Burr, who previously said the royal family “loved the show,” did not address any of this on O’Brien’s podcast. “It’s one thing to wear clothes made by sweatshop labor. It’s quite another to go to the factory and make ’em laugh. I can’t believe how much anger I had about this issue after it went viral,” he complained (via The Hollywood Reporter). He noted he got “the most amount of shit” from other comedians, who he described as “sanctimonious cunts … who don’t really sincerely give a shit.” He said, “If you actually give a fuck about those people and how they’re living over there, there’s gonna have to be these types of things to pull them in. And I will tell you, the Cheesecake Factory in Riyadh, it’s incredible. It’s right next to Pizza Hut and KFC, and if you want a pair of Timberlands, it’s across the street next to the Marriott, catty-corner to the fucking Hilton.”
It’s unclear how Burr thinks the Westernization of Riyadh relates to elevating the Saudi people out of oppression, or if it excuses the government’s abuses. Burr knows full well that having some Marriott hotels doesn’t make a country less culpable for its crimes. “One time I did Abu Dhabi and somebody [texted me], ‘Oh, you’re going over there to get that blood money, right?’ And I go, ‘Hey, just for the record, I’m also doing London, England on that tour, which is arguably the bloodiest fucking money out there,'” he pointed out. And the United States obviously has its own problems: “Jesus Christ, we’re fucking grabbing moms and dads and sticking ’em in a van for making illegally made fucking tacos to go to alligator Alcatraz. It’s fucking insane. It’s insane. And someday they’re gonna be out of brown people to put in those vans, they’re still gonna have the vans, so you shouldn’t be feeling comfortable about it. Thinking that you’re not gonna be in it.”
There’s a lot of discomfort and uncertainty in American life, for sure, but Burr’s bitter screed misses the point. Doing the Riyadh Comedy Festival is like performing at a show funded by the same guys who pay for the vans. And Burr’s tendency to speak truth to power is what made his appearance there so disappointing for his fans and admirers. Further, it highlights the fact that his responses to criticism still don’t acknowledge the issues with the power hierarchy in Saudi Arabia. He repeatedly mentions the country’s oppressed people without ever directing criticism at the oppressors (perhaps because he agreed not to criticize them).
Instead, he pointed to gay comedian Jessica Kirson as having “the biggest balls of anyone I’ve ever seen” during her Riyadh set, in which she heckled two exiting diplomats as “going to go get on Grindr.” Louis C.K. also used Kirson as an example when making excuses for participating in the festival, as though one gay woman on the lineup made it okay for a bunch of straight men to do it, too. Kirson has since donated her salary from the festival to a human rights organization and said she “deeply [regrets] participating under the auspices of the Saudi government.” On Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Burr said Kirson got backlash from “hardcore psycho gays,” adding, “Fucking lunatics, man.”
For his part, Bill Burr doesn’t “give a fuck what all these phony fucking people are saying,” and “if it affects my career, I’ve been to LAX enough in my life, I’ll fucking sit home for a little bit. I will actually tell you LAX is slightly sadder than Saudi Arabia.” (Do you think the reported million-dollar salary being offered to the biggest comedians at the festival requires them to keep advertising the country’s merits afterwards?) He still believes the festival “was necessary” to promote progress in Saudi Arabia. “It felt right afterward,” he said. “I vibed with them and they were funny. Fuck, they were funny fucking people. I don’t know what to tell you. I had a good time.”
