Saudi Arabia is not known as a center for comedy. But through Oct. 9, the country's capital, Riyadh, is hosting dozens of A-list comedians — many of them American — at the first ever Riyadh Comedy Festival .

The participation of big-name funnymen, including Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart and Jimmy Carr, has provoked criticism from fellow comedians, including Marc Maron, Shane Gillis and Stavros Halkias, as well as human rights groups and other commentators.

"The Saudi government is using the Riyadh Comedy Festival … to deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations," said Human Rights Watch in a statement this week. "Participating comedians, to avoid contributing to laundering the Saudi government's reputation, sho

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