Unlike pretty much every other headliner at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, Jimmy Carr never thought that his performance would change the world – all he wanted to change was his net worth.
In the months since many of the Western stand-up industry’s A-listers flew to the capital of Saudi Arabia to perform in a state-sponsored and Royal-Family-funded comedy festival, former fans of Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari and the rest of the check-cashers have had to endure some of the most self-aggrandizing sophistry in the history of blood money.
When you listen to these figures talk about the festival, which the most wealthy and powerful slavers in the world produced and attended during their brief respite from executing journalists, you’d think that the Riyadh Comedy Festival was a mission trip that set the wheels in motion to free the Saudi people from the literal shackles of authoritarianism.
Don’t Miss
Carr, on the other hand, has no illusions that his time performing at the behest of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will lead to the dictator adopting more democratic policies, although he does want to set the record straight on some material facts about the trip. Namely, Carr wants still-incensed comedy fans to understand that he sold out an 8,000-seat theater at the festival, so every dime he squeezed out of the fossil fuel and indentured labor fortune is rightfully his own.
I’m sure any Bangladeshi construction worker would say the same thing about his passport.
“I think we need to give up on the idea that the Middle East becomes Western Europe,” Carr said of his time in Saudi Arabia during a recent episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, contradicting some American comedians’ claims that such events will pave the way for the ultra-conservative country’s adoption of Western values.
However, Carr still implied that criticism of the event is partially based in racism, a common position among many festival participants. “The Middle East is a very different place and the same people that will tell you, ‘Diversity is our strength’ will tell you, ‘Don’t go there. They’re not like us,'” Carr argued, “The thing that I like about Saudi Arabia is the direction of travel. Look at where it was 10 years ago. Look at where it is now. The direction of travel is pretty good.”
Carr’s definition of “pretty good” must carve out some oil-well-sized caveats for political prisoners, the Kafala system and the high-profile torture and execution of journalists such as Jamal Khashoggi, but, to be fair, it’s hard for Carr to see Saudi society clearly through his green-colored glasses.
When asked about his compensation for the festival, Carr declined to state a number, but he insisted that he was worth every penny. “I was paid, I would say, a commensurate amount with selling out an 8,000 seater room. So it’s a big room, and I got paid. I earned it,” said Carr.
Much like every other Riyadh comedian, Carr still isn’t addressing the largest and most pointed criticism of the festival and its attendees – every dollar that they “earned” during the event came directly from an oppressive regime responsible for some of the most reprehensible crimes against humanity of the modern era, even including 9/11, according to some of the victims’ families.
This wasn’t just some commercial event hosted by Saudi Arabian comedy fans – this was a deliberate attempt by the Saudi Royal Family to change the headlines about their habitual brutality towards the press and towards human rights activists, and anyone who participated in the Riyadh Comedy Festival is now, in part, complicit in that.
But, honestly, the most messed up part of Carr’s “it’s my money, I earned it” excuse is that it’s probably the closest thing to an honest explanation that we’ll get out of any comic who made the trip. Carr isn’t pretending that he was there to change the world like Burr does – he just wanted to play a big show, make a lot of money money and return to the West where he’ll continue to cry about cancel culture as if he didn’t sign an agreement not to joke about the Saudi Royal Family.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: feeds.feedburner.com
