Do we like Mo Amer?
Our score: 7 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up and he's a generous voice for others, but the Saudi festival gig is a real contested call.
Mo Amer was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and came to the US as a kid, ending up in Houston. He got on stage at 14 and was touring by 17, and says of the money side, “It's never been about the money.” Years of grinding on the road turned into Netflix specials and, with Ramy Youssef, his own series, Mo.
Mo is the heart of it: a semi-autobiographical show about a Palestinian refugee trying to get asylum while living in Texas. It put an Arab American family on screen with real texture, and the comedy works because the pain underneath it is real. His third special, Wild World, landed on Netflix in late 2025.
On the harm check, it's a clean sheet. We found nothing from him against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, no conspiracy rabbit holes and no run of dodgy collaborators. He signed the 2023 Artists4Ceasefire open letter urging Biden to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, per NPR's list of signatories. Where you land on that depends on how you read the war, but it's an appeal to end killing rather than a campaign against any group.
The asterisk is Riyadh. The Saudi-run comedy festival of late 2025 copped heavy criticism from Human Rights Watch and plenty of fellow comics, who said it helps the kingdom polish its image. CNN's report of that backlash doesn't name Amer, but NPR's interview put the criticism to him directly. He said he doesn't decide “solely based on money” and argued playing there lets him speak freely and gives hope to people who can't.
That defence will satisfy some and not others. Critics hear a comedian lending his name to a regime with a poor record on free speech; his side hears a Palestinian voice putting uncomfortable jokes in front of audiences who rarely get them. It's a judgment call, not a slide into harm, and we can't see a pattern behind it.
On Chappelle, a 2021 Daily Beast piece says Amer didn't think Dave Chappelle was “canceled” after his controversial Netflix hour, which had drawn heat over trans jokes. The piece doesn't carry Amer's own words on those jokes, so we're not putting words in his mouth. It's a small thing to flag, nothing more.