Numerous A-list American comedians have come under fire from fellow comedians for performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival that kicked off in Saudi Arabia on 26 September. Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Whitney Cummings, Bill Burr, Zarna Garg, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, Bobby Lee and Andrew Santino are some of the comedians on the lineup for the inaugural edition of the two-week-long festival.
Marc Maron was one of the first to criticise his peers for participating in the Saudi event in a standup clip he posted on his Instagram page. “I mean, how do you even promote that? ‘From the folks that brought you 9/11. Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don’t miss it!'” he says in the clip, referencing the involvement of Saudi nationals in the September 11 attacks. Maron goes on to clarify that he was not asked to perform at the festival. “[…] So it’s kind of easy for me to take the high road on this one. Easy to maintain your integrity when no one’s offering to buy it out.”
Zach Woods took to Instagram to post a satirical video promoting the festival that called out human rights violations by Turki Al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s entertainment authority.
“Now there’s a lot of drips, killjoys and dweebazoids who say, ‘They shouldn’t do comedy over there because they’re whitewashing a regime that, just in June, killed a journalist, and killed Jamal Khashoggi, and played a big role in 9/11.’ Shut up! Name one comedian who hasn’t whored themself out to a dictator,” he says in the clip.
Shane Gillis also claimed he turned down a “significant bag” even after the organisers doubled his offer to perform at the festival. “I took a principled stand. You don’t 9/11 your friends,” he said on the Secret Podcast.
During an episode of 2 Bears, 1 Cave, Stavros Halkias told Chris Distefano that he declined the invitation. Conversely, Distefano said he was not keen on performing in Saudi Arabia but decided to go ahead with it because his wife urged him to take the paycheck.
Comedian Tim Dillon revealed on his podcast The Tim Dillon Show that he was “fired” from the festival for making jokes about the country’s alleged use of forced labor. “They heard what you said about them having slaves,” Dillon recalled his manager telling him, in the episode released on 20 September. “They didn’t like that.”
The remarks that didn’t sit right with the festival’s organisers were made on an episode released on 20 August in which Dillon repeatedly joked about alleged slavery in Saudi Arabia, and his decision to accept a reported payment of USD 375,000 for his performance at the Riyadh festival.
Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka posted screenshots of a contract that was sent to her to perform at the festival on Threads. The screenshots revealed subjects that comedians were not allowed to make fun of. They could not perform material “that may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule” Saudi Arabia, its ruling government, royal family, or any religion or religious figure.
“FYI there are more of us that said no to the Riyadh comedy festival in Saudi Arabia,” she wrote in the post. “The money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, ppl with nonlethal drug offenses, bloggers, etc without due process,” she continued.
Mike Birbiglia commented on Okatsuka’s post revealing that he too turned down an offer to perform at the festival and praised her and Gillis’ decision to do so as well.
“The Saudi government is using the Riyadh Comedy Festival…to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations,” said Human Rights Watch in a statement this week. “Participating comedians, to avoid contributing to laundering the Saudi government’s reputation, should use the comedy festival to publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists.”
The festival is part of the country’s Vision 2030 initiative, which attempts to expand its entertainment industry and to diversify its economy beyond oil. As a result, the country also lifted its longstanding ban on live music performances in 2017 and launched the SoundStorm music festival in Riyadh. This year’s headliners include Post Malone and Calvin Harris. Forbes also reported that the Saudi government entered a 10-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2018 worth roughly USD 500 million to host large-scale live events that will be streamed as well.
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