Review of Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity (2007) by Lord N — 09 Mar 2011

I am a fan of the ventriloquist comedian Jeff Dunham. I own his TV special Arguing with Myself and I'll be doing a review of that one next. This one is my favorite of his though.

Characters: In this special, we have The ever cranky Walter, Melvin the Superhero, the hyperactive woozle Peanut, Jose Jalapeno...on a steeek, and of course, in his famous debut, Achmed the Dead Terrorist (The debut is the 4th mots watched video on Youtube). All of them are hilarious and this is a combination of my favorite Dunham puppets. I don't like Bubba J and Sweet Daddy Dee as much as I like the rest. But all of these characters are brilliant. My favorites are Peanut, and Achmed. The best parts about the puppets are that you ultimately forget that they are puppets. They seem to be separate entities from Dunham. A lot of the jokes that Dunham tells would not work at all if it was just him telling them but because you forget that he is controlling the puppets, the jokes work well. Time Magazine said "All of them are politically incorrect, gratuitously insulting and ill tempered." Yep. That's why we love them. 10/10.

Plot: Pretty much Dunham telling jokes with his puppets. Pretty straightforward. 10/10.

Jokes: Friggin' awesome. I laughed at so many of them. Like I said, the best ones come out of Achmed and Peanut. Walter and Melvin are excellent too. Great stuff. 10/10.

Likableness: Good fun particularly if it appeals to your brand of humor. If it doesn't you may not like it as much. I myself love it. 10/10.

Final Score 40/40 (P).

1. As Jeff Dunham describes in a DVD commentary about the making of Melvin the Superhero Guy puppet, Melvin's eyebrows are rigged to move in opposite directions of each other.

2. Jeff Dunham has received severe criticism for his puppet Achmed the Dead Terrorist particularly form the Muslim community because he was offensive to Muslims and portrayed all Muslims as terrorists. Dunham responded, "I've skewered whites, blacks, Hispanics, Christians, Jews, Muslims, gays, straights, rednecks, addicts, the elderly, and my wife. As a standup comic, it is my job to make the majority of people laugh, and I believe that comedy is the last true form of free speech." He further commented, "I'm considering renaming Achmed, 'Bill.'".