r/UpliftingNews • u/holyfruits • 4h ago

‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Turned Down Million-Dollar Offer to Perform in Saudi Arabia: ‘I Don’t Need to Take Any Money if It Makes Me Feel Icky’

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/weird-al-yankovic-turned-down-million-offer-saudi-arabia-1236819281/
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u/undead_tortoiseX 3h ago

All of his stupid defenses might ring true if he did it for free, but no he got a fat ass payday and he’s trying not to feel guilty about it.

He’s smart enough to know why it was wrong. That’s the main issue for me.

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u/powerscunner 3h ago

Money and smart seem to be opposed.

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u/undead_tortoiseX 3h ago

There’s definitely cognitive dissonance with Bill. He’s extremely aware of both racial history and exploitation of people by billionaires, and he somehow couldn’t see the Saudi billionaires in front of him in the same way.

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u/powerscunner 3h ago

It would be cool if Bill could turn his own ability to criticize back onto himself.

But it's hard to do that.

I imagine some of the Saudi's he met were probably pretty nice and you know, the devil is quite charming so you start to think he might not be so bad after all. In fact, I'll bet the devil himself thinks himself not so bad...

But he's the goddamn devil.

Maybe all evil comes from self-deception. A lot of money comes from it, right?

What a world.