<\/p>\n
Dave Chappelle via Netflix<\/p>\n
Comedian Dave Chappelle<\/strong> took a swing at the United States during a set at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Chappelle performed for an audience of 6,000 this week as a headline act for the festival, the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. The festival has already received plenty of backlash<\/a>, with critics citing Saudi Arabia\u2019s lack of civil liberties and rights.<\/p>\n Comedians like Kevin Hart<\/strong> and Bill Burr<\/strong> are performing<\/a> at the festival, while others have revealed they turned down big paydays. Shane Gillis<\/strong> said he rejected a \u201csignificant bag\u201d to appear at the festival, calling it a \u201cprincipled stand.\u201d The festival began on Sept. 26 and runs through Oct. 9.<\/p>\n During Chappelle\u2019s set, he knocked the United States and said it was \u201ceasier\u201d to talk in Saudi Arabia, citing people getting \u201ccanceled\u201d for \u201ctalking\u201d about Charlie Kirk<\/strong>. Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel<\/strong> faced a brief suspension<\/a> by his network after a comment related to the recent assassination of the conservative activist.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you\u2019ll get canceled,\u201d Chappelle told the Saudi crowd, according<\/a> to The New York Times<\/em>. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true, but I\u2019m gonna find out.\u201d<\/p>\n The comedian added, \u201cIt\u2019s easier to talk here than it is in America.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times<\/em> reported that political humor, especially aimed at the United States, appeared to go over well at the festival, while anything that leaned into sexual humor did not.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, sex jokes don\u2019t land in Riyadh. Got it,\u201d Cipha Sounds<\/strong> reportedly said after making a joke about air-dropping nudes and getting a lukewarm reception.<\/p>\n Human rights activists have noted that the comedy festival is occurring at the same time the Saudi government is cracking down<\/a> on free speech. Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka<\/strong> came forward and revealed<\/a> she turned down an offer to perform. She also provided alleged details from the contract, which prohibits \u201cany material considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule\u201d Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n The post Dave Chappelle Slams U.S. Free Speech, Praises Saudi Arabia While Talking Charlie Kirk at Controversial Comedy Festival<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dave Chappelle via Netflix Comedian Dave Chappelle took a swing at the United States during a set at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia. Chappelle performed for an audience of 6,000 this week as a headline act for the festival, the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. The festival has already received […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2066702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[44702,340116,31595,68192,365927,368466,25432],"class_list":["post-2066701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-bill-burr","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-dave-chappelle","tag-kevin-hart","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shane-gillis","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Dave-Chappelle-Slams-US-Free-Speech-Praises-Saudi-Arabia-While.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2066701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066703,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066701\/revisions\/2066703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2066702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2066701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2066701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2066701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}