From the Editor: Riyadh Comedy Festival exposes comedians’ free speech hypocrisy

The first-ever Riyadh Comedy Festival, directly sponsored and organized by the Saudi Arabian government, ended on Oct. 9 after a two-week run. But the discourse and controversy surrounding the event is still permeating online.

As a part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 framework to position the kingdom as a viable option for international tourism and arts and culture events, the absolute monarchy curated a star-studded lineup of comics, including Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Russell Peters, and Gabriel Iglesias, among many others.

The inevitable fallout from the event stems from two contradictory facts coinciding: Saudi Arabia is one of the worst-ranking countries when it comes to human rights and press freedom abuses, and comedians are widely considered important figures in championing and advocating for free speech.

Now did the participating comedians get to at least exercise freedom of expression and push the envelope, even though the Saudi government cracks down on such cases among their own citizens?

Well, it turns out doing so likely would have been quite difficult. In late September, comedian Atsuko Okatsuka posted a screenshot on Threads that allegedly showed the rules she was presented with when she was offered to take part in the festival (news flash: she didn’t participate).

Reportedly, the restrictions were to not degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrass, or ridicule the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its people, the Saudi royal family and government, and any religion or religious figure.

The reported payday for the festival’s performers ranged from $350,000 to $1.6 million USD, according to Time Magazine.

It should go without saying that accepting a large sum of money from an autocratic government — and not even being allowed to tell critical jokes about it — is not what comedy is about.

To further rub salt in the wound, the event ran during the seventh anniversary of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s Saudi state-sponsored murder. Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018.

Human Rights Watch condemned the Riyadh Comedy Festival for whitewashing the Saudi government’s abuses and called on the performers to use their public platform to “urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists.”

They did not.

Comedians who took part in the festival exposed the hypocrisy within their craft. Jimmy Carr, who performed at the event, admires the late George Carlin, a comedian who was notorious for criticizing Democrats, Republicans, and the U.S. political system. It’s not a stretch to say Carlin would have never accepted the festival slot like Carr did.

Andrew Schulz is a staunch opponent of cancel culture and proponent of free speech, yet he took part in the festival, too.

Another example is Bill Burr, who had been on a generational run prior to the event for going after billionaires. How can your fans take all your jokes and commentary on some of the world’s richest people seriously after you accepted a paid gig from a trillionaire royal family?

Instead of addressing these concerns in the aftermath of the event, Burr opted to have a category-five crashout on his Monday Morning Podcast.

At the end of the day, jeopardizing the authenticity of your comedy and being used by an autocracy to present a misleading image to the world is no laughing matter.