Thursday will see the final curtain on The Riyadh Comedy Festival, a weeklong event that has drawn around 50 top-flight comedians – including Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Pete Davidson – to the desert for what is dubbed the world’s largest comedy event. It may well also be the world’s largest dose of hypocrisy.
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While it is indeed an impressive lineup of comedy talent, it is also an amazing example of operating with a blind spot. If it strikes you as a bit odd to see this stampede of comedians to Saudi Arabia at a time when comedy is allegedly under attack, this is for good reason. It is not exactly as if this is a nation of liberty and free expression. Gays are still criminalized. In June, the state executed a journalist who dared to make a critical post about the government.
And yet, there were the comics, bravely commenting on the state of free expression in this country, safely half a globe away. Unsurprisingly, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was a frequent topic. Dave Chappelle ignorantly claimed that he was freer to speak in the oil-rich nation than he might be at home.
Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, you’ll get canceled. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out. It’s easier to talk here than it is in America. They’re going to do something to me so that I can’t say what I want to say.
This hyperventilating over censorship has been taking place for months now, launched with the announcement of the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” on CBS. The empty claim that Trump was behind that decision, as well as Kimmel being placed in a timeout, is completely undermined by one simple detail: Both men are currently on the air spewing all the bile about President Trump they desire.
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One indicator of the wrongheaded participation in the Saudi yuckfest has been the wave of negative reactions seen from other comedians. Marc Maron performed a set (stateside) mocking the decision to go there. “How do you even promote that?! FROM THE FOLKS WHO BROUGHT YOU 9/11!” This was a trenchant comment, given that a New York court recently allowed a lawsuit to proceed where families of 9/11 victims can sue Saudi Arabia for damages.
Shane Gillis noted how he turned down the offer to perform in Riyadh. “You don’t 9/11 your friends,” he explained, detailing that after he turned down the gig, they doubled the money offer. And the firehose of money used to lure these hypocrites is massive. It is estimated that the lower-end comics are getting around $350,000, with the top headlines drawing well over $1 million.
David Cross issued a statement where he was scathing towards those who worked the festival. He held nothing back with his contempt.
It should go without saying that there’s not enough money for me to help these depraved, awful people put a “fun face” on their crimes against humanity. We can never again take seriously anything these comedians complain about (unless it’s complaining that we don’t support enough torture and mass executions of journalists and LGBQT peace activists here in the states, or that we don’t terrorize enough Americans by flying planes into our buildings). I mean that’s it; you have a funny bit about how you don’t like Yankee Candles or airport lounges? Okay great, but you’re cool with murder and/or the public caning of women who were raped, and by having the audacity to be raped, were guilty of “engaging in adultery”? Got any bits on that?
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He wasn’t done (profanity alert):
Clearly you guys don’t give a s*** about what the rest of us think, but how can any of us take any of you seriously ever again? All of your bitching about “cancel culture” and “freedom of speech” and all that s***? Done. You don’t get to talk about it ever again. By now we’ve all seen the contract you had to sign.
Ah, yes, the contract. This is where the puffery and posturing by these performers gets blasted into confetti. In order for the comedians, from Chappelle on down, to pocket this down payment for a new beach home, they had to sign an agreement that stipulated what they were banned from saying on stage. You read that correctly: These jokers who are mewling over supposed censorship in the US had to agree to muzzle themselves on a variety of topics involving the Saidis. Here is some of the restrictive language they agreed to:
Content Restrictions
ARTIST shall not prepare or perform any material that may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule A) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture, or people; B) The Saudi royal family, legal system, or government, and; C) Any religion, religious tradition, religious figure, or religious practice.
Louis C. K. defended the agreement not to impugn anything about the country he was pimped to perform in this week. “When this came up, they said there’s only two restrictions: their religion and their government. I don’t have jokes about those two things.” Uh, no, Louie, there are clearly a dozen items listed, and those encapsulate the entirety of the country. When you see it coming down to even the general populace being placed off limits, those “two things” you are banned from mentioning are The Nation, and anything contained therein.
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Bill Burr, a comedian who once had been a refreshing politically incorrect voice for years but lately has become more of a product of the system, was also rather defensive about his decision to play there.
You think everybody’s going to be screaming ‘death to America’ and they’re going to have like f***ing machetes and want to like chop my head off, right? Because this is what I’ve been fed about that part of the world. And I’m thinking like: ‘Is that a Starbucks next to a Pizza Hut next to a Burger King next to McDonald’s? They got a f***ing Chili’s over here!
And as we all know, the presence of fast food always erases crimes against humanity and the erasing of basic rights. I guess it is easy to sidestep those violations when you are cramming your maw with nachos con carne, and can easily bitch and moan about your own country when hopped up on caffeine from a caramel triple frappe macchiato.
Just take comfort that the check cleared and you can kick back on your brand new sectional sofa, as you watch on your 88” plasma screen the opening monologue from the notably not cancelled Jimmy Kimmel.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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