Dave Chappelle Tells Saudia Arabia Crowd “It’s Easier To Talk Here Than It Is In America”
In presenting an almost textbook case of ‘You do not under any circumstances, ‘gotta hand it to them”, comedian Dave Chapelle told attendees of the recent Riyadh Comedy Festival that “it’s easier to talk” about one’s opinions in Saudi Arabia than it is in America.
A nearly two-week comedy festival currently running from September 26th to October 9th, the Riyadh Comedy Festival bills itself as “the world’s largest comedy festival”, with this year’s line-up of “over 50 global stand-up legends” set to feature such notable performers as Wayne Brady, Bill Burr, Tom Segura, Chris Tucker, and of course Chapelle.
At one point during his set, per a recap provided first-hand by The New York Times’ Ismaeel Naar, Chappelle turned his attentions to one of his most regularly discussed topics, freedom of speech, in doing so praising the Middle Eastern kingdom as less restrictive than the current American zeitgeist.
“Right now in America, they say that if you talk about Charlie Kirk, that you’ll get canceled,” he said. ““I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m gonna find out.”
[Naar did not provide any details on what Chappelle said specifically about Kirk.]
Later, Chappelle would opine “It’s easier to talk here than it is in America,” – to which he was reportedly “met with whoops, cheers and applause” from the 6,000-strong crowd.
Hitting the subject again as he wrapped up his set, the comedian jokingly admitted that he was concerned about returning to the United States, especially in light of his ongoing criticism of Israel’s human rights violations in Gaza.
“They’re going to do something to me so that I can’t say what I want to say,” he joked, going on to promise his fans that he’d use a secret codeword to let them know if he had been compromised by the US government.
“It’s got to be something I would never say in practice, so if I actually say it, you’ll know never to listen to anything else I say after that,” he said. “Here’s the phrase: I stand with Israel.”
Admittedly, Chappelle’s extreme criticisms towards the American government hold some weight, especially as after the Biden administration directly requested Google suppress certain YouTube content, Trump continues to light fire to the US Constitution, ignoring such principles as the division of power between three co-equal branches of government, and the right for all persons to receive due process when accused of a crime, in order to take petty revenge against his political opponents.
He’s also got a point about Kirk bizarrely becoming a ‘taboo’ target of criticism, as many of those who once decried the entire concept of cancel culture have become gleefully at the chance to punish not just those who celebrated his recent killing, but also anyone who has posthumously criticized him, as seen with the creation of the Cancel the Hate app and Charlie Kirk’s Murderers database, as well as the Trump administration’s attempted intimidation of Jimmy Kimmel over his assertion that “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who killed Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
And yet, regardless of American’ society’s current ‘s current ills, to say that it’s “easier” to say what’s on your mind in Saudi Arabia, of all places, is genuinely head-scratching.
After all, this is the country whose government operates according to Islamic Sharia law, killed and dismembered American journalist Jamal Khashoggi for being critical of their administration, and has seen its Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salma waive off the country’s ongoing wave of political and ideological suppression as “a small price to pay” to keep the kingdom safe – not exactly the shining champions of ‘free speech’
While yes, Chappelle was likely being hyperbolic for laughs, and no, there shouldn’t be any restrictions on what he can and can’t say, one wonders if this joke plays the same with Saudi Arabians, in particular their government, as it does Americans.
In other words, those in the US may take the ridiculous comparison as just that, but the chest-puffing Saudi Arabian government may take it as both an endorsement of their authoritarian rule and another useful instance of an artist whitewashing their crimes.
It’s tough to say, but either way, the Riyadh Comedy Festival is set to run for one more week.
