The latest Jesus and Mo strip, called “dire,” comes with the caption, “It really isn’t. Here’s an article about the Riyadh Comedy Fest.”
An excerpt from the BBC article about the comedy gala in Saudi Arabia:
“There were sex jokes, and wife jokes. It’s really unusual to see this kind of comedy here in Saudi Arabia.”
That’s how one ex-pat summed up the performances she’s seen, at the first ever Riyadh Comedy Festival.
“The response was amazing, I’ve never seen such enthusiasm,” she said, after sets by American stars Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr.
The woman – whom we’re calling Sara – said the comedians avoided discussing Saudi Arabia’s controversial human rights record. But that didn’t particularly bother her.
“People here don’t care about those topics,” she said. “If they did, they wouldn’t live here.”
Outside Saudi Arabia, there are very different perspectives.
Famous comedians such as Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall, Kevin Hart, Russell Peters and Omid Djalili have been intensely criticised by fellow artists for agreeing to perform at the festival. Others say they turned down invitations.
On Friday, one of the few female comedians on the bill, lesbian stand-up Jessica Kirson, apologised for taking part in the event, telling The Hollywood Reporter she would be donating her fee to a human rights organisation.
But some argued it’s a more nuanced picture. While human rights groups have a host of concerns about Saudi Arabia, the country has attempted to transform its image in recent years.
Yes, there’s a double entendre there, but I believe the artist is quite serious. It’s telling that “ex-pat Sara” won’t let them use her real name in her comment, which seems innocuous.
Ooo this one’s really good!
“Joke-wash” is a new one to me – perfect expression!… errmmm… is this what the strip Jesus N’ Mo is doing?!
😬
/CircularArgumentSpraysBackInMyFace
I wonder how many of the comedians who performed there would have refused to play in Israel if invited?
“The country has attempted to transform its image in recent years.” Not its practices. Just its image.
I think Dave Chapelle might.
A lot of them already have like Burr and Chappelle. And absolutely would again, especially, for the kind of money being offered them.
Interesting. That answers that. Thanks.
Mixed feelings about this one. Is it just joke-washing or is it a thin edge of the wedge that might prise open Saudi society and bring them into the latter half of the twentieth century?
Possibly, but not until the 22nd.
On the one hand, I’d bet that there are few to none western comics who even have a Saudi Arabia joke in their collection to tell, so not being able to tell.a joke about Saudi Arabia probably had absolutely no effect on their sets.
On the other hand, comedians are subversive, first amendment absolutists who loathe censorship to their core, and being told “here’s this thing you cannot joke about” is exactly the kind of thing that most comedians would feel most undercuts comedy. It would be practically daring them to make jokes about that topic. So the fact that these comedians were willing to accept that (possibly pointless) censorship tells me that they really liked the paycheck, or they really liked that going to SA was the very subversion that they couldn’t resist. With Burr and Chapelle in the lineup, I bet the latter.