(Beirut) – The Saudi government is using the Riyadh Comedy Festival 2025 from September 26 to October 9 to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. The festival dates include the seventh anniversary of the Saudi state-sponsored murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and takes place just months after Saudi authorities executed a journalist apparently for his public speech.
Participating comedians, to avoid contributing to laundering the Saudi government’s reputation, should use the comedy festival to publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists. The festival lineup includes, among others: Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, Bill Burr, Jimmy Carr, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Maz Jobrani, Sam Morril, Mark Normand, Nimesh Patel, and Tom Segura. Tim Dillon was scheduled to perform but said he was fired after he joked on his podcast about Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record.
“The seventh anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder is no laughing matter, and comedians receiving hefty sums from Saudi authorities shouldn’t be silent on prohibited topics in Saudi like human rights or free speech,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Everyone performing in Riyadh should use this high-profile opportunity to call for the release of detained Saudi activists.”
Human Rights Watch on September 19 wrote to the representatives and management of a group of announced participating comedians to request a meeting about Saudi Arabia’s human rights crisis. The representatives and management did not reply.
Human Rights Watch urged the comedians in particular to publicly call for the release of the Saudi human rights defender Waleed Abu al-Khair, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence as a result of his human rights activism. The comedians should also seek the release of Manahel al-Otaibi, a female fitness instructor and women’s rights activist sentenced to 11 years in prison – recently reduced to 5 years – for promoting women’s rights online. They should also raise the lack of accountability in Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018.
The government of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has aggressively organized and bankrolled high-profile events featuring major international artists, celebrities, and sports figures. The investment in these events is tied to the crown prince’s Vision 2030, a plan to overhaul the country’s economy and attract foreign investors and tourists. Among its elements is to create more leisure and recreational options to “enhance the image of the Kingdom internationally.”
“I am doing this because they are paying me a large sum of money,” Dillon said on his August 30 podcast. “They are paying me enough money to look the other way.” Dillon said that the Saudi festival was paying him US$375,000 for the one show on October 8, but that other performers were offered as much as $1.6 million. “They bought comedy,” Dillon added. “Do I have issues with the policies towards freedom of speech? Of course I do, but I believe in my own financial wellbeing.”
On September 20, Dillon announced that his performance had been canceled after Saudi authorities were allegedly “unhappy” about his comedic remarks on the treatment of migrant workers and other human rights issues. “I addressed it in a funny way and they fired me,” he said.
“I certainly wasn’t going to show up in your country and insult the people that are paying me the money,” he said. “But on my own show, in my own country, where I have the freedom to speak and say the things I want, I am going to be funny.”
Jimmy Carr, who is co-headlining the festival on October 6, does not list his appearance in
Saudi Arabia on his website or his social media. Carr has often vigorously defended free speech publicly. “I am a huge free speech absolutist, but it is not freedom from consequences,” he said.
The public statements that many participating Riyadh Comedy Festival comedians have made about the importance of free expression contrasts sharply with the Saudi authorities’ brutal crackdown on any criticism of the government. In 2025, the Saudi government has been on an execution spree to crush peaceful dissent, including speech.
On June 14, the Saudi government executed Turki al-Jasser, a prominent Saudi writer and journalist, for various “terrorist crimes.” The government has released few details about his detention, trial, and execution and it appears he faced capital punishment because of his peaceful speech and commentary.
In February 2024, Saudi authorities executed Abdullah al-Shamri, a Saudi political analyst specializing in Türkiye, based on charges including “threatening the stability and endangering the security” of Saudi Arabia. Al-Shamri met regularly with journalists from prominent news outlets and had appeared as a political commentator on television.
Mohammed bin Salman’s creation of an entertainment industry has been adopted alongside advancements for women and youth. While extensive and important, these changes have also helped obscure the dramatic curtailing of civil and political rights since he became crown prince in 2017. While the emerging entertainment industry was being lauded internationally, Saudi authorities were simultaneously carrying out waves of arbitrary arrests of dissidents, activists, intellectuals, and royal family members.
“Comedians performing in Riyadh should speak out against Saudi Arabia’s serious rights abuses or they risk bolstering the Saudi government’s well-funded efforts to launder its image.” Shea said. “This whitewashing comes amid significant increase in repression, including a crackdown on free speech, which many of these comedians defend but people in Saudi Arabia are completely denied.”