CUMMINGS AND GOINGS

I bet Whitney didn't wear this outfit
at her Saudi gig.

Just as we were all forgetting about the Riyadh Comedy Festival -- doesn't the
name itself seem as inviting as the Moscow Comedy Festival? -- up pops Whitney Cummings to give her two riyals on the subject.

Realizing that Bill Burr's They have IHOP, they're just like us!  didn't work out, Cummings decided to make us feel guilty by playing the race card.

Now I know what you're thinking: Isn't she white?  Indeed she is! Cummings's explanation, as given on her podcast, follows:

“I guess I’m this weirdo. I don’t operate under, you know, the idea that every government and their people are the same. Like, you think that the people of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi government all share [the same values]? So you also believe that the Chinese government and the Chinese people are exactly the same? It’s just racism. I think it took me a second, because when people are going like, ‘You’re doing something unethical,’ I’m like, ‘Oh, these must be ethical people, let me listen.’ And then you’re like, ‘Oh no, you’re just racist.’ But these are also, by the way, the same people that would go like, ‘Trump’s not my president! I am nothing like our government.’ But other countries are?”

"Did you hear the one about the
independent journalist? He laughed
his head off, honest!"

Whitney, Whitney, Whitney! Nobody is conflating the Saudi populace with its government, and you know it. Nor would they care if a concert promoter paid you to do a gig at the Jeddah Joke Factory. People are ticked off because their favorite merrymakers took blood-red cash from one of the most repressive governments in the Mideast. 

Ironically, Cummings accuses fans of being complicit in Saudi crimes:

“When you get a second, Google ‘Saudi Arabia Live Nation’ so you can be informed on the fact that anyone who has worked with Live Nation, every stand-up comic, has taken Saudi money. Google that! Just so you know what you’re talking about … or bought a ticket through Live Nation, went to a Live Nation event, all the actors who are represented by William Morris Agency, which is all of them. If you want to send them notes, too.” 

Pete Hesgeth shows Whitney how
it's done.

Well, heck, if you want to play that game, you might as well say anyone who watched Cummings short-lived NBC sitcom Whitney is a lackey of Donald Trump, because NBC News airs his speeches. Sure, it's a stretch, but just as stretchy as Cummings' comparison.

You've heard the phrase "word salad"? Her comments are a word dumpster fire. One can sense Whitney's' desperation and lack of self-awareness. While I didn't hear the podcast itself, I can imagine Cummings speaking this verbal traffic jam very, very quickly (and angrily), the way conmen do, to intimidate you.

And thanks to her and her fellow and sister clowns, she's playing into the stereotype that the rightwing has of left-of-center comedians: They can dish it out but can't take it. These funny folks claim to speak truth to power, but only if the power isn't signing their checks.

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