Eddie Pepitone Won't Give A Pass To Riyadh Comics

“I've been a fucking political comic for so many years, way before this Trump bullshit,” veteran comedian Eddie Pepitone told me last week. “I've been calling out the oligarchs and corporate fucking power for a long time.”

So when Pepitone clobbered the comedians who performed at the Riyadh Comedy Festival last month, it wasn’t just another comic podcaster stirring up controversy for views. “The Saudi regime is fucking brutal,” he said. “I mean, that whole thing about dismembering a journalist and taking him out of that fucking embassy or whatever in a suitcase. Man, I was like, really? You're gonna go over there and fucking take their blood money?”

His comments echoed earlier criticism on his podcast, Apocalypse Soon. “These comics are going to Riyadh because they were offered a ton of money. But (Dave) Chappelle? I expect someone like Aziz Ansari to do it, but Chappelle? Bill Burr? Bill has been so good calling out different corporate stuff and media stuff. And now, he’s going to go shill for some brutal, oppressive regime?”

Pepitone couldn’t help but shine a light on the irony. “The free speech comics are doing this festival where there is no free speech.”

The long-time stand-up pointed out that things aren’t much better back home. “At this point, performing in America is like — Jesus Christ, the fascism going on here. It's very scary here now.”

Pepitone, whose father was a union leader, doesn’t have much patience for conservative comedy. “I'll just dismiss right-wing comics. I fucking dismiss them, because they're not funny,” he says. “I really believe that old adage that a comic should be fucking standing up for the little guy, like punching up. Don't punch down. I really fucking believe that.”

To make his point, Pepitone pointed to one of his comedy heroes. “George Carlin is my fucking idol for that,” he said. “Have you seen these clips that go around now that we are in a complete fucking meltdown as a society?”

Pepitone didn’t name specific clips, but it’s not hard to find Carlin videos that argue for punching up. While Carlin said he’d fight to the death for Andrew Dice Clay’s right to tell any jokes he wanted, he criticized Clay for using underdogs as his targets. “Comedy has traditionally picked on people in power, people who abuse their power,” Carlin told Larry King during a CNN interview. “Women and gays and immigrants are, to my way of thinking, underdogs.”

Pepitone’s criticisms can make it awkward when he runs into those comics at the Comedy Store or other venues. “I can still be friends with them,” he says. But when they do things like accept gigs in Riyadh? “I call them out.”