In November 2017, the stand-up comic Nacho Redondo told a joke at a university about the Paralympics that upset some audience members and drew controversy online, which he promptly used to promote his next shows. It may sound like a common, even mundane story.

But in Venezuela, where Redondo, 32, developed a following for his brash, dark humor, the price for a joke that offends can be much higher than online outrage or a boycott. After politicians harshly criticized him on state-run television, Redondo received death threats online, and the government sued him. He fled the country on the day the lawsuit was filed, and hasn’t returned. “I was terrified and then paranoid and scared for my life,” Redondo said by Skype from Mexico City, where he now lives, adding that he didn’t want to leave his aging mother and other family members but felt he had no choice. “You get jailed there because of tweets.”

American comics often complain about the chilling effect of political correctness and social media mobs. Or about the damage done when the Trump administration targets Kathy Griffin or “Saturday Night Live.” But in an era of rising authoritarianism around the globe, the threat to comedians in countries without a tradition of freedom of speech can be much more severe.

In the fascinating series “Larry Charles’ Dangerous World of Comedy,” which debuted in February, Charles, the director of “Borat,” visited comics in some of the most repressive countries in the world, including Somalia and Iraq. “Comedians have been murdered in broad daylight in both countries,” Charles said by phone. Then he added, referring to Ahmed Albasheer: “The Jon Stewart of Iraq, who I profile in the show, can’t do his show anymore because he would be killed.” A Saudi Arabian comic has been jailed since he talked to Charles.