The comedy world has been in an uproar over the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which ended today after two weeks of performances in Saudi Arabia's capital. Extremely popular comics including Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Bill Burr, Pete Davidson, Whitney Cummings, Wayne Brady, Hannibal Buress, Jessica Kirson, Andrew Schulz, Sebastian Maniscalco, and others were paid exorbitant fees to do standup in Riyadh. They've faced widespread scrutiny for participating in Saudi Arabia's attempt to "comedy wash" the image of a country that assisted with the 9/11 attacks, imprisons activists, and executes journalists, among other human rights abuses. Just last night Jimmy Kimmel was grilling Ansari about it, and Marc Maron has been an especially outspoken critic. This video by Zach Woods summed up the critiques quite effectively:
@zachwoods Louis CK AND the Saudi Royal Family! Who could ask for more?!
♬ original sound - Zach Woods
This is the first year for the comedy fest, but for several years Riyadh has also been hosting a music festival called Soundstorm. That's coming up again on Dec. 11-13, and quite a few big names are attached. Post Malone, who played Soundstorm back in 2022, will be back this year. Calvin Harris and Benson Boone will also headline. Halsey, Kaytranada, Idris Elba, Ava Max, Tyla, the Kid Laroi, Major Lazer Soundsystem, and a Metro Boomin/DJ Snake B2B are among the others on the DJ-heavy lineup.
Human Rights Watch has been discouraging artists from performing at Soundstorm for years, but the event has flown under the radar compared to the Riyadh Comedy Fest. It will be interesting to see whether there's more of a public outcry against it in the aftermath of the comedy fest controversy.
