Did American comedians SELL OUT for Saudi cash? The Riyadh hypocrisy exposed
From September 26 to October 9, 2025, Saudi Arabia is hosting its inaugural Riyadh Comedy Festival as part of Vision 2030’s entertainment push. High-profile American comedians, including Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and Bill Burr, among others, were invited to perform for payments reportedly ranging from $300,000 to $1.6 million.
However, the conditions for their skits are strict: No criticizing the Saudi government, the royal family, the Islamic faith, or local culture.
Given Saudi Arabia’s suppression of free speech, imprisonment of dissidents and activists, and restrictions on women's rights, the agreement of so many American comedians to perform, especially under such rigid speech restrictions, has sparked widespread controversy.
Glenn Beck is certainly perplexed. If the Trump administration offered these American comedians the same amount of money to perform for a “Trump comedy weekend” on the condition they don’t criticize the government, the Trump family, or MAGA culture, they would never agree to it, he says.
“Everybody would have been out of their mind crazy on the left saying, ‘Look at Donald Trump, wants to shut people down,”’ he scoffs.
Comedian Bridget Phetasy thinks success has gone to comedians’ heads. “I think comedians got too rich. ... Maybe comedians in general just need to go back to being kind of viewed as dumb losers again,” she laughs.
“Maybe this is a challenge for them to push the limits because they can say whatever they want in America. So going to Saudi is, like, a little dangerous, a little titillating,” she adds.
However, she doesn’t necessarily blame these comedians — especially the ones who haven’t had much success — for taking advantage of the opportunity. They may be choosing to “sell their [souls],” but many of them probably needed the money.
“Some of these comedians were not hugely famous and have been struggling for a long time. ... So, I don’t know. It's like, get that bag, but you're going to have to hear about this forever,” Phetasy tells Glenn, noting that some of the more well-known comedians probably ended up doing damage to their brands for agreeing to the Saudis’ conditions.
Glenn’s co-host, Stu Burguiere, doesn’t see an issue with comedians performing in Saudi Arabia either. “I don’t understand why there is a double standard for entertainers in this world. All sorts of American companies sell products in these countries. ... Tons of investors do business in Saudi Arabia,” he says.
“This is not the Nazi regime. We’re not at war with them. They’re supposedly in some ways allies of ours, and, like, do the people of Saudi Arabia not get to laugh? Do they not get to go to comedy shows?”
“That’s all absolutely true, and I don’t blame really any of these people for taking the money and going. At the same time, you also have to understand that you are a useful idiot who’s being used by a regime,” Phetasy counters.
Unlike Stu, she doesn’t think this comedy event is the same as an American company doing business with the Saudis.
“Business people are smart enough to be behind closed doors and do all this stuff in Park City at secretive events where they all fly in on their private jet. And entertainers — their face is their brand; their jokes are their brand. ... I think that’s why they get held to this unfair double standard because they’re actually quite poor compared to everyone else around them. These are court jesters for the kings. Literally,” she says.
But Glenn can’t get past the hypocrisy. “The Jewish state could have put on a comedy festival and paid them the same amount of money, and I bet you almost all of those comedians would have turned it down because it’s Israel. They would never do it for Donald Trump,” he says.
To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.
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