Two Important Takeaways from the Riyadh Comedy Festival

I’d like to share a few stray thoughts about the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which ended a few days ago. (And which I was invited to discuss on the Vox podcast Today, Explained—thank you to the producers and hosts for having me.) Really I want to suggest two ways of looking at the saga, both the festival itself and the controversy surrounding it. One of them is bad and ominous while the other is good and hopeful, so I’ll go ahead and start with the bad one:

1. The Riyadh Comedy Festival is a preview of what’s to come as domestic authoritarianism rises.

Dozens of the most famous comedians in the industry (and a number of less famous ones) just announced to the world that they will gladly toss aside their supposed principles to do PR for a dictatorship. As the controversy over the festival broiled, a few of them begrudgingly conceded that maybe their critics have some points, but to my knowledge not a single one—not even Jessica Kirson, who said she regrets performing in the festival and donated her fee—heeded Human Rights Watch’s request that they call for the Saudi regime to free detained activists. Even Kirson’s statement refrained from making any explicit criticism of her benefactors, offering only that she was sorry for performing “under the auspices of the Saudi government.”

Indeed, some of these comedians have already run cover for outright authoritarianism here in the US. When the Trump administration deported immigrants to a concentration camp in El Salvador, Andrew Schulz called for the construction of even more concentration camps where the US could send “homegrown” criminals. Tim Dillon, regrettably fired from the festival for his comments about the regime’s abuses, has spent the last year or so explicitly endorsing white nationalist immigration policies, and helped JD Vance make the case for mass deportations before the 2024 election. It’s been almost a decade since Dave Chappelle made it his job to turn the public against trans people, and Whitney Cummings—who has lately become an anti-vaccine, anti-China conspiracy theorist—recently argued that Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension wasn’t a violation of his civil rights because “nobody has free speech at work.” (I’m not sure she thought that one through.) 

It certainly isn’t news that these people are hypocrites who don’t believe what they claim to believe, but the obvious is still worth stating: they will all look the other way for the right price, and the right price isn’t even all that high.

2. The controversy shows that these comedians are vulnerable.

I’ve been asked a few times over the last couple weeks if I think the Riyadh headliners will see lasting career consequences. We’ll have to wait and see, but what I can say in the meantime is that I was surprised there was any controversy at all. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you’ll know it’s a source of constant frustration for me that the sheer awfulness of modern comedy has just sort of been accepted into the broader culture. Practically every week some of the biggest comedians in the world spew outright hate speech on their podcasts; it’s rare that you’ll see a single news story about any of it, let alone the activities of unrepentant sex predators like Louis CK or Chris D’Elia. This time, we saw something virtually unprecedented: Jimmy Kimmel questioning Aziz Ansari about his decision to take Saudi money. What made the difference?

The answer, I think, is other comedians. It wasn’t until folks like Marc Maron, Zach Woods, and Tim Heidecker started criticizing the festival—and, crucially, their peers on the lineup—that the press caught wind and it became a full-on news cycle. It helped, of course, that organizations like Human Rights Watch issued statements criticizing and contextualizing the festival, but ultimately comedians elevated it to the national consciousness. 

This is extremely important. It demonstrates that in a news environment dominated by fawning or otherwise credulous stories about right-wing comedians like Joe Rogan and Theo Von, liberal and left-leaning comedians still have the power to set competing narratives, draw public support away from their peers, and force people like Bill Burr and Louis CK to defend themselves when they act unethically. They can and should use this power more often. Unfortunately, it’s in the vital public interest that they do. 

Now I would like to share a few segments from a Patreon-only episode of the podcast History Hyenas, hosted by Riyadh headliner Chris Distefano and Yannis Pappas. These are, frankly, two of the least intelligent men in comedy. We’ve discussed Distefano a few times in the past, and while he is a relatively marginal figure (albeit on the rise), his sheer stupidity and lack of filter make him a compelling window into his peer group’s id. Which is why I think his responses to the Riyadh Comedy Festival controversy are worth documenting.

“You want the dirty stuff? Let’s kill the Jews.”

Distefano: The one thing I did realize going over there is I have a very, very, very 13-colony centric act, and me getting into the weeds about Puerto Ricans and the Revolutionary War just didn't work over there. But that's okay. So they laughed at what they understood and thought was funny, and bro, they actually told me at the end of my set, they were like, "we wish you were more vulgar. We wanted you to get more. Give us the dirty stuff." A girl said that. She was like, give us the dirty stuff. So then I said, "oh, you guys want the dirty stuff. Let's kill the Jews." Went crazy. Even that. 

So that's the only thing they said to me. 'Cause, you know, we were all going over there thinking, oh, we're going to do Jew jokes, stoning to death jokes. When I got there, the actual feeling about it was they treat their women, at least what we saw, gold. They were saying, these are the life vessels of Saudi Arabia. Whitney Cummings was over there, said that she's never been treated as kindly there as a woman as she has in the US. She was like, "people in the US don't treat me this. The Saudi men were treating me with the utmost respect." 

So that's one. And then two, everybody saying, oh, that they hate the Jews and all that. There was the opposite. They were like, "oh no, we like the Jews. They were, the Jews are welcome." They were like, they couldn't wait for Sam Morril, who's a Jew. They were like, we want to see him next. We love him. Bring us the Jew. Yeah. So it was very interesting to see things differently than I thought. I went there and I was like, oh, these people are really, really just kind nice people like us, all they want is to laugh and have fun. That's all they wanted. So I was like, I feel zero, zero. I mean less than zero guilt about going over there and getting paid, and I would go back over there again tomorrow. I just would, because I performed for the people. I made the people happy. 

“Marc Maron, you're a woman in Saudi Arabia, so how about I just throw you in the fucking washing machine?”

Distefano: …What’s actually gross to me, and you and I spoke about this, what's actually fucking gross to me is comedians who are talking shit about Saudi Arabia, okay, but you, probably, if I look back, are the same ones that capitalized in some way, shape or form on Charlie Kirk's death. Capitalize on some way, shape, or form about whatever national tragedy. You're doing it for views and content. And that's all fucking gross to me too. So I didn't do that. So I'm not saying I'm this holier-than-thou guy, but going to Saudi Arabia and making a group of people happy, I couldn't give a fuck what you thought of me. And 99% of the guys talking shit, I would absolutely beat the shit out of. So that also feels good. If Brendan Schaub told me to go—not go—I wouldn't go. But Marc Maron, you're a woman in Saudi Arabia, so how about I just throw you in the fucking washing machine? But if Schaub or somebody from the UFC said, I would kindly step down. But unfortunately, so far nobody's actually popped off. Zach Woods. I'll throw you through the fucking roof. 

“There’s nothing different about her or a girl in the United States other than this girl's wearing a burqa and probably doesn't have the clit.”

Distefano: I went on stage with Bobby Lee and Santino, right? And Bobby Lee was doing a bit where he was looking for a wife in the crowd, which he does, "get Bobby laid"-type thing. And then there's this girl who's in her early twenties sitting with another group of girls. I mean, all the girls are beautiful, but the one Bobby was talking to was like maybe the prettiest girl I've ever seen in my life. The women out there were like, oh my God. I was like, fucking beautiful. I could tell by the eyes, gorgeous. So I'm watching him do crowd work with this girl and this group of girls are going nuts and so happy to be called on and they're going crazy. 

And I'm like, that would be like any 20-something year old girl at a Bad Friends show in Miami, Chicago, New York. There're just girls that want to have fun. There was a group of girls out together. Like any group of girls would be out on the weekend here. And I'm watching her go crazy and jump up and down. And I saw—the first time I ever saw a boob bounce in a burqa. A burqa boob is nice. And I said, there's nothing different, there is nothing different about this 25-year-old girl sitting here having a great time, there is nothing different about her or a girl in the United States other than this girl's wearing a burqa and probably doesn't have the clit. That's the only thing—that was a joke. But the girl is just in a burqa— 

Pappas: Not in Saudi. That's more Egypt and Somalia. 

Distefano: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Saudi's fine. Just obviously joking. But that girl, I was like, there's a beauty in that that I noticed, that I was like, oh, this commonality that we have is—I grew up very indoctrinated by the American media as we all are, as any media indoctrinates every country. And I was like, oh, I genuinely thought that those people, because they grew up in war and they have different wants than us, and when I saw that, I was like, I felt like stupid coming home. I was like, I can't believe I even thought for a second it wasn't safe there, it was going against my morals. I was like, it actually makes me, the people who are hating on the festival, it actually makes me want to say to them like, dude, you just gotta go over there and then tell me really how you feel. 

“When the comedians leave, they’re all getting beheaded.”

Distefano: You know what also is the ultimate white privilege? Having the fucking time to bitch and complain about this and make all your whole life about the Riyadh Comedy Festival. That's also a privilege where you have such little problems in your life that you're finding ones on the internet. That's also a privilege. In Riyadh, nobody cares. Riyadh, they're happy. 'Cause they know they better be happy because when the comedians leave, they're all getting beheaded. And I was doing those jokes in and they were laughing at me. But they get it. They get it. 

Pappas: Yeah. Now look. Okay. The point is, in conclusion, even if it is, if is a veneer they're putting on top of some of the things they do, it's still a step in the right direction. It's still—because you're giving the people a little taste of what they want. So let's say your ultimate goal is you want the House of Saud to be overthrown, and you want them to have human rights there, and you want them to have democracy there, or whatever it is you're actually mad about, I'm not even sure you've thought it through. But wouldn't this be a step in the right direction? Why does it have to be like, "oh, you're going to perform for the Nazis." The Nazis wouldn't allow you to perform. That's the point. 

Like I just said before, through humor, there's no Afghani Hut-Ha on the horizon. If the Nazis were allowing American comedians, or Jewish comedians, or lesbian comedians to come over and perform, that is obviously a step in the right direction. How do you think change happens? Do you think they're reading your fucking Twitter feed and they're going, "oh no, fucking this no-name open mic comedian is upset with Pete Davidson. We better change the way we do things around here." Or do you think it's because Jessica Kiersten went over there and she eats pussy? And she's got one. That's the way you enact change, you fucking loser. Get out of your house and actually get into the world and do something. Like Jessica did. She fucking came with a rainbow flag and fucking, she's the fucking, was the general of bull d—s. She rolled right into the desert like Alexander the Great. 

Do you see why I think it’s maybe a little important these people be shamed?