During his set at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, Dave Chappelle shared his thoughts on the current state of free speech in the United States, saying that “it’s easier to talk here than it is in America.”
“Right now, in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get cancelled,” Chappelle said to an audience of 6,000, according to The New York Times. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out… they’re going to do something to me so that I can’t say what I want to say.”
While far from charging journalists with high treason over social media posts, Chappelle’s comments touch on fears of a free speech crisis stateside. The national debate on censorship and retaliatory government actions gained newfound attention after Paramount’s sudden cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and ABC temporarily pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live! for his comments regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
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Donald Trump and FCC chairman Brendan Carr subsequently doubled down on their threats to limit certain types of speech. The resulting uncertainty sparked quite a bit of outrage, an open letter signed by over 400 actors and musicians, a pointed South Park episode, and plenty of charged discourse.
Chappelle’s ideas may echo worries held by many others in the public sphere, but the setting in which he expressed them ultimately resulted in an ironic dissonance.
While Chappelle made the comments in the midst of a stand-up comedy set, critics have pointed out the irony of the sentiment. Saudi Arabia has a reputation for human rights abuses and often restricts speech within its borders. Media outlets are licensed by the government, and several journalists and Saudi Arabian citizens have faced harsh consequences for criticizing the regime or sharing ideas contrary to the state’s principles. Notable instances include Salma al-Shehab, a student who was initially sentenced to 34 years in prison after retweeting women’s rights activists on Twitter, and Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who was brutally assassinated in 2018. Just this past June, the Saudi state executed journalist Turki al-Jasser for running a Twitter account that accused the Saudi royal family of human rights abuses and corruption.
Because of such occurrences, many of the comedians performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival faced public backlash for taking part in the event. Additionally, the nonprofit watchdog group Human Rights Watch urged those participating to call for the release of detained Saudi activists, including Waleed Abu al-Khair and Manahel al-Otaibi.
Comics who attended the festival — including Bill Burr, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Pete Davidson, and others — were reportedly paid extremely handsomely. Some publicly defended their involvement, with Burr saying that the people there are “just like us” on a recent episode of his podcast.
