Ansari appeared on the show in the midst of a raging controversy for being one of dozens of American comedians who performed at Saudi Arabia\u2019s state-sponsored comedy festival last month. <\/p>\n
Fans and industry peers have expressed their discontent with the comedy stars who appeared\u2014including Dave Chappelle<\/a>, Bill Burr<\/a>, Pete Davidson, and Kevin Hart. Critics say they are disgusted by the comedians\u2019 apparent endorsement of the country after its suspected role in the 2001 New York terrorist attacks and the murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi\u2014among other human rights abuses. <\/p>\n Jimmy Kimmel gave Ansari an opportunity to explain<\/a> why he chose to perform for the \u201cbrutal regime\u201d last week. <\/p>\n \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 at the time. He\u2019d tried to donate part of his performance fee to the Human Rights Watch, which turned down the offer<\/a> to avoid taking money from the regime. <\/p>\n Payments for the performances reportedly ranged between $375,000 and $1.6 million for just one set. Critics interpret the Riyadh Festival as another way for the oil-rich country to \u201cwhitewash\u201d its global reputation.<\/p>\n Poehler made herself part of the conversation on Tuesday by having Ansari on her podcast and declining to bring up the elephant in the room. <\/p>\n One YouTube user commented, \u201cJust a reminder, all these \u2018funny people\u2019\u2026 whitewashing is what they got paid for, NOT the comedy.\u201d <\/p>\n One comment hit lower, \u201cWhy is anyone here expecting Amy to be an intellectually courageous person Re: Saudi festival?\u201d <\/p>\n As Poehler\u2019s show title suggests, however, Good Hang has consistently stayed away from more difficult subject matter since its debut in March.<\/p>\n As one disgruntled fan pointed out, Ansari is not the first Good Hang guest who was slated to perform at the festival. Zarna Garg appeared on the show<\/a> in August, a month after<\/a> her participation was announced by Saudi Arabia\u2019s Entertainment Authority. Garg was one of just a handful of women who performed at the controversial event. One of the others, the openly queer Jessica Kirson, responded to criticism by expressing \u201csincere regret\u201d<\/a> about her participation.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just international affairs that Poehler avoids for her guests\u2019 comfort. When Poker Face star Natasha Lyonne appeared on Poehler\u2019s show in June amid backlash to her generative A.I. studio, the host uttered nary a word about it, though she frequently asks guests what they\u2019re working on. <\/p>\n Poehler\u2019s decision to avoid controversy on Tuesday didn\u2019t seem to do Ansari any favors. <\/p>\n \u201cI would\u2019ve been more excited for this episode if it had come out before we knew Aziz was fine with taking blood money from murderous slave owners,\u201d read one of many similar comments on YouTube, despite the episode\u2019s light-hearted tone. <\/p>\n Another person wrote, \u201c I don\u2019t respect anyone that takes Saudi state money. It was a state funded festival designed to whitewash and gaslight the world to thinking they\u2019re not all bad, to create better tourism, to pretend they\u2019re actually not doing all that horrible s\u2013-t they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amy Poehler is getting some fierce pushback from fans who are not happy she had her Parks and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49201,15892,49,48,361,75,103971],"class_list":{"0":"post-214527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-amy-poehler","9":"tag-aziz-ansari","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-saudia-arabia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214527","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=214527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"JIMMY](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3RFV2X4HBRB6RM5FYPAG54TNQM.jpg\")
Ansari explains himself to Jimmy Kimmel. \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 Randy Holmes\/Disney via Getty Images <\/p>\n![\"Actor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ZQAIHANZIVFJVBOIO6HGQZUURU.jpg\")
Then \u201dParks and Recreation\u201d co-stars Aziz Ansari (L) and Amy Poehler arrive at the 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on Sept. 18, 2016, in Los Angeles, California. John Shearer\/WireImage <\/p>\n