Beef star David Choe has reportedly had recently resurfaced clips of him talking about sexually assaulting a massage therapist “taking down” due to copyright infringement.
The actor stars opposite Steven Yeun and Ali Wong in Netflix’s critically acclaimed dark comedy, which is widely considered to be the streaming service’s best show of 2023 so far.
Amid the buzz around the series, which arrived on Netflix in April, a clip circulated online from Choe’s now-defunct podcast DVDASA.
In the clip, Choe tells a story in which he claims to have touched a female massage therapist – who he describes as being biracial – without her consent, before forcing her to perform oral sex on him. During the podcast recording, Choe admitted he was becoming aroused just from telling the story.
The 46-year-old later apologised for the comments, claiming that the anecdote was a fabrication for the sake of the show.
After the clip was shared online, a number of social media users who initially posted the clip have allegedly received requests from Twitter asking for the video to be removed on “copyright grounds”.
“David Choe wrote to Twitter to get the video I posted of him talking about the woman he says he raped taken down on copyright grounds,” tweeted journalist Aura Bogado, alongside an email appearing to have come from Twitter.
“He claims his *nonprofit* owns the copyright to the video of him talking about the alleged rape.”
Writer Meecham Whitson Meriweather also claimed that his video had been “withheld in response to a report from the copyright holder”.
The Independent has contacted Choe’s representatives for comment.
In the podcast episode, titled “Erection Quest”, Choe says that “the thrill of possibly going to jail… that’s what achieved the erection quest”.
“Ew, you’re basically telling us that you’re a rapist now,” his co-host, adult film star Asa Akira replies.
One month after the podcast episode was initially released in March 2014, Choe stated that the story was completely untrue and was relayed for entertainment purposes only.
“If I am guilty of anything, it’s bad storytelling in the style of douche,” he wrote in a post on his website, which is now defunct.
“Just like many of my paintings are often misinterpreted, the same goes with my show. The main objective of all of my podcasts is to challenge and provoke my friends and the co-stars on the show.”
If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here.
