{"id":198988,"date":"2025-10-09T02:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T02:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198988\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T02:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T02:01:06","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-grills-aziz-ansari-on-riyadh-comedy-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/198988\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel Grills Aziz Ansari on Riyadh Comedy Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn his late-night talk show Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> pressed Aziz Ansari<\/a> for performing at the controversial, state-sponsored Riyadh Comedy Festival<\/a> in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is something that\u2019s become a big part of the news because people, a lot of comedians especially, are very upset, because the people who paid the comedians to come to this are not good people. It\u2019s a pretty brutal regime. They\u2019ve done a lot of horrible, horrible things,\u201d Kimmel said of the Islamic regime led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPeople are questioning why you would go over there and take their money to perform in front of these people,\u201d Kimmel added. \u201cI\u2019m curious as to why you decided to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnsari said the decision to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival was \u201csomething I put a lot of thought into,\u201d and he sought out advice from his aunt who used to live in Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s people over there that don\u2019t agree with the stuff that the government\u2019s doing, and to ascribe like the worst behavior of the government onto those people, that\u2019s not fair,\u201d Ansari said. \u201cJust like there\u2019s people in America that don\u2019t agree with the things the government is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel agreed that \u201cwe\u2019re doing horrible things over here\u201d in the United States, but he pushed back on Ansari\u2019s comparison. \u201cThey murdered a journalist. These are not good people over there,\u201d Kimmel said, in reference to the 2018 state-sponsored murder of reporter Jamal Khashoggi. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnsari defended himself by saying, \u201cI was just there to do a show for the people.\u201d He added: \u201cWhenever there\u2019s repressive societies like this, they try to keep things out \u2014 whether it\u2019s rock and roll music or blue jeans \u2014 because it makes people curious about outside ideas, outside values. And this is a very young country, like half the country is under the age of 25, and things can really change. And to me, a comedy festival felt like something that\u2019s pushing things to be more open and to push a dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued, \u201cYou kind of have to make a choice of whether you\u2019re going to isolate or engage. For me, especially being me and looking the way I do and being from a Muslim background, it felt like something I should be a part of. And I hope it pushes things in a positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel is far from the first comedian to publicly raise skepticism about the Riyadh event, which runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 9 and also featured Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Louis C.K., Pete Davidson and many more American comedians on its lineup.<\/p>\n

\n\tMarc Maron was one of the first comics to criticize the Riyadh Comedy Festival<\/a>, quipping on his podcast: \u201cI mean, the same guy that\u2019s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a fucking suitcase.\u201d Shane Gillis said he took a \u201cprincipled stand\u201d and turned down a \u201csignificant bag\u201d to perform. (Sources told Variety that comedian paydays ranged from mid-six-figures up to $1.6 million for one show.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAtsuko Okatsuka revealed on X that she declined an offer to perform at Riyadh Comedy Festival, writing: \u201cThe money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, [people with non-lethal] drug offenses, bloggers, etc w\/out due process.\u201d She included screenshots of an offer letter including an alleged \u201ccontent restrictions\u201d section<\/a> meant to prohibit comedians from joking about the Saudi government, legal system or religious customs.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Cross penned a statement<\/a> slamming his comedy colleagues who participated in the festival, writing: \u201cHow can any of us take any of you seriously ever again? All of your bitching about \u2018cancel culture\u2019 and \u2018freedom of speech\u2019 and all that shit? Done. You don\u2019t get to talk about it ever again. By now we\u2019ve all seen the contract you had to sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, many high-profile comedians have defended their decision to play the festival. Burr called it<\/a> \u201cone of the top three experiences I\u2019ve had,\u201d saying \u201cthe royals loved the show.\u201d C.K. said it was a \u201cgood opportunity\u201d<\/a> and \u201ccomedy is a great way to get in and start talking.\u201d Chappelle quipped<\/a> onstage in Saudi Arabia that \u201cIt\u2019s easier to talk here than it is in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch Kimmel and Ansari\u2019s conversation below.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On his late-night talk show Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel pressed Aziz Ansari for performing at the controversial, state-sponsored…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15892,49,48,75,4592,90968],"class_list":["post-198988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-aziz-ansari","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-riyadh-comedy-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}