Marc Maron called out U.S. comedians for performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, citing Saudi officials’ alleged roles in the September 11 attack and the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.
“I mean, how do you even promote that? ‘From the folks that brought you 9/11. Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don’t miss it!’” he said during a standup performance posted to his Instagram account. “I mean, the same guy that’s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a f–king suitcase. But don’t let that stop the yucks, it’s gonna be a good time!”
U.S. comedians set to do shows at the festival include Pete Davidson—for whom Maron’s comments are particularly pointed as he lost his father in the 9/11 attacks—Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, Louis C.K., and more.
Maron’s critiques of his fellow comedians have become a staple of his long-running podcast, which will end next month after 16 years. He’s called out “anti-woke” comedians for “humanizing fascism,” playing the “victim” over not being able to say “the r-word,” and even blamed his own pioneering podcast for setting the stage for The Joe Rogan Experience.
Maron joked that he was not invited to perform at the festival, so “it’s easy to maintain your integrity when no one’s offering to buy it out.”
Shane Gillis revealed that he was offered “a significant bag” to perform at the festival, but turned it down despite an additional offer to double the payout.
“I took a principled stand. You don’t 9/11 your friends,” he quipped on his Secret podcast.
The Office star Zach Woods slammed the American comedians who signed on to perform for “whitewashing” a “regime that, just in June, killed a journalist, and killed Jamal Khashoggi, and played a big role in 9/11,’” with a sarcastic promo video for the festival on TikTok.
Louis CK AND the Saudi Royal Family! Who could ask for more?!
“Now there’s a lot drips, killjoys and dweebazoids who say, ‘They shouldn’t do comedy over there… Shut up! Name one comedian who hasn’t whored themself out to a dictator.”
Just one comedian, Tim Dillon, has directly defended performing at the festival, saying on his namesake podcast in August that though he has “issues with the policies towards freedom of speech,” they’re “paying me enough money to look the other way.” Ironically, Dillon was fired from his performance, he later revealed, for jokes he made about alleged Saudi slavery.
Human Rights Watch accuses the Saudi government of using the festival to “deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations,” and is urging participating celebrities to “should use the comedy festival to publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists.”
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