OT: Saudi royals pay big bucks for comics to perform

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Kevin M.

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Sep 28, 2025, 5:49:41 PM9/28/25
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Pete Davidson and Bill Burr, among others. All being paid over $300k to attend a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia. Naturally, their free speech is restricted. 

Tom Wolper

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Sep 28, 2025, 7:45:46 PM9/28/25
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The Saudis are putting a ton of money into laundering their reputation, up to now through golf and soccer. I’ve seen some comics post their invitations to let their fans know they turned it down. I find it hard to believe anybody who performs there will have to pay a price back home.

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Kevin M.

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Sep 30, 2025, 12:56:04 AM9/30/25
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Semi-related, the House of Saud (and Jared Kushner) just bought Electronic Arts.



PGage

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Sep 30, 2025, 6:11:37 AM9/30/25
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“Comedian David Cross released a fiery statement on his website Monday condemning the comedians who agreed to perform at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival.

“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?”

“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).”

Cross went on to call out specific names from the lineup, including comedy giants Dave Chappelle, Louie CK and Bill Burr. 

“Clearly you guys don’t give a shit about what the rest of us think, but how can any of us take any of you seriously ever again?” Cross added. “All of your bitching about ‘cancel culture’ and ‘freedom of speech’ and all that shit? Done. You don’t get to talk about it ever again. By now we’ve all seen the contract you had to sign.”


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Doug Eastick

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Sep 30, 2025, 8:51:40 AM9/30/25
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Yeah that David Cross rant was straight and to the point. 




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Kevin M.

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Oct 1, 2025, 10:54:05 AM10/1/25
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Lot of disappointing comments from Burr in this article. 



Tom Wolper

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Oct 1, 2025, 11:22:11 AM10/1/25
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I don’t know what your expectations of Burr are, but that’s who he is. I don’t follow him and I wouldn’t buy a ticket to his show even without this festival. The comics I admire talk of him as a peer and so I listened to some recent interviews and this is who he is. I would cite a Fresh Air interview late last year with Terry Gross.

Outside of Iran, the Muslim Middle East doesn’t throttle the internet and young people in the region have full access to western culture like everyone else. They may not be able to express it personally in their countries, but they know who the performers are. Promoters in Dubai and Bahrain have been bringing in western standups for a while and I assume most of the comics who went to Riyadh have played in the region before, if not in Saudi Arabia specifically, and are used to the ground rules.

Adam Bowie

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Oct 1, 2025, 11:38:01 AM10/1/25
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I think those Burr quotes just show how culturally naive he actually is. Of course the Gulf states all have Western brands like Starbucks and McDonalds. And no, of course they're not all shouting "Death to America!" That shows a massive lack of basic knowledge. Has he just watched bad action films with generic Muslim bad guys? 

And it's not like American movies and TV shows aren't shown locally. (A friend of mine once had a job licencing "safe" versions of shows like Friends to local cable operators in the region. In other words, they'd be cut to ribbons to remove anything seen as culturally objectionable like gay characters or even kisses. It didn't matter if the cuts rendered the plot impenetrable to anyone watching. One episode of Friends, he said, was only about 5 minutes long after all the snipping had been finished!)

And I've no doubt they managed to fill auditoriums with crowds - there are probably enough expats in Riyadh to fill out the seats on their own. I know that British comics like Michael MacIntyre have played places like Dubai for years, I suspect again mostly to British expats. 


Adam

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Bob F

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Oct 9, 2025, 5:52:16 PM10/9/25
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Another participant, Aziz Ansari, gave his side last night to Kimmel:
B

Kevin M, Sept 28th:

Kevin M.

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Oct 9, 2025, 5:59:56 PM10/9/25
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His side is extremely naive and sophomoric 

Kevin M. (RPCV)


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Bob F

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Oct 9, 2025, 6:23:18 PM10/9/25
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Human Rights Watch, to whom Ansari and other festival performers offered to donate portions of their pay, rejected all of them:
B

Kevin M, to moi, Oct 9th:

PGage

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Oct 9, 2025, 8:30:33 PM10/9/25
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I think we can just come out and say it’s stupid. I would have more respect for comics who admitted they we’re just casting in on a big payday. Burr and Anzari are engaging in these tortured rationalizations Is almost as embarrassing as prostituting themselves for murderers.

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Adam Bowie

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Oct 16, 2025, 11:44:20 AM10/16/25
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There's an excellent piece by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic about the comedy festival, as she actually went to it. 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/fear-laughing-riyadh-comedy-louis-ck/684527/

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PGage

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Oct 17, 2025, 5:10:19 AM10/17/25
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Wow, I am not familiar with Helen Lewis, but her writing impressed me enough that I’m thinking of subscribing to the Atlantic.

I really liked her point that there was a time that American culture seemed to celebrate stand-up comics as public intellectuals; I plead guilty to doing that with people like Dave Chappelle. The problem is not that Chapelle and his ilk are horrible people (some are, some not, most in between). It’s that these people are not intellectuals, they are not particularly educated and their insights are not particularly incisive. They get paid to make people laugh and buy drinks, and they are relatively successful at doing that.

She described the comics who played Saudi Arabia as mostly Americans “many, like C.K., have had previous encounters with left-wing cancel culture….Plus a whole bunch of independent podcasters whose material would never make it onto Saturday Night Live.” 

These are guys who are just looking to say “fuck you”,  to not mainstream American culture but to a mainstream liberal American culture that for a time lionized them, confusing the ability and willingness to make funny jokes about George W. Bush-era conservative culture with incisive social commentary. Bill Maher and Louis CK are not and never were public intellectuals, much less liberal social critics. That is not a crime, and the shame is on those of us who misperceived who they were.

So it’s not really surprising when the level of discourse these comics use to justify their performance in Riyadh doesn’t rise above the level of lazy, C- sophomore college English paper. One minor comic from the UK tells Lewis on the plane home that there’s no moral difference between taking money from the Saudi government or the BBC (Several American comic made the same point about taking money from American corporations or even just American paying customers). This is just banal self justifying rationalization masquerading as hardheaded social critique. It’s practiced by billions of human beings every day; shame on any of us if we expected better from Dave Chappelle or Bill Burr.

My favorite bit in the Lewis article really highlights the mediocrity of the thinking of these guys; She gives a extended excerpt from Bill Burr “gushing” About his time in Riyadh on his podcast, and then slip in the knife:

“My whole fucking idea of Saudi Arabia is what I’ve seen on the news,” he said. “I literally think I’m going to fucking land, you know, and everybody’s going to be screaming ‘Death to America!’ and they’re going to have like fucking machetes and want to like chop my head off, right?” However, “everybody’s just regular—like, shooting the shit.” (His next special should be called Bill Burr’s Low Bar.)”





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Adam Bowie

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Oct 17, 2025, 5:41:14 AM10/17/25
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That "Low Bar" line was fantastic wasn't it?

Helen Lewis is an interesting woman. She's British and quite prolific - that piece feels like it was written within the last 72 hours or so! As well as The Atlantic, she works for Private Eye magazine in the UK. If you're unfamiliar, this is kind of a cross between The Onion and, well, I'm not sure, because it also does real journalism and has gossip/insider stuff as well. 

She is also an occasional guest on the British Have I Got News For You (usually appearing once a series), because she is funny and has a fast wit. She also has a Substack that's free and doesn't push you to upgrade which she's been writing for years (https://helenlewis.substack.com/ which has some extra stuff on her Saudi trip) and she appears on podcasts. She is kind-of the co-host of Strong Message Here which she co-presents with Veep creator, Amando Iannucci for the BBC, although she's away in the current run which instead is using some rotating guests. But go back and listen to some of their short summer recommendations. She also pops up on Private Eye's podcast, Page 94. Oh, and she's also had a recent book out, The Genius Myth, which I have bought, but have not yet read.

If I'm coming across as a bit of Lewis fanboy, perhaps I am, but perhaps it's just that our interests intersect quite a lot. 

I thought I'd been following the Riyadh comedy festival stuff quite closely, but there were clearly quite a few more British comedians than I'd realised. Jimmy Carr didn't really surprise me because he'd clearly do anything for the money (he was found guilty of a tax evasion scheme in the UK, which other comics will continue to prod him about on panel shows). Jack Whitehall is a little more surprising since he has a "good guy" persona, but I think he's becoming used to lavish lifestyles - he was last seen on the grid of the F1 Singapore Grand Prix, which instantly sends anyone down in my estimation. Andrew Maxwell, the Irish comic who Lewis spoke to on the plane, is definitely lower tier, and this was clearly just a well-paid gig for him. Funny, but not one of life's thinkers. I don't watch it, but I suspect his main pay-day these days is as the narrator of the UK version of Ex on the Beach on MTV (the bit of MTV that's not closing down in the UK). Every name I spot is another name that I won't ever pay to see again.


Adam

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