Human Rights Watch Issues Plea for Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle and Kevin Hart to Cancel on Saudi Arabian Comedy Festival

When Bill Burr returns from his upcoming abroad show and says that he “killed,” the appropriate reaction will be, “Which journalist?”

In less than two weeks, the biggest names in English-speaking stand-up comedy will fly to Saudi Arabia and perform in the Riyadh Comedy Festival as part of the country’s ongoing Saudi Vision 2030 campaign to improve its global image and rebrand its capital city as a global entertainment destination. The country that gave us the architects, perpetrators and bank-rollers of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will soon play host to the likes of Burr, Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Gabriel Iglesias, Tom Segura, Louis C.K., Whitney Cummings, Sam Morril, Mark Normand and more as the Saudi Arabian Royal Family passes out exorbitant paychecks in exchange for the comedy A-list’s help in changing the international headlines about Saudi Arabia, which have long been dominated by the state executions of journalists, the mass murder of migrant women and children and the rampant, unchecked and unrepentant use of torture in the Saudi Arabian legal system.

In response to Burr and his buddies’ full-throated endorsement of the billionaire despots who boast one of the worst human rights records of any country on the planet, the nonprofit watchdog group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has publicly asked the comedians to reconsider their planned performances in Riyadh, urging them not to be “complicit in covering up the abuses of a repressive regime,” or to at least speak out about the abuses of their new masters after the checks clear. 

Burr and company have yet to respond to the HRW’s request, which comes as no surprise — speaking truth to power pays less than speaking power to truth. 

“The Saudi government has invested billions into high-profile entertainment events like these in a deliberate effort to whitewash the country’s human rights record and deflect from the egregious abuses that continue to happen inside of the country,” Human Rights Watch researcher Joey Shea told CBS News of Saudi Vision 2030, “These investments are a part of the broader strategy to ... have people thinking about a comedy event, for example, rather than the soaring number of executions that are happening inside of the country.”

The HRW wants to specifically highlight the state execution of journalist Turki Al-Jasser back in June, as Shea noted of the impact that events like the Riyadh Comedy Festival have had on emboldening the Saudi regime to kill its critics, “This execution of a journalist went forward to very little international criticism, and this is clearly a result of these billions that had been invested in the country’s whitewashing strategy.”

So, while comedians like Burr have been earning adoration and attention for calling out the bad behavior of billionaires in America, the Saudi Royal Family has been dumping billions and billions of dollars into sporting events like LIV Golf and artistic endeavors like the Riyadh Comedy Festival, all while committing horrific acts of cruelty that will only go unpunished without any international outcry.

Shea also made a point to explain how, given Saudi Arabia’s strict legal limits on acceptable speech, the starring comedians will have to agree to strict rules regarding any comments made about or directed toward Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, a far cry from Chappelle’s self-branding as a martyr for the freedom of speech.

Meanwhile, there is at least one American A-lister who didn’t need the HRW to tell them that performing at the behest of the Saudi Royal family is morally unconscionable: Shane Gillis. Before his colleagues began to catch flak for booking the Riyadh festival, the Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast co-host revealed that he had been approached by the festival organizers but immediately turned down the offer, saying of the hosts of the state-funded propaganda festival, “Weren't those the 9/11 guys?”