tl;dr – Opinions are all over the place on this, but there’s one thing that stands out to me.
In case you missed it, a few weeks ago, the internet lost its collective sh*t when Saudi Arabia hosted the Riyadh Comedy Festival, inviting several famous comedians to the Gulf Nation to perform for the day, and collect a sack of money for doing so.
Leading up to the event, there was a lot of discussion about whether it was ethical for comedians to agree to perform in Saudi Arabia, given the country’s track record and ties to (confirmed or alleged) terrorism and human rights violations.
People voiced all sorts of opinions, including many of the comedians themselves. Some were vocal about their decision not to perform, despite having been invited. Others were quick to defend their decision to do a set at the show.
We live in rage-fueled times. It’s way too easy for folks to fire up a browser, see something they disagree with, get triggered, and start with the vitriol. All without a moment’s thought of pressing pause and checking oneself. It’s easy to write this off as just another internet shouting match, but one thing I found really bizarre about this situation was the misconceived specificity/localization of it all.
What I mean by that is that by now, it should be clear that Saudi Arabia has been making quite the PR push, supported by Olympic swimming pool-sized caches of money, to clean up its public image ahead of upcoming world events like the World Cup and the World Expo. As part of this, the nation has seemingly poured money into every leading entertainment venture in the world. It’s not like this comedy festival happened in a vacuum. In fact, it’s part of a much larger trend.
Here are just a few marquee organizations that Saudi Arabia has linked up with:
- WWE
- UFC
- Esports
- F1
- Professional golf: LIV Golf
- The World’s Most Beautiful Game FIFA
- Upcoming 2026 Professional Flag Football Tournament (alleged to include current and former NFL stars)
So why did this particular event raise so many eyebrows? If you ask me – because, different from some of those other events/partnerships, there were individual targets where the public, possibly, felt/expected/desired more personal responsibility from (a reminder these are comedians we’re talking about. The jokes really do write themselves sometimes!)
I’m the last person that’ll defend the actions of any government, let alone Saudi Arabia, so that’s not where I’m headed. I also abhor celebrity culture, so you won’t find me defending the actions of any comedian in this matter, no matter which side they fall on. I also am a believer that injustices and wrongdoings should be called out as often as possible to bring attention to them, so it’s not lost on me to voice opinions early and often.
I also despise hypocrisy and heavily value authenticity. If you were up in arms about this comedy festival but don’t seem to miss an NFL Sunday despite the Shield being on its habitual BS, well, then what’s that?
If you get loud about this but never miss the chance to “Layeth the Smacketh Down” or a LIV Tee Time, then I’m not really sure where to put you.
Everyone’s gonna draw their line somewhere. Sometimes I feel it’s utter chaos when that line is drawn in the most temporary of chalk, subject to change when the next prime time game/race/match is on.
