Dave Chappelle and the Saudi Royal Family Deserve Each Other

In his newest Netflix special, Dave Chappelle seemed to argue that Saudi Arabia is a safer place for his comedy than America because they don’t have cancel culture and they share his feelings on the transgender community.

Back in early October, Chappelle and the rest of the American stand-up A-list flew out to the Saudi Arabian capital to perform in the Riyadh Comedy Festival, a multi-weekend entertainment extravaganda funded by the Saudi Royal Family and organized by the government minister who has an entire wing in the Riyadh jail named after him due to how many political prisoners he holds there. 

The excuses of the Riyadh Comedy Festival participants ran the gamut from high-minded, George-Bush-esque notions of bringing Western democratic values to the Middle East, to whataboutist accusations of racism against critics and to Chappelle’s bizarre claim that, in a country where tweeting a mean joke about a government official could lead to incarceration and torture, comedians like himself are actually more free to speak their minds without fear of backlash from the woke mob.

Chappelle doubled down on that stance in his newly released Netflix special, The Unstoppable, even joking that his controversial and constant mockery of trans people was well-received by the Riyadh audience. Given the Saudi government's stance on both their own critics LGBTQ+ people, maybe Chappelle's American fans shouldn't be surprised that he finds the regressive and fragile regime to be a better audience than themselves.

Towards the end of the surprise-dropped special, which, curiously, Chappelle shot in his hometown of Washington, D.C. and not in Riyadh, Chappelle dedicated one of his signature extended serious moments to lashing out at critics of the Riyadh Comedy Festival while adding little to his defense that he hadn't already made clear. 

Specifically addressing the most infamous line from his set at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, Chappelle stated, “I didn’t tell them to put this in the paper. I just said it on stage. I said, ‘It’s easier to talk in Saudi Arabia for me than it is in America.'"

“Oh, I stand 10 toes on that," Chappelle insisted, "Don’t forget what I just went through. Two years ago, I almost got canceled right here in the United States for transgender jokes.” 

Then, the punchline – “But I gotta tell you something, transgender jokes went over very well in Saudi Arabia.”

Anyone familiar with the treatment of the LGBTQ+ community in Saudi Arabia knows that trans people can be beaten, imprisoned, tortured and murdered for their identities. Homosexuality is illegal in the country, as is gender reassignment surgery and dressing in ways that don't reflect one's assigned sex at birth.

Similarly, critics of the Riyadh Comedy Festival know that, in order to secure his no-doubt-exorbitant appearance fee at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, Chappelle had to sign a censorship contract guaranteeing that he would not joke about Saudi Arabian culture, religion or politics, and he would not utter a single word about the Saudi Royal Family.

But ultimately, Chappelle doesn't care about any of that, because none of it prohibits him from performing his comedy his way. Plus, as an obscenely wealthy and decorated artist who considers criticism of his comedy to be a civil rights issue, Chappelle clearly empathizes with the Saudi Royal Family's draconian treatment of dissent.

Sadly for Chappelle, here in America (and, at least, for the time being), trans people are allowed to dress however they want, and anyone is allowed to hop on Twitter and tell him that his new special is the most low-energy, self-aggrandizing hour of recycled slop that he's ever released. As such, he should probably switch to a Saudi Arabian streaming service for his next nine-figure distribution deal.