Achmed, Bubba J, Walter, and Peanut.
All are dummies.
Well, dummies for the ventriloquist comedian, Jeff Dunham.
Jeff Dunham has an interesting routine for a standup comic.
It is hard to come up with new, funny jokes all the time, but it is even more difficult to do so with characters. You need to have jokes that fit the character’s personality. This is something that Dunham does well.
He has done many shows and various specials for comedy central. Clips from his routines are all over YouTube. His current venture is a half hour comedy show on Comedy Central.
The show opens with Dunham talking and then it moves on to one of his characters. He starts out with a standup style opening and then it goes to a skit of one the characters. They either go to the doctor, or some other event that works with the character’s personality.
It’s usually a five minuet short, with the characters by themselves without Dunham present.
In itself that’s kind of interesting, since they are puppets.
In an episode he has Achmed the dead terrorist, who is a skeleton with a turban on his head; try to become a U.S. citizen. He sits in the class and answers the U.S. history questions with his funny smart ass remarks. It gets so ridiculous that even though you try, you can’t help but laugh. Achmed’s signature line is “I kill you!” In the short he becomes fed up with the teacher and says “I kill you!” She then straight faced critiques him on how to properly say the phrase. By the end, the entire class was attempting to repeat the phrase with an appropriate American accent.
Horribly painful by the end, but so bad you had to laugh at the ridiculousness.
Most of his characters show up in every episode, even if it is for a brief moment. Though it is nice to see his whole cast of characters, the little throw-ins do not make any sense. Even worse, they are not even funny.
In one episode they had Walter giving advice to a couple. The segment is titled Walter’s relationship advice. In the segment Walter does not cover anything relationship related. He gives the guy advice on how to get a job. It wasn’t to particularly funny and subpar to what his normal routines are.
As much as I hate to agree with the critics, the show is not as good as his regular comedy. His normal routine is far superior to this show. I am not sure if it was because I was expecting it to be like his stand up, or if it is really just a crappy set up.
During his stand up, he does a bit with one of his characters and then movies on to another. Even when he is on another character’s routine he will still incorporate one of the others.
For example, if he was doing a skit with Achmed, you would hear comments from Walter. You would never see Walter, but you would hear him or his laugh from somewhere off stage.
Also Peanut and Jose did a whole segment together, and even though Dunham put Jose away he would still talk from the box, which added a lot of extra humor to the routine, though his puppets are hilarious by themselves.
All are dummies.
Well, dummies for the ventriloquist comedian, Jeff Dunham.
Jeff Dunham has an interesting routine for a standup comic.
It is hard to come up with new, funny jokes all the time, but it is even more difficult to do so with characters. You need to have jokes that fit the character’s personality. This is something that Dunham does well.
He has done many shows and various specials for comedy central. Clips from his routines are all over YouTube. His current venture is a half hour comedy show on Comedy Central.
The show opens with Dunham talking and then it moves on to one of his characters. He starts out with a standup style opening and then it goes to a skit of one the characters. They either go to the doctor, or some other event that works with the character’s personality.
It’s usually a five minuet short, with the characters by themselves without Dunham present.
In itself that’s kind of interesting, since they are puppets.
In an episode he has Achmed the dead terrorist, who is a skeleton with a turban on his head; try to become a U.S. citizen. He sits in the class and answers the U.S. history questions with his funny smart ass remarks. It gets so ridiculous that even though you try, you can’t help but laugh. Achmed’s signature line is “I kill you!” In the short he becomes fed up with the teacher and says “I kill you!” She then straight faced critiques him on how to properly say the phrase. By the end, the entire class was attempting to repeat the phrase with an appropriate American accent.
Horribly painful by the end, but so bad you had to laugh at the ridiculousness.
Most of his characters show up in every episode, even if it is for a brief moment. Though it is nice to see his whole cast of characters, the little throw-ins do not make any sense. Even worse, they are not even funny.
In one episode they had Walter giving advice to a couple. The segment is titled Walter’s relationship advice. In the segment Walter does not cover anything relationship related. He gives the guy advice on how to get a job. It wasn’t to particularly funny and subpar to what his normal routines are.
As much as I hate to agree with the critics, the show is not as good as his regular comedy. His normal routine is far superior to this show. I am not sure if it was because I was expecting it to be like his stand up, or if it is really just a crappy set up.
During his stand up, he does a bit with one of his characters and then movies on to another. Even when he is on another character’s routine he will still incorporate one of the others.
For example, if he was doing a skit with Achmed, you would hear comments from Walter. You would never see Walter, but you would hear him or his laugh from somewhere off stage.
Also Peanut and Jose did a whole segment together, and even though Dunham put Jose away he would still talk from the box, which added a lot of extra humor to the routine, though his puppets are hilarious by themselves.
It really is a shame that his comedy central show is not quite as good as his stand up. It has, though, gotten an enormous amount of ratings
One critic, Randee Dawn, pointed out that just because it is popular that doesn’t mean that it is good.
As much as I disliked the rest of what the critic said about the show, I have to agree.
Maybe if they can work out the kinks within the show, then maybe it will improve. But until then I wouldn’t recommend watching the show.
As much as I disliked the rest of what the critic said about the show, I have to agree.
Maybe if they can work out the kinks within the show, then maybe it will improve. But until then I wouldn’t recommend watching the show.
For more of Dawn's review http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/tv-reviews/the-jeff-dunham-show-tv-review-1004026350.story
The columnist did a pretty good job of quantifying the show, but didn't tell us when to watch it, or how often it is on.
ReplyDeleteDaily, weekly, monthly?
Part of the strength of the review is contrasting the comics other performances with his show that is under consideration here.
I am a little curious what this was doing at the bottom of the column?
"For more of Dawn's review http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/tv-reviews/the-jeff-dunham-show-tv-review-1004026350.story"
I referenced his review in my column. (One critic, Randee Dawn, pointed out that just because it is popular that doesn’t mean that it is good.)
ReplyDeleteSo I figured for those who were curious about what else he had to say they could see his column.....