Election Profit Makers · Jon Kimball & David Rees

Episode 350: It Was Actually Pretty Chill

October 7, 2025·58 min·4 clips

Jon and David reveal they just performed at the Saudi royal family's comedy festival for six-figure payouts.

1. Election Profit Makers, hosted by David and John, uses a fictional Riyadh Comedy Festival appearance as a frame for discussing useful idiocy, Bari Weiss, the 2026 midterms, and Bill Belichick's catastrophic UNC start. 2. David is based in Los Angeles; John is in a different location recovering from a pool/gym grievance that becomes a running joke about competitive grieving. 3. The episode's central theme is whether people who serve powerful, bad-faith actors—comedians at Saudi festivals, Bari Weiss at CBS News, Belichick at a politically motivated UNC hire—do so cynically or as genuine true believers. 4. David and John fictionally describe attending the Riyadh Comedy Festival as Saudi royal guests, earning 'well into six figures' for 45 minutes, alongside Louis C.K., Bill Burr, Pete Davidson, Dave Chappelle, Hannibal Buress, and Aziz Ansari. 5. David says the festival is designed to produce useful idiots: participants leave saying 'it was actually pretty chill' because they were treated generously, just like his Air Force Africa tour where he found himself wanting to tell friends how well-organized the military base was. 6. The second anniversary of the October 7th Hamas attack is noted: Hamas killed approximately 1,500 people; Israel's response has killed approximately 67,000—a ratio of about 45 to 1 that David compares unfavorably to America's post-9/11 response ratio. 7. Bari Weiss sold the Free Press to Larry Ellison's Paramount for $150 million and was installed as head of CBS News; David says her entire brand—that left-wing Twitter mobs go too far—is a 'pretty banal criticism' with no real intellectual ingenuity. 8. David argues that Weiss is not especially smart but is a 'true believer' who found where billionaire money flows, which John says makes her 'canny and savvy' even if not intellectually impressive. 9. John elaborates that the Ellisons are 'hardcore Zionists' who will use CBS News and potentially TikTok, which Ellison is involved in acquiring, to shape media coverage in a pro-Israel direction. 10. John predicts the 2026 midterms will feature martial law, AI deepfakes, mid-cycle redistricting 'that's never happened before,' a tweaked Grok algorithm, TikTok under right-wing ownership, and CBS News running anti-Democrat narratives simultaneously. 11. David imagines an elaborate scheme where John publicly defects to the right, earns $650,000 at CBS News, collects speaking fees from doctor conventions, writes '1001 Horrific Doctor Jokes,' then at the end donates everything to Antifa soup kitchens. 12. David asserts he is personally 'uncorruptible' and could go undercover with ISIS, Joe Rogan, or Bari Weiss without being compromised—then fails to say the word 'compartmentalize' on the first try. 13. A community grievance emerges: David's Los Angeles community pool has been closed for six weeks due to budget cuts; John's building gym has been flooded for months; both accuse the other of competitive grieving. 14. UNC's football program hired Bill Belichick for $50 million ($30 million guaranteed) after the Board of Trustees bypassed Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham and Chancellor Lee Roberts, who is described as a Duke alum and right-winger. 15. Belichick's team is 2-3, with wins only over Richmond (FCS) and Charlotte; remaining games are against power-four opponents; David compares the hire to the Iraq War—ideologues forcing through a bad decision over expert objections. 16. Rapper Ludacris was paid $300,000 to perform a 9:45 AM concert at UNC's Polk Place quad before a noon game against Clemson that had been scheduled at noon because 'both teams are terrible'; Clemson won by a large margin. 17. Belichick's son and former GM are also on the staff at significant salaries; a behind-the-scenes Hulu documentary crew was filming what David assumes will now never be released. 18. The episode is deliberately discursive and conspiratorial-comedic, with David doing extended rhetorical runs and John providing occasional dry corrections and deflations. 19. The episode suits listeners who enjoy political comedy that treats sports, media, and foreign policy as variations on the same theme of institutional bad faith. 20. Listeners who want focused news coverage, sports analysis, or clear prediction market takes will find the episode too digressive.

As heard by us

A money soaked talk episode that turns a controversial trip into sharp jokes about principle and compromise.

Election Profit Makers opens with the hosts back from the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia, and they do not hide the tension: the trip is controversial, but the episode is just as interested in how they were treated, how much money they made, and what that says about the…

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Want politics, money, and a deeply awkward victory lap? Press play.

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