Jeff Dunham Unleashes Ignorant Puppet On 'Leno'

I should state for the record that ventriloquy is up there for me with air-guitar and professional illusions as my most hated forms of creative expression. That much should have been clear to anyone who read my recent diatribe about "America's Got Talent" winner Terry Fator. (A notable exception would the bizarre-o, 1978 Anthony Hopkins/Ann-Margret thriller "Magic.")

Video: See the trailer for "The Jeff Dunham Show"

So it was a given that I wouldn't be the target audience for Comedy Central's "Jeff Dunham Show," which is slated to premiere on Oct. 22.

And after witnessing the puppet-sodomizing standup's routine on "The Jay Leno Show" last week, which featured his turban-wrapped, suicide-bombing, skeletal-stereotype sidekick "Achmed," my hesitation has been all but cemented.

Nevermind that Dunham's self-titled cable show itself appears to be some half-assed conservative cross-breed between "Crank Yankers" and "Wonder Showzen" (but with visually stunning vocal acrobatics!),  but his "Leno" routine in particular was so brazenly witless that it simply made the "comedian" look insensitive, not subversive.

If you're not familiar with the shockingly popular funnyman's (his last Comedy Central special was the network's most watched ever) entire roster of taxidermy  stereotypes, it includes a pimp named Sweet Daddy Dee, disembodied Mexican pepper named Jose Jalapeno and beer-bellied redneck named Bubba J, among others. All of whom become unwilling vessels for Dunham's mind-bogglingly surface, joyless dissections of race, class and cultural relations.

A la fellow inexplicable phenomenon Dane Cook, Dunham's routines demonstrate merely that he understands certain paradigms and patterns exist in human nature, without the slightest offering of insight into their origins, repercussions, ironies and absurdities. Sadly, however, he seems to be successfully targeting a demographic of self-congratulatory ideological moderates who equate unapologetic exploitation of our differences with cathartic analysis. Not to mention exonerating himself from accusations of inappropriateness  by drawing attention to the equal-opportunity nature of his routine, like a guy who back pedals from offensive remarks by pointing out how diverse his friends are.

As for Dunham's chosen medium of ventriloquy, there's a reason that role playing through inanimate objects is an exercise primarily recommended for nursery school students and participants in self-rehabilitating reality shows.

Not to mention that "Arrested Development" (via the Peter Pan-ish Gob and his exaggeratedly urban puppet Franklin) long since assassinated both the comedic hopelessness of ventriloquy and delusional sense of purpose that's embarrassingly transparent when digesting Dunham's cumbersome act.



Unfortunately, his poor-man's Triumph the Insult Dog creation, aka Achmed, and the rest of Dunham's, er, colorful cast will be a recurring character on his half-hour program, ensuring that we have another pop-cultural dummy to articulate our barely concealed prejudices besides this guy.