US comedians defend decision to play in Saudi Arabia: ‘They’re paying me enough to look the other way’

Whores.

Why do I feel like the same people who will have much to say about these comedians are same people who wore Queers For Palestine t-shirts to pride parades? Just a bunch. It's the type of blind hypocrisy they'd love to get all over themselves.

Money makes the world go 'round.

There’s not going to be too many people here who aren’t wearing clothes or getting products handled by slaves today.

Love all the Free Palestine crew and they’re all wearing Nike and H&M, Gap with a house full of Temu and SHEIN when all these companies have been linked to slavery.

But that’s the US for you. The religious conservatives don’t practice what they preach either.

By "much to say" are you referring to people who are defending the comedians or the people who are criticizing them, r2?

I imagine the people who care about human rights abuses committed by the Israelis are also mad about humans rights abuses committed by the Saudis.

Really disappointed Zarna Garg did this.

A lot of celebrities are fucking morons who will do anything for a paycheck. They have no principles.

The article explicitly states that they were told not to joke about the royals who live there or their religion.

Why would any comedian agree to censorship? You think Carlin or Lenny Bruce would have done that?

Kevin Hart and Chappelle are basically Republicans and Louis CK is a creepy perv. So, we're not talking about a bastion of intelligence to begin with.

And people are simply incredulous about how Germans didn't really notice other Germans were being forcibly evicted from their homes and disappearing into the night.

The Germans simply looked the other way, pretending not to notice. Just like these "comedians."

Saudi Arabia is hell bent on becoming a tourist destination.

Imagine having spent the last ten years making endless circle jerky standup specials and podcast appearances all about poor old beleaguered free speech getting kicked around by cancel culture just to turn around to perform for the House of Saud. Pathetic, but not not surprisingly so.

However., some of these bookings are wild: Pete Davidson and his “I’ve written a letter to daddy, because of 911, his address is heaven above” schtick performing for the Saudis! What the fuck is Jessica Kirson going to do there? Her whole act is desperately scanning around for gay guys and Jews in the audience to do barky crowd-work.

I wouldn’t pay Pete Davidson to plunge a toilet.

The most untalented piece of dog shit.

A lot of known whores, but it really is disappointing to see Jessica Kirson there.

Who?

Almost as pathetic as Queers for Palestine.

It is Saudi's attempt to whitewash their extensive crimes against humanity. I'm surprised and disappointed that Bill Burr is on the list of comedians. I recall him criticizing golfers and tennis players who agreed to go there for their tournament, so they made him an offer $$$$$ he couldn't refuse. I guess everyone has their price where their moral convictions go out the door.

But why pay them so much money? Do Saudis even know who Bill Marr is or Jessica Kilson? Americans hardly know.

The Saudis are rich beyond imagination. They can throw millions at celebrity comedians for their own public image rehabilitation.

Shit, I have such a crush on Mark Normand. Sucks he’s doing this.

Fuck, not Mark Normand. FUCK.

I've never heard of Mark Normand but if this is his idea of funny

[quote] Mark Normand, on the other hand, joked he would bring his wife to show her how good she has it in America: “I want to be like, ‘You see? You think I’m an asshole? Well, they’ll cut your clit off, bitch.’”

then I'll happily continue without knowing who he is

As others have already stated, they're doing it with sports too - as part of the whitewashing. Rafael Nadal is a highly paid Saudi Tennis Ambassador. He gets some flack on tennis forums, but most people look the other way.

No one who deals with the Saudis will be universally condemned, some aren't even widely condemned. Too many people know they'd do the same thing if they were paid enough, and they reason that the comedians and athletes aren't directly responsible for anything bad happening in the country - which is technically true, but obviously there's a larger context at play.

This is the stupidest comedic outrage ever.

If they were doing their funny before the genocidal Jews of Israel I would get the upset

This comment from Jessica Kilson illustrates the hallucinating power of money

[quote] “I wouldn’t do any gay material there at all,” she quickly said, adding that she would steer clear of Jewish material too. Still, she marveled at how well the kingdom treats its guests. “You get treated like gold,” she said. “It’s five-star, crazy treatment, hotels and car service, and food. And they really take care of you.”

So basically she's censoring herself in exchanges for the $$$$

It's whitewashing, it's gaslighting, it's showing how easy it is to convert formerly powerful voices into whores. Ultimate power play. Nice going, Saudi Arabia!

Bill Burr has always been so righteously condescending and arrogant. It’s a TREAT to see him sell himself out and lose his ability to effectively lecture us on what we’re doing wrong.

Bill Burr defends himself by saying they got a fucking Chili’s 🌶️ over there.

The defenses, if they honestly feel they need defenses, are so stupid. Just say it's a huge pay day and be done with it. Many people will understand that even if they don't like it; others won't even care. Of course the Saudis are treating you well. Duh.

Bill Burr seems like he’s suppressing a pathological degree of rage.

They don’t know it was Saudi Arabia behind 9/11.

I think they only way anyone could possibly spin this as good is if the hope is that having more Western-influenced entertainment in SA will lead to more Western-influenced laws/culture/etc.

But that's probably a silly pipe dream.

Plus, the West is being led by an authoritarian madman, so there's that.

As long as they see the big fat paycheck, those comedians are even willing to do comedy shows for EWTN.

I like to think Pete Davidson took it as a revenge move, considering Saudi Arabia is responsible for 9/11 and his father's death.

But what the hell is he going to talk about if not that? His act is kind of limited.

Revenge for what? Working for the man? Strange revenge.

These comics are so obscure. Jessica Kilgore? Mark Normand? Who the fuck are these people? Are we to believe Saudi Labia’s citizens are clamoring for them??

I remember reading that Linda Ronstadt ran into the same kind of shit when she did a concert in South Africa under apartheid in 1983.

She said it was "just a gig" and "The last place for a boycott is in the arts ... I don't like people telling me I can't go somewhere."

I say it's just a gig. If you're offered a fat check, take the fat check. Maybe the audience will be inspired by the creativity Western culture produces.

R33, Jessica KIRSON and Mark Normand are two of the more popular stand-up comedians at the moment. They're all over social media, YouTube, podcasts, etc.

[quote]Revenge for what? Working for the man? Strange revenge.

Getting a big check and platinum perks from the people who killed his father.

r34 Did Linda R. at least play to a mixed audience? During her 1964 tour Dusty Springfield was kicked out of South Africa for refusing to go along with segregation.

R37, there were no racial restrictions at the resort where she did the concert. Sinatra had played there a few years prior.

I mean, yeah, if it were an "only whites allowed" audience, I could understand the stink, and so would've Linda — she wouldn't have done it, she was always a flaming liberal.

It’s curious to me that people consider comedians to be moral arbiters.

So the defenses for this indefensible thing, both from the comedians and here on the DL seem to be:

1. Campus lefties who annoy me are worse in some unrelated way

2. America isn't so great

3. All my free speech bullshit was bullshit

I’d add for the comedians:

4. I basically have PTSD from having to sleep on a futon in some shitty apartment in Queens for 6 years before my career took off, so I am exempt from having to have principles.

R27, a very astute observation.

"What do you do for a living? A pharmacist? Well, FUUUUUCK YOU!"

"How long have you two been married? Twelve years? I'm going to kill myself!"

"Are you two a gay couple? Yeah? So you fuck each other up the ass!!"

There. Now you've heard Jessica Kirson's entire act.

Is the audience tourists or locals? Or both?

[Quote] Love all the Free Palestine crew and they’re all wearing Nike and H&M, Gap with a house full of Temu and SHEIN when all these companies have been linked to slavery.

Yes this is such a good point! In order to criticize mass murder and land theft on a staggering scale, you must be the purest person who ever existed, and live in a hut off the grid, totally repudiating the globalist economy we all live in without realistic alternative.

Unless you do that, you are a horrible hypocrite to criticize laser-guided bombs being planted in civilian zones, or cars with terrified little girls cowering in them being riddled with scores of machine gun bullets.

Take THAT, performative progressives with your blue hair and pronouns!

Thus is such a nothing burger. Worry about something important.

The only reason would be to grab the money and turn around and quietly give it all to a women’s group there fighting for (not equal rights there😒) but the right to Al least drive a car or go to college. I can’t imagine any organized gay rights group there.

R44, considering that most Saudi Arabians speak Arabic and most of these performers don't, I would think this event is meant to cater to a more elite audience.

Saudi Arabians, Emiratis, etc who have had some education in English, rich foreigners who speak English, and the entourage of these performers.

You and I trying to book a "holiday" in Saudi Arabia probably wouldn't encounter the spaces & treatment these people are receiving.

The comics they booked are largely disgraced, has been, or second stringers.

As for Linda Ronstadt, by 1983, she’d released those horrible Motown covers and already was dead to me.

R47, you would just give half a million away?

Are bone saw jokes off the table? I mean, the royal prince said he had nothing to do with it so...

R50 has no integrity or moral compass.

R34, what about black artists who played there like Stephanie Mills, Millie Jackson, Tina Turner and worst of all, Eartha Kitt. Kitt was so happy to be branded an honorary white but realized that it meant nothing when she and her daughter were refused admittance to a theme park.

I dunno, miss R53, I have problems of my own.

Kirson won't talk about gays or jews? That's going to be one very quiet routine.

Fucking disappointing.

يا للعجب!

Kirson has four children, including multiple teenagers heading into college, and just got divorced.

I don't begrudge her taking any check she can at this point.

I do continue not to understand lesbians. FOUR kids? AND you marry and divorce and complicate your finances so much before they're grown?

How many boundaries were crossed to convince you not to complete this project?

A nobody like Tim Dillon got paid $375,000. That is before the Saudis found out he made fun of them in a prior act and revoked the check. He’s mad as hell now. Imagine what $375,000 could buy these no-name comedians. It’s more money than they’ve ever seen.

Kirson expresses regret:

pete davidson. saudi terrorists killed his dad.

Yeah right, she’ll donate her million.

I don't think apologizing & donating the $$$ is going to cut it. It's not simply that these comedians took a large payment from a murderous, repressive regime. (They were payed by the Royals, not some "independent" promoter or resort.) It's that they also had to agree to the following:

"ARTIST shall not prepare or perform any material that may be considered to degrade, defame or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule: A) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture or people; B) The Saudi royal family, legal system, or government, and; C) Any religion, religious tradition, religious figure or religious practice.”

Any comedian, whether left, right or center, who would agree to self-censor to such a degree loses any credibility and integrity they may have had.

"I don't think apologizing & donating the $$$ is going to cut it."

"Cut it" for what? For public perception? There's going to always be online chatter expressing derision and disgust from now on -that's a given, and that is deserved. But, will it affect these comedians in terms of appearances, bookings, money, opportunities in the future? If I were one of the comedians, that's where I'd be concerned if whether apologizing and donating will "cut it." But is that even an issue in the first place? Will this really hurt the B and C comedians for whom it was they're largest payday? And the "stars" like Chappelle and Hart - I don't see it having much of an effect. Maybe I'm just cynical about the state of the culture, but I just don't expect broad and sustained blowback.

How is it self censor when they never talked about Saudi Arabia or their government in their acts in the first place?

It's pretty standard for comics to add at least a few "local color" jokes to their set R64. Can you imagine an American comic in London or Paris or Berlin or Amsterdam being told that they can't joke about local customs and culture?

Someone needs to rewrite this song. "Ain't gonna play Saudi Arabia".

If I were a barely known comedian struggling to get my foot up one rung of the ladder, and the income from one night would equal that of six months of intensively hustled Ramada Inn out by the airport gigs, I might do it.

If I were an established name on a decent arc and the income for one night might settle all my debts or send my kids to college or buy a better house, I might do it.

In either case I would not feel good about my choice and would tell myself that I would speak very frankly about the experience when asked.

Any of which is marginally better than someone taking the gig and coming back with stories of how luxurious their suite and their limo were.

[quote] If I were a barely known comedian struggling to get my foot up one rung of the ladder, and the income from one night would equal that of six months of intensively hustled Ramada Inn out by the airport gigs, I might do it.

$375,000 is way more than six months of work. More like 10 years.