Comedian Shane Gillis turned down a “significant” payout from Saudi Arabia over its human rights abuses—a payout a litany of other comics found irresistible.
The Sept. 26 Riyadh Comedy Festival will feature a who’s who among comedians, including Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and Aziz Ansari. But Gillis turned down an invitation, noting on Secret Podcast that most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
“I’m not doing it. Then they doubled the bag,” Gillis said. “It was a significant bag. But I’d already said no. I took a principled stand.”
“You don’t 9/11 your friends,” he added.
That stance is a far cry from other comedians like Jim Jefferies, who shrugged off the fact that Saudi Arabia has killed journalists, while baselessly claiming that the United States has done the same.
“There’s been a reporter who they killed. You don’t think our government has fucking bumped people? I think Jeffrey Epstein was fucking bumped off,” Jefferies said on fellow comedian Theo Von’s podcast. Killing a journalist is “not a fucking hill that I’m gonna die on,” he added.
He also justified his attendance by arguing that the comedy festival was a win for free speech, arguing that comedians are “freedom of speech machines.”
His comments and commitment to the festival stand in stark contrast with his prior comments surrounding President Donald Trump, who he’s cast as an authoritarian and compared to Adolf Hitler.
“Give [Trump] a fucking chance, mate,” Jefferies said in February 2017 on Real Time With Bill Maher. “Hitler didn’t kill the Jews on the first day. He worked up to it.”
Saudi Arabia’s comedy festival is Riyadh’s latest effort to recast its image. In 2021, for example, it launched LIV Golf, which offered major golf stars large sums to defect from the PGA Tour.
Comedian Whitney Cummings apparently saw the writing on the wall and started begging Saudi Arabia to “buy” her in 2023.
“In September I’m performing in Saudi Arabia – fingers crossed they buy me,” she wrote in a July 23 post with a link to buy tickets to the Saudi show.
On the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, comedian Stavros Halkias said he declined the Saudis’ offer. Chris Distefano replied that he “didn’t want to do it either” and was leaning against it—until his fiancée stepped in.
“Then Jasmine was like, we’re getting married, we got the house … ‘you’re gonna take that fucking money,'” he said, recognizing the human rights issues while joking that his wife would come back headless if she went with him.
Halkias added that “all entertainment money is blood money.”
“It’s like, do you want to take it from them or do you want to take it from someone who’s probably sexually assaulted millions of people?” Distefano replied.
Mark Normand admitted he was just in it for the money.
“I’m going in and out,” Normand said on an episode of We Might Be Drunk. “Just to get that paycheck.”
Jessica Kirson, a gay Jewish comedian, agreed, saying she’d “love to go there and do stand up,” but added that she “wouldn’t do gay material there at all.”
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