Some of the biggest American names in comedy have signed up to perform at a festival in Saudi Arabia, and they’re being urged to speak out against the country’s human rights abuses — and not to be “complicit in covering up the abuses of a repressive regime,” by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch organization.
Saudi Arabia will host the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which organizers say will be the “world’s largest comedy festival,” from Sept. 26 to Oct. 9. Some of North America’s most popular comedians, along with comics from Europe and elsewhere, are featured on the bill, including Dave Chapelle, Kevin Hart and Bill Burr.
The festival will be the latest in a series of sports and cultural events hosted by Saudi Arabia’s government that critics say amount to an effort to obscure the country’s reputation for rampant human rights abuses.
“The Saudi government has invested billions into high profile entertainment events like these in a deliberate effort to whitewash the country’s human rights record and deflect from the egregious abuses that continue to happen inside of the country,” Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea told CBS News. “These investments are a part of the broader strategy to… have people thinking about a comedy event, for example, rather than the soaring number of executions that are happening inside of the country.”
HRW noted specifically the state execution of journalist Turki Al-Jasser, who was killed in June following seven years of detention after reportedly being identified as the author of several anonymous tweets criticizing the Saudi royal family.
Reporters Without Borders 
Al-Jasser had been convicted of terrorism and high treason on the basis of posts he was accused of authoring, according to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. Reporters Without Borders, an organization that works to protect journalists, branded the charges against him as “false.”
“This execution of a journalist went forward to very little international criticism and this is clearly a result of these billions that had been invested in the country’s whitewashing strategy,” Shea said.
When asked whether they believed the comedians would be able to freely tell jokes at the festival, the HRW researcher predicted there would be clear red lines drawn by organizers to prevent any criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, who has already taken over as ruler of the highly conservative Islamic kingdom, as well as his policies and the broader royal family.
Win McNamee/Getty 
Shea called on the high-profile entertainers attending the event — funding for which comes from the Saudi government’s General Entertainment Authority — to mitigate the positive effect that their presence might have on the country’s reputation for human rights abuses, including by “speaking out about the abuses.”
Tom Dillon, one of the comedians scheduled to perform at the Riyadh festival, claimed on his podcast that he’s being paid $315,000 for a single show, and that some of his more famous colleagues would receive around $1.6 million for their appearances.
CBS News has contacted the publicists representing billed attendees Bill Burr, Mark Normand, Kevin Hart, Sebastian Maniscalco, Dave Chapelle, Louis C.K., Whitney Cummings, Tom Segura, Andrew Schulz and Jim Jeffries, but has received no comment from any of them regarding their expected appearances in Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh Comedy Festival 
CBS News asked Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on HRW’s assertions, but has not received a response.
One of the highest-profile cases of the Saudis’ purported efforts to change their image came in 2021, with the launch of LIV Golf, a golf league that saw seasoned professionals defect from the famed PGA Tour in exchange for highly profitable contracts.
Critics accused the golfers of helping the Saudi government to “sportswash” its reputation, only three years after Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the county’s leadership, was brutally murdered inside a Saudi diplomatic office in Istanbul, Turkey.
A CIA report concluded with a medium to high degree of confidence that the killing was likely carried out at bin Salman’s orders.
In a 2019 interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes, bin Salman denied ordering Khashoggi’s assassination, but said he took responsibility for it.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saudi-arabia-riyadh-comedy-festival-us-comedians-human-rights-abuses/
