Aziz Ansari was asked by Jimmy Kimmel about his participation in the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival.
Numerous comedians, including Pete Davidson, Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle, faced immense backlash after they were announced as part of the Saudi Arabian comedy festival. It was paid for by the Saudi government, and according to screenshots shared by comedian Atsuko Okatsuka, comedians were prohibited from telling any negative jokes about the country, its royal family or any religions.
Human Rights Watch claimed that the event was intended to “deflect attention from [Saudi Arabia’s] brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations,” noting that the festival coincided with the seventh anniversary of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate.
After his set at the festival and amid his press run for his new movie, “Good Fortune,” Ansari was asked at length by Kimmel about why he chose to participate.
“Now, obviously, this is something that’s become a big part of the news because people, a lot of comedians especially, are very upset because the people who paid the comedians to come to this are not good people,” Kimmel began. “It’s a pretty brutal regime. They’ve done a lot of horrible, horrible things, and so people are questioning why you would go over there and take their money to perform in front of these people. I’m just curious.”
