Following Saudi Arabia’s controversial debut comedy festival last year, Weird Al Yankovic is discussing his decision not to join the star-studded lineup.
The 5x Grammy-winning parody musician recently revealed that he turned down “seven figures” to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, explaining it would have made him “feel icky” to accept Saudi money for his comedic services.
“I was invited to the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which is something that I obviously did not want to do,” he told Pennsylvania’s Tribune-Review. “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 continued, “But I just couldn’t be part of that. I’m not dissing anybody that took the money because I’m sure everybody that went there got a lot of money. I’m sure they had their own reasons and justifications for doing it. 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.”
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After revealing he turned down a “nice pile of money” to appear in an AI ad, Yankovic quipped, “I wish people would offer me things that I didn’t feel bad about accepting.”
Other comedians have previously called out their peers who agreed to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which ran Sept. 26 to Oct. 9, noting Saudi officials’ roles in 9/11 and the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as the human rights abuses committed by Saudi minister of entertainment, Turki Al-Sheikh, who is behind the festival.
Deadline exclusively announced the initial Riyadh Comedy Festival lineup last July, which ultimately included Kevin Hart, Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Pete Davidson, Hannibal Buress, Jack Whitehall, Zarna Garg, Gabriel Iglesias, Jim Jefferies, Jo Koy, Bobby Lee, Jeff Ross, Andrew Santino, Tom Segura, Chris Tucker and more.
