Comedian Shane Gillis made headlines by refusing a lucrative offer from Saudi Arabia, taking a stand against what he called the kingdom’s troubling history. The upcoming Riyadh Comedy Festival on Sept. 26 will feature stars like Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and Aziz Ansari. But Gillis declined to join, citing Saudi Arabia’s role in the September 11 attacks and instead highlighting the moral stakes of accepting Saudi payout offers.
“I’m not doing it. Then they doubled the bag,” Gillis said on his Secret Podcast. “It was a significant bag. But I’d already said no. I took a principled stand.” He added bluntly: “You don’t 9/11 your friends.”
That decision puts Gillis in sharp contrast with comedians who chose money over principle. Jim Jefferies, for instance, defended his participation by minimizing Saudi Arabia’s killing of a journalist and comparing it to conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein. “Killing a journalist is not a fucking hill that I’m gonna die on,” Jefferies said, calling comedians “freedom of speech machines.”
Other performers, from Chris Distefano—who admitted his fiancée pressured him to take the cash—to Mark Normand, who said he was “just in it for the money,” openly acknowledged financial motives. Even comedian Whitney Cummings joked in 2023 that she hoped Saudi Arabia would “buy” her.
While Riyadh uses lavish spending on golf tournaments and comedy festivals to soften its image, Gillis stood apart.
