For his 11th special, ventriloquist Jeff Dunham has returned not only to Comedy Central but also to the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Dunham filmed his second comedy special 15 years ago (Spark of Insanity) that rocketed him to global fame. Performing in D.C., you can either lean into the political atmosphere of the nation’s Beltway crowd or avoid it completely. Dunham chose to lean into it.
JEFF DUNHAM: ME THE PEOPLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Dunham ranks as the most popular comedy act on Comedy Central, with the Paramount-owned cable channel reporting the ventriloquist holds the eight most-watched specials in their history. Even his NBC primetime special, Jeff Dunham’s Unhinged in Hollywood, ranks as Comedy Central’s most popular special of 2015 thanks to subsequent airings there.
No wonder he willingly left the giant Netflix behind after two releases in 2017 and 2019. Since his 2020 return to Comedy Central came about in an impromptu manner, with the pandemic prompting him to perform an impromptu set outdoors and socially distant, this new hour really serves as Dunham’s proper homecoming to the network. He also performed this season on FOX’s The Masked Singer as Pi-Rat to help promote it.
Viewers and fans will see Dunham introduce a new character, repurpose two familiar faves, and befitting any famous comedians today, a few words on “cancel culture.”
What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: It’s Jeff Dunham! He’s a famous ventriloquist. Even if you somehow don’t know Dunham, you’ve seen other ventriloquists on TV, even broadcast network TV since they’re always popping up on and sometimes winning America’s Got Talent.
Memorable Jokes: Dunham’s oldest and longest companion, Walter, shows up first, only now the old curmudgeon is impersonating President Joe Biden.
Then comes Bubba J, in a segment with piano accompaniment called “Drinkin’ and Thinkin'” which most closely resembles a shallower Southern hick version of “Deep Thoughts.”
Dunham introduces “the new guy,” Url (sounds like Earl), a young guy who keeps his phone in his hands, thumbs twiddling or typing, earbuds always in, living with his parents and not planning on getting an actual job anytime soon. When Dunham wonders how Url could sustain a lifestyle like that, Url strikes back, asking exactly what it is Dunham does for a living. Dunham: “What do you think this is?” Url: “Your intervention.”
Last but not least, we’re treated to another dose of both Peanut and José Jalapeño on a Stick. Except Peanut is now working as head of HR, here to reprimand Dunham. Why? “Well, we’re forced to tell jokes that could be taken as offensive, racist, homophobic, and even anti-purple.”
Our Take: So not only has Dunham heard criticism of his act, but he’s also attempting here to both address it and head it off at the pass, so everyone who loves his act can continue to live, laugh and love him. Even at the outset, Dunham wants his fans to know he’s not worried about getting cancelled, “whatever that means,” adding: “Well, guess what? I don’t care.” All he cares about is whether you show up and laugh or not. He’s playing to the people who pay him. Or preaching to his choir. If you’re not in it? If you’re offended? Dunham is blunt. “Look. If you tell a joke to 100, and two of those people get offended, whose problem is that? Not the 98. It’s the two boneheads who don’t have a sense of humor who are trying to their best to ruin it for the rest of us.”Now I’m no bonehead, because I get what he’s doing, and I don’t claim to be offended myself or on behalf of someone else. I do want to set his record straight.
There’s a long-running popular meme take on the bird app and elsewhere to the tune of “conservatives are getting better at comedy and it’s making lefties nervous.” Despite Dunham telling me last week that he’s only making fun of who’s in power, his jokes reveal his own sensibilities are unapologetically conservative or Republican in terms of whom he’s targeting. He’s allowed to make his case, whether or not he wants to stand by his words or pass the buck to his dummies. When you do look at his choices, it’s a sliding scale in terms of who some of these jokes are for, exactly.
Even if registered Democrats might not find anything funny about Walter as Biden, they probably still understand what’s funny about the current president’s aging and declining faculties (see: Reagan jokes in the 1980s). Going in on Hunter Biden, though, while avoiding the Trump kids, or joking about Nancy Pelosi’s looks, or suggesting “you don’t live this long being a former friend of the Clintons,” all of those jokes land only for one side of the partisan political aisle. When Jose suggests, “I came here on a bus from Martha’s Vineyard,” that line gets a big laugh in the room. At whose expense? Not the Republican governors of Florida or Texas behind that bait-and-switch, that’s for sure. If you’re going to be political, that’s fine, just own it. But if yet another conservative boomer makes a participation trophy joke without addressing the elephants in the room that are conservatives waving their own flags as participation trophies, so to speak, I mean, I just. Sigh.
The trans jokes are another matter. They don’t come off as hateful so much as disrespectful or confusing. Why does Joes identify as a pickle? Because it’s a particularly low-hanging fruit?! Why does Url suggest it’s so easy for Dunham or anyone else to change pronouns and walk into a woman’s bathroom? It’s playing into fear, which is where transphobia hangs out to dry.
Having Peanut serve as a surrogate critic as head of HR (though Dunham has to remind Peanut that the dummies ain’t human) is a start, at least recognizing he’s crossing lines and bears responsibility for that as the voice behind the sometimes offensive dummies.
Our Call: SKIP IT. At this point, it doesn’t really matter what I say, though. As Dunham told Decider, part of the reason he left Netflix to return to Comedy Central was because “you’re never going to see me on Netflix unless you actually look for it yourself.” On Comedy Central (and Paramount+ a few months from now), Dunham’s audience will always find him.
Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.
