $20m on each of Chappelle's shows, a figure that goes some way towards persuading me that cancel culture" could be one of the most profitable startups in living memory.

I read Chappelle's quotes on my phone while waiting for a friend in central London, a place now frosty and faintly hysterical, standing outside what appeared to be a Monopoly theme park. Yes, just up from the closed-down Habitat is a new and gleaming theatre, where for approximately 60 you can play an immersive version of Monopoly. By Christmas this may be the only way for most people of us to enjoy the experience of buying a house in London - strolling round a massive board with colleagues who have fattened significantly since they last shared a workspace, slightly drunk on red cocktails, alternately yearning for home and sickening at the idea that this fun must end, and by midnight, confused completely by the concept of cash.

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