Patton Oswalt Has Terse Message For Riyadh Comedians

Patton Oswalt raised his hand and admitted he wasn’t offered big dollars to appear at the Riyadh Comedy Festival. “And like Marc Maron so eloquently said, it's very easy to judge when you have not gotten the invite,” he said this week on the Daily Beast’s Last Laugh podcast. But he does understand the temptations of selling out one’s personal beliefs in exchange for a fatter bank account. 

“Without tooting my own horn, I've been offered similar things,” he said, including an offer to do voiceover work for a defense contractor ten years ago. “And it was amazing money.”

Oswalt turned down the cash, knowing that the work was “going to blast chunks out of my soul if I take it.” There are lots of chances to participate in whitewashing “evil regimes, both overseas and here,” but Oswalt wants no part of them. He also knows plenty of comics, big and small, who turned down the Riyadh invite for similar soul-saving reasons.

Look to Maron, David Cross and Atsuko Okatsuka for eloquent explanations of why “no” was the right answer to Riyadh, said Oswalt. “It shouldn't even be a moral wrestling match. It should be pretty easy, you know,” he said. “That whole incident was so ugly because people that I love went over there, man.”

Why did they go? The simplest explanation was summed up by a line from Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game, Oswalt said: “The worst thing about life is that everyone has their reasons.” (Not an exact quote from the film, but close enough.)

Everyone has their reasons, but “the thing that was tough was that it was so clear that the reason for most of these people, or all these people, was money.” 

The money grab made it all the more galling when comics like Bill Burr returned with rationalizations about promoting cultural exchange. “Definitely top three experiences I’ve had,” he said on his Monday Morning Podcast. “I think it’s going to lead to a lot of positive things.”

Sure, Bill, and your set had nothing to do with a paycheck rumored to be in the millions. “Bridging the divide between cultures and all this bullshit didn't really pass the smell test,” Oswalt said. “I just get so sad when I think about that.”

Performing at Riyadh was about a big payday, and the comics should own it. Why not just “take the money and try to do something good with it,” Oswalt suggested. “Go do something good with it, and move on.”

In the meantime, save all the ethical justifications about bringing enlightened Western culture to the Saudi people. Oswalt has a succinct bit of advice for all the Riyadh comics:

“Take the money and shut the fuck up.”