Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka has revealed why she turned down a gig at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival after several stars agreed to perform despite backlash due to the country’s controversial human rights record.
Okatsuka took to social media on Friday to share screenshots of an offer she received in July that outlined “content restrictions” for the festival.
The alleged stipulation involved not performing material “that may be considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule” Saudi Arabia, the Saudi royal family and any “religion, religious tradition, religious figure, or religious practice.”
“The money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, ppl with nonlethal drug offenses, bloggers, etc without due process,” wrote Okatsuka of the festival that Human Rights Watch warned was an attempt to whitewash the Saudi government’s “serious rights abuses.”
Okatsuka continued, “A lot of the ‘you can’t say anything anymore!’ Comedians are doing the festival 😂 they had to adhere to censorship rules about the types of jokes they can make.”
The Riyadh Comedy Festival, which began on Friday and is scheduled to continue through Oct. 9, is set to include appearances by Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart, Bill Burr, Aziz Ansari, Louis C.K., Wayne Brady, Jo Koy and Gabriel Iglesias.
Okatsuka is among several comedians who have turned down invitations, including Mike Birbiglia, Leslie Liao and Stavros Halkias.
Others, like David Cross, Shane Gillis and Marc Maron, have slammed their peers for participating in the festival. Maron, the host of the “WTF” podcast, called out the event during a recent stand-up set.
“I mean, how do you even promote that? You know, like ’From the folks that brought you 9/11. Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don’t miss it!” quipped the “WTF” podcast host in an Instagram clip.
Gillis revealed on his podcast that the festival’s organizers “doubled the bag” for him to perform after he initially turned it down.
“It was a significant bag, but I’d already said no,” he said. “I took a principled stand.”
Cross wrote that he was “disgusted, and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing,” in a post to social media on Monday.
“That people I admire, with unarguable talent, would condone this totalitarian fiefdom for…what, a fourth house? A boat? More sneakers?” he wrote.
“We can never again take seriously anything these comedians complain about (unless it’s complaining that we don’t support enough torture and mass executions of journalists and LGBQT peace activists here in the states, or that we don’t terrorize enough Americans by flying planes into our buildings).”
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