Dave Chappelle Tells Riyadh Comedy Fest ‘It’s Easier to Talk Here Than It Is in America’
“Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get canceled,” Dave Chappelle said Saturday at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, according to the New York Times. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out.”
Apparently, the talking went well. An audience of 6,000 whooped and applauded when Chappelle told them, “It’s easier to talk here than it is in America.”
Saudi comedy fans were wowed by Chappelle’s audacity. “I found it so interesting to hear political jokes targeting Trump and Charlie Kirk,” said 23-year-old fan Abdulrahman Mohammad. The dental student was surprised “to hear him talk about it in Riyadh, when just recently America canceled Jimmy Kimmel for doing the same.”
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Mohammad might be even more surprised to learn that America’s late-night hosts are making those same Trump jokes every night. Sure, the gags are controversial in some circles, but so far, the American government hasn’t made Chappelle or other comedians sign contracts promising not to tell jokes at its expense.
Chappelle can’t say the same thing about his Riyadh gig. Easier to talk about Charlie Kirk? Maybe. But as Atsuko Okatsuka recently revealed, it’s impossible to speak about a laundry list of other topics. She turned down the festival, but shared a festival contract that outlined several off-limits joke topics:
ARTIST shall not prepare or perform any material that may be considered to degrade, defame or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment or ridicule: A) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its leadership, public figures, culture or people; B) The Saudi royal family, legal system or government, and; C) Any religion, religious tradition, religious figure, or religious practice.
Nothing about those rules sounds “easy,” unless comics are willing to look the other way when they cash that check.
Riyadh Comedy Festival comics are finding that even more subjects are off-limits. When comedian Cipha Sounds started telling jokes about men sending dick pics, he noted the uncomfortable audience reaction. “Oh, sex jokes don’t land in Riyadh,” he told the crowd. “Got it.”
Chappelle, who has played the martyr card before, told his crowd that he now feared a return to the United States. “They’re going to do something to me so that I can’t say what I want to say,” he warned. But other than social media criticism about his propensity for trans jokes, the comic has never faced anything like actual retribution — unlike a Washington Post journalist who met a gruesome fate in a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey.
For his part, “Mr. Chappelle reveled in making uncouth jokes in Saudi Arabia,” according to the New York Times. Maybe he had such a great time because he didn’t make uncouth jokes about Saudi Arabia.
