Saudi Arabia Gets the Last Laugh

Radio Atlantic

The Atlantic

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia concludes this week, but the outrage (from comedians who didn’t go) and self-justification (from comedians who did) continues. The festival is one small piece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s grand vision to remake the kingdom for the 21st century and simultaneously draw global attention away from human-rights violations like the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. In this episode, we talk to the Atlantic staff writers Vivian Salama and Helen Lewis about what happened at the festival and how to understand Saudi Arabia’s push for modernization. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Eleven Labs powers AI voices that don't sound like AI voices, like this one.
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0:39.3	I'm Hannah Rosen. This is Radio Atlantic. Okay. How about this for a setup? A bunch of comedians walk into a festival hosted by a country that has arrested and jailed some of its own comedians, a country accused in American courts of providing support to the 9-11 hijackers. And then days before the festival starts, a different comedian says,
0:44.8	Well, there's a Riyadh comedy festival. I don't know if you heard about that.
0:49.5	This is true. There's a Riyadh, Saudi Arabia comedy festival.
0:54.5	That's Mark Marin from a recent video he posted on social media.
0:58.5	I mean, how do you even promote that?
1:02.1	You know, like, from the folks that brought you in 9-11.
1:08.0	Two weeks of laughter in the desert.
1:10.0	Don't miss it!
1:11.8	And then another comedian says,
1:14.1	everyone's like, yeah, you should do it. Everyone's doing it.
1:16.3	It's like, for Saudis?
1:18.5	That was Shane Gillis, who declined to go.
1:21.3	Aren't those the 9-11 guys?
1:27.1	Guys, it's that special time of year.
1:29.4	It's the Riyadh Comedy Festival.
1:32.2	And all of your favorite comedians are performing at the pleasure of Turkey Al-Shake.
1:37.0	That's Zach Woods.
1:38.1	Human Rights Watch has been begging the comedians not to participate in the whitewashing of the horrors that are ongoing in Saudi Arabia.
1:49.1	Ugh, what a cockblock human rights watch is for comedy.
	...

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