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'The Jeff Dunham
Show,' for dummies

He makes them talk but what they say isn't funny

By Tom Conroy
Oct 22, 2009

Remember back in the early ’80s when almost any original scripted show on basic or even pay cable was sadly low quality and low rent?

“The Jeff Dunham Show” is a trip down memory lane.

In the series, premiering at tonight at 9 on Comedy Central, the titular ventriloquist takes his set of dummies out in the real world and tries to find comedy.

In one segment, he and his old-grouch puppet, Walter, get couple’s counseling from a gay therapist. In another he takes a redneck puppet, Bubba J, to a shooting range.

In both cases, the humor is supposed to come from the possibility that the puppet might be gay.

Dunham is sometimes off camera when the puppets are speaking. At least in those moments we’re not distracted by the sight of his lips moving and his neck muscles clenching.

The hilarious “Late Night” remote segments featuring Triumph the Insult Comic Dog made it seem that it’s intrinsically funny when regular people engage in discussions with an inanimate object. It turns out the inanimate object has to have good writers or the ability to ad-lib.

In the shooting range segment, the instructor shows Bubba J how to handle a pistol, and Bubba J laughs twice because “he said cock.”

Another puppet character, Achmed the Dead Terrorist, goes to a comedy club and does a solo standup routine. “I had to sell my goat,” he says. “Now if I want sex, I have to do it with my wife.”

Back in the ’80s, the assumption was that all of the good writers were working on broadcast shows. “The Jeff Dunham Show” has no excuse.

Tom Conroy is a Connecticut writer and longtime TV critic.	© 2009 Media Life Magazine

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