Pete Davidson stands performing at Saudi Arabia comedy festival after FDNY fathers 9/11 death

Pete Davidson is standing by his decision to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia more than two decades after his father, New York City firefighter Scott Davidson, was killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.Scott, who served with Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn Heights, was 33 when he died responding to the World Trade Center.Pete was just 7 years old at the time.The 31-year-old “Saturday Night Live” alum is one of 50 comedians in the lineup for the festival, which began Sept.

26 and runs through Oct.9.

The roster includes some of the biggest names in comedy — Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Jimmy Carr, Kevin Hart, Sebastian Maniscalco, Aziz Ansari, Andrew Schulz, Whitney Cummings and Hannibal Buress.During a Sept.23 appearance on Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast, Von asked Pete about the festival. “There’s a lot of people that say people are getting paid by this Middle Eastern money right, you know, and that they can say this, or they can’t say that or that they are over there, they’re going to try to influence you guys in order to speak certain ways,” Von said.

“Are you part of that conspiracy theory or is that nothing you’re on?”“I’ve heard there’s subreddits of like, ‘I think all these people are in bed with that.’ I just, you know, I get the routing, and then I see the number, and I go, ‘I’ll go,'” Pete said.“I’ve been getting a little bit of flak just because my dad died (in) 9/11.

So they’re like, ‘How could you possibly go there?'”15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi nationals, and lawsuits have alleged links between the Saudi government and the attackers.Saudi officials have denied involvement.In a Sept.

23 press release, Human Rights Watch accused Saudi Arabia of hosting the festival to “deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations.”Some comics have also condemned the festival, arguing Saudi Arab...