THE TV COLUMN: Show unleashes Dunham, his uncivil puppets

By Michael Storey

LITTLE ROCK — I have it on good secondhand authority that Jeff Dunham is a funny guy. I personally know two people who have been to his concerts.

Comedy Central also thinks the Dallas native is funny and is bringing Dunham to cable viewers each week beginning today. The Jeff Dunham Show debuts at 8 p.m. The half-hour show encores each Thursday at 9:30 p.m.

How do you earn a series on Comedy Central? Dunham’s 2008 Christmas special in November was Comedy Central’s most watched telecast of all time. An impressive 6.6 million viewers tuned in. That’ll get somebody’s attention in the corner office.

It’s hard for some to imagine, but in the 21st century there lives a comedian carrying on the ventriloquism tradition of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney, Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, even Senor Wences and whatever it was he called the lipstick on his hand that passed for a dummy. Johnny I think it was.

Thanks to Bergen, ventriloquism, long a staple of vaudeville, became popular on radio and that transferred to early television. Bergen also had other characters; the most notable was Mortimer Snerd. Dunham, 47, has a half dozen or more.

Central Arkansas got a taste of Dunham and crew when he played to a sold-out crowd at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall in March 2008.

The paper’s Jennifer Christman was in attendance and reported that Dunham “brought along his motley fraternity of puppets including grumpy old Walter, the bulging-eyed skeleton Achmed the Dead Terrorist, a hyper purple ‘woozle’ known as Peanut and sombrero-wearing, stick-bound Jose Jalapeno.”

Walter got in the first local zinger, according to Christman: “Little Rock?” the Walter puppet grouched when Dunham told him where they were. “Did you lose a bet?”

Almost a year later, Dunham was back in town. His reputation had grown and so had his venue. According to our reviewer, Rosemary Boggs, Dunham packed North Little Rock’s Alltel Arena (now Verizon Arena) in February with 7,500 enthusiastic fans.

“Dunham’s act seems to prove the point that with a puppet on your hand, you can insult just about anyone and get away with it,” Boggs reported.

Of course, depending on who is being insulted, that sort of humor is either kneeslapping good fun or ethnic slurs. Some critics claim that Dunham’s act walks the edge.

The same can be said of edgy humor in animated series such as South Park, Family Guy or even The Simpsons. The cartoon characters can get away with stuff that would never be considered for a live-action program.

Boggs also noted that Dunham’s act was “PG,” but occasionally tiptoed up to the “R” line, making parents who had brought their kids squirm just a bit.

Will the TV series be too blue for the smallest fry?Probably. Parents should check it out first.

The series will be taped before a studio audience as well as having sketches on location.

In today’s debut, curmudgeon Walter and Dunham visit a licensed psychologist to save their relationship only to learn that he specializes in gay couples.

Then we have redneck good ol’ boy Bubba J swilling beer and shooting guns at a real-life rifle range.

Want more? Achmed the Dead Terrorist promotes his own comedy DVD, I Kill You I Kill Me.

Then Peanut wants a “hot friggin’ famous” Hollywood girlfriend and asks Jeff’s publicist to fix him up with guest star Brooke Hogan. Oddly, the date doesn’t work out.

Future episodes will find Achmed attempting to become an American citizen by joining the Marines; Peanut developing a new energy drink; and Walter visiting a local shop to learn about the latest technology.

Is Dunham the funniest man in America? We’ll see.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. E-mail:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Weekend, Pages 32 on 10/22/2009

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