This week some of America’s most famous comedians are set to take the stage in Riyadh for the Saudi Comedy Festival. The lineup includes stand-up celebrities Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Gabriel Iglesias, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Tom Segura, Andrew Schultz, and more. But behind the humor and glitz, the festival is another chapter in Saudi Arabia’s playbook of using top-level entertainment to distract from its dismal human rights record.

The timing couldn’t be starker. The festival coincides not only with the seventh anniversary of the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by Saudi agents–a murder U.S. intelligence agencies concluded was approved by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). But it also comes as the freedom of speech has been increasingly under assault in the United States. 

Several of the participants, including Schulz, Segura, and Sam Morril spoke out in opposition to the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show. Even more to the point, many of the participants have used their platforms in recent years to criticize efforts to curtail free speech. Dave Chappelle has quipped, “The first amendment comes first for a reason.” Andrew Schulz has defended the right of comedians to be offensive without punishment. Whitney Cummings has even argued: “It’s our job to be fearless. It’s our job to push back and sometimes say things that we don’t mean or say things that we know are wrong and offensive, just to make sure that we’re not turning into some totalitarian country.” 

These are commendable positions in defense of a universal human right. But if they were Saudi citizens, they would all be in prison. Freedom of speech does not exist in Saudi Arabia. Public criticism of the regime can land you in prison for decades, or even cost you your life. Under MBS, Saudi Arabia is a totalitarian country. 

The comedy festival is part of a whitewashing strategy that human rights advocates have warned about in recent years. Saudi Arabia has poured billions into cultural and sporting spectacles, buying their way into the 2034 FIFA World Cup, signing soccer megastars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, and hosting Formula One races. Comedians are just the latest recruits in this campaign orchestrated by Turki al-Sheikh, head of the kingdom’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) and a chief architect of Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing and global image makeover. 

What’s attracting these entertainers? Huge, head-scratching sums of money. According to one industry source, comics in Riyadh are being offered between $315,000 and $375,000 per show–up to five times their usual rate in the United States. Some have been promised as much as $1.6 million, according to Tim Dillon, a comic who was axed from the festival after he made jokes about Saudi Arabia’s treatment of migrant workers. 

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s repression deepens. As of August, Saudi Arabia had already executed more than 240 people this year alone, many on nonviolent drug charges in trials marred by due process violations. The American comics heading to Riyadh might pause to consider that only three months ago Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser was executed for exercising his right to free speech in the same satirical way that they do on stage. Writing under the Twitter handle Kashkoul (Journal) al-Jasser took aim at corruption, mocked MBS, and dubbed GEA Chairman al-Sheikh “Tutu the Buffoon.” For his criticisms, he was arrested, held for nearly seven years in abusive detention, and ultimately put to death. 

While the kingdom has released some political prisoners in recent months, it still imprisons thousands for peaceful dissent. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a humanitarian aid worker and the brother and son of U.S citizens, also remains behind bars over his satirical Twitter account that mocked the Saudi religious establishment.  

While they are in Riyadh, Chappelle, Hart, Burr, and their peers might also spare a thought for Saad Almadi, an ailing 75-year-old fellow American from Florida who has been trapped in Saudi Arabia for nearly four years. His crime? Posting 14 tweets critical of the Saudi government years ago when he was living in the United States. For this, he remains barred from returning home and reuniting with his family. 

For these comedians, a Riyadh payday may feel like just another gig. However, there is nothing harmless in lending star power to a regime that restricts Saudis from participating in comedy as a profession, silences journalists, jails activists, and carries out mass executions. Fellow comedian Jon Stewart arguably said it best during his acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in 2022 where many participating in the Saudi festival were in attendance:

“It’s not the woke police that are going to be an existential threat to comedy. It’s not the Fresh Prince, it’s the Crown Prince. It’s not the fragility of audiences, it’s the fragility of leaders…When a society is under threat, comedians are the ones who get sent away first. It’s just a reminder to people that democracy is under threat. Authoritarians are the threat to comedy, to art, to music, to thought, to poetry, to progress.”

By stepping on stage in Riyadh they are becoming part of the kingdom’s machinery of repression. Saudi Arabia isn’t buying comedy, it’s buying silence—and there’s nothing funny about blood money.