What?
Isn't this the country whose government got away with dismembering a journalist?
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What?
Isn't this the country whose government got away with dismembering a journalist?
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
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
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.
Saudis must really desperate to whitewash, sportwash themselves as of late. they know Oil wont last so they are trying invest by buying up sports and entertainment teams all over the world. EA being the latest.
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.
im not surprised about CK, he needed to get more relevancy after getting partially cancelled for bieng a pervert.
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.
Well, I suppose they're not going to be joking about bonesaws.
Bill Burr hurts the most.
Pete Davidson is disappointing as well.
His father died on 9/11 and he's up dancing for those responsible.
The thing about Burr is the vast majority of people just didn't bother to "hear the rest of the joke"
Like the joke he had about Beyonce performing for some dudes bday party in the middle east and the guy was like right up there with Saudi Princes and Burr denounces Beyonce for doing it....the punchline being he'd do the same shit as her.
His whole schtick with the billionaires was a bit. all the time he says this stuff and people decide to stop hitting record JUST before he says he'd do the same thing.
And all these comedians have the same song and dance with very few exceptions. They're ONLY pro freespeech when their jobs are on the line, when there's potential to lose money. Just like they came out and support kimmel and colbert yeah man all about Free Speech, against cancel culture, all that. BUT when there's an easy million dollars to be made? fuck free speech.
If the FCC or Trump came out and said "I'll give any comedian a couple million if they help me denounce Kimmel and Colbert" there'd be a line of them around the block waiting to take a swing.
If you've listened to his podcast at all lately, you'd know that the billionaire stuff is not a schtick. He has come very far left, though still has some both sides tendencies (probably trying not to alienate a chunk of his audience).
That said, I stopped listening when they announced this, and I emailed the podcast to let him know exactly why.
Yup. Fuck Bill Burr.
He took him self way down on my respect factor index. He’ll say some ballsy stuff online as soon as he’s out of Saudi air space. Trust me ya’ll. I called Thursday night Football moments before OT & was spot on the rest of the game. Although, Stevie Wonder could have probably called it too. Ok, bad example. But ya’ll, Nam sayin’?
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
Every single one of those individuals could afford to take me out to a great dinner at this Bistro in my town. Drinks & everything. Footing the bill would be insignificant. Unless they have crippling gambling debts and are on a serious allowance I have no problem being treated. And yes I am trying to spin this weirdness and get back to what I feel is critical at this point. And that payback could be take a fan out dinner and get asked a bunch of questions you don’t feel like answering. A little gratitude, would be a bit much to ask? Perhaps give back a small amount of your time to those that have 👍’d your videos on YouTube? F me. I’ll see myself out.
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.
That’s like everyone
There's a few who were invited and turned them down. Mike Birbiglia was the most notable to me, but I'm also familiar with Shane Gillis, Michelle Wolf, and Stavros Halkias. Atsuko Okatsuka, Toni Nagy, Leslie Liao, Nimesh Patel, and Tim Dillon have also announced they turned down the offer, but I don't think I've ever seen their shows.
Stavy turned it down? Nice
Thanks, knowing who turned it down is as important as knowing who accepted. I'm a big fan of Birbiglia and Michelle Wolf, so I'm glad they had the integrity to pass.
Tim Dillon did accept it, they canceled his spot when he accidentally/mistakenly advertised he would be in Abu Dhabi and they got offended.
Jesus Christ, he just pulled the most heinous shit out of his ass. His quotes were legitimately monstrous, truly inexcusable. To sum it up, he can get over EVERYTHING, as long as he's being paid enough. No morals, no real beliefs. Is he even a person? Are people like that even really people? I would argue that they're not. There is no point to Tim Dillon.
No Brian Posehn. \m/
What the fuck Hannibal, you quit the Eric Andre Show and are now pulling this shit?
Dude, Hannibal is a fucking landlord and has actively spoken out against Rent Control. He is objectively a piece of shit.
fuckin wack
Everything about this festival disgusts me.
Saudi Arabia did 9/11, wrecked the golfing world, and now they're going to wreck comedy, too.
I can't wait for them to go after music, too.
Comedy is officially dead and it was beheaded in Saudi Arabia.
expect them to act like fozzie bear, in that family guy parody, where they would not offend SA.
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.
Wait, the Saudi's actually had a comedy fest? I thought it was a viral joke or something.
MSB probably needs to paint themselves ina positive light, of not being always "kalshogging" every dissident.
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."