{"id":211050,"date":"2025-10-09T06:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211050\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T06:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:21:09","slug":"aziz-ansari-defends-riyadh-gig-plans-to-donate-part-of-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/211050\/","title":{"rendered":"Aziz Ansari Defends Riyadh Gig, Plans To Donate Part Of Fee"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAziz Ansari<\/a> is the latest comedian to defend to controversial decision to perform at Saudi Arabia\u2019s debut Riyadh Comedy Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Golden Globe winner said his decision to perform at the festival was \u201csomething I put a lot of thought into,\u201d noting his Muslim background and recounting a conversation he had with 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 the worst behavior of the government onto those people, that\u2019s not fair,\u201d said Ansari. \u201cJust like there\u2019s people in America that don\u2019t agree with the things the government is doing.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnsari said he never dealt with any Saudi leaders directly. \u201cI was just there to do a show for the people,\u201d he explained, recalling a discussion he had with his wife about the decision.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhenever there\u2019s repressive societies like this, they try to keep things out, whether it\u2019s rock-and-roll music or blue jeans, because it makes people curious about outside ideas, outside values,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd 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<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Parks and Recreation alum added, \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\tAnsari noted that he had a talk with his team about donating part of his fee to organizations like Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI share the concerns that people have brought up, and it\u2019s all valid,\u201d said Ansari, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s a complicated issue, but I felt like it\u2019s something that pushing things in the right direction, I hope.\u201d <\/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, Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Hannibal Buress, Jack Whitehall, 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":"Aziz Ansari is the latest comedian to defend to controversial decision to perform at Saudi Arabia\u2019s debut Riyadh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[26771,88,108029],"class_list":["post-211050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-aziz-ansari","tag-entertainment","tag-riyadh-comedy-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211050","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=211050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}