Human Rights Watch Refuses ‘Tainted’ Donations from Saudi Comedy Festival Performers

Human Rights Watch rejects donations from comedians who performed in Saudi Arabia. According to Variety. Human Rights Watch says it will not get this. It will not accept money from performers who take money from the Saudi Arabia fund that's paying for this Riyadh comedy festival, including Aziz Asari, who pledged to donate part of his fee to human rights groups. The the organization's Saudi researcher, Joey Shaya, says it's not too late for performers to instead call for the release of imprisoned Saudi activists. Shaya reminded the public that this is the same government responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the ongoing jailing of dissidents. The festival's lavish payouts, reportedly up to $1.6 million per set, to some comedians drew big names like Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Louis C.K. pete Davidson, Jessica Kirsten, Whitney Cummings, Joel Kim, Booster, Mattie Olaine and Michelle Wolf. Even as other comics refused the offers, calling the event propaganda to crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's regime. Ansari defended his appearance, saying he wanted to engage, not isolate. But many critics say laughter shouldn't come with censorship clauses or blood money. Okay, what's the real message here? There is a reason that many people despise those perceived as on the left as having no sense of humor and being holier than thou and being obsessed with. You're wrong. You're always wrong. It is an outrage for a human rights organization to say, we're not going to take money to help us with our cause from comedians who are donating it, who are engaging with our enemies, who are getting people to do what we want them to do. We tell these extremists, these Saudi Arabians, don't kill Jews. Hire them. Well, that's what they're doing. We tell them, don't stone to death gay people. Treat them as equals and hire them. They're hiring gay comedians. We tell them, don't keep women down in the kitchen or the gutter. Elevate them. Treat them as equal. Let them work. Well, that's what they're doing, hiring female comedians. So Humans Rights Watch and others have got this backward. They need to be thanking these comedians for creating progress. Okay, let's go a little bit deeper here. I'm certainly willing to acknowledge that there can be fair minded, honest people on both sides of this issue. And I have no problem with a comedian deciding they don't want to take the money to go to this comedy festival, although I would question how many of them really think it's wrong versus I just don't want the criticism. I'M already rich. I don't want the criticism now. It's very easy to be sanctimonious about other people's money and telling people they shouldn't take a job. You know, you could analyze any government job, any private sector job, and come up with a reason. How? Oh, it's not pure. It's not pure. There's an old saying I remember 30 years ago in certain fundraising circles and in liberal left circles in Manhattan. You know, the only purists out here are people whose grandfathers ran coal mines or owned slaves. You know, they've got so much inherited wealth they can be pure. If we're going to live in some kind of a worldwide capitalistic system, there simply is nothing that's 100% pure. If you're driving to a rally to protest something, maybe you used oil in your car that came from Saudi Arabia. Are you going to hike? So this, to me is a bit tedious and it also just to me defies common sense. The criticism against these comedians is that they are making it easier for the world to forget some of the atrocities committed by this government. Like, in fact, taking a bone saw and cutting up journalist Khashoggi. Well, no, it's getting more spotlight. I've seen more articles in the last month and seen more podcasts talking about the fact that in Saudi Arabia, if the their dear leader doesn't like you, he can tell his henchmen to cut you up in little pieces. It's put a spotlight on their human rights abuse. But here's, here's my problem with some. And this gets, this gets a lot more play than it deserves considering we are in the middle of a culture war where right wing authoritarianism is shredding our very constitution and our way of life. But it doesn't mean it should get a free pass. There are those on the left who don't really want to engage, who don't really want to improve people. The whole point of saying here's what I think is the moral way of doing things I don't like. What these people are doing is to persuade them to change their behavior. Well, Saudi Arabia is in fact changing its behavior. Is it as fast as I might like or as various left wing or progressive or even centrist American thought leaders would like? No, but it's moving in the right direction. Women are getting more rights. People who don't want to worship religion exactly the same way as all their neighbors are getting a few more rights. There is progress. Now, what I like about this comedy festival in Saudi Arabia is, it is in fact breaking barriers. It's a society where women traditionally had to cover their face, couldn't have jobs, couldn't leave the house unless their father or their brother was present. And now women like Whitney Cummings, a comedian I, I respect and admire because I think she's funny. Michelle Wolf, who I think is hilarious, they're going to this comedy festival. They're going to be up on stage, and while their contract may say they can't make fun of the royal family or Islam, they're not going to have to wear a burqa. So it's sending a role model to people throughout Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Hey, women can be on stage. Women can have power. Women can speak out, Women can make money, Women can be. That's a pro feminist message. So why in the world, if you're trying to change the world to make it better, would you not embrace people doing the change you want the idea that you're going to say, well, they're not perfect, therefore we're going to further isolate them. How does that make anything better? Now, I need to remind some of my friends on the center left who these days, most people in America, across political parties, right, gay marriage is fine. Let gay people get married, do whatever they want. You're seen as a bit of a bigot and a tool, frankly. If you're like, I want to get rid of gay married. That's a narrow niche position. Not in the Democratic Party, but even in the Republican Party these days, you don't see President Trump spending time trying to trashing gay marriage. I'm going to eliminate gay men. You don't see him doing that. But I have to remind my friends, it was only a decade or so ago and Barack Obama was not in favor of gay marriage. He didn't deem it politically viable. When he first ran for the presidency, I should say 15 years ago, 17 years ago, he didn't view it as a politically viable position, but he was lobbied. A lot of people who were in favor of gay marriage still voted for him because they thought he was superior across a whole variety of issues to his opponents. They didn't write him off. They didn't say, well, okay, Barack Obama, at one point, you were not in favor of gay marriage. So we're just going to write you off as a right wing homophobic bigot forever and ever and ever. I will never vote. You would never. No, that's not what happened. They had some patience. They lobbied. They got not only Barack Obama, but, but a gazillion politician of every political party to change their views. Once they change their views, they didn't go back and say, ah, but I still think you're a homophobic big. Because eight years ago you didn't do that. Now, I'm not suggesting that the leader of Saudi Arabia needs to have his history forgotten or whitewashed because he's never publicly admitted that, yeah, I ordered the hit. I told them I didn't like this journalist, go cut him up a little. He's never admitted that. He's never admitted he's wrong. And I don't think we should ever forget that. But this idea that we, we can't try to persuade people to make positive changes and that the only way to do it is to say, I'm better than you and you're awful and no one can ever deal with you. I don't see how that's how you make change. It's not how you make change within a society like the United States. It's not how you make changes around the world. Here's one thing I know. If people are laughing, they're probably too busy to stone somebody to death because they committed an act of adultery or had homosexual sex. So I want people in the Middle east laughing. If you're laughing at a woman because she's funny, you're probably too busy to throw grease in the eyes of your wife at home because. Because she disobeyed you. I'm not saying you couldn't, but you're too busy doing that because you're actually laughing. It's much easier to say, oh, all gay people are horrible, weird, strange, psychologically sick people if you've never had one make you laugh. But if you've had one make you laugh and you say, here's someone really intelligent, interesting, funny, really has a keen insight. It humanizes them. Don't we want people in Saudi Arabia to have real experiences with people who are different from them? I think we do. So again, there are people I respect who are against this comedy festival and against comedians. I'm not saying they're entirely wrong, but as I weigh. And hey, I'm not a comedian, I have no, you know, no ax to grind in this as far as not benefiting me one way or the other. But I have found, as I travel around the world and I've. I've worked in 45 nations around the world teaching people how to speak effectively, how to speak to the media, how to communicate. And I have worked in the Middle East. I've not worked in Saudi Arabia. But I have worked in Middle Eastern countries where they are still ruled by ruling families and where. Where they are essentially theocracies. I'm not endorsing everything about how they run for society, but if they reach out to me and say, hey, TJ rather than communicating by chopping off heads or hanging people or stoning to death, we want to communicate by speaking, I see that as a positive. I see that as a good thing. So if you want to condemn me for that, that's okay, too. But let's just be careful of this holier than thou thing, because I don't care who you are, whether you're a government official, you can say, well, you know, some of the taxpayers who pay for that government have done bad things. And your salary, if you work at the EPA comes in part from polluters. Does that mean it's wrong for you to do that? No, it doesn't mean that. But you got to be very careful when you start saying there's only some pure money in the world. Am I saying you should do anything for money? No, but they're just telling jokes. And some have criticized. Well, how dare you complain about, you know, censorship in America. And you go over there and I do think Dave Chappelle should be condemned for saying there's more freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia than there is in America today. I mean, that's just hyperbole. And comedians usually do use hyperbole to make a laugh. I don't think he was trying to be funny there. But, yes, there are banned topics, and they're. But they're implied banned topics at almost any venue. If you're a comedian and all of a sudden you're given a primetime show on NBC or CBS or abc, you're essentially censored. You can't use profanity. If it's a network sitcom, does that mean every single comedian who's ever done a sitcom, does it mean no Seinfeld? Does it mean I can't ever appreciate a comedian who is done at. No, it doesn't mean that at all. That is absurd. Now, if you're a comedian and your entire act is nothing but making fun of Islam and the leadership of Saudi Arabia, yeah, that would be a bit much if you took money to go over there. But I don't know of any comedian who got offered to go over there and paid money who fits that bill. Like most of the comedians have said, look, there's restrictions every. On every venue. My act doesn't include making fun of Saudi Arabia or Islam. So it does not really having an impact on my act. So I think that's that's a pretty compelling argument. So put me in the category of I think it's a good thing for these comedians to go to the so is it noble to get paid a million dollars or $400,000 for making jokes for an hour? I wouldn't go so far as to say it's noble, but it is a net plus for the world if more and more people of differing viewpoints hear other people from other parts of the world of differing viewpoints. So put me down as pro if I learn some jokes and they hire me, I'll be there in a second. Put it that way. But I'm no comedian.