Trevor Noah Says America Silencing Jokes About Charlie Kirk Is Scarier Than Saudi Censorship
Enjoying this? Share it with someone who needs to see it.
Up Next
Ben Wittes on Alexei Navalny's Death Tucker Carlson's Grotesque Putin Propaganda and GOP Moral Collapse
49:05
Hadi Rahim's Progressive Commentary Critiques Charlie Kirk's Views on Islam and Muslim Immigration in America
22:23
Trans Creator Refuses to Mourn Charlie Kirk, Condemns the Violence, and Explains Why Centrism Enables Fascism
18:40
Trevor Noah Says America Silencing Jokes About Charlie Kirk Is Scarier Than Saudi Censorship
Trevor Noah tackles the backlash over comedians performing at Saudi Arabia's Riyadh Comedy Festival, then turns the lens on America's own response to the Charlie Kirk shooting. He argues that firing people and pulling Jimmy Kimmel off air over comments about Kirk reveals a homegrown appetite for censorship that rivals the authoritarian habits Americans love to criticize abroad. Weaving in history from Charlie Chaplin's mockery of Hitler to Vladimir Putin shutting down a satirical puppet show to his own childhood under apartheid-era South Africa, Noah makes the case that comedy is usually the first freedom an authoritarian regime takes away, and that punishing jokes instead of addressing gun violence is a strange choice of priorities.
Trevor Noah opens by addressing the controversy swirling around a wave of American comedians who performed at Saudi Arabia's first major comedy festival, the Riyadh Comedy Festival. Names like Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Bill Burr, Louis C.K., and Aziz Ansari all made the trip, and the backlash online has been intense, with critics accusing them of taking money to help launder Saudi Arabia's image.
Noah admits he's conflicted. He draws a distinction between performing in a country whose government he disagrees with and being directly paid by that government to show up. He says there's a difference: when the government is paying you to come, that's a direct relationship.
What Saudi Arabia Actually Does
He doesn't sugarcoat the record: people can be disappeared without warning, women don't have full control over their own bodies, free speech is heavily restricted, and violence is common. He says he personally wouldn't perform there, unless the money reached a number large enough to outweigh what he'd lose in reputation. Everyone has a number, he jokes, imagining calculating exactly how much each disappointed friend or fan is worth to him before deciding.
Is It Sportswashing, or Sunlight?
Still, Noah pushes back on the idea that comedians visiting Saudi Arabia only serves to launder its image. He argues the opposite might also be true, that public attention on where these comedians are going forces more scrutiny onto the Saudi government, not less. He also points out the double standard: nobody blinks when the President of the United States dances with Saudi officials, or when Formula 1 and LIV Golf hold events there, but comedians get treated as though they've uniquely betrayed the principle of free speech.
A Very American Point of View
Noah calls out the assumption that comedians should refuse to perform anywhere that doesn't guarantee total free speech, calling it a very American point of view that he says is also a privilege. He notes that in many countries, Singapore, Malaysia, even India, where he's performed and been asked directly whether he'd make jokes about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comedians already navigate real limits on what they can say without it being framed as a moral failure.
America's Response to the Charlie Kirk Shooting
From there, Noah turns to what he sees as a glaring hypocrisy at home. He notes that Jimmy Kimmel was pulled off the air not for a joke about Charlie Kirk, but for a comment that wasn't even a joke, and that in the same period, hundreds of people have reportedly been fired from their jobs simply for posting anything perceived as critical or insufficiently reverent about Kirk following his shooting.
Someone got shot, Noah says. It's not great, he didn't wish for it. But now, he argues, you can't terrorize your population if they dare to say something about the thing.
Jokes Don't Kill People, Guns Do
Noah's sharpest point is about priorities: the country's response to Kirk being fatally shot was to crack down on speech, not on the weapon used. He notes that America has a long tradition of dark humor about assassinated and shot public figures, from Abraham Lincoln to John F. Kennedy, and that comedy has always used bad taste as a release valve.
He says it is pretty crazy that America's response to the guy getting shot was to limit speech instead of limiting the thing that ended his life. Jokes will never kill you, he says. There's no joke that can kill you. He adds that the shooter reportedly wrote jokes on the bullets themselves, proof, in Noah's view, that even the shooter understood words alone don't kill.
What Comedy Under Authoritarianism Looks Like
Noah broadens the point with history. He recalls that Charlie Chaplin's film The Dictator, which mocked Hitler as a bumbling fool, reportedly gave Allied troops hope by making Hitler seem beatable rather than invincible. He points to Vladimir Putin shutting down a popular satirical puppet show early in his rule as one of his first moves in power. And he draws on his own childhood in apartheid-era South Africa, when standup comedy didn't exist because gatherings of three or more people were treated as political events subject to arrest.
One of the first things you lose in an authoritarian regime, Noah says, is comedy. It's a trend you can follow throughout time.
Is Saudi Arabia Actually Moving in the Right Direction?
By that measure, Noah argues Saudi Arabia's willingness to host a comedy festival at all, with audiences no longer segregated by gender the way they once were, might be a small sign of progress, even if far from ideal. Meanwhile, he suggests, American comedians are being told not to say anything at all about a sensitive subject, which moves in the opposite direction.
The Real Story Being Missed
Noah closes by arguing that the bigger story isn't which comedians flew to Saudi Arabia, it's what comedians are now allowed to say, or not say, at home. The comedians are not going to make or break Saudi Arabia and what's happening there, he says, but the thing that's making or breaking what comedians can or cannot say in America, that's the real thing that's happening.
Comments
Be the first to comment on this video.