Imagine a raspy voice with a middle-eastern accent whispering “I kill you.” It’s not just another racist joke, it’s ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, the comedic voice behind multiple puppets, each with its own personality. Jeff Dunham, twice honored “Funniest Male Stand-Up Comic,” is half comedian, half ventriloquist and all Comedy Central goldmine. His relaxed vibe and ability to throw his voice through so many different accents without ever letting the humor die have made him invincible on stage. But while his schtick may work in a live setting, it falls flat on TV.
“The Jeff Dunham Show”
Thursdays at 9 p.m.
Comedy Central
Puppets Walter, Achmed, Peanut and Bubba J all made it to California with Dunham for the taping of their very first show together. The format of the show is similar to that of Dave Chappelle’s sketch show, and Chappelle even gets a shout-out here from cranky geriatric puppet Walter. The cynical-yet-lovable dummy with a perma-frown questions a possible future for Dunham in South Africa after the inevitable failure of his comedic career. From the looks of Dunham’s painful pilot, Walter might be right for once.
To top off the awkward mix of ventriloquism, pre-recorded sketches, cusomary sex jokes from Walter and customary terrorist jokes from Achmed, Brooke Hogan guest stars as Peanut’s hot celebrity love interest. On air for no more than five minutes, Hogan adds nothing more than celebrity sex appeal to the pilot, plunging Dunham’s legitimate comedic genius into the abyss of shallow reality entertainment. Jeff ends the show saying something along the lines of, “We’ll see you next time, all thanks to Brooke Hogan.” The repeatedly predicted failure of the show throughout the episode doesn’t work as ironically as intended, but it does demand a bit of empathy.
The real problem with “The Jeff Dunham Show,” however, isn’t Jeff Dunham. And it isn’t his dummies — they have flawlessly eteched individual personalities and spot-on accents due to Jeff’s stunning ventriloquism. The problem here is purely economical — Dunham’s material isn’t meant for a weekly show. His puppets are funny, but their characters, while well-defined, are one-dimensional. They’re great for stand-up, where Jeff can essentially argue with himself for an hour or so, moving quickly and fluidly from one racist joke to the next. On the show, the pre-recorded sketches just don’t work. Sometimes the dummies are onscreen by themselves instead of serving as the mouthpieces for Dunham’s quirky split personality act. Frankly, the dummies don’t exist well as individual entities — Jeff literally and metaphorically gives them life.
In Dunham’s case, what works extremely well as sporadic specials and live comedy doesn’t jive as a weekly TV show. There are only so many ways Walter can tell a sex joke about his wife, and there are only so many hillbilly stereotypes that Bubba J can channel. Considering how Jeff’s dummies have forecasted the show’s lack of potential, it’s strange they haven’t yet alluded to the forced comedy sure to appear in future episodes (if the show actually manages to sidestep the pulling of the plug). In the words of a wise terrorist puppet — Dear Jeff Dunham Show: I kill you.