TV

Three questions following a viewing of Jeff Dunham’s NBC primetime special, “Unhinged in Hollywood”

  1. If NBC can attract 6.41 million viewers to Jeff Dunham at 8 p.m. Thursday against the kickoff of Thursday Night Football on CBS, then will the network order up more specials from Dunham? The ventriloquist’s then-record ratings on Comedy Central years ago resulted in multiple specials there.
  2. If Dunham is such a popular ventriloquist, then why does it seem as though he really wants to be something else? In his latest special, Unhinged in Hollywood, Dunham repeated the central conceit of his ill-received Comedy Central series in which his puppets roam freely about the real world and interact with people (including Chuck Liddell as himself and Chris Parnell as the show’s producer) who treat Achmed the Dead Terrorist and the other puppets as if they’re real. Which is the same suspension of disbelief the Muppets have asked of us for generations. And which means it’s no longer ventriloquism!
  3. Say what you will about Dunham’s jokes, but I’ll just ask a question about one of them. What good does he thinks comes from being a “Birther”? And does this make the Republican’s embrace of Donald Trump make more sense now?

Here are two other clips from his NBC primetime special, featuring Walter and Bubba J:

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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