The Riyadh Comedy Festival sparked backlash. Then the backlash turned into comedy

A comedy festival in the capital of Saudi Arabia has provided golden material for comedians who declined the offer on principle—or would’ve done, if they’d received an invite in the first place. 

The debut Riyadh Comedy Festival, running Sept. 26 to Oct. 9, bills itself as “the biggest comedy festival in the world.” In the line up of more than 50 comedians, some like Bill Burr and Pete Davidson, whose firefighter father was killed in the 9/11 attacks, came as a shock and disappointment to fans. 

The irony is also not lost that many of these same comics, who have publicly railed against cancel culture and preached about freedom of speech, sold out to a regime that allegedly provided a list of deal terms for appearing at the event, including forbidding any criticism of religion or the Saudi royals. 

Online, fellow comedians quickly jumped on the bit.

“Sometimes in order to fight the power, you need to be paid by the power,” quipped comedian Vinny Thomas, who often goes viral for his social media skits. 

New York-based comedian Gianmarco Soresi wrote on X: “If you do the Riyadh Comedy Festival and don’t tell a joke that gets you imprisoned by the monarchy then what was even the point of having The President on your podcast?”

Shaan Baig, who regularly posts impressions on TikTok, offered one of comedian Aziz Ansari. “At first I was like oh noooo,” he says. “But then they showed me the money and I was like, um, who cares about dead journalists? Get me to the desert.”

Representatives for Ansari, Burr, and Davidson did not respond to request for comment at the time of publication.

Marc Maron, host of the WTF podcast, joked that it was easy for him to “take the high road on this one” given he was not asked to perform.

He also questioned how the festival would be promoted. “From the folks that brought you 9/11,” he riffed in a stand-up bit posted to Instagram last week. “Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don’t miss it.”

Jokes aside, Human Rights Watch called on the performers who chose to partake “to publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists,” suggesting that the Saudi government is using the festival “to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations.” 

But, as comedian Zach Woods said on Instagram: “Name one comedian who hasn’t whored themself out to a dictator.” 

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