The Sad Spectacle of American Comedians Selling Out in Saudi Arabia

“Royals loved the show,” said Bill Berr, recently a hired Judge Jester for Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (known as MBS), in his podcast on Monday. “Everyone was happy.”

This is a relief, because the last people in Saudi Arabia that you want, unhappy with you, is the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Barr has just returned from the comedy festival in Er -iad, who claims to be the largest in the world. It works from September 26 to October 5, in case you are in the vicinity, and Louis K.K., Pete Davidson, Dave Chappel, Kevin Hart and many others, who received significant tricks to play clowns for the clown’s birthday, can boast.

“They are the same as we!” Barr assured his listeners. You cannot be too angry at Berra for saying that the hereditary monarchs of the house of Sauds, because this is what they paid for: normalizing the terrible image of Saudi Arabia throughout the world-image, which is especially well-deserved in the field of human rights. The abuse of the abuse, which the Saudis have in their constant recording, is staggering. Saudi courts to execute journalists for tweets, and MBS, his ruling Crown Prince, shamefully ordered the murder Washington Post Writer Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi Arabia regime allows modern slavery, executions on non -violent crimes, such as adultery and blasphemy, and also not in cases as homosexuality. One blogger, Reyf BadaviHe received a sentence of 1000 eyelashes and 10 years in prison for “offensive Islam” and founded an online site for political debate. “Under the progressive, brilliant image that Saudi Arabia is trying to present to the world, the terrible stories about abuses and violations”, the acting deputy director of Amnesty International in the Middle East and North Africa, Diana Seman, saidThe field “The world will not be fed by Sham Fanfara.”

The Saudis understand that – and the organizers of the comedy festival in Er -Riyada made efforts so that none of the performers refer to daily horrors under brilliance. Each signed contract came with List of prohibited topics Not to mention the scene. Barr assured his listeners that festival copper was adapted when he pushed some restrictions. “They just agreed on this to the end,” he said, “to love, you can talk about something, except for a couple of things, which, as you know, basically do not laugh at the members of the royal family.”

In Saudi Arabia, there is a main partnership between the fundamentalist sect of Sunni Islam and the royal family and the royal family – an alliance, which is a general leadership between the royal family and the Wahabists for almost 300 years. The main agreement was to raise the state legislation of the extreme decrees of Vahabism, such as executions for witchcraft and witchcraft, or the requirement that women have guardians with legal rights to their decisions. In exchange, the Saudi monarchy claims to rule moral power.

Since 2017, the MBS has distance the government from its religious sponsors and called it the “reform”, but the consolidation of secular power is still allowing the brutal murder of Khashoggi at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. In other words, the Barr mentions these “pair of things” as spent topics in their set – religion and royal families – represent all this “talking truth about power” that they love to do because no one has any power in Saudi Arabia.

Burr has Make a ridicule The idea of ​​comedians “tell the truth to power”, but he also often used this American pastime – how and when he Joe Rogan Academy For his distrust in the style of Mach against masks and vaccines, ridicuating America Epidemic of billionairesOr ridiculously ridiculed Frightened insurance industry The murder of Luigi Mangion of the General Director of Health. He is sincerely outraged that people are dying from the solutions of an elite class billionaire, so it is difficult to observe how he accidentally discards him.

Comics are not responsible for telling the truth of the authorities. Rodney Dangerfield would not be funny to talk about school executions or 9/11, but he did not build a career. When you do this, and then go to Er -Riyad, the audience is not mistaken to ask what you really care about. How can Berr count on billionaires here, insisting on the fact that the Saudi royal family there is “the same as we”?

The list of massive, ironic self-governing, these comics, just picked up in Riyadh, is impressive. Barr himself once went on Beyonca as a woman who hugs feminism, but flew to Libya to speak for his late leader of the femaleman Mommy El-Dhafi. Chappel criticized Israel on gas, but simply took money from the country that supported the civil war in Yemen, which called The death of hunger is at least 85,000 children And killed Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni civiliansThe field in 2014, Hannibal Burress, went for Bill Cosby for his criticism of young black men and said out loud that many knew, but were afraid to say: that Cosby was a serial rapist. Journalism was limited in the fact that he could say about Cosby, because she has rules. Law enforcement agencies were limited in what he could do because he had rules. No comedians, and Burress The beginning of the final fall in CosbeField

Dave Chappel opposed the culture of cancellation and defended freedom of speech in the United States, because the public and especially social networks criticized him for his views on Jews, trans -communities and homosexuals. He claimed that this did his work Very difficultThe field in Saudi Arabia, whose citizens have no freedom of speech, and whose government proves its point of view every day, he gladly signed freedom of speech to the regime that sends you to prison for insulting Islam. Perhaps he persuaded them to the same freedom of speech as Berr. If only the trans -activists knew what size they checked on Chappella, they could plug it many years ago and save all the picket in Netflix.

The festival of the comedy festival in Er -iad is only one front on the great efforts of Saudi Arabia to defeat its national image in the world arena. This is a real agenda, standing behind such events as the ER -ryada festival -Saudi leaders using their autocratic power and great wealth to buy respectability in the West. They brought Formula 1 Formula 1 to Saudi America and began their own world -class golf tournament. They recently announced Significant investments in films with universal and Colombian picturesClearly modeled in large investment partnerships of China with Disney. Partnerships work two ways, however, what Disney found out when he did China did not like itField

Some comics learned the same before they got to Er -ryad. The subcaster Tim Dillon accepted $ 375,000 registered there, which the producers of the event were canceled when he said: “They pay me enough to look in the other direction.” Jim Jeffris said On Podkasta, Theo von: “One reporter was killed [Saudi] The government is unfortunately, but not a damn hill on which I will die. ” Guess that-Jaffris in any case died there because he disappeared from advertising in the composition, even mentioning the murder of Khashoggi, such as the festival in Riyadh.

The Just Jester parade in Er -iad will not mean much for the career of most of these comics. No one will lose a Hollywood deal for a film or show, and, with Saudi money in Hollywood, some can come home to new transactions. All that they have lost is some kind of trust in reading the right and wrong to read again. But this real loss is the reason why Donald Trump hates comedians so much. When they transferred their authority to MBS, they also handed it over here and for free.

Ricky Zherve Once it is said The crowd of award shows: “If ISIS has launched the streaming service, most of you would call your agent.” Give a person a loan – he was largely right.