Why Are Comedians So Fired Up About the Riyadh Comedy Festival?

While none of the performers themselves have shared their contracts publicly, Tim Dillon said on his eponymous podcast that he had been offered $375,000 to perform a set at the festival. According to Dillon, other comedians were paid as much as $1.6 million to appear. “They bought comedy,” Dillon said on August 30, explaining his own rationale for participating in the event—before he was allegedly fired from the festival. “Do I have issues with the policies towards freedom of speech? Of course I do, but I believe in my own financial wellbeing.”

Some of Dillon’s peers don’t feel the same way. Shane Gillis explained on his own podcast that he said no to performing at the festival…even after the organizers offered to double his salary for it. (Gillis did not specify what amount he was offered.) Leslie Liao also said no to performing. Marc Maron—who was not offered a slot at the event himself—slammed the festival for being “from the folks that brought you 9/11.” Mike Birbiglia confirmed that he passed on the festival as well, and commended Gillis and fellow comedian Atsuko Okatsuka for doing the same thing.

Okatsuka not only turned down the fest, but posted an alleged letter in which organizers offered her a 60 to 75 minute set in a theater seating between 600 and 900 audience members. The alleged offer also asked her to share a “reasonable number” of social media posts as an “endorsement” of the festival itself.

The contract Okatsuka shared included a stipulation that participants not perform “any material that may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule” against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi royal family, legal system, government, or any religion.

Okatsuka pointed out the hypocrisy of comedians like Chappelle—who have complained extensively about oversensitive audiences, and their right to tell jokes about any topic—participating in an event that explicitly does not allow criticism of the Saudi government and royal family. “The money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, ppl with nonlethal drug offenses, bloggers, etc without due process,” she wrote. “A lot of the ‘you can’t say anything anymore!’ comedians are doing the festival…they had to adhere to censorship rules about the types of jokes they can make.” (Chappelle has not yet responded to a request for comment.)

But at least one of those comedians didn’t adhere to those alleged rules. Dillon announced on September 20 that his set at the festival had been canceled, allegedly because Saudi authorities were “unhappy” about jokes he had made about the Saudi government on his own podcast. “I addressed it in a funny way and they fired me,” he said. “I certainly wasn’t going to show up in your country and insult the people that are paying me the money. But on my own show, in my own country, where I have the freedom to speak and say the things I want, I am going to be funny.”

In the meantime, Human Rights Watch has urged comedians participating in the Riyadh Comedy Festival to speak out against the lack of free speech in Saudi Arabia as a whole. Joey Shea, a Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a press release that “everyone performing in Riyadh should use this high-profile opportunity to call for the release of detained Saudi activists,” specifically human rights defender Waleed Abu al-Khair and women’s rights activist Manahel al-Otaibi, both of whom were sentenced to more than a decade in prison for protesting.

“Comedians performing in Riyadh should speak out against Saudi Arabia’s serious rights abuses or they risk bolstering the Saudi government’s well-funded efforts to launder its image,” Shea said. “This whitewashing comes amid significant increase in repression, including a crackdown on free speech, which many of these comedians defend but people in Saudi Arabia are completely denied.” In other words, this comedy festival is no laughing matter.