What’s the point of booking Bert Kreischer for a comedy festival if you’re not even going to let him do his joke? Back in October, 2025, the entire A-list of American stand-up comedy (plus Chris Distefano for some reason) traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to perform a state-organized show in front of the Saudi Royal Family. In the days, weeks and months following the Riyadh Comedy Festival, figures like Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr and Aziz Ansari offered impassioned, indignant and long-winded justifications for their performance at the pleasure of the most bloodthirsty billionaires on the planet. “Weren’t those the 9/11 guys?” Shane Gillis said of the Saudi Royal Family when they tried and failed to book him. “I'd be terrified, but it's another story,” Kreischer said of his hypothetical vacation to The Kremlin, “Come on, it's a f---in' special!