Some budding stand-up comedians, for example, are uploading clips of their performances and gaining a serious fan base as a result.

Saudi YouTube channels such as “La Yekthar,” “Eysh Elly,” and “3al6ayer” are produced and directed by young Saudi talents and performed in Arabic.

YouTube is the forum Saudi comedians use to give their take on social issues.

“People have shifted from watching TV to watching shows on YouTube because they are in control of what they can watch and what they can skip,” said Fahad Al-Butairi, owner of La Yekthar.

Those programs have succeeded in attracting many subscribers, and now they have become the talk of the town. La Yekthar, for instance, has the most subscribers in the Kingdom.

“We have more than 15,000 subscribers, over 300,000 views and over 15,000 fans on our Facebook page,” said Al-Butairi.

Satirizing reality and social issues seems to be the way forward for these online programs, utilizing the website’s freedom of speech policy.

“What I like to do is basically give the audience a reflection of news in a comical way. I do enjoy absurd pieces of news that no one notices and which people assume are normal,” Omar Hussein, presenter of 3al6ayer, told Arab News.

Using a short format and posting short videos don’t bore people, according to Al-Butairi.

“We usually post a five-minute show for each episode and we talk about so many things in those few minutes,” he said.