“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.”
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.
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
And now I like him more than ever <3
There are dozens of us!
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
Everything about this festival disgusts me.
Bill Burr hurts the most.
Yup. Fuck Bill Burr.
I didn’t catch anything about burr in the article?
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.
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.”
Pete Davidson is disappointing as well.
His father died on 9/11 and he’s up dancing for those responsible.
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.”
I was gonna say, like… They’re not wrong.
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
Comedy is officially dead and it was beheaded in Saudi Arabia.
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
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.
Most of these comedians preformed in the US before so I don’t see the big deal.
