Holding a country accountable for its problems is one thing, judging it and its citizens as inherently bad for them is another. America has its fair share of issues, between healthcare and its own weird criminal justice system. I'm not exactly a fan of Gabriel Iglesias or anything, but your argument that his comments about individual Arabs being nicer than the depiction we're sold of them is unfair because the country has some pretty backwards beliefs and laws seems unnecessary.

I think that a poor country with the same track record in human rights as Saudi Arabia would be universally lamented but because Saudi Arabia is rich it gets a pass.

Everyone was outraged at Dennis Rodman playing court jester for Kim Jong Il, and I think this is a very similar situation.

America is cool 'cause women can roller skate in shorts and get a corporate position at Chuck E. Cheese, so it's ok if a couple of wars are started based on outright lies, with thousands upon thousands of civilian casualties, if people are put in a torture-prison for an indefinite amount of time with no trial, if there is constant undercover meddling in the politics of foreign countries, which have often destabilized entire regions and destroyed economies and started civil wars. It's awwwwwrrrright!

Sorry dude, I love America but "let him who is without sin cast the first stone".

1. somebody else wrote all this for him
2. he is a stripmall comic at best
3. this is way too long to suffer through
4. painfully long anecdotes with shit punchlines are grandpas jokes for the grandpas

Saudi Arabia is so backwards that we don't spy on them because we feel confident enough that we'll continue getting oil from them and selling weapons to them.

Also we execute far more people per capita than they do.
We have slaves just like they do, and far more of them.
Two senators are trying to pass a bill to stop American servicemen from raping American servicewomen and its being held up because women shouldn't have joined the military if they didn't want to get raped.

So what are we so high and mighty about, a vibrant porn industry and women in the workforce?

Ok, I give up.

Maybe it's just that Saudi Arabia's barbarism is so in-your-face and unapologetic that gets me riled up.

American barbarism has better PR and it worked on me.

Actually, baleen, if it's the bill I'm thinking, nothing of the sort has happened. The bill was "held up" (briefly) by some of the strongest supporters of the harsh-penalty zero-tolerance-for-assault school of thought, and they did NOT do so because they "thought women shouldn't be in the military" (which would be a bizarre argument, seeing as the chief architect of the hold-up was both a woman and a veteran herself), but rather because they felt alleged assault victims should be able to take their complaints outside the CoC - which, if I remember my EO statutes correctly, is actually ALREADY an option, albeit one which keeps the investigation within the military (that is, victims may currently seek independent review from military EO specialists, but this option is generally only exercised when the victim's alleged attacker is part of his or her CoC; the extra provision holding up this latest bill, if I understand it correctly, would make independent EO review the default process and remove the CoC from all cases of sexual assault, which may in fact not be the best idea, for the military or for the victims)

Are you thinking of something else?

He does some really good impersonations, but yeah, his style is pretty clean and bland. He's a lowest-common-denominator type of comic, the sort of person you might see your boss or your grandma chuckling to; most of his jokes derive from him being fat or talking in funny voices. In his defense, he's not the worst standup comedian out there, but most standup fans I know are into guys like Bill Hicks and Louis CK, and Mr Iglesias is NOT one of them.

I'd love to see Gabriel Iglesias and Jeff Dunham in some kind of super awkward buddy picture. Maybe not even a comedy. Maybe a serious period drama, just with Gabriel Iglesias and Jeff Dunham.

He's entertaining, which I guess is the number one thing I look for in a comedian.

And to be honest, I'm glad to hear his first-hand impressions of what the Saudi people are like and what they have to say about us.

He's beneath bottom-of-the-barrel but this anecdote was entertaining.

Anecdotes are what he's best at! He doesn't really tell individual jokes, rather, he tells stories that, taken all together, are a little bit funny and a little bit thought-provoking and a little bit heartwarming, but not really so much in any one area that the anecdote might feel alienating for people who don't enjoy a certain style of humor.

He's the fat millennial Garrison Keillor.

It's like someone reading out loud a funny entry in a blog about some guys trip. Sometimes that shit is entertaining. Comedy doesn't have to check every box off the "proper humor delivery" check list.

I only made it about 2 minutes in.. I don't really care, but he doesn't seem offensive. People like him exist because places like Branson Missouri exist. I was working this one venue and the night after, Carlos Mencia was supposed to perform, got sick, couldn't make it and.. people don't understand that we RENT a venue and it's not my responsibility to refund their money.. argh

Anyway, this was AFTER Mencia was called out as a joke-stealing phony, and it was still a more-or-less sold out show in a venue that seats nearly 3,000. In the back of my mind I wanted to recite Bill Hicks lines to them (..KILL YOURSELF) but I refrained.. some people are just stupid, and like stupid comedy like that.

@Evilhomer I understand what you're saying, but that seems to be the trend with most comedy these days ("I was on vacation here and this happened" or "Man it sucks being 40 you can't get it up..") There's ways to deliver stories that are funnier than this guy, but that's pretty much all it is these days.. I think the conventional joke kind of ended with Nestor Pistor and Yakov Smirnov.. I could be wrong though; I don't watch a lot of stand up.

oh and 5 stars for his loud hawaiian shirt. He seems like a person who I'd drink a beer with at a bar and we could make each other laugh. Paying a fuck-ton to see him talk about it? Not so much. Only one beer, my Iglesias. Ok, one shot too. Fuck. IGLESIAAAAAAAAS