Reporters Without Borders was delighted with the outcome of a benefit held in San Francisco on January 8th, 2007. "This benefit was an impressive show of solidarity on the part of Bay Area comedians and writers, a tribute to one of their own - Iraqi comedian Walid Hassan - who was murdered in Baghdad last November," the international press freedom organization said. "Money raised will help Hassan's relatives get through the very difficult situation they are facing because of the loss of the head of the family." The proceeds will go to Hassan's family through a special fund set up by Reporters Without Borders to support Iraqi journalists and their relatives.
Walid Hassan lost his life while trying to cheer up the Iraqis and give them a different, less tragic, perspective on the chaos surrounding them.
The benefit, which was held in the Make-Out Room, featured a variety of comedians and writers, as well as subtitled video clips from Hassan's show. The audience consisted of some two hundred people. Best-selling writers who appeared in the two-hour extravaganza were Daniel Handler of Lemony Snicket, Andrew Sean Greer of Confessions of Max Tivoli, Michelle Tea of Valencia and Rent Girl, and Tom Barbash of On Top of the World. Performers included headliner Joe Klocek, Sal Calanni of the Tossing Alice sketch group, Ali Mafi of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, podcast comedy phenomenon Mark Day, Samantha Chanse, Tessie Chua, Arthur Gaus, and Kurt Weitzmann. The benefit was hosted by Iron Comic's Nato Green, who originated it, and by LitPAC's Stephen Elliott.
Hassan was one of the most popular comedians in Iraq, and the creator of the sketch comedy show Caricatures on the Al-Sharkiya television channel. His show was often called Iraq's version of Saturday Night Live. He made fun of everyone, not only of the US Army or Iraqi authorities, but also of Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias. He was killed while attempting to elude a kidnapping on November 20, 2006. According to Reporters Without Borders, "Walid Hassan lost his life while trying to cheer up the Iraqis and give them a different, less tragic, perspective on the chaos surrounding them." Hassan is yet another casualty in the Iraq media world, which has already paid a heavy price in covering the war: more than 140 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the war began in 2003. This is the deadliest conflict for the press since World War II.
