"How many push-ups was that?"
"0"
"Is that in Marine numbers?"
Yes, that's the caliber of comedy to be found here.
Imagine your sense of humor as an immune system. Life experiences work something akin to vitamin C, strengthening and fortifying your resistances to bad jokes, letting them pass harmlessly through your system. In this analogy, that would make The Jeff Dunham Show the equivalent of AIDS. Your sense of humor, typically the thing that makes you a prime audience for comedy, will wither and die because Comedy Central gave a hack comedian a TV show. With all the spark of a wet match, Jeff Dunham has always catered his ventriloquism comedy to the blandest purveyors of laughter.
“I want to laugh, but I don’t want my personal beliefs to ever be confronted or have to think about anything…at all.”
Then have we got a show for you. Jeff Dunham made a name for himself using his collection of dummies with “personalities” ranging from a decidedly racist depiction of a black guy, a dead Middle Eastern terrorist’s skeleton, a hick, a stuffy geriatric, and some asexual thing that wants to be famous. The bits barely worked as a stand-up act since it’s hard to think of his entire comedic premise as anything but a gimmick that barely ranks above dirty miming. Either you’re comfortable saying outrageous things as you are, or you do the comedy you are comfortable with. You don’t hide behind a series of dummies that you think enable you to use personalities you couldn’t otherwise. If you’re so worried about being offensive that you have to hide behind ventriloquist dummies then you’re in the wrong line of work.
And that’s just the issues with his stand-up. Converting his piss poor concept into a television series makes absolutely no sense, which is why the show is already canceled (thank god). To keep his shtick relevant, Dunham decided to take his dummies and put them in real world situations like at a therapist’s office, doctor appointments, restaurants, recording studios, etc. In each scenario the comedy is predicated on people thinking that the characters are funny and that the people treating the dummies like real people has comic merit. They aren’t. It doesn’t.
Jeff Dunham’s character Achmed is a one trick pony, like Dunham himself. “I kill you!” is about as funny the 50th time as it is the 1st. Not at all. The hick Bubba? Each joke about the beer and gun-loving redneck has been performed better by Ron White, Jeff Foxworthy, and yes, even Larry the Cable Guy. The geriatric Walter? Is there any territory in that field that George Carlin didn’t utterly explode with hilarity (along with every other topic)? Hell, Rodney Dangerfield kicks Dunham’s ass in that respect, too. What makes the entire reality of his show worse is that he believes himself to be edgy. Maybe if this was back in the 50s, then the jokes about black people, hicks, and old folks might seem like new territory. However, since the 1980s these topics have been common in comedy club circuits. Jeff Dunham isn’t just late getting to the show; he seems to have gotten all his material from old comedy archives.
Jeff Dunham’s show represents the death of comedy. Pulling the plug on this show was the medical equivalent to inventing AZT. Comedy’s life expectancy just went up, drastically. Comedy Central must have felt compelled to give Dunham a shot at his own TV show because of all the DVDs they’ve put out for him, but they realized their mistake and moved on. For which we should all be grateful.
DVD Bonus Features
Like the show itself, its extras are absolutely worthless, hopeless inane drivel. An unaired sketch, bloopers of Dunham messing up, and a behind the scenes featurette are the disc’s offerings.
Who is this DVD set for? The people who actually thought it worthwhile to sit in the studio audience (assuming they weren’t paid or forced at gunpoint). Watching this might actually cause you to bleed from your eyes. Fans of Jeff Dunham, I hope this set placates you and that you don’t try to pull some Jericho fan stunt to get this back on air. The world is a better place with it gone.
"The Jeff Dunham Show" is on sale May 18, 2010 and is not rated. Comedy. Directed by Manny Rodriguez, Matthew McNeil. Written by Ian Busch, Jason Mayland, Cece Pleasants. Starring Jeff Dunham.
