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US comedians defend decision to play in Saudi Arabia: ‘They’re paying me enough to look the other way’
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2025
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What's with people in here expecting comedians to be moral paragons? Especially Bill Burr. Dude's whole claim to fame is being a piece of shit.
You don't need to be a moral paragon to recognize that taking money from the fucking bone saw guy to whitewash his shitty dictatorship is bad and will piss off your audience. Where is the line for you? If you think Burr is excused for this because his claim to fame is being a piece of shit, could he do anything you actually find unacceptable?
Theyre comedians, dude. They do corporate gigs all the time, and always have. And no one gave a shit. Even though many of those corporations would be evil as fuck as well.
But in the case of this, you could at least make the argument that theres a greater good being served, in so much as that the country is being exposed to new ideas and views through comedy. Bill Burr said "theyre just like us" when talking about the people, and social media crucified him for it. Why? Because they hold the people to account for the actions of their leaders. Which to give it context, would be like calling someone a Trump voter because they happen to be American.
The whole outrage is fucking stupid. The focus should be on the Saudi leaders, who are once again trying to wash their image on the global stage. But instead, all we hear about is how much of a piece of shit Bill Burr is... Tell me, do you go this hard on City group? Man City, New York City teams are sports washing pure and simple. Wheres all the outrage about that, which has been going on for more than a decade?
I am trying to think of a corporate gig that would be comparable. Being a murderous dictator who has journalists butchered is generally viewed as being significantly worse than your average CEO by most people. Maybe you could say taking money from Erik Prince is sort of on par? I would expect there to be a somewhat equivalent level of outrage in that scenario. Bill Burr whoring it out for a more normal corporate overlord who isn't directly involved in torturing and murdering people isn't going to draw the same kind of condemnation though.
I agree that the only slightly compelling argument in this is that there is some greater good being served here, but it is impossible to ignore the reality of the situation. MBS is directly paying them, there are rules about what they are allowed to say, the audience is a bunch of wealthy elites who already have easy access to anything they want, and the intent of the whole thing is very obviously part of the larger image rehabilitation campaign that MBS has been attempting to pull off for the past few years by throwing his blood money around. Burr got crucified for what he said because it is exactly what MBS wants him to say. Burr saw a bunch of fast food places and that was enough for him because he is being paid, and he knows if he said some real shit about MBS it would be a problem.
I do tend to go this hard on whoever. If they want to associate with someone like MBS I am going to judge the shit out of them for it just like I would anyone else. It's disgusting behavior whoring yourself out to a dictator. I don't need people like that in my life and I regret that I have to share this planet with them.