{"id":5254,"date":"2026-07-23T20:06:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5254"},"modified":"2026-07-23T20:06:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:06:34","slug":"unlike-pete-davidson-or-dave-chappelle-this-comedy-star-rejected-saudi-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5254","title":{"rendered":"Unlike Pete Davidson or Dave Chappelle, this comedy star rejected Saudi millions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Musical satirist \u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic has revealed that he was among a number of big-name comics offered six or seven figures to perform at the controversial, state-sponsored\u00a0 Riyadh Comedy Festival that took place in Saudi Arabia last fall.<\/p>\n

Read more Secret Service agent put on leave after leaks of JD Vance travel demands<\/a><\/p>\n

But Yankovic turned the offer down, which meant saying \u201cno\u201d to a paycheck of $1 million or more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish people would offer me things that I didn\u2019t feel bad about accepting,\u201d Yankovic told the Pennsylvania publication TribLive, according to Variety. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve mentioned this anywhere, but I was invited to the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which is something that I obviously did not want to do. They offered me, I\u2019m not going to say how much, but it was seven figures to do one show, which is way more than I\u2019ve ever been offered in my life to do a show. But I just couldn\u2019t be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yankovic made what he believed was a moral choice, a move that somehow eluded other comedy stars, including Pete Davidson, Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansari, as Variety reported. Instead these and the other some 50 participating comedians took payments that Variety said ran from the mid-six figures up to $1.6 million for one show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not dissing anybody that took the money because I\u2019m sure everybody that went there got a lot of money,\u201d Yankovic also said in the interview. \u201cI\u2019m sure they had their own reasons and justifications for doing it. But I\u2019m doing enough that I don\u2019t need to take any amount of money if it makes me feel icky, and that kind of did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Riyadh Comedy Festival divided America\u2019s entertainment industry, according to Variety. High-profile critics in the comedy world, including Marc Maron, Jimmy Kimmel and David Cross, argued that the Saudi regime, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, used this and other splashy cultural events headlined by A-listers to polish its global image and to \u201claunder its reputation\u201d for being repressive and for committing alleged human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

Critics were especially incensed that anyone would take money from a government that in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi or that imprisons women\u2019s rights activists and LGBTQ people and allegedly subjects prisoners to torture and inhuman conditions, according to Amnesty International.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a press release ahead of the comedy festival, Human Rights Watch likewise accused Saudi Arabia of hosting the festival to \u201cdeflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more California among 2 dozen states suing Trump administration over conditions put on disaster funding<\/a><\/p>\n

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The participating comedians should use the comedy festival \u201cto publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists,\u201d Human RIghts Watch also said.<\/p>\n

Davidson especially came under fire for taking money\u00a0from a government linked by lawsuits to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Fox News reported. Davidson\u2019s father, New York City firefighter Scott Davidson, was killed while responding to the World Trade Center after it was struck by two hijacked commercial airplanes. The \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d alum was 7 years old when his father died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been getting a little bit of flak just because my dad died (in) 9\/11,\u201d Davidson said while defending himself in a 2025 podcast interview. \u201cSo they\u2019re like, \u2018How could you possibly go there?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Other comedians justified taking money from Saudi Arabia by saying their appearances could be a way to \u201cget in\u201d to a place and getting people \u201ctalking,\u201d as Louis C.K. said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s people over there that don\u2019t agree with the stuff that the government\u2019s doing, and to ascribe like the worst behavior of the government onto those people, that\u2019s not fair,\u201d Ansari said, while saying he hoped that the festival would push \u201cthings to be more open\u201d in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Chappelle expressed more self-interest by joking that he, as a performer, might have more freedom to say what he wants in Saudi Arabia. He quipped: \u201cIt\u2019s easier to talk here than it is in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Brad Pitt\u2019s kids dispute his claim of \u2018parental alienation\u2019 by Angelina Jolie<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The comedian said he was offered at least $1 million to perform at last year’s controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival but would have felt ‘icky’ taking it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nUnlike Pete Davidson or Dave Chappelle, this comedy star rejected Saudi millions - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5254\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unlike Pete Davidson or Dave Chappelle, this comedy star rejected Saudi millions - 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