{"id":192538,"date":"2025-09-30T15:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192538\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T15:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:21:07","slug":"david-cross-disgusted-by-comics-performing-at-riyadh-comedy-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/192538\/","title":{"rendered":"David Cross ‘Disgusted’ by Comics Performing at Riyadh Comedy Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Cross<\/a> has become the latest comedian to criticize his fellow comics for participating in Saudi Arabia<\/a>\u2018s Riyadh Comedy Festival.<\/p>\n

\n\tCross wrote a rather scathing open letter denouncing performers at the event, who are reportedly being paid top dollar while agreeing to a set of censorious guidelines regarding what they can and cannot joke about on stage. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe festival is being billed as \u201cthe world\u2019s largest comedy festival\u201d and includes more than 50 comedians \u2014 including Bill Burr<\/a>, Dave Chappelle<\/a>, Louis C.K.<\/a>, Jimmy Carr, Kevin Hart<\/a>, Pete Davidson<\/a>, Whitney Cummings<\/a> and Andrew Schulz<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tBut the Arrested Development and Mr. Show star did not hold back in his assessment of the situation. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am disgusted, and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing,\u201d wrote Cross<\/a> on his website. \u201cThat people I admire, with unarguable talent, would condone this totalitarian fiefdom for \u2026 what, a fourth house? A boat? More sneakers?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe can never again take seriously anything these comedians complain about (unless it\u2019s complaining that we don\u2019t support enough torture and mass executions of journalists and LGBTQ peace activists here in the states, or that we don\u2019t terrorize enough Americans by flying planes into our buildings),\u201d Cross continued. \u201cI mean that\u2019s it; you have a funny bit about how you don\u2019t like Yankee Candles or airport lounges? Okay great, but you\u2019re cool with murder and\/or the public caning of women who were raped, and by having the audacity to be raped, were guilty of \u2018engaging in adultery\u2019? Got any bits on that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCross added. \u201c\u201dThese are some of my HEROES! Now look, some of you folks don\u2019t stand for anything so you don\u2019t have any credibility to lose, but my god, Dave and Louie and Bill, and Jim? Clearly you guys don\u2019t give a shit about what the rest of us think, but how 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.\u00a0You\u2019re performing for literally, the most oppressive regime on earth \u2026 This is truly the definition of \u2018blood money\u2019 \u2026 your hypocrisy will never not be noted.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tComedian Atsuko Okatsuka \u2014 who turned down the festival\u2019s offer \u2014 posted the event\u2019s contract online<\/a>, which includes this bit: \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: A) 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

\n\tOther comedians who have criticized the festival\u2019s performers include WTF podcaster Marc Maron<\/a>, who said, \u201cI mean, how do you even promote that? You know, like, \u2018From the folks that brought you 9\/11. Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don\u2019t miss it!\u2019 I mean, the same guy that\u2019s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone saw [journalist] Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a fucking suitcase. But don\u2019t let that stop the yucks, it\u2019s gonna be a good time!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tComic Shane Gillis also criticized<\/a> the festival on his Secret Podcast after being offered \u201csignificant bag\u201d to attend. \u201cI took a principled stand. You don\u2019t 9\/11 your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this month, a federal judge in New York ruled that a lawsuit<\/a> by the families of 9\/11 victims could move forward against Saudi Arabia. The lawsuit accuses the kingdom of potential involvement in the 2001 terror attacks.<\/p>\n

\n\tDavidson\u2019s own firefighter father perished during 9\/11, yet he is participating in the festival anyway. According to USA Today<\/a>, during an appearance on Theo Von\u2019s podcast, Davidson explained that he was swayed by the paycheck. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been getting a little bit of flak just because my dad died (in) 9\/11,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cSo they\u2019re like, \u2018How could you possibly go there?\u2019 \u2026 I get the [flight] routing, and then I see the number, and I go, \u2018I\u2019ll go.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne comic, Tim Dillon, said he was fired from the comedy festival for his comments before it began last Friday for a previous joke he made about the country using forced labor (Dillon says his manager told him: \u201cThey heard what you said about them having slaves.\u00a0They didn\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/a>)\u00a0He also noted that his paycheck would\u2019ve been $375,000 \u2014 which gives you some idea of how much far more famous headliner comedians are pulling down. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Cross has become the latest comedian to criticize his fellow comics for participating in Saudi Arabia\u2018s Riyadh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[84288,107525,112026,62071,88,55676,112027,16238,13954,131,112028],"class_list":{"0":"post-192538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-andrew-schulz","9":"tag-bill-burr","10":"tag-dave-chappelle","11":"tag-david-cross","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-kevin-hart","14":"tag-louis-c-k","15":"tag-marc-maron","16":"tag-pete-davidson","17":"tag-saudi-arabia","18":"tag-whitney-cummings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192538","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=192538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}