World News

“One reporter was killed by the government – unfortunate, but not a fucking hill that I’m gonna die on,” Jim Jefferies said on Theo Von’s podcast in August, arguing it is for the greater good that “freedom-of-speech machines” such as himself bestow their “edgy” material on the kingdom and its subjects. (Since making the comments, Jefferies has since disappeared from the festival’s lineup; his representatives did not respond to inquiries about this.)

lol

How high is that number? According to Dillon, pretty high: in the same podcast that got him fired, he said the organizers offered him $375,000 and claimed that some comedians were offered millions. Gillis did not reveal how much the organizers offered him, but he did say that when he initially refused, they “doubled the bag”. Tough news for Dillon, who elsewhere claimed he asked for $500,000 but had to settle for less.

[Nimesh Patel] suggested that he could make up for the loss by performing “40 shows … here in the perfectly clean, moral, above-everyone-else United States of America.”

Would be funny if any of these comedians accepted but did a shit job on purpose to get booed off stage, then just explained that stunt as "giving their money's worth"

Can't believe bill burr went. Turns out all of his billionaire critics were just meaningless

Fuck I miss Carlin

Jim Jefferies disappeared from the Riyadh festival lineup after he said on Theo Von’s podcast: ‘One reporter was killed by the [Saudi] government – unfortunate, but not a fucking hill that I’m gonna die on.’

What a fucking loser. He threw his soul away AND lost the payday. Lose-lose fucking loser.

I don’t understand how being rich can make someone such a whore ― David Cross

https://officialdavidcross.com/blogs/press/my-thoughts-on-the-riyadh-comedy-festival

Will people criticizing them stop to play all EA games that are owned now by Saudi Arabia?

We really got the worst era of comedy. Bunch of court jesters dancing for a king while the city burns

Super disappointed in Burr.

Unsubscribed.

"...He did not address the criticism directly, but he did suggest he was happy to forget 9/11 for the right price: “I just know I get the routing, and then I see the number, and I go, ‘I’ll go.’” "

Apparently $375,000 is enough for Pete Davidson to piss on his fathers memory

The lineup features Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Aziz Ansari and Jo Koy, among many others who are all taking their fees directly from the Saudi government.

Burr being on that list surprises me, but it said he’s also been to UAE. Davidson is pissing on his father’s grave.

They have also taken flak from their peers. “The same guy that’s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a fucking suitcase,” said Marc Maron in a standup clip posted on his Facebook.

Exactly.

Greedy fucks, all of them.

Don’t make celebrity performers your idols, folks. They’re mostly psychologically damaged, amoral, backstabbing, money grubbing narcissists.

Extremely disgusting. I already found most of these people uncool and unfunny but I thought Bill Burr was at least alright (still didn't think he was funny, but he at least seemed to have sane political views - guess not). The only way any of them can make this a respectable choice is if they're doing it Trojan Horse style, and they're planning to tell a bunch of jokes shitting on Saudi Arabia and calling them out for their infinity of evil acts. Not getting my hopes up for that, though.

The Guardian remains respectable and has not pulled punches in this article at least.

‘They’re paying me enough to look the other way’

That is at least an honest approach instead of "We'll change things over there with our comedy".

Just stfu next time it's about politics (hint: they won't).

The only guy that is surprising for me is Bill Burr. Not exactly financially hanging on by a thread but still selling out like that.

I used to love standup comedy. These days I feel as though so much of the mainstream comedy scene is made up of immature losers who peaked in highschool. Joe Rogan, Bert Kreisher, Bobby Lee, Chris Distefano... I cannot stand these guys. The list goes on.

I thought Bill Burr was different. I'm really disappointed.

Guess everyone has a price after all…. I hope they sleep well on their millions now.

Who is the comedian looking like the Corinthian in the thumbnail?

Inb4 they whine in their next comedy specials that they're 'being cancel cultured again by Gen Z' and this time its 'just for working'.

Cue laughs from conservatives.

They better be funny or they may be killed and cut up into tiny pieces.....

Literal blood money bruh

There's really no defense that is morally good in my opinion . F these people. At least they self identify as amoral assholes.

I am really disappointed to see Bill Burr here. I'm not surprised to see Mark Norman and others who made a name for themselves by making jokes at others expense. They remind me of little kids in school picking on the fat kid or the new kid from another country.

I hate to bring this up, especially since SA kills people so openly, but the US's track record of committing terrorist acts, or supporting terrorism (South America) is terrible. We're currently supplying weapons to Israel that they use to kill children. That's going on right now, they've killed like 60,000 Palestinians, 20,000 children. If you weren't American would you be okay with comedians playing in a country with America's history?

Likewise we're not paid enough to be their audience. Grifters, kindly fuck off the stage.

Marc Maron is the person who people think the lot of these guys like Burr are. His comedy/commentary is earnest. He has conviction. People like Burr are performative commentary. They go back to the dressing room to wash off the clown makeup so they can go back to being their private self. They don't give a shit about the things the say into the mic.

Here's a full list:

• 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
• 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
• Cipha Sounds
• Aries Spears
• Chris Tucker
• Jack Whitehall

Happy Boycott!

EDIT: Corrected and expanded now, based on the feedback and what seem to be Saudi websites in English.