Dear Gossips,  

Big news over the weekend, which is that Disney’s two largest ABC affiliates, Nexstar and Sinclair Media, both gave up on their blackouts of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Just a stunning goose egg for both companies, as they tucked tail and slunk away from a free speech fight from which they got nothing except becoming Batman-level villains in the public consciousness. Notably, none of Sinclair’s “requirements” to put Kimmel back on air were met—he didn’t apologize or donate to anyone. Kimmel’s finishing move should be to make a donation to the ACLU and/or the Institute for Free Speech just to draw a line under the whole ordeal.

 

But that wasn’t the only free speech news this weekend, as the Riyadh Comedy Festival kicked off in Saudi Arabia, which includes sets by Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Jimmy Carr, Tom Segura, Gabriel Iglesias, Kevin Hart, Whitney Cummings, Hannibal Buress (this one hurts), Pete Davidson—the biggest WTF on the list—Louis CK, Sebastian Maniscalco, and others. Defector put it best: All your favorite sellouts will be at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

 

There has been a lot of talk about the Riyadh fest in the comedy community for the last few months, most of it on podcasts. But now that the event is happening and more is coming out about who said yes, who said no, and what the contract to perform might entail, I think one thing is clear—this is a stain no one will rinse out easily. The comics who said yes will have a hard time explaining this, no matter how much they try to simplify it. Tim Dillon at least had the grace to just admit that “they’re paying me enough money to look the other way.” Dillon was ultimately “fired” from performing in Saudi Arabia after making jokes about the government and slavery on, where else, his podcast.

 

Atsuko Okatsuka is in the “no” camp, and on Threads she shared screenshots of her (alleged) offer to perform, which included “content restrictions” around the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the royal family, the legal system and government, and ANY religion or religious tradition, figure, or practice. 

Atsuko Okatsuka on Threads
 

A bunch of people who did say yes, by the way, are in the “you just can’t say anything anymore” camp. Bill Burr has been one of the most prominent critics of cancel culture over the years, often pointing out hypocrisy and disingenuousness, particularly among liberals, on the subject. But Bill Burr performed his headlining set on Friday night in Riyadh, so what do we call that? He’s such a “hardcore” truth-teller, he’s so against cancel culture, but he took that deal that if Atsuko Okatsuka’s offer documents are real—and there’s no reason to believe they’re not—means he willingly agreed to limit his own speech, to voluntarily create boundaries around his own jokes, in exchange for money. That’s the only hypocrisy Bill Burr ever gets to joke about again, and he chose it for himself.  

A lot of the conversation around the Riyadh festival has been “whataboutism”, pointing out that America sucks, too, actually, so what’s the difference performing in one place or the other? Well, for one thing, comedy in America isn’t state sponsored. Half the reason people got so upset about Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert is because television networks bowing to government pressure smacks too much of state-sponsored interference. But the other, arguably more important and definitely simpler stance is this: If you believe everything is bad, then you have to ask, “what is worse”. If everything is bad, when does “bad” become “worse”? Where is THAT line?

 

Comedian Gianmarco Soresi—notably NOT invited to perform in Riyadh—put it this way, on his podcast, of course:

“There’s lines to be drawn. […] You are, in fact, taking money not to do comedy. […] They are paying for you to put your face on the poster and say, Hey, they agreed to come here, we can’t be THAT bad, and that allows them to not confront, globally, the consequences of human rights abuses. You are propaganda.”

Things are not great in America, I admit, but you can (still) criticize the government here. You’ll likely face more government pushback than normal because of it, but there is (still) an equally likely chance the government will capitulate in the face of public pressure defending your right to say those things. It’s not perfect, it IS bad, but there also exists worse. The Riyadh Comedy Festival is worse. 

I can’t believe this is where we’re at in the year 2025, but Shane Gillis gets the last word: “It was a significant bag, but I’d already said no. I took a principled stand.”

Running his mouth has gotten Shane Gillis in trouble in the past—worth mentioning he’s one of the top touring comics today entirely because of his “cancel culture” moment in 2019—but if even HE can see the line in the sand which YOU crossed, you know you’ve lost your way. When Shane Gillis has the moral high ground, you are truly in the wilderness.

Live long and gossip, 

Sarah

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