{"id":185774,"date":"2025-09-27T17:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T17:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185774\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T17:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T17:28:07","slug":"atsuko-okatsuka-reveals-riyadh-comedy-fests-censorship-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/185774\/","title":{"rendered":"Atsuko Okatsuka Reveals Riyadh Comedy Fest’s “Censorship Rules”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith Saudi Arabia\u2019s star-studded debut comedy festival kicking off this weekend, comedian Atsuko Okatsuka<\/a> has revealed some of the event\u2019s strict terms. <\/p>\n

\n\tNoting she turned down a gig at the Riyadh Comedy Festival<\/a> over the summer, Okatsuka said the terms of her offer would have had her \u201cadhere to censorship rules\u201d about the kinds of joke she could make, revealing details of the Sela Group contract.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFYI there are more of us that said no to the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia. Here\u2019s the offer I got back in July,\u201d she wrote on Threads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, ppl with nonlethal drug offenses, bloggers, etc without due process. A lot of the \u2018you can\u2019t say anything anymore!\u2019 comedians are doing the festival,\u201d added Okatsuka with screenshots<\/a> of the contract. \u201cThey had to adhere to censorship rules about the types of jokes they can make.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the screenshots of the alleged contract states in its \u201cContent Restrictions\u201d section, \u201cARTIST shall not prepare or perform any material that may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule:<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture, or people; B) The Saudi royal family, legal system, or government, and; C) Any religion, religious tradition, religious figure, or religious practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Okatsuka redacted the fee from the offer email, other details revealed she was offered a 60-75 minute set at a venue that seats 600-900. And while the festival would provide two hotel rooms and local transportation, her team would be responsible for flights. She would have also been expected to promote the gig on social media.<\/p>\n

\n\tFellow comic Leslie Liao<\/a> commented on Okatsuka\u2019s post, \u201cI said no too. You inspired me (I got the offer after we talked about it). You were right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMike Birbiglia<\/a> wrote, \u201cI also passed. Respect to Atsuko and Shane [Gillis]<\/a> and others for passing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGillis also said on his Secret Podcast that he turned down a \u201csignificant bag<\/a>\u201d for an appearance at the festival, even after they doubled their offer. \u201cI took a principled stand. You don\u2019t 9\/11 your friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther comedians have recently called out their peers<\/a> who have agreed to perform, noting Saudi officials\u2019 roles in 9\/11 and the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as the human rights abuses committed by Saudi minister of entertainment, Turki Al-Sheikh, who is behind the festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tHuman Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea explained to CBS News<\/a>, \u201cThe Saudi government has invested billions into high profile entertainment events like these in a deliberate effort to whitewash the country\u2019s human rights record and deflect from the egregious abuses that continue to happen inside of the country.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese investments are a part of the broader strategy to\u2026 have people thinking about a comedy event, for example, rather than the soaring number of executions that are happening inside of the country,\u201d added Shea.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince Deadline exclusively announced the initial lineup<\/a> in July, the Riyadh Comedy Festival has grown to include Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Zarna Garg, Gabriel Iglesias, Jim Jefferies, Jo Koy, Bobby Lee, Jeff Ross, Andrew Santino, Tom Segura, Chris Tucker and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Saudi Arabia\u2019s star-studded debut comedy festival kicking off this weekend, comedian Atsuko Okatsuka has revealed some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[109208,88,109209,109210,108029],"class_list":["post-185774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-atsuko-okatsuka","tag-entertainment","tag-leslie-liao","tag-mike-birbiglia","tag-riyadh-comedy-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}