Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Comedy Festival Whitewashes Abuses
(Beirut) – The Saudi government is using the Riyadh Comedy Festival 2025 from September 26 to October 9 to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. The festival dates include the seventh anniversary of the Saudi state-sponsored murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and takes place just months after Saudi authorities executed a journalist apparently for his public speech.
Participating comedians, to avoid contributing to laundering the Saudi government’s reputation, should use the comedy festival to publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists. The festival lineup includes, among others: Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, Bill Burr, Jimmy Carr, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Maz Jobrani, Sam Morril, Mark Normand, Nimesh Patel, and Tom Segura. Tim Dillon was scheduled to perform but said he was fired after he joked on his podcast about Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/23/sau ... hes-abuses
Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Comedy Festival Whitewashes Abuses
Re: Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Comedy Festival Whitewashes Abuses
Human Rights Watch ‘Cannot Accept’ Donations From Aziz Ansari and Other Comedians Who Performed at Riyadh Comedy Festival
While defending his decision to perform at the controversial, state-sponsored Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, Aziz Ansari said he planned to donate “part of the fee” to “causes that support free press and human rights,” listing Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch, which has long been critical of the comedy festival and the Saudi regime.
But in a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch said the organization “cannot accept” donations from Ansari and other comedians who have “generously offered to donate part of their performance fees.” (Jessica Kirson said “I deeply regret” performing at Riyadh Comedy Festival and committed to donating the entirety of her fee to an undisclosed human rights organization.)
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/human- ... 236544862/
While defending his decision to perform at the controversial, state-sponsored Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, Aziz Ansari said he planned to donate “part of the fee” to “causes that support free press and human rights,” listing Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch, which has long been critical of the comedy festival and the Saudi regime.
But in a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch said the organization “cannot accept” donations from Ansari and other comedians who have “generously offered to donate part of their performance fees.” (Jessica Kirson said “I deeply regret” performing at Riyadh Comedy Festival and committed to donating the entirety of her fee to an undisclosed human rights organization.)
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/human- ... 236544862/