Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham with his puppet, "Achmed, the Dead Terrorist."

Jeff Dunham: many voices, one new hit show

By: Kelly Frazee & Jillian Bevacqua

Posted: 11/5/09

Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Peanut. Walter. Jose Jalapeno on a Stick. This random assortment of characters have one thing in common: their voice. Jeff Dunham began practicing ventriloquism at the age of eight and has since gained quite a following for his comedy acts. In the past, Dunham has performed on "Comedy Central Presents," "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show." Since his debut on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" in 1990, Dunham's popularity has skyrocketed. He has been called "America's Favorite Comedian" by Slate.com and praised by numerous other media outlets. The undeniable draw of his satirical puppets has earned him his own show, called simply "The Jeff Dunham Show," which premiered on Oct. 22. and now airs Thursdays at 9 pm on Comedy Central.

Dunham's show revolves around placing his puppets in real world situations. In a recent interview with the Weekly, Dunham discussed the motivation, inspiration, and goal of his show. He explained that fans have expressed interest in his characters outside of his stand- up and that people wondered how Achmed the Dead Terrorist would act off of the comedic stage. In the premiere episode, Achmed gets his own DVD stand- up comedy show, which ends in his characteristically attacking an audience member, grumpy old man Walter and Dunham go to a gay couple's therapy session, and Peanut goes on a date with Brooke Hogan.

If these scenarios sound at all questionable to you, you are not alone. Dunham regularly addresses societal issues and controversial characters in his comedy. "I wish people would take a step back and laugh at each other and ourselves a little," said Dunham. Through his characters, the comedian strives to poke fun at of all sorts of stereotypical characters, including himself. "If I step on toes, I want to make sure I step on my own toes," he said, "because I don't want to leave anybody out." When Dunham first started to do ventriloquism he realized that with comedy, he could say things and go places that very few people could.

He revealed that the biggest challenge for him was to figure out how to make people want to keep watching his show past two episodes. He decided that the one thing to strive for is just to find what will make people laugh, and he did. "We've got fun things that anyone can laugh at. We try to make it equal opportunity across the board, I try to make fun of anything I possible can. To me, the bottom line is that laugh and what gets it."

He is successfully able to make his comedy appeal to the masses by drawing inspiration from everyday life. "Just living life the way we all live is the best for comedic material. Comedians can pull comedy out from a situation in a way different than the average person can. It's just a different way of looking at it," he said, explaining that at the heart of comedy are real life situations that everyone deals with a daily basis. Whether those situations are jubilant or painful, Dunham believes that there is always some comedy to be found in them. People are able to relate to his comedy because they've been through it.

When asked if he is going to introduce any new characters on the show, Dunham said that the current ones are here to stay but for every successful character he's come up with there are ones that didn't work out so well. He keeps these ideas in what he referred to as his "What the hell was I thinking box." One of the characters in this box, "Tony the Talking Italian Meatball," didn't make the cut because Dunham could only come up with one joke for him: "Hey Tony, do you know any Italian?" "No." "Why not?" "Cause I don't have'a no hands!" Even without Tony, "The Jeff Dunham Show" premiere was full of laughs and long term potential.

Students on campus, however, express mixed reviews of Dunham's comedy. Some have exclaimed, "I love him, he's hilarious!" while others have expressed a strong distaste for him. In the end, all Dunham wants people to be able to do is to "sit back, eat a piece of fruit and laugh at each other…but not in a mean way!" So even if you're not a fan, give "The Jeff Dunham Show" a chance. Otherwise, in the words of Achmed, "Silence! I kill you!"