“It’s a whitewashing regime”: Zach Woods calls out comedians participating in Riyadh Comedy Festival despite ongoing issues in Saudi Arabia

Zach Woods took to TikTok on September 24 to rant about comedians participating in the Riyadh Comedy Festival. In the video, Zach Woods says:

"It's that time of the year. It's the Riyadh Comedy Festival, and all of your favorite comedians are performing at the pleasure of Turki Al-Sheikh."

He also added:

"Now there's a lot of drips, killjoys, and dweezbazoids, who are saying oh they shouldn't do comedy over there because it's like whitewashing a regime that just in June killed a journalist, killed Jamal Khashoggi, and played a big role in 9/11."

Zach Woods then insinuated the comedians are agreeing to perform at the festival for the allegedly big paycheck.

"Human Rights Watch has been begging the comedians not to participate," - says Zach Woods

While joking against the participation of US comedians performing at the upcoming Riyadh Comedy Festival, Zach Woods mentioned that Human Rights Activist has been "begging" for comedians not to participate in the festival:

"Human Rights Watch has been begging the comedians not to participate in the whitewashing of the horrors that are ongoing in Saudi Arabia. What a c**kblock Human Rights Watch is for comedy."

Human Rights Watch in a news release published on their website on September 23 noted that the Saudi government is "using" the Riyadh Comedy Festival to "deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasing human rights violations."

Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, Joey Shea said:

"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."

Saudi dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated on October 2, 2018, by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Human Rights Watch urged comedians participating to use the comedy festival to "publicly urge Saudi authorities" to "free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists."

As per the September 23 news release, Human Rights Watch on September 19 wrote to the representatives and management of a group of announced participating comedians to request for a meeting about Saudi Arabia's human rights crisit but the representatives and the management reportedly did not reply.

The festival is set to open on September 5, and will run until October 9, with comedian lineup including; Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, Bill Burr, Jimmy Carr, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson, Maz Jobrani, Sam Morril, Mark Normand, Nimesh Patel, Tom Segura and more.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback