At face value, Saudi Arabia’s imminent Riyadh Comedy Festival is an event celebrating culture, humor, and international cohesion. With more than 50 world-class comedians such as Kevin Hart, Russell Peters, Aziz Ansari, and Jimmy Carr lined up to take the stage, the festival is what the Kingdom describes as a “landmark event” in its cultural evolution. But scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find a disturbing irony: a regime notorious for repression and censorship is now curating stages for free expression—all while preparing to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup. This isn’t cultural evolution—it’s cultural camouflage. And the world must see it for what it is: a smokescreen to hide Saudi Arabia’s horrifying human rights abuses.
Comedy in a Country Where Dissent is a Crime
Ironically, Saudi Arabia has decided to host the “world’s biggest comedy festival” when it treats those brave enough to criticize it so differently. Stand-up comedy is all about challenging authority, making fun of social norms, and challenging assumptions, while Saudi Arabia imprisons, tortures, and muzzles those who do it through activism or journalism. Take these facts into account:
- Saudi Arabia carried out a minimum of 196 executions in 2022, with Amnesty International confirming. They comprised political activists as well as those who were convicted following unfair trials.
- Women’s rights activists such as Loujain al-Hathloul were arrested, tortured, and silenced for advocating the right to drive—decades before it was legalized.
- Activist and blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for merely promoting secular thinking and freedom of speech.
And now, the same regime that publicly whips authors is inviting comedians who earn a living from their freedom of speech. This isn’t progress. It’s performative freedom, skillfully choreographed to an international audience.
Saudi Arabia’s Entertainment Boom: A Strategy, Not a Shift
The Riyadh Comedy Festival is not a stand-alone cultural phenomenon—it’s a part of Vision 2030, the ambitious national reform project of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Under this vision, Saudi Arabia has invested billions into entertainment, tourism, and sport in an attempt to brand itself as modern and open.
But as the veneer of openness increases, the Kingdom’s iron fist over civil freedoms never loosens. Human Rights Watch states that despite entertainment and tourist reforms, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and women’s rights continue to be severely curtailed.
Bringing comedy festivals and sports super-events to town is not about changing society. It’s about image washing—a world effort to whitewash the country’s record of abuse by spending money on good-feeling events.
The Same Playbook: From Comedy to the 2034 FIFA World Cup
The same playbook is being employed for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by Saudi Arabia. It’s an even larger and riskier platform for sportswashing—the use of international sporting events to distract from human rights violations.
And FIFA, which used to stand for unity and integrity, has once again opted for money over morality. Saudi Arabia was the sole bidder for the World Cup in 2034 following a suspiciously brief bidding window that shut out any competition. Critics, including human rights groups, think this was specifically arranged to let the Kingdom take the bid without opposition. Saudi Arabia’s record tells us the following:
- According to a report by The Guardian, some 6,500 migrant workers died in Qatar in preparation for the 2022 World Cup. Many share concerns that this may be repeated in Saudi Arabia, where migrant workers are still subjected to exploitation in the controversial kafala system.
- Saudi Arabia criminalizes homosexuality and puts LGBTQ+ fans, athletes, and staff at extreme legal risk for being themselves.
- Freedom of speech does not exist. Reporters, bloggers, and even supporters who raise dissenting voices face arrest.
A nation that fails to provide fundamental human rights cannot claim any moral high ground to host the world’s largest sporting event.
Hypocrisy on the Global Stage
Invite international celebrities such as Kevin Hart or Jo Koy to perform in Riyadh, and it could potentially change the global headlines, but it will not obscure the abuses of the Kingdom. Indeed, it raises critical questions of ethics for the performers themselves:
How do comedians—whose performances are based on truth and satire—stand on a stage funded by a regime that tortures dissidents who speak truth? International celebrities are being manipulated as pawns in an international geopolitical game: Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of legitimacy without accountability.
The same applies to FIFA and the rest of the international football family. By hosting the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, they are supporting a regime that kills journalists, jails peaceful protesters, and mutes women’s voices.
The Numbers That Shouldn’t Be Ignored
Let’s consider the hard facts that ought to take pause every fan, performer, and sporting organization:
- More than 100 executions during the first half of 2023 alone, a number of them for nonviolent offenses.
- 90+ human rights campaigners are currently behind bars, including those in prison for tweeting.
- Saudi Arabia’s position at 170 out of 180 on the 2023 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.
- Saudi Arabia rates only 53/100 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, an indicator of poor institutional transparency.
This is not the kind of country that deserves a stage-to-stage global event, let alone a World Cup viewed by billions.
Laughter Can’t Hide Bloodshed
It’s no joke when freedom is a show, not a creed. Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Comedy Festival, like its hosting of the 2034 FIFA World Cup, is a bid to cover up oppression in pomp. The world cannot be tricked by this magic trick. If we stay quiet, we become an accomplice. We are telling the world that money, entertainment, and spectacle take precedence over justice, equality, and human dignity.
Reject Entertainment Used as a Weapon
It is time that the world understood that Saudi Arabia’s hosting of comedy festivals and international sports events has nothing to do with reform—it’s about control. It’s about purchasing legitimacy while still encouraging dissidents in jail, executing minors, and silencing anyone who speaks against the regime. The 2034 FIFA World Cup, should it proceed in Saudi Arabia, will be no party of football. It will be a party of whitewashed violence.
That is why we need to raise our voices. We need to call on FIFA to overturn its ruling, call on performers to refuse participation in propaganda shows, and urge sponsors to withdraw from ethically poor partnerships. We cannot allow Saudi Arabia to guffaw and jeer on the world stage as freedom perishes in prison cells. Stand up. Speak out. Say no to the Saudi World Cup 2034.