“Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get canceled,” the comedian Dave Chappelle quipped on Saturday at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, the first event of its kind in Saudi Arabia. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out.”
What?
Isn’t this the country whose government got away with dismembering a journalist?
Most of these comedians preformed in the US before so I don’t see the big deal.
Unless you open your sets with, “This is dedicated to all of the widows and widowers and kids orphaned by this bloodthirsty oppressive regime especially from the zany shenanigans on 9/11. Never Forget Motherfuckers! Alright, so it’s great to be here. I’m gonna be killing it tonight! But in the good way! Straight up. No MbS.” then your hypocrisy will never not be noted.
Also badmouth Mohammed
Well, I suppose they’re not going to be joking about bonesaws.
Comedy is officially dead and it was beheaded Saudi Arabia.
I certainly think less of the people that accepted, but honestly if I got the offer to do a spot that paid more than a world tour, I’d be pretty conflicted. Not everyone that went is at the level of Chappelle or Hart.
It’s easy to talk a big game about dismissing the invitation when you didn’t get one, but when that offer knocks on the door it can be really hard to stick to your principles.
This assumes they don’t want to have a career afterwards and this was their last big show before retirement.
I wouldn’t assume that to be the case given the political climate. Some comedians, if invited to this event, would acknowledge that their fanbase would shrink after participation to the point of the money not being worthwhile. The ones that attended must feel their base either won’t care and therefore won’t change in size, or would be enthralled to see them attend and therefore grow in size or intensity or both.
If it were a universal truth that Riyadh performers would lose their careers as a result, no one would have went to perform. And so the choice becomes financial vs idealogical. Difficult position for those that may not be in the financial position they aspire to.
David Cross gave his opinion on the comedians doing the show. He did not pull punches
What do you think I think? I am disgusted, and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing. That people I admire, with unarguable talent, would condone this totalitarian fiefdom for…what, a fourth house? A boat? More sneakers?
Worth a read
Michael Ian Black had a pretty good one as well I thought; figure I should give a heads up that he uses substack for anyone that wants to avoid. It was written yesterday, so he specifically calls out some of the comments from the chapelle slot, as well as taking down Burr’s post show comments. Also thought his comment for louis ck was good:
As for Louis, at this point I don’t expect him to have a moral compass so whatever
Let’s build a society that worships at the altar of capitalism and then be suprised when people prioritize capital over moral integrity.
Saudi just increased the offer until people accepted. Gillis said they immediately doubled the offer when he declined.
Many people like to pretend they don’t have a number but even those that are living comfortably often do.
If someone dangled a million in front of you to do work that’s essentially a repitition of or derivative of work you’d previously done, how many people do you know would say no to that?
Now these are comedians who are living very comfortably which makes it feel more wrong. But let’s not act like we can’t understand or relate to why they’re doing it. Every single one of us has people in our social circles would take an offer like this.
We all have our hard lines morally, no doubt. But I’d argue the majority of people would accept an offer of x million dollars to do a show in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, if they didn’t think their own safety was at risk.
Perhaps we need to think about how this reflects on society as a whole, and the values we hold, rather than getting angry at any particular devotee to our extractive capitalist systems which uphold greed over moral good.
You’re not wrong. These comedians have made their choices. For money, against integrity.
You’re not wrong about capitalism, either, but is that a valid reason to just do anything for money?
Here’s the line-up btw (not complete I guess):
The Riyadh Comedy Festival features an exciting lineup of comedians including Jimmy Carr, Louis C.K., Tom Segura, Mo Amer, Mark Normand, Russell Peters, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jo Koy, Jeff Ross, Jack Whitehall, Aries Spears, Pete Davidson, Sugar Sammy, Zarna Garg, Andrew Schulz, Sam Morril, Hannibal Buress, Chris Tucker, Ben Hart, and Wayne Brady.
And now I like him more than ever <3
There are dozens of us!
They irony of that statement while doing a comedy show where they literally have a list of things you’re not allowed to talk about and also hacked up a journalist for speaking.
Jesus fucking Christ. Fuck Dave Chappelle. Fuck Bill Burr. Fuck Jessica Kirson. Fuck Pete Davidson. Fuck them all. Putting money over their own souls. I guess that I’m not all that surprised. Most of them made their money shitting on minorities. And, I know this sounds stupid, but a few weeks/ months ago, I did kind of call it for Bill Burr. He just never seemed like a guy that really cared imo.
He just never seemed like a guy that really cared
I’ve been saying this for a long time, but it made people on the left in particular angry to hear it, because everyone loved it so much when he directed his caustic apathy towards the people who deserved it the most, but he’s never been an “ally” of any kind. Just a cathartic voice at times.
Celebrities are people. We should never put people on pedestals. Put ideas on pedestals.
Ironically, the right is better about this because they’re so dumb they shovel everything onto a pedestal, and accidentally create unity and community as a result.
I think that’s the point that he’s trying to make. You’re not allowed to joke about things here either, and we had a president who was known as the Deporter in Chief, had the most drone strikes on Muslim countries, started the most wars of any US president, and had a War on Whistleblowers. And now we have Trump.
Bill Burr hurts the most.
The thing about Burr is the vast majority of people just didn’t bother to “hear the rest of the joke”
Like the joke he had about Beyonce performing for some dudes bday party in the middle east and the guy was like right up there with Saudi Princes and Burr denounces Beyonce for doing it…the punchline being he’d do the same shit as her.
His whole schtick with the billionaires was a bit. all the time he says this stuff and people decide to stop hitting record JUST before he says he’d do the same thing.
And all these comedians have the same song and dance with very few exceptions. They’re ONLY pro freespeech when their jobs are on the line, when there’s potential to lose money. Just like they came out and support kimmel and colbert yeah man all about Free Speech, against cancel culture, all that. BUT when there’s an easy million dollars to be made? fuck free speech.
If the FCC or Trump came out and said “I’ll give any comedian a couple million if they help me denounce Kimmel and Colbert” there’d be a line of them around the block waiting to take a swing.
If you’ve listened to his podcast at all lately, you’d know that the billionaire stuff is not a schtick. He has come very far left, though still has some both sides tendencies (probably trying not to alienate a chunk of his audience).
That said, I stopped listening when they announced this, and I emailed the podcast to let him know exactly why.
Yup. Fuck Bill Burr.
I didn’t catch anything about burr in the article?
From another article:
Comedian Bill Burr, after performing at the show’s opening night on Friday, defended the project on his podcast, suggesting that the cultural exchange could have unexpected benefits.
“It was great to experience that part of the world and to be a part of the first comedy festival over there in Saudi Arabia,” Burr said. “The royals loved the show. Everyone was happy. The people that were doing the festival were thrilled. The comedians that I’ve been talking to are saying, ‘Dude, you can feel [the audience] wanted it. They want to see real stand-up comedy.’ It was a mind-blowing experience. Definitely top three experiences I’ve had. I think it’s going to lead to a lot of positive things.”
I can’t read it but David Cross said he’s performing there.
Bill has a chance to redeem himself, but only at the risk of a beheading.
A LOT of really notable comedians are. It’s pretty gross and disappointing.
For the lazy, here is a full list of performers to ignore in the future: (Some real disappointments in here)
Mo Amer
Aziz Ansari
Wayne Brady
Hannibal Buress
Bill Burr
Jimmy Carr
Dave Chappelle
Louis C.K.
Whitney Cummings
Pete Davidson
Chris Distefano
Omid Djalili
Zarna Garg
Ben Hart
Kevin Hart
Gabriel Iglesias
Jim Jefferies
Jimeoin
Maz Jobrani
Jessica Kirson
Jo Koy
Bobby Lee
Sebastian Maniscalco
Sam Morril
Mark Normand
Russell Peters
Jeff Ross
Sugar Sammy
Andrew Santino
Andrew Schulz
Tom Segura
Ali Siddiq
Aries Spears
Chris Tucker
Jack Whitehall
Jim Jefferies is not in the program. I think he was invited, accepted but was later dropped. Still, for me that’s the only disappointment. I don’t know or care for all the rest but I liked Jefferies and I thought he had some good takes and interesting things to say. I think in the end all of them just get old and lose focus. Expect Carlin. He was sharp till the very end.
What the fuck Hannibal, you quit the Eric Andre Show and are now pulling this shit?
Dude, Hannibal is a fucking landlord and has actively spoken out against Rent Control. He is objectively a piece of shit.
fuckin wack
That’s like everyone
There’s a few who were invited and turned them down. Mike Birbiglia was the most notable to me, but I’m also familiar with Shane Gillis, Michelle Wolf, and Stavros Halkias. Atsuko Okatsuka, Toni Nagy, Leslie Liao, Nimesh Patel, and Tim Dillon have also announced they turned down the offer, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen their shows.
Stavy turned it down? Nice
Thanks, knowing who turned it down is as important as knowing who accepted. I’m a big fan of Birbiglia and Michelle Wolf, so I’m glad they had the integrity to pass.
Tim Dillon did accept it, they canceled his spot when he accidentally/mistakenly advertised he would be in Abu Dhabi and they got offended.
Jesus Christ, he just pulled the most heinous shit out of his ass. His quotes were legitimately monstrous, truly inexcusable. To sum it up, he can get over EVERYTHING, as long as he’s being paid enough. No morals, no real beliefs. Is he even a person? Are people like that even really people? I would argue that they’re not. There is no point to Tim Dillon.
Tim Dillon took the offer but pulled some Tim Dillon shit on his podcast and was asked not to participate. He got a few bucks anyhow and per his own words, was forced into the bosoms of Iran now.
was forced into the bosoms of Iran now
I used to know some Iranian women during my clubbing days. There are far worse fates. Also, there traditional method of avoiding pregnancy was quite charming and congenial.
traditional method of avoiding pregnancy was quite charming and congenial.
Okay I’m curious now. Anal?
Nimesh Patel is decently funny. I was disappointed when I heard that he accepted to go, glad he cancelled.
John mulaney didn’t go at least
He was too high. Or they didn’t invite him at all, idk.
No Brian Posehn. \m/
I can still watch Kyle Kinane, thankfully.
There’s always the random ones that you find on Youtube. The Taylor Tomlinsons and Gianmarco Soresis.
Yes, the random Taylor Tomlinson who hosted After Midnight for two seasons.
Not that a Netflix special is that special, but TT has 3 Netflix specials, and I think all of them were recorded before @fter Midnight.
Yeah, well, I didn’t say that they were nobodies. I just randomly found both of them on Youtube. I don’t watch tv lol
This is how I know I’ve not cared for the comedy scene for a while because, to me, that list is so unnoteworthy. I know or have seen clips of some of them but I’ve always thought they’re kinda mid to low tier.
Also promote the person that was meant to go, but Saudi Arabia wouldn’t let him, though since the payment also had a good down payment, he got paid and didn’t go. Tim Dillon. Also, he’s a self described “cock-gobbling f-slur” so I’m not even sure how they accepted him in the first place.
Everything about this festival disgusts me.
Saudi Arabia did 9/11, wrecked the golfing world, and now they’re going to wreck comedy, too.
I can’t wait for them to go after music, too.
Wait, the Saudi’s actually had a comedy fest? I thought it was a viral joke or something.
I mean, it is a massive joke. Just turns out to be a real one too
Fuck every one of them for performing in Saud
Just because performing in Saudi Arabia under cuts the joke horrifically, doesn’t mean there’s no kernel of truth there. I feel like a lot of these articles gloss over that fact because it hurts
It reminds me of the old reagan Soviet joke.
A Soviet and an american are having a conversation. The American is bragging about free speech, and says:
"our country is so free, I could go to the white house and yell ‘go to hell Ronald Reagan!’
And nothing would happen to me.
The Russian replies,
“Our speech is pretty free too, I guess, I also could go to the Kremlin, shout ‘Go to hell, Ronald Reagan!’ And nothing would happen to me, either.”
A KGB spy and a CIA agent meet up in a bar for a friendly drink
“I have to admit, I’m always so impressed by Soviet propaganda. You really know how to get people worked up,” the CIA agent says.
“Thank you,” the KGB says. “We do our best but truly, it’s nothing compared to American propaganda. Your people believe everything your state media tells them.”
The CIA agent drops his drink in shock and disgust. “Thank you friend, but you must be confused… There’s no propaganda in America.”
I’m noticing pretty much all major media outlets are tools for the ruling class to spread their propaganda.
The idea is to have as many news stations as possible so any information is presented with a talking head telling people what to think.
I was gonna say, like… They’re not wrong.
