What: An illuminating Twitter thread that starts with a fun anecdote but goes much deeper.

Who: American Dad! writer and producer Kirk Rudell.

Why we care: Earlier this week, we learned that Saudi Arabia requested that Netflix remove an episode of Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj from streaming in that country because the episode was critical of the Saudi government. Netflix complied. If this incident illuminated the Saudi response to critics outside of its borders, a heartbreaking new Twitter thread reveals how the company handles its critics from within.

Kirk Rudell, a writer for Seth MacFarlane’s long-running American Dad!, starts off his story pleasantly enough, describing how he came to meet popular Saudi comedian Fahad Albutairi and his wife Loujain Hathloul.

I looked him up. He was the first Saudi stand-up comedian to appear on stage professionally in the Kingdom, the “Jerry Seinfeld of Saudi Arabia.” He had a couple million Twitter followers. (He has none now; I’ll get to that.) He was, frankly, more interesting than the part. — Kirk Rudell (@krudell) January 2, 2019

Loujain didn’t know anyone in LA, so she was tagging along with Fahad for the day. They were young, cool, cosmopolitan, and incredibly nice. I liked them right away. We chatted. — Kirk Rudell (@krudell) January 2, 2019

Rudell recounts getting to know the popular Saudi comedian better–and realizing how much of a miracle it is that Albutairi managed to become a popular Saudi comedian in the first place.