Yannis Pappas Hour - 🇺🇸 Comedy Commandos in Saudi Arabia | YP Hour

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

The Riyadh Comedy Festival is making headlines. Is it comedy-washing—propping up repression, keeping women in chains, and stifling free speech—or is it genuine progress? Yanni dives into Saudi motives, money, and what’s really behind the laughs. If you’re mad about comedians taking their cash, wait until you hear who else has been pocketing Saudi money. Did the House of Saud do 9/11? Yanni breaks down all the nuance, and ultimately levies an argument that comedians are the commandos rescuing oil money for the U.S. economy—and more. Warning: lots of sarcasm in this episode as always. If you love our small show, support the production and get bonus content every week. https://www.patreon.com/yannispappashour Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Halloween is on Disney Plus. So you can feel a little fear. What's this? Or a little more fear. I see dead people. Or a lot of fear. Mom? Or you can get completely terrified.

Who's that? Choose wisely. With Halloween on Disney Plus. Asalam al-aqa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-aqabar. How is everybody today? I would like to thank my producers, my sponsors. Prince Al-Had-I-I-I don't remember your name. I apologize.

English is my first language, and I'm not even fluent in Greek, much to the surprise of many, of the Greek fans that I've met, because I do do a Greek character, Mr. Panos, that they adore, that they've known since they were young, and they're always surprised that I don't speak Greek. They're almost a surprise that I don't speak Greek

as much as Puerto Ricans were surprised that I wasn't Puerto Rican when the character of Morisa came out. I'm also, would be remiss if I don't mention how surprised liberals are when they meet me to find out that I'm not conservative, and conservatives, much to their surprise, find out that I'm not conservative. And vice versa, when I just say, hey, man, I just want to be left out of it because I want to be free to have, I want to be unattached. That's what the Buddha says, unattached.

I am unattached. I don't care enough, especially after you have children. I don't care enough. I'll flow whichever way it flows. So if the alternative comedians who are really leading liberal and are liberal are making a comeback right now and they're striking, I'll go that way if they win. But obviously what I'm seeing here is, boy, do we got ourselves a nice little West Side story fight between the Republican comedians and the liberal comedians.

It's good to know that the comedians are involved in the political landscape and are just as divided as the rest of the country seems to be. And by the rest of the country, I mean the loud voices, 17, 18 percent that I think is MAGA and now 17, 18 percent that I think is progressive socialist Democrat. But they're the loudest ones. so they dictate what the culture war is all about. I think at this point, we need to just, we need to form comedic political parties. And just you're either a Republican comedian or you're a Democrat comedian.

And of course, you know, the right wing or what they're known as, the Rogan sphere, whatever that means, were railing against those comedians during the cancel culture era, which preceded this era. And it seems like they won, right? And then they got rich. And they got the buddy they were asking for by railing against those comedians.

And now those comedians are getting seen using the visibility to yell at those comedians. The liberal comedians are making a comeback yelling at them. those comedians. And they're the poorer ones. So this has nothing to do with their own visibility or, you know, getting seen. A little viral moment for them and it's all to do with their deep rooted principles. These people, I mean, you cannot, when it comes to the purity and moral clarity of a comedian, we are top of the line.

You think you're priest when you were young. All right. You're preacher. Or maybe you had a good priest. Maybe you had one who kept his hands to himself. That's been lost in the story. There are a lot of priests who have kept their hands to themselves. And I want you to know that I see you.

You would hope that the standard was a little higher than you know. what? My priest kept his hands to himself. But obviously I think at this point we need to just fall into party lines. Let's just fall into party lines. Even if you're, you want to be untethered and detached like the Buddha says to be, even if you want to be free like me to flow whichever way you want and you actually get tintillated by sometimes shocking people with your takes because you're just a comedian looking for the funny and wanting to challenge this. status quo constantly to keep this freedom ball rolling because dissent is good when you're allowed to dissent that's a good thing.

I'm very thankful personally for people like, how should we call him, Father Mark Maron, who leads a great moral congregation of, I'm thankful that people are speaking up, making their voices be heard and are just outraged. They can't eat. They can't sleep. They can not go on with their lives knowing that these people got such a big bag of money. I look at it in some ways. I choose to look at it. Why not? As a comedy commando operation where the comedians were sent in by our Secretary of War to go retrieve some of the hostage oil money. You know, they hold us hostage all the time with OPEC. They set the oil prices, right, Jesse?

And then we got to pay it. So we sent in some comedians to retrieve some of that oil money and bring it back to the United States economy to be spent. Comedians, obviously, will redistribute that back into the economy via pharmacies, pharmaceutical company, sex workers, definitely a food outlaw. restaurants and bars people like to drink a little bit porn it's good for that industry people always talk about you know they have these socialist dreams about you know to each his own according to his need but also you know you have to take rich people's money in order

to put it injected into your economy this could a lot of this money could end up in your well not you because you're sitting at home commenting on a video but people who are working at sheets or jimmy johns a sandwich could be bought and it's funneled back into the american economy so um the comedians are taking heat wait till they find out about Netflix in Saudi Arabia wait till they find out about the WWE wait until they find out all the movies that are produced with the Saudi money, wait until they find out about all the Saudi money that has been matriculating into the United States for a long time. And people are saying, how could you do this?

They did 9-11. Well, that is a very internet take. That is a very Candice Owens type take. That is a very, the Jews control the weather type of take. No, no, it's not that, in fairness, because that's outlandish. It's not outlandish considering there was some little low-level connections, consulate guys, blah, blah, blah, blah. People may be employees of the House Assad, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But you have to understand the complicated nature of the Middle East, right? You have people who are in power, who are often preferred by the United States. because they keep the religious zealots at bay a little bit. Saddam Hussein was one for a long time, you know, and then you get rid of him, and boy, that becomes a problem. The Sunni and Shi'i get at each other's necks, power struggles. House Assad has been an American ally for decades, a long time. The House Assad gains nothing and only loses from,

doing 9-11 right now Saudis were involved um just like when an American commits a crime right somebody goes and shoots up to school or somebody goes overseas and does something bad um you don't go oh Obama's responsible for the ball brothers stealing whatever they stole when they went on that trip in china remember when Trump or you blame Trump I think Trump was the president at the time remember he had them rescued or something of the ball brothers that didn't make the NBA, one of those. Wasn't his fault. He was just an American citizen.

So you did have a lot of Saudi hijackers. Most of them were Saudi. But that just means they were citizens of Saudi, right? Radicalized, very committed to their religion. But the Osama bin Laden, Laden and al-Qaeda hate the House Assad. They hate the monarchy. They call them on a, they don't like a comedy festival.

The people who you would fear the boast would applaud you for what you're doing in shutting down a comedy festival. It's just the truth. There's no other way to slice it. Osama bin Laden is clapping at his grave because he always. often accused the Saudi royal family, and I'm not for royal families. I'm just telling you what it is, what is. He accused them of being un-Islamic, and that didn't mean that he thought he was, that they were too harsh. He thought they were a little too open. He didn't love that

they hosted U.S. troops on Saudi soil, and he didn't love, he doesn't love the partnership that Saudi Arabia and the United States have. He hates the House Assad. He would love to do terrorist attacks against the House of Assad. The House Assad benefits greatly from the quit pro quo with America.

You know, so it's a complicated thing. So, I mean, the House Assad to do 9-11 would be so pointless and actually counterintuitive you know it would it doesn't make sense it just it doesn't make sense um you know bin laden was stripped of his Saudi citizenship um they don't get along sometime around the 90s like 94 or whatever um and he he called the house Assad a traitor regime if I remember quote unquote um primary military protector.

So why they'd want to do 9-11 and what they would benefit? I don't know what they would benefit. That's it. They just don't, I don't know, right? But Al-Qaeda had the motive. They claimed responsibility. They made a declaration, a formal declaration of jihad in like 1990 something, six, five, something like that during that time.

And they wanted the U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia. So they were mad at the House Assad. So maybe you could. say the House Assad did it to blame it on al-Qaeda? Maybe that's an angle I didn't think of, but they themselves doing it. They would have no reason to do it. Maybe to blame it at al-Qaeda and have America take al-Qaeda out, but I don't know if there was any threat.

I mean, that seems to go a long way to take out al-Qaeda. Because al-Qaeda and Saudi Arabia, they're no friends, you know. Muslims are not a monolith. Um, so maybe that's, is that the, is that the, um, conspiracy theory? Because I haven't heard it. I don't even, I think I'm doing your conspiracy theory better than you are. Um, yeah, the Saudis don't want the clash of civilizations the way hardcore, uh, Islamists do, Taliban, al-Qaeda, things like that. Um, so. it is true that wealthy Saudis charities and maybe some low-level officials provided some money here and there, found its way to extremists who did this, but that's a very different thing from saying the royal family did it, right? Unless you believe that the royal family did it, went to that extent to frame al-Qaeda,

to go to America, to go after al-Qaeda. I mean, you could have just asked us to go after them anyway because we wanted to go in there anyway. But I guess maybe to get the American support, maybe they sat down with Americans and, but I thought Israel did it. I don't, I thought, I went from Israel now. They're blaming, you know, sometimes I'll go to the accounts of the people who were saying, what are you doing, taking Saudi money? They did 9-11, but then I go scroll back a year and they said Israel did it. Maybe they all did it.

I don't know. And I'm not saying they didn't. I'm just saying we don't know. To say they definitely did it is not the case. You can't, nobody knows definitely. But also, it's a pretty far-fetched thing to do to your very important ally. It makes no sense. Saudi Arabia, the royal family doesn't gain.

Now, Muslims who live in Saudi Arabia, they hate the United States. They have the same opinion as Al-Qaeda. They're just citizens. They hate their royal family. They hate America. They hate the American troops. They move from Saudi Arabia to another country. Then they get in terror cells, whatever.

Yeah. Right? They're Saudi citizens for sure. But that's as far as you could really go based on what we know. And even if you think Saudi Arabia did 9-11 and you're upset with Pete Davidson. Can't the kid get some reparation? they killed his father, right? From your perspective,

can't he go get a lease a bag of money for it? It's called 40 acres in a mula. Now the free speech thing. I don't know. You could make the argument, it's a step in the right direction, you know? North Korea's not doing no comedy festivals. There's no,

there's no, uh, there's no. Afghani ha ha's club in, uh, on the horizon. You're not going to go to the Pakistani, uh, gafaw store. We're never going to see the North Korean he, he, he, he, he club. And the list goes on. You know, they're trying to be more like the UAE. Right?

Would I, uh, Bahrain, did anyone get upset when a comedian went to Bahrain? or whatever. Yeah, they killed the journalist. Yeah. They chopped off hands. Yeah. They put you in jail for tweets. Yeah.

It's not a free speech regime. But this is a step in the right direction. Change doesn't happen overnight. You could make that argument, right? You could make that argument as well. But you could also make the argument you're making and say just keep, let isolate them, let them keep their money and that. What is the goal?

Like what, what would you want? You want the House Assad out of power? I don't, I'm not even sure you know. I'm not even sure you know what you're angry about. I think you just, you know, most people just fucking, yeah. So what do you want? Are you mad at Eminem, Lincoln Park, Muse, BTS, Jennifer Lopez, Christine Aguilera, 30 seconds to bars, Michael Blue Play,

Cabilia, Cabello. The list goes on and on. On and on of artists that are performed in Riyadh. Maybe it's one of those things where comedians are held to a higher standard, right? Like Chris Brown can actually beat his woman up and then continue to make songs. I don't know. Soccer, golf. And always there's a little controversy.

I'm not going to say there's no controversy with that. There is controversy. I mean, you know, it comes and it goes. but they've invested 400 million in WIB in Hollywood Talent Media Agency they're part of the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation they've given 10 million

a growing film production company several Hollywood and global productions have been filmed there with Saudi backing Desert Warrior movie starring Ben Kingsley and Anthony McKee, they funded. Kandahar starring Gerard Butler filmed in Saudi Arabia

with the support of Saudi entities. Money. They own stakes in large entertainment conglomerates that turn into finance. I just think it's really funny that comedians, I mean, people who like maybe have a BA, you know, or

like, you know, have to release a statement about Why? They pulled out. It's being very, very serious being held to a very high standard, you know, of, they got to be very moral role models. And, you know, what happens with the House Assad, it comes down to this specific thing. If we don't do this comedy festival, they will not chop off any more hands. I don't know, because you can say like, hey, if you allow a little free speech in there, comedians come in,

they start saying something, they make a little joke on the line, then the next comedians come, they make a little joke on the line. Who knows? Maybe there's a revolution against the House Assad, based on comedians going there, and they want more, more American culture, more, more freedom. You can say that too. Change doesn't happen in the day, right?

What do you think the House of Sad is reading your Twitter feed? Going, whoa, I saw what he said. We have to stop. So they gave the comedians a list of things they couldn't say. Here's the thing. A lot of these comedians probably haven't gotten to the point yet where they perform for colleges and get paid for it, I would assume,

or the colleges have never been interested, not knocking it, because it's not fun. But I would probably guess the list of things you couldn't say there is less than the things you couldn't say in the contract you get before you perform for a college. How about a corporate? They tell you, stay away from no. this, stay away from that.

How about late night shows? Can't say this, can't say that. Shilling for Exxon, baby. But we protect his free speech. Shelling for whatever pharma companies got bought ads. Shelling for whatever, for whatever fast food company. Where is the clean money? Where is the clean money?

Let's see. Let's see. Jimmy Kibble Show. Bud Light. MasterCard. Gap. Slave labor. Sweat shops.

BMW. Nazis. Nazis. Chevrolet. Like a rock. So, you know? Who ain't shillet? I'll tell you who ain't shillet?

Right here. This guy. I'm asking you, support the show with five bucks. To be honest, you, I don't know if there's a cleaner arrangement than Patreon.com slash Janus Pappasauer or just patreon.com slash history hyenas, whichever one. Straight to the fan. You support the content you like. You could tune out the rest of the world and let me entertain you.

Let me entertain you. you i'll do a dance and a jig for you and a nint-da-de-de-de-de-de-de-de let me entertain you can you believe people used to get away with that shit and people would be like what entertain let me entertain you that da-da and people are like whoa just shows how like like desensitized like more more more fucker fucker fucker fucker fucker fucker Grindr, grinder, grinder, let me see that. Titty, city, city, city, city. Pull it, pull up, put up, fucking ass. I'm gonna fuck it, I'm gonna fuck it.

More, more, more, more. Shoot her, shooter, shooter, shoot her head, shoot her head. Superhero. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, call, call, call. It's been a slippery slope. It's been a slippery slope of morality with entertainment for a long time. This summer, coming to theaters all over the, the country. It's Matt

Damon in diving gun guy and Mark Wahlberg shits the gold nugget. Mark Wahlberg saves a school, kills people

in diving gun guy three. Hollywood's like, you got to do something with all this gun violence in the next movie. Bang, bang, bang, bang. The Rock this summer, stars in violence. The movie's just called Street Violence. Rated, PG-13.

So your family and you, we force you to do three tickets instead of one. Straight to Netflix this summer. It's Will Farrell in PayPal commercials. You know there's a whole generation that she's going to know him as PayPal's bitch guy. We got to look into what those corporations are doing. What's PayPal doing? What's Subway doing?

Whatever celebrity I say, I don't remember. There's too many Dunkin' Don't. What are they doing? Let's get into it. Taking their money isn't necessarily a compliance, isn't a approval. What's the word I'm looking for? Isn't an endorsement? It's an endorsement, especially if you take the money, you come back and you make fucking jokes or whatever.

It's not an endorsement, right? The people over there, you know, the majority of the population is under 35 in Saudi Arabia. So I think the royal family is under a little pressure as well. I mean, look, let's be honest. They're a fucking totalitarian regime. No question about it, okay? Is the alternative better or worse? I don't know.

You look at Saddam. You're like, should we have? I don't know. Maybe it was better. He was torturing people I know, but they're still doing that now. So it's really picked your poison over there. And I don't know why. I don't want to be Islamophobic.

And what about that? What happened to Islamophobia? Aren't you ashamed to yourself? Isn't Saudi Arabia an Islamic country who abides by Shiarilaw? Isn't that their religion? Are you not being Islamophobic? by saying we can't go there, right? I'm not talking to you, the right-wing person

who believes no mother should be in the company. I'm talking to the people who are on the left who are complaining about this right now, okay? Because I know you on the right have a pretty decent point. Less hypocrisy there because you'll go, yeah, get rid of them all. But I'm saying on the left, weren't you saying like don't be Islamophobic?

hijibs in sports There was a lot of I see something I see something where where's that is this not Islamophobia the royal family

governs with Islamic law okay under their law system if they think you're a spy they disappear you it's culture okay don't be ethnocentric if you steal they cut your hand off if you tweet something they don't like against the religion or whatever you go to prison

is a totalitarian are you asking my opinion my opinion is yes do i agree with you everyone who has an issue with this, in theory, yes, I do. But we don't live in theory. Change doesn't happen by us just going, yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're bad. Get out of the UFC, get out of boxing, get out of soccer, get out of it. No, it changes by us taking their money and then forcing them to adopt what we think is the best way to do things after we bleed them dry. Why do you think they abolished slavery? In 1962, she? They abolished slavery not because they wanted to, because I'll be honest with you, they really didn't want to. They abolished it because of Western pressure.

That's it. And then they did another form of that. It's a little sneakier. It's kind of like medieval Europe. They were like, okay, Jesus wouldn't like that. So let's do a little something called serfdom. How's that work? It's not a slave, it's a serf. There's no slaves in Saudi Arabian.

There are Somalian guest workers. There's Indian workers, Pakistani workers. Can we see their pay steps? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Booty, bodie, bo de, bo de, bo, de, boo. But they, but they boo. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because we have a law that the worker has no rights and the employer has all the rights.

Shish, say, you don't see, have got back questions. Stop making the questions. But you could say, and you know, this episode will end up being prophetic, that these things will lead to the downfall of the House Assad, letting more Western culture. And why do you think the more hardcore Islamic countries keep it out? Why do you think North Korea keeps it out? That's how they hold the grip of power by keeping it out. Because once you get a whiff of a good UFC fight night, once you get the, what you get a nice buzz from a bud light,

and you get horny for trans cock and confused. Once you get seduced by a pizzeria, Unos, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward into the fucking Hollywood Hills. You want to go forward into New York City. You want to go to Miami. You want to go forward. And their young population wants to go forward.

I want to go into it. I want to go in. So are you wrong out there if you want to explode in the comments? No. No, you're not wrong. But are the people who are mad? Are they right? I don't know.

The Internet is not about, Rezones, nuance, and the real world. It's all about people getting on their podiums and yelling at somebody else. Because it is a bored person's way of having fun. It is, you know how wrestling nerds love the drama of like, what's going to happen? What did fucking mankind say? Oh, my God. What's going on?

Vince McMahon? You know, and then, oh, no girls want to touch me. And then back to wrestling. And then, oh, my God. 80% of the women want 20% of the guys. But anyway, what's going on with John Sina? And he goes, Pintang, I don't talk, he's a hundred, he talk, he's a, who's the country,

I apologize for what I said about Taiwan is a part of one China. I apologize. I'm very sorry for what I said. The shilling's been going on, sweetheart. It's been Kurt Schilling for a long time. from the man with a bloody sock. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm John Sina.

I take a Chinese money. What are they doing to the Ugrim Muslims, brother? Zolkholyan, brother. Shh, shh, shh, take the money. LeBron James, Chinese money, Chinese money, NBA. Chinese money, Chinese money. One thing that people overlook often on why I think it would be hard. for China to attack us

because I think their people love our culture. It's the one thing we got, baby. A good Starsky and Hutch remake to make you forget about falling in line. Everyone wants to be free in their soul and we have the closest thing to that. Right? Right.

That's all there is, dude. People of Saudi Arabia didn't kill Jashal's Makagi. Jamal McCutcheobie, right? They didn't. It was the government. They didn't approve of it. I bet you a lot of those people secretly don't like the government.

They don't like the kingdom, right? They're just people like you and me. Everywhere. People are the same. When you travel, you learn that. People are the same. I think really when you look at history, you look at how you just see people are either victims of power structures or they're not.

Right? We complain the most here about being. victims of power structures of what we're not evinced by the fact that you can complain about how much of a victim you are to the power structure because being a true victim to the power structure means you can't say it so inviting some comedians over who can push a little bit Hey, a lesbian Jew who carried a rainbow flag right into Saudi Arabia's kingdom right by Mecca and Medina? And probably did her black girl voice?

Is that not a victory for freedom? Speech? Huh? An Irish kid from Boston. right who one day can say free luigi and the next day make a joke about the royal family to the royal family for a lot of money from a lot of money from dirty oil money he's taking it to rescue up now am i acting as the lawyer for the saudi arabian kingdom yes but i'm doing entertainment I'm doing this to entertain you.

I don't know if my points are right or wrong. I'm being constrarian. Bill Burr fucking depends. He defends performing at the controversial Riyadh comedy festival. They're just like us. Okay. Now, I'll tell you what. Bill doesn't care what you say.

Bill is taking the stance. Definitely one of the top three experiences I've ever had. I think it's going to lead to a lot of positive things. So he's taking that perspective like we're going in the right direction. Maybe he's prophetic. Okay, that's the position that I'm taking right now. I could be wrong. I'm doing this for entertainment value.

Don't scream at me. I'm a comedian. Sometimes we take the opposite of what we believe. I don't know what I believe. I'm trying to entertain you. Something people used to just understand and not treat my statements with any import. I don't want the import. I don't want to have to release a video.

I am the stupid one of my family And so are the other people Who you're yelling at We're just at a time right now That everyone's uncertain about what their job's gonna be And they're seeing these comedians Getting this big bag of money And they're fucking angry

And I understand I understand Because you're going like They don't need actors anymore They don't need line producers anymore. They don't need editors anymore. I understand. I understand.

So Bill has not backed down. He said when they first set it up the rules on what they had about what you could and couldn't say in Saudi Arabia, if you want some good comedians, this is going to work. And to their credit, they said, all right, what we got to do. And they just negotiated all the way down to just a couple things, which were basically don't make fun of royals and religion. The speech restrictions were posted online by community. comedian, Astuki, that's a tough one for me. Astuko Akkatsuka. Atsuko, Atsakuca, which I assume is a Japanese comedian,

who turned down the festivals offered to attend, and it's unclear if these were the rules from before or after the talks. Because you know what? I assume you're Japanese. Can we check on that? You know. I assume you're Japanese. The Japanese have been very naughty, Atsuko.

Very naughty. And my law firm, pap, pap, pap and pap. Okay, I'm wrong. Taiwanese. Japanese and Taiwanese. Okay, so your Japanese people have been very wrong. And the Taiwanese people have been very wrong because Taiwan is China. No, but I mean, Japan, when did that become okay?

You know, when? When did, what did they do? They did some naughty stuff. Everyone's always upset about the bomb. And yes, the bomb was bad. And why are you upset? Because it killed normal people, right? Just normal Japanese, not part of the power structure.

But what did the Japanese power structure do to a lot of normal Chinese, some of its own citizens? Horific things that, in my opinion, are just as whitewashed as something called is Islamic slave trade. 18 million Africans. Cash traded so they left no trace. No descendants. Force conversions.

Torture. Conquest. But when you go to school and you learn history, I remember, I'm a history major. It was just like, the Arab expansions were just a good morning stretch. You know, when you wake up And you just expand your arms

To the left and the right It was just 1,400 years Of just a living side by side in peace A collaborative just Where'd you hear that? Arab historians Um But when you do go to college

You hear 400 years A fucking brutal colonial Neo colonial, patriarchal Europe here Not saying Again just saying one is treated a little and the other one's treated and the other one's treated

where's the humility everyone's out there pointing fingers yelling but you know maybe Bill's right I don't know maybe Bill's right maybe this is the beginning of a lot of good things

he goes okay let's go When I landed in Bahrain, like, I'm fucking nervous, right? Then the agent says, you tell jokes about the Middle East, you think you're going to come over here and get beheaded, right? After a successful show in Bahrain, where he was at a bar where he was watching interactions among the locals and decided, I'm like these guys.

They're just like us. I don't speak the language, but I get it. When he flew into Saudi Arabia, his nervousness crept back, but he was struck by the amount of local Western influence. You think everyone's going to be screaming death to America and they're going to have, like, fucking machetes and want to, like, chop my head off. Right?

Because this is what I've been fed about this part of the world. I thought this place was going to be a really tense. And I'm thinking, like, is that a Starbucks next to a Pizza Hut? Next to a Burger King, next to a McDonald's? They got a fucking chilies over there. And people would say this is whitewashing. And then other people would say, you know, they're, you know, there's less controversy about the UAE, right?

Tourists come in, they have some alcohol laws, you know. They definitely have different rules for locals than they do for tourists. I guess it just comes down to how Islamophobic you want to be, you know? On stage at the Riyadh show, he kept pushing his material in crowd banter further and further, including doing a bit about gay men. at the gym until he was eventually performing his regular act. I had to stop a couple of times during the show and say, I'll be honest

with you guys, I cannot fucking believe any of you have any idea who I am. This is really amazing. And it was just this great exchange of energy. They know their reputation so they were extra friendly. Or they were instructed by the House Assad, handpicked for the audience

to do so. Which is also very possible. Again. Again. I don't know if Mark, Marion, David, Cross, and whoever else is wrong. Burr's take on the event comes to some of the comedians such as Shane Gillis, Mark Malin, David Cross have voiced objections to the festival with cross-blaming comics, including citing Burr, I'm disgusted and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing that people I admire with unarguable talent would condone, let me just say this the right way. I am just... No, I'm just kidding.

I'd say it more like a church. I am disgusted and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing. Okay, grandma. That people I admire with unarguable talent would condone this totalitarian fiefdom. For what? A fourth house? A boat? More sneakers?

We can never again take seriously anything these comedians complain about. Now, did some of these comedians need to go? Do they have enough money? Absolutely. So I don't know. You know? I wasn't asked to go. If I was asked to go, I would have some concerns.

I would have some moral objections. It would be a thought in my head. But here's the thing about me. I just know more than most people. How much do you think Sebastian Mattiskelko's looking into the fucking history of the House of Assad? Right? Just as an example. I don't know who else was that.

How much do you think Fluffy's really up on fucking the geopolitics at the current moment? And the historical forces that have created it. Do you know what I'm talking about? How much? How much time do you think these guys have to read up? Are they doing a podcast that approaches this stuff that gets them low numbers? No, it's me. I would know.

I know some of the, let's say, I know the minefield of, you know. I'm a little more aware of the minefield. But again, I wasn't asked. But if I was, I would go, whoa, is this a good idea? I would. But I don't think a lot of those guys did. I don't think they're even aware. He, MSNBC's, uh, Zisham Aline,

accused the performers of participating in, uh, comedy washing in an op-ed, describing the event as an insidious tool to project the misleaning image. of the country's incremental efforts to liberalize. Comedy festivals functions fundamentally as propaganda, allowing the country to falsely present an image of an open society when, in fact, the government remains hostile to democratic civil liberties tied to freedom of speech and assembly.

Point taken. I mean, well said. I mean, well said. Arrest my case, Your Honor. What does it say instead of objection? Sustained. I'm going to go sustained. I'm going to go sustained.

There's a long history of debate on this issue. Weighing refusals to normalize and endorse an authoritarian regime versus the benefits of exposing such cultures to Western values. Okay. At least they're acknowledging. Exposing such cultures to Western values and fostering a sense of openness. The political scientist Joseph C. Nye popularized the term soft power. I mean, of course.

in the 1980s, okay? That's what you call USAID. That was what USAID was used for in a lot of ways, which is now gone. To describe using force like ours and culture to shape where other countries want and value. Do you want other countries pointing to black people and saying Michael Jordan or not?

Michael Jordan. Do you want to go and like Mike? I want to be like Mike or not. The pop singer and humanitarian Sting has likewise spoken out about the concept in the past when defending his performance, ooh, in Uzbekistan in 2009, right? Now are you saying Sting has rationalized the bag he got? In part, probably. I am well aware of the Uzbek presidents appalling reputation in the field of human rights

as well as the environment. Right? Let's say you oppose Trump, right? right because he's uh he's rounding up not nearly as many as people as Obama but he's doing it with the guys with masks and all this shit but uh you know making more uh carrying a big stick and saying he's carrying a big stick whereas Obama soft spoke spoke softly what is the Truman was a Truman or Teddy Roosevelt I think of Teddy Roosevelt uh one of them uh speak softly carry a big stick I think it's Teddy right um

Obama did more of that, right? He did carry a big stick, right? Remember Libya? Remember Syria? Those were wars we started carnage. Trump, on the other hand, and I don't think any liberal would really admit this, has started no new wars. Much lower body count if you just want to go on body count.

If you care about life. You know, depends on what you cherry pick. but let's say you don't love Trump you're morally opposed to Trump and you get offered money from the U.S. government to come perform as a cultural exchange

and where they really need it. Tacoma, Washington. Right? And they ask Oasis to come to a concert and there's government money involved. Do you turn it down on principle? I don't know. There's so many comedians now, and they all want in. So there's a lot of voices because when I started, there was like 100, 200.

Now there's comedians, there's comedians who talk about other comedians, people who think they're comedians who are talking about people who talk about people and then there's thousands of online personalities who think they're comedians. And there's people who got big and then started becoming comedians, but they're not real comedian. I mean, the list just goes on. So there's a lot of people, too, have a lot of opinions on this. And I'm sure, I'm sure they're weighing in right now on their Instagrams because of their moral compass and their moral compass only.

They're not trying to tag on to a trending topic, not at all for their own gain or visibility. Not at all, not one big. That is not what our culture is about at the moment. We are a cohesive society and we are not a digital. economy. Do you know that we're no longer even a society? We are a digital economy. That's what I would call it. I have to admit, it really is funny to me just thinking about, you know, the only one I can think of is Nemesh Patel pulled out. And he had to like release a statement. Hey, everybody. I mean, it's like, you know, like he's a senator or like a congressman.

I know I initially accepted the offer, but that was before I knew how many of you were going to be upset about it and I didn't want to look bad. People have their secret lives and then the ones they put on out and everyone now, you know, Everyone now is Coca-Cola, baby. Everyone is Bernays marketing, you know, because you can get attacked like a corporation or whatever. Oh, but he erased it. It's in the paper.

I love all these guys. I don't think. None of them are bad people. Let me think. None of them are bad people. Let me think. I can't think of them all. But they're just.

They make people laugh. They were offered money. I don't think they had a lot of time, wherewithal, or in some cases, ability to understand, you know, that this might present a controversy. he made the garden it's a joke but i love how they put it like it's a statement mark norman on the other hand joked he could bring his wife to the show and show her how good she has it in america i want to be like you see you think i'm an asshole well don't cut your head you'll cut your clit off bitch

Again, not true. Very Islamophobic. That's happening, if you know, in Egypt, Somalia, a few other places, but not Saudi Arabia. You know, everyone like, people just don't understand the nuance of the Islamic world that well. Saudi Arabia has changed. They're 2030. You know, go watch my House Assad episode. We talked about all of it.

They're trying to diversify their economy. Tim Dillon said, so what? have slaves. The funny thing about articles is you can't pick up the comedic tone. They're paying me enough money to look the other way. And then they put it like a statement. So if you're reading it and you have no idea who Tim Dillon is, you go like, what?

He said what? Pete Davidson offered a similar take, acknowledging in a chat with the Yovonne that people have asked him why, given his father's death on 9-11. He would take a paycheck from the Saudi government. He did not address to Christians directly, but he did suggest he was happy to forget on 11 for the right price. I think it's a great joke.

I just know I get the routing, and I see the number, and then I go, I'll go. They're expecting comedians to take a stand instead of our government. Our government is allies with Saudi Arabia, right, knowing what they do. So if you really want to be upset, I guess be upset with them and be upset with whoever you want to be upset with.

But this is a complicated situation. No, it's not. Okay, it's not that complicated. A bunch of comedians got offered a bunch of money to go perform for a totalitarian royal family. Who does clamp down on free speech. And rules with an iron fist. For sure. But when Canello is fighting Crawford, you don't think of it.

about that. You're just glad that it happened and that Saudi oil money was able to make it happen. What did Jesus say? He who was out sin cast the first stone, and I implore you people to look at your own selves in the mirror and say, am I without sin? Am I perfect? Is this bad? Is this good? Is Bill right? Is this a step in the right direction? You know? Is this good? Is this soft power? In the same podcast that got him fired, Dylan said the organizers offered him 375,000

and claimed that some were offered millions. That sounds like a guy having fun. Gillis did not reveal how much of the organizers offered him, but he did say it was a lot. tough news for dylan who elsewhere claimed he asked for five but had to settle for less community and former slo writer minosha petal in an instagram story post now city dropped out said he was offered a lot of money i'm not in a position to say no to life changing money but it wasn't life changing money wait till people find out that what he was offered he thinks wasn't

life changing money you can't win it's like yo you said it so don't ever let the number get out there because what you don't think is life-changing money for almost everyone, and that's 98%. I think if you're worth a million, you're in the top 10%. I think if you're worth three million, if your net worth is three million, you're in the top 2%. It's very easy to forget when you're locked in a career that constantly has you vertical thinking, right? There's some people you meet who are just vertical thinkers, right? They look above, they look beyond, they look down at the people who have less than them and think they're less than them, they look up, the people have more than them and say, I want to get more than them. And then there's horizontal thinkers,

more collaborative, more, hey, I get this, you got, it doesn't matter, I'd love to work with you, it's not about the money, it's more about the art, it's more about that. That's essentially what you got in the art world and in society, in life, in history, in the human condition. you got people who are victims of a power structure or people who are not victims of a power structure hopefully we can all one day not be victims of a power structure the manipulations of a power structure the subjugation the repression of a power structure hopefully okay and then you have people who are vertical thinkers and horizontal thinkers i know both i know people who all they want, no end to up, my worth is based on having more than that guy.

And then they look down at the people and they go, he has less than me. I'm not worried about him. He has less worth than me as a human being. And those are the people who tend to like really climb. They're looking up. They're looking down. And then there's people who get into the art games and more horizontal thinkers. Hey, that guy's over there.

Oh, they don't think about Louis Bank account. They don't think about his position there. Oh, man, the fucking comedic flow. we had was great. It's just more horizontal. In this country, you have to be a little vertical, a little down, you got to know where your money is. You got to survive. We're conditioned to that. But that's what you have. I would say, Kevin Hart's more of a vertical thinker. He looked up. Well, because of his height, it's really not his fault. He's constantly got to be vertical thinker.

So he's looking up. He's looking up at people who are tall than him. And he's looking up at bags of money. Then he needs a step tool to catch. And boy, did Saudi Arabia offer him a step stool. Chappelle Hart, R, Joe Coy, Gabriel Iglesias, Luis C. It's everyone.

So it's like you're just mad at everyone now. It's everyone. It's everyone. It's everyone who's making a lot of money. Has there been anyone who's, making a lot of money who's been mad about this like a lot like a shit ton i'm not talking about i'm no longer doing my podcast because i'm taking the moral high ground and podcasts are mediocre and you know i'm leaving number one all time high and that's the reason i'm leaving right i don't want to

be a part of this mediocre art form anymore i don't want to do that i'm leaving because I don't like the art of it. I don't like what it's become and that's why I'm leaving. Actually, our numbers are the best they've ever been up but I just want to go out number one like they were when I was like one of four podcasts and people would fast forward to the interview.

We just have to have a little humility, right? I don't know anyone from then until now who said they turned it in for the first 10 minutes. That was actually a thing everyone said. Now, you just kind of fast forward to the beginning of the interview. When there weren't many people doing it. They're like, whoa, what's this? None of us.

None of us should take this too serious. We have a sense of humor. Be easy. Tread lightly, my friends. Tread lightly. My God, they're putting everyone's numbers here. They're even in $100,000 for Florida State. Well, how do they know these numbers?

130 over a weekend in Buffalo. Tamed via public records requests show that he grossed more than 300,000 over a weekend in Seattle. This is fucked up. This is going to make people upset and they find out what you're getting. Luis K's income may have taken. taken a debt in recent years, but an invoice sent to his promoters obtained via public records. Wow. Oh, that's Louis C.K.

Oh, no. Davidson, too, 100,000. They're getting public records of everybody now. This is so important, Guardian. I think people are worried about a fascist revolution here. You look at modern times, there really have never, there haven't been any. like fascist dictatorships that have lasted

more than a couple of years, right? Mussolini, the Nazis, whatever you want to say. The communists, some of them are having a good run. You're having a good run because when you're starting with an advantage, you've got a lot of angry people. A lot of people who don't have their beak wet. So I think if anything, we may see a communist revolution happened in America.

I'm all for it. I'm all for it. I'm a communist. If they're winning, I'm a communist. I just want to put it on record now. I'm a communist. I'm a communist. I'm not a comedian.

I'm a Republican, liberal, Democrat, socialist. People, they really want, they really want to slap that star David on you. They really want to slap that star David on you because they want it to make sense why you annoy them. They don't want to say maybe it's something in me. that I hate, which is what Young would say. Because seriously, dude, anyone I've ever hated who made me feel anything, it was really about me. Anyone I don't like, I don't think about for more than one second.

Because the opposite of love is not hate. Hate is a mutilated, distorted version of love. The opposite of love is apathy. So what I'm saying is, you guys must love Shiarah law. All right, I want to give us a shout out, as always, to Prince Shahala al-Awad from the House of Saan and the royal family. Thank you for making this possible. Also, for the free dot art, you know, not the last but not least, for the free dot art, music in Hawaii. Go check out live shows and bands in Hawaii guys at for the free.org, great website.

Go check out Nate Linder's podcast, Entrepreneurship Unlocked with Nate Linder, Indigo Labs Agency.com. digital marketing. Rebels dash raiders.com. You know, this guy is plugging, he's not plugging gear right now. He's plugging Charlotte Hills Farm Sanctuary in New Jersey. Go donate to their GoFundMe. And you can also get a goat shirt.

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