Last year, numerous comedians found themselves hit with backlash after agreeing to accept huge paychecks to appear at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia. Despite public outcry, the likes of Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, Louis C.K., Aziz Ansari, Pete Davidson and Whitney Cumming nevertheless took to the stage in Riyadh, with some justifying why they took the money to perform at such a controversial venue.
One person who refused the offer that those comics couldn’t is “Weird Al” Yankovic, who recently revealed that he turned down an offer that would have paid him handsomely.
More than $1 Million Offered
In a recent interview with Pennsylvania’s TribLive, the singer and accordion virtuoso responsible for such song-parody hits as “Another One Rides the Bus” and “Amish Paradise” revealed that he received an offer of more than $1 million to perform at the festival.
“I wish people would offer me things that I didn’t feel bad about accepting,” he said.
“I don’t think I’ve mentioned this anywhere, but I was invited to the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which is something that I obviously did not want to do,” he continued.
“They offered me, I’m not going to say how much, but it was seven figures to do one show, which is way more than I’ve ever been offered in my life to do a show,” Yankovic added. “But I just couldn’t be part of that.”
No Judgement from ‘Weird Al’
While he stands by his decision, he also emphasized that he wasn’t judging those artists who accepted big-bucks offers to perform in Saudi Arabia.
“I’m not dissing anybody that took the money because I’m sure everybody that went there got a lot of money,” Yankovic said.
“I’m sure they had their own reasons and justifications for doing it,” he shared. “But I’m doing enough that I don’t need to take any amount of money if it makes me feel icky, and that kind of did.”
Shrouded in Controversy
From the moment it was announced, the state-sponsored comedy festival generated controversy.
As Deadline reported, standup comic Atsuko Okatsuka took to social media to reveal that she’d received an offer to perform, but also shared that the offer included “content restrictions” that banned any of the comics from making any jokes about the Saudi government, its legal system or religious practices.
“The money is coming straight from the Crown Prince, who actively executes journalists, [people with non-lethal] drug offenses, bloggers, etc w/out due process,” Okatsuka wrote.
“A lot of the ‘you can’t say anything anymore!’ comedians are doing the festival,” she added, sharing receipts in the form of screenshots of the contract she was offered. “They had to adhere to censorship rules about the types of jokes they can make.”
Per Deadline, Okatsuka’s post was met with support by some of her fellow standups who also took a hard pass.
“I said no too,” wrote comedian Leslie Liao in a comment to Okatsuka’s post. “You inspired me (I got the offer after we talked about it). You were right.”
Comedian Mike Birbiglia also chimed in. “I also passed. Respect to Atsuko and Shane [Gillis] and others for passing,” he commented.
