Dave Chappelle says his trans jokes ‘went down well’ at Saudi Arabia gig

Dave Chappelle has said his anti-trans jokes went down “very well” at the controversial Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.

The government–sponsored comedy event took place between 26 September and 9 October 2025 as part of the Saudi kingdom’s Vision 2030 strategy, which aims to put the country on the map for international cultural and artistic events.

Riyadh Comedy Festival saw performances from a host of big names including Jimmy Carr, Omid Djalili, Jack Whitehall, Louis C.K. Pete Davidson and Aziz Ansari, amongst several others.

Those who took part in the comedy festival were widely criticised given Saudi Arabia’s long history of human rights abuses and violent anti-LGBTQ+ laws, with many critics branding the event an attempt by the country’s government to whitewash such human rights violations. Criticism has also been levelled at the world of sport for allowing Saudi Arabia to host prominent sporting events and several notable footballers taking huge pay packets to play there.

The backlash saw lesbian comic Jessica Kirson subsequently apologise for her appearance and she has since donated her fee to a human rights organisation. 

Discussing his appearance on his latest Netflix comedy special, entitled Dave Chappelle: The Unstoppable…, Chappelle claimed “it’s easier to talk in Saudi Arabia for me than it is in America” and said his anti-trans jokes “went over very well in Saudi Arabia”.

Chappelle is infamous for his vile anti-trans remarks, including in his 2021 Netflix special The Closer in which he declared he’s “team TERF” and made explicit jokes about trans women’s genitals and in 2024 when he said he was writing a play about “a Black transgender woman whose pronoun is, sadly, n***a”.

Following the backlash, Chappelle has claimed he is a victim of cancel culture – despite performing sold-out shows, continuing his partnership with Netflix and his shows winning Grammy Awards.

“I’ll take money from Saudi Arabia any day just so I can say no over here. It feels good to be free,” Chappelle said of the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

“And I know that the people in Saudi Arabia can’t say all the things that I was allowed to say. But a deal’s a deal, and the king said that I could say these things. So I looked at it like I was on a diplomatic mission: I’ve gotta bring p***y jokes to the Middle East.”

Chappelle went on to claim he does not “feel guilty at all” for performing at the festival, stating: “These motherf**kers act like because I did a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia I somehow betrayed my principles…

“They said, ‘Well, Saudi Arabia killed a journalist,’ and rest in peace, Jamal Khashoggi. I’m sorry that he got murdered in such a heinous fashion. And also, look, bro, Israel’s killed 240 journalists in the last three months, so I didn’t know y’all were still counting.”