Comedians performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival did not use their public platform to urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The festival, which was slated for September 26 to October 9, 2025, was billed as featuring "over 50 global stand-up legends."
Human Rights Watch urged the comedians performing to call for the release of Waleed Abu al-Khair, a human rights defender, and Manahel al-Otaibi, a female fitness instructor and women's rights activist. None appear to have publicly done so.
"Human Rights Watch didn't call for comedians to boycott the Riyadh Comedy Festival, but simply asked them to express their support for free speech by urging the release of Saudi activists unjustly imprisoned," said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Aziz Ansari and other comedians have generously offered to donate part of their performance fees to rights groups like Human Rights Watch, but while we cannot accept, it is not too late for them to call for the release of detained Saudi activists."
During an October 6 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Aziz Ansari said that "part of the fee [from the festival] should go to support causes that support free press and human rights," and that he "shares the concerns that people have brought up." He named Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch. Jessica Kirson, another comedian who performed at the festival, said that she was donating her entire performance fee to a human rights organization.
The Riyadh Comedy Festival is part of the Saudi government's strategy to whitewash its poor human rights record, and participating comedians have a responsibility to avoid laundering the government's reputation. On September 19, Human Rights Watch wrote to the representatives and management of a group of announced participating comedians to request a meeting about Saudi Arabia's human rights crisis. The representatives and management did not reply.
Louis C.K. said he was told there would only be two restrictions on what he could talk about on stage: "Their religion and their government." "I don't have jokes about those two things," he said.
On September 27, Atsuko Okatsuka posted screenshots of what she said were parts of a proposed contract to perform at the festival. Okatsuka said that she rejected the offer to perform. Based on the screenshots, artists were prohibited from performing "any material considered to degrade, defame, or bring into public disrepute, contempt, scandal, embarrassment, or ridicule" the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Material about the Saudi royal family, or any religions, was also banned.
Entertainers considering performing in Saudi Arabia should refuse any explicit or implicit contractual terms with Saudi authorities that restrict their ability to speak out in public or in private about abuses, as distinct from standard confidentiality requirements, Human Rights Watch said.
"It's easier to talk here than it is in America," Dave Chappelle said during his Riyadh set. Chappelle has not publicly commented on Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses.
The comedian Jessica Kirson expressed regret for performing at the Riyadh festival. "This decision has weighed heavily on my heart ever since. I like to express my sincere regret for having performed under a government that continues to violate fundamental human rights," Kirson said. "I hoped that this could help LGBTQ+ people in Saudi Arabia feel seen and valued. I am grateful that I was able to do precisely that-to my knowledge, I am the first openly gay comic to talk about it on stage in Saudi Arabia."
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's creation of an entertainment industry has been adopted alongside advancements for women and youth. While extensive and important, these changes have also helped obscure the dramatic curtailing of civil and political rights since he became crown prince in 2017, Human Rights Watch said. While the emerging Saudi entertainment industry was being lauded internationally, Saudi authorities were simultaneously carrying out waves of arbitrary arrests of dissidents, activists, intellectuals, and royal family members.
The festival dates included the seventh anniversary of the Saudi state-sponsored murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, 2018, and took place just months after Saudi authorities executed Turki al-Jasser, a prominent Saudi writer and journalist, for various "terrorist crimes" on June 14. The government has released few details about al-Jasser's detention, trial, and execution and it appears that he faced capital punishment because of his peaceful speech and commentary.
"The comedians who went to Riyadh can still demand that the Saudi authorities release Manahel and Waleed," Shea said. "Public pressure from such high-profile artists and free speech advocates could help secure their release and freedom."
