The first three paragraphs
The existence of a Saudi Arabia comedy festival has been on the periphery of my mind for a few weeks, but there’s no more ignoring it. It’s finally here. The Riyadh Comedy Festival kicks off on Friday and runs for two weeks, and judging by the lineup, many famous comedians have no qualms about cashing that check and ignoring the human rights abuses.
The names involved are scattered across a range from “not surprising at all” to “wait, really?” There’s a contingent of people you knew weren’t going to say no: Jeff Ross, Kevin Hart, Chris Tucker, Russell Peters, Sebastian Maniscalco. They might as well rename this shit the Back Taxes Tour. The co-headliner combo of Louis C.K. and Jimmy Carr on Oct. 5 is to be expected. Then you get to names like Bill Burr, Pete Davidson, Aziz Ansari, Mo Amer … man, they must be getting a lot of money.
And what might that number be? Tim Dillon, a comedian who was scheduled to perform in Riyadh but was nixed for making a joke about slavery in Saudi Arabia on his podcast, claimed he stood to make $375,000 off doing one show there. Earlier this month, when he was defending his decision, he said that comedians in a higher “bracket” were being paid around $1.6 million each, and lower-tier talent was getting $150,000. “They’re paying me enough money to look the other way,” Dillon said. “Do you understand?”
The site - https://www.visitsaudi.com/en/seasons/riyadh-comedy-festival
Pete Davidson’s dad, Scott, was a firefighter who died in World Trade Centre during 9/11.
Stavros Halkias (didn’t take the money)
Does he have his own podcast? He’s easily the funniest out of cum town.
“Stavvy’s World” it’s him and his lifelong friend as his producer. He brings on other comedians mostly and other people sometimes
Friedland has “The Adam Friedland Show” but he’s been doing more serious less strictly comedy work on there since it got sort of soft rebooted
Nick Mullen is reportedly wandering the streets of Los Angeles with a beard down to his knees and smiling nonstop because he’s been “retired” from podcasting for going on a year now
I think I’ve seen clips of it on tik tok? Stavies World or something?
I’ll have to check it out. I want to get into his stuff without the cum town shit.
I dunno about just straight podcasts but he has a YouTube channel with guest comedians where people call in asking for advice.
It’s quite good
Yeah but he went on that one talkshow with jerry seinfeld so i hate his guts
I saw him at a diner once and got a picture with him. Nice dude.
wtf bill burr. one step forward two steps back
People say this shows I have no integrity. I got integrity. But they’re paying me one point six million dollars. If you pay me enough - I’ll forget about integrity. Integrity? What? See? I have temporary amnesia. C’mon - you’d take the money too. I’m not gonna buy a supercar. Not my style. But it’s nice to know I could.
-–
I hope my impression was close. I haven’t seen him do much standup or appear on talk shows.
same here i haven’t seen much just him tearing apart his “friend” joe rogan over vaccines and various tweets/etc about his kind of “dumb guy” pro palestine views
Pete Davidson’s dad, Scott, was a firefighter who died in World Trade Centre during 9/11.
Jefferies: Right? They haven’t asked what we’re going to do. And let’s be fair, they have picked some fucking edgy-ass comedians.
Von: Some seriously edgy ones.
Yes, all the edgiest, most rebellious, public enemy comedians have the President of the USA on their massive media company backed corporate megabucks sponsored podcasts and get special invites to play comedy gigs in some of the worlds most repressive countries as a tourism gimmick.
People forget that Jeff Dunham was like the favorite comedian of the Saudis for years. They have never been adverse to ‘edgy-comedy’ that is approved by the empire.
Honestly I’m with Stavros here
The idea that you would disown a comedian for performing in Saudi Arabia but not for performing in The Great Satan is incoherent. This was written by a fucking lib who wants yank criticisms to be pointing away from themselves.
I didn’t know how to say it but it really did feel like selective outrage. I don’t hear about comedians accepting blood money when touring the US, a state that’s been sponsoring numerous genocides since the 50s or Canada’s disgusting history with its indigenous population to this day where they violate treaties after another.
Death to Saudi Arabia, of course, but sometimes people’s criticisms feel like they include that they’re brown… the reference to 9/11 especially feels like it’s a racist dog whistle, or atleast adjacent to it. Idk!
Why are you thinking that the Saudi Arabia comedy festival is organic? It fairly obvious that it is a government operation. It is being promoted by the Saudi government. Do you think that any of these comedians would perform in Saudi Arabia if it was organized by regular Saudi Arabia citizens? No, they would not.
Why is it all English speaking comedians at the festival? Where are the Arabic speaking comedians? Consider that the event is meant to appeal to Western audience.
I would compare this festival to comedians who choose to perform on US military bases. It is obvious that a US comedian would perform in the US if they are born and live there. If a US comedian chooses to perform on a US military base, especially one outside of the US, then that would be a greater indication of support for the US’s foreign policy. Would you like that your favorite comedian performed in Tel Aviv?
Even if you ignore the indentured servitude allegations against Saudi Arabia in the article and elsewhere. Saudi Arabia is/was in armed conflict against Ansarallah in Yemen. Hexbear thinks it is pretty cool when Ansarallah was hijacking Israeli ships and sending missiles at Israel from Yemen. Saudi Arabia is also a rival to Iran.
The Saudi Arabia relation to 9/11 is not a racist dog whistle. It is referring to the fact that 15 of 19 hijackers on 9/11 had Saudi citizenship. This is not like secret information or suppressed information, you just go to google and type “saudi arabia 9/11”. A popular suspicion is 9/11 was funded by the Saudi Arabia government, based on the nationality of the attackers. The inferred joke is that both this comedy festival and 9/11 were funded by the Saudi Arabia government. Racist Americans blamed Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan for 9/11.
You underestimate how westernized and anglicized urban Saudi Arabia is. They mainly watch American shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. Their dialect heavily leverages English as they code-switch mid sentence. In the same vein, their favourite comedians are also American (that’s just how far the empire reaches). I don’t think this event is meant to appeal to Western audiences at all, unless you mean that Saudi Arabians are western audiences in of themselves, which they are.
The difference for me is that a show for US troops is a show for combatants that will go out there and kill children for American imperialism and the show legitimizes that. A show in Tel Aviv is a show for settlers who’s existence mandates the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and thus the show normalizes the occupation. However, a show for residents in Riyadh is for… residents in Riyadh?
I don’t ignore Saudi Arabia’s heavy reliance on indentured servitude, their roads, buildings, and services depend on borderline slaves that might not be able to leave the country. I don’t ignore their lead in a genocidal coalition against Yemen, where they carpet bomb civilian infrastructure and their blockades cause man-made starvation and death. I don’t disagree that it is blood money, nor do I doubt the state’s reasoning in using a festival as such as this as a distraction to all of the above, where ordinary Saudi Arabians are given treats to not think about the above, but that’s why I say there’s no difference between this happening in Saudi Arabia or the United States or Canada. It is the exact same, and as such would be selective outrage.
Why I said about what I said about the 9/11 reference is that 9/11 has been used to justify so much racially targeted violence and hate (not just by individuals but also the state manufacturing consent, there are still innocent brown people in Gitmo because of post 9/11 hysteria) that I will only naturally wince when I hear it referenced to incite a certain attitude in the reader (As in the post). I don’t think we should use it in the same vein. 9/11 is blowback because of American imperialism in the middle east that Saudi Arabian state has benefited extremely from. I don’t see where the average citizen fits in such a comment (unless we’re talking the benefits and privileges gained from the benefits the state got)
do let me know what you think
Your statements don’t align with each other. You can’t both say that Saudi Arabia is westernized and also that it’s secretly racist to say Saudi Arabia funded 9/11. If it was racist to say Saudi Arabia funded 9/11, that would mean that people don’t think it’s westernized. People who say Saudi Arabia funded 9/11, do so because they know Saudi Arabia is westernized, sometimes as part of the “9/11 was an inside job” conspiracy theory.
The mainstream American narrative is that Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan are responsible for 9/11. Racists don’t blame Saudi Arabia for 9/11. Even racist Americans view Saudi Arabia and UAE as westernized, because Saudi Arabia is a US ally.
All of the comedians who rejected the invitation are the counter-culture liberal-adjacent comedians, the type of people who would say that George Bush did 9/11. All of the comedians who accepted the invitation are Joe-Rogan-orbiter I-got-canceled-for-this-joke mainstream “anti-woke” chud comedians. The comedians who accepted the Saudi Arabia invitation are the same people spread racism around 9/11.
Also the comedy festival is being advertised as a tourist destination, not as an event for locals. The ticket sales are for western tourists. This is why I mention that the main language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic and yet the comedians all speak English.
If it was an event for locals. If it was organized by civilians. If it had Arabic comedians as well as English comedians and other languages as well. If these things were true then there would be less outrage.
The article says that Stavros turned down the invitation.
And?
He was mocking the guy for taking the money. Not being serious. He did not literally mean that all money from entertainment was equally evil. That’s the joke. The joke is that he was making light of something that makes him uncomfortable.
In another clip it says: “Distefano: And then [my wife] was like, you’re you’re going to take that fucking money. And I was like, okay… Halkias (laughing): You’re going to have a maid that doesn’t have access to her passport whether you like it or not. A Filipino woman who’s trapped in the desert and can never see her family again. Distefano: Well, what’s good about a gig like that for me personally is there’s no question [my wife] can’t come”
je sus christ. I like to think that I wouldn’t take it but God damn that amount of money would certainly test my convictions.
Me too.
Dave Chappelle must have a net worth of ~$100 million. I’d really love to hear his rationalization even though it surely would be bland as can be. He’d probably say something like “A gig is a gig, man.” Or maybe he’d accuse the questioner of being a racist.
Ah so they are enforcing censorship. At least according to Tim Dillion (dubious source). That was my first thought. What if someone makes a joke about public beheadings, the Saudi royals, 9/11, something like that. Not even touching religious stuff which from a more practical standpoint I could understand a nation being upset over. But if you stick strictly to politics and really dig into the royals about being the dogs of American empire, murderers, a family of thieves, on and on. I wonder what they do? I wonder if anyone will try it? 🤔
They might have pre-screened sets. And or the ability to turn off the mic. I doubt they’re going to arrest high profile Americans. They’ll just get blacklisted, maybe screw them on payment.
I assume the audience will be nearly all expats and most of the jokes will be about American politics and the democrats/liberals. I expect many people will be annoyed by the American-centric jokes.
I wonder if anyone will try it?
I don’t think so. Also - I assume Saudis will stay away out of an abundance of caution. I could be wrong and maybe a comedian (or more than one) will make jokes about The Kingdom. If so - you sure don’t want to be a Saudi citizen in that room.
Do the royals attend these things? Who is this even for? Just to release public statements that whoever did a show there?
This is surely just a PR thing. In my mind’s eye I envision some young Saudi PR guy who lived in the US or maybe the UK. He loves English language standup and he pitched his crazy Standup Saudi idea to his boss with no hope that his boss would say yes. But to his amazement - his boss said “Great idea!” Sadly, it was renamed. Still - the young guy gets to see them live and gets to meet them too. And they hang out together but that’s when they meet a few mysterious hotties at the bar in the Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh. The hotties tell them about the myth-not-a-myth of the Stone of Arabia and then—
Holy shit. I started writing a comedy called Standup Saudi.
It’s probably to drum up international tourism, like the WWE events in Riyadh.
Who is this even for?
American expats in Saudi Arabia, a demographic I will never understand.
The writer wants me to be outraged when these comedians are already making money doing comedy in the biggest terrorist state in the world where human rights abuses are being ignored.
It would be more evil to perform in America than it would be to perform in Saudi Arabia. So idrc that much tbh, get that paper funny people
