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A few days ago, I saw various advertisements for the latest elaborate Saudi exhibition, the Riyadh Comedy Festival, presented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and organized by state-owned entities, Sela, and the General Entertainment Authority. Given the eye-watering finances invested, the event hosts a plethora of notable names in the stand-up comedy circuit, such as Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Tom Segura, Mark Normand, Bobby Lee, and even a post-scandal Louis CK. Through these entertainers, Saudi Arabia hopes it can advertise itself as a free speech-positive entity, and not one that performs executions on journalists, political critics, and free speech advocates. I wish Norm MacDonald were still with us; this current debacle is a moment I’d pay to hear his thoughts on.
This event is another installment in the aggressive marketing tactics employed by the Kingdom. In the near-decade since the international outcry and sanctions over the 2018 butchering of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at an embassy in Turkey, the Saudi state, under the stewardship and initiative of Mohammed Bin-Salman (MBS), has attempted to rehabilitate its image in multiple international sectors through investment via the Kingdom’s public investment fund (PIF). In the past few years, Saudi Money now owns Newcastle United, bankrolls the LIV Golf Tour, holds a stake in the UFC, obtained the rights for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, and purchased Electronic Arts (EA). With these holdings, Saudi Arabia seeks to strengthen and normalize its reputation, easing consumers’ wariness surrounding the Kingdom’s human rights violations through mass financing.
With stand-up figures such as Segura and others who rail against alleged comedic censorship performing, it becomes hard to ignore the irony present; rambling ad nauseam about “cancel culture” and visiting a location en masse, where you could be shot rather than merely ‘cancelled’ for saying the wrong thing. More importantly, however, this event is tangible to a larger moral argument. The Kingdom is not only responsible for atrocities such as Khashoggi’s extrajudicial execution, but widespread human rights violations toward journalists, citizens, and migrant workers, and additionally, allegedly the September 11th attacks. Given these issues, it necessitates a discussion as to how the Kingdom can successfully media-wash its mainstream reputation despite its unrepentant nature toward these injustices.
Entertainers who have spoken out against the event, such as Shane Gillis, Marc Maron, and David Cross, put the matter into perspective. Cross noted on a post to his website, “We can never again take seriously anything these comedians complain about (unless it’s complaining that we don’t support enough torture and mass executions of journalists and LGBQT peace activists here in the states, or that we don’t terrorize enough Americans by flying planes into our buildings)”. Gillis stated on a podcast, “I took a principled stance”, while Maron quipped on his show, the WTF Podcast, “From the folks that brought you 9/11. Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don’t miss it!”. These comments are evident as to why the PIF has shelled out enormous finances to shed the Kingdom in a positive light. With such a continuously dodgy record and a seemingly endless cashflow, MBS is attempting to answer an age-old question: Can money really make anything go away?
In recent years, there has been a push by the media to celebrate the Kingdom’s social change, with the Riyadh comedy festival touted as a snapshot of the state’s progressivism. However, while the Saudi state might be rising in metrics such as tourism, sports, and entertainment, it still holds a firm place on human rights watch groups. Journalists and LGBTQ advocates are brutally suppressed, and migrant laborers are routinely mistreated. In addition, villages have been flattened with lethal force to make way for MBS’s futuristic city vision of NEOM. For these reasons, in addition to countless others, many people remain rightfully uncomfortable with the Kingdom’s increasingly welcome place in international media. It feels as if with each passing year, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has become less relevant, and with that comes increasingly egregious violations falling upon deaf ears and blind eyes.
On a personal note, as a New Yorker, I’ve met too many September 11th first responders and survivors, and seen too much archival coverage, to look at that country as an ally and not an adversary. This obviously isn’t a statement of animus toward the Saudi people; it’s just how I’ll always view the Kingdom to a certain extent.. Each internationally advertised extravaganza the state holds, therefore, I view with the same contempt as their last. While Pete Davidson might’ve technically gotten his reparatory sum off the bag they’ve given him for this event, these carnivals more greatly, frankly stand as one massive salivating loogie in the face of free speech advocates, September 11th victims, and human rights victims/advocates. It makes one wonder, perhaps if the Navy SEALS never got to Bin Laden, and he stayed in hiding a bit longer, then subsequently flashed some cash, could Osama too be embracing Dana White and President Trump at a UFC event? Or doing the introductory monologue for the state-sanctioned comedy festival? After all, in a world where another ex-Al-Qaeda associate attended the U.N. last week as Syria’s internationally endorsed president, this idea doesn’t seem that far-fetched. Money is the prime factor in the Saudi Kingdom’s rise to international acceptance and prominence; They’ve spoken with their wallets, and much of the world, including the United States, has responded with open arms and a friendly grin.
