Culture

Bill Burr Ripped For His Defense Of Performing In Saudi Arabia, Comedian Dragged For Being A Sellout And Hypocrite

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Bill Burr has defended his decision to perform at a recent comedy festival in Saudi Arabia. Burr is just one of many A-list comedians who took a check from the country that murdered U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi and is being sued for its alleged connection to the 9/11 attacks.

In addition to Bill Burr, comedians such as Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, Jimmy Carr, Louis C.K., Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Chris Distefano, Omid Djalili, Zarna Garg, Kevin Hart, Gabriel Iglesias, Jim Jefferies, Jimeoin, Maz Jobrani, Jessica Kirson, Jo Koy, Bobby Lee, Sebastian Maniscalco, Sam Morril, Mark Normand, Nimesh Patel, Russell Peters, Jeff Ross, Andrew Santino, Andrew Schulz, Tom Segura, and Chris Tucker are scheduled to appear at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

The Riyadh Comedy Festival is being held in the Saudi Arabian city from Friday, September 26 to Thursday, October 9.

Bill Burr being dragged for his decision to and defense of performing at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia

“It was great to experience that part of the world and to be a part of the first comedy festival over there in Saudi Arabia. The royals loved the show. Everyone was happy. The people that were doing the festival were thrilled,” Burr reasoned on his podcast.

“I had to stop a couple times during the show and say, ‘I’ll be honest with you guys, I cannot f*cking believe any of you have any idea who I am.’ It was just this great exchange of energy. They know their reputation. So they were extra friendly.”

If you search through social media, however — whether that be on Twitter or a scroll through Burr’s IG comments — you’ll find that his fans aren’t vibing with his decision, with the terms “sellout” and “hypocrite” being among the things that the comedian has been called in the wake of the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

“Man Bill Burr actually sold out. F– sake, are there no comedians left with actual morals,” a third mourned.

“I’d rather Bill Burr just said ‘I always wanted to own my own helicopter, you know how expensive they are?!’ This is like if Bill performed in North Korea and came back saying “no one said they wanted to kill me! We sang karaoke! Everywhere we went there was food!” was another refrain.

“This is such nonsense from Bill Burr. ‘The royals loved the show.’ Yeah, buddy, that’s because you didn’t perform any material that challenged the Saudi government or its censorship! And he tries to spin a ban on CRITICIZING THE GOVERNMENT as ‘softened’ rules. Give me a break,” one aghast tweet read.

“Hope you guys write this guy off now. Always running to him as some kind of hero anytime he says some nonsense. None of these people care about you,” another read.

A video of Chris Distefano at the event hammered home just how complicit these comedians are being in this image-washing campaign from the Saudis.

Not all A-list comedians took the check from Saudi Arabia, however, with the likes of Shane Gillis and Marc Maron publicly ripping their colleagues for doing so.

Eric Italiano BroBIble avatar
Eric Italiano is a NYC-based writer who spearheads BroBible's Pop Culture and Entertainment content. He covers topics such as Movies, TV, and Video Games, while interviewing actors, directors, and writers.
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