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Just curious what ya'll think of the man that might be the most popular/successful stand-up comic in America.

And if you were wondering, yes, I am planning to heavily judge poll responses and posts in this thread.

Then I shall not vote.

cringe inducing

Racist.

ETA: Among other things.

ETAx2: Also, ventriloquist.

Is he really that big? I mean to be even arguably the most popular comic today.

Granted, I haven't really been keeping track of who's big right now but he's always seemed kinda "meh"

What's Chris Rock doing these days?

My gut says he's terrible.

I voted that he's not very good, or bad.

My reasoning is that he -can- be funny. He just often isn't. I think he started to spiral into unfunniness around the time he started using the terrorist puppet.

Oh, and the stereotypical black pimp puppet.

His jokes get old very fast for me... but I find him to be mildly humorous.

I'll check out his new show, though, and see where they decided to go with it.

I voted that he isn't very bad, or very good.

I did so because the first stand-up of his I saw, I really enjoyed for whatever reason.

However, he's really just a one-trick pony, and once you've seen it, you need never see it again. I don't find him all that funny, I just enjoyed the ventriloquism which (not having other ventriloquists to judge upon) I thought was amazing.

In conclusion: I am 8 years old and easily amused. But I can't bring myself to watch this man anymore.

I think he was probably funny in the 80's. Not so much 20 years later. Kind of like Gallager.

Like Bumble said, gets old fast.

The Ahmed character... I won't lie, a couple of the jokes have made me laugh. But it still bugs me, mostly because of some people's reaction that the character is "funny because it's true."

There are way better comedians out there who can keep it fresh. Ventriloquism is an interesting talent... not always good for standup though.

He's a very "safe" comedian, but he's good at it.

I thought he was okay. I have friends who talk about him like he's the messiah.

I haven't seen a lot of his stuff. My favorite bit that he does is the [STRIKE]Don Rickles[/STRIKE] Old Man puppet, but there's only so much of it I can watch.

Meh. I can name 300 stand-up comics in America who are more popular/successful.






Yeah, this joke is gonna get old eventually. But I still find it funny and that's all that matters.

As Bumble said, when I first saw him I thought he was funny. Now, I don't think he's good or bad. He's just ok.

He's great, but he seems to go a long time between making new material. As for the "most popular/successful stand-up comic in America." title... that goes to Dane Cook. He's selling out stadiums/music venues consistantly even today. Too bad he's not funny.

He's an awesome ventriloquist, but a mediocre comic.

Walter and Achmed are great skits, but the rest is pretty ho-hum

My family LOVES him, but I could care less.

I'm not a big fan of ventriloquists anyway. I always watch their lips and think that they should be doing better.

Gruebeard said:

Meh. I can name 300 stand-up comics in America who are more popular/successful.

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Okay, do it.

*waits*

I remember seeing him on the Improv on A&E. He was funny as a ventriloquist Walter was quite funny 20 years ago. The dead Terrorist goes for the cheapest of laughs. and it has been 8 years now since he updated his act.

Side note, A&E, what happened you you? Used to be the greatest basic cable channel now it is just Reality Shows and Re-Runs of other stations' crap. There is not Art and it is not very Entertaining.

HAHAHA you like jokes different from the ones I like, so you're inferior to me! HAHAHA!

Oy vey, really?

Also, taggers need to look up the definition of racism. Caricatures may be insensitive, but not necessarily racist.

Of course the strangest Ventriloquist act of all time, of all time. Is Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. He was the most popular stand up comedian of his time. But his popularity mostly came from doing his act on the radio.

---------- Post added at 02:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:50 PM ----------

Jeff Dunham is great. Yeah, once he comes out with new material, he rides it into the ground. But, let's say you have 100 appearances in a year, you're not going to come up with 100 different bits. He adjusts it for where he's at and goes with it. Plus, when he improvs in the voices, he's really funny. If you have the DVDs, watch the bonus materials. It might be cliched humor, but it's funny and the guy has a lot of talent. With the glory of netflix, I've been watching a good deal of stand up and it all blows compared to Jeff Dunham. Maybe it's how my head is wired for humor, but I laugh a lot more watching him make some dummy talk.

I will admit that the redneck, superhero, and pimp are incredibly weak. Walter, Peanut/Jose Jalapeno, and Achmed are really good, even if the voices do crisscross a little bit. I also get bored of watching him make appearances after watching whatever DVD is new, because it's a rehash of the same thing.

Backlash against Jeff Dunham comes across more as hating the new popular thing because it's been driven into the ground. There are some opinions that sound like good, thought out, and reasonable. Not everyone likes the same thing. Awesome. But others are just more of the "I have this opinion because I don't really have an opinion and want to bash whatever is popular on the internet/culture". Because THAT never happens, right?

Gusto;269096][quote=Gruebeard said:

Meh. I can name 300 stand-up comics in America who are more popular/successful.

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Okay, do it.

*waits*[/QUOTE]

#1 Bill Cosby.

I think he's a hack who got lucky. I don't find him funny, I find him annoying. His ventriloquism is sub par and he's riding it. The only reason he's making it big is because he's using mediocre humor with puppets at a time when that fad has died down enough to explode again.

#2 Andy Kaufman

His act is incredibly racist. I have no idea how anyone could argue this point. I don't hate him because he's popular. I think Dane Cook's act is lame, but I wouldn't say I hate him. I don't begrudge him for taking advantage of the stupidity of the american people at large. I just wish they weren't.

Grue, and yet neither of those are still touring / popular now, they maybe great but they aren't current.

Also i guess racism is a funky word, is he racist? no(at least assuming he isn't, guess he could be), is his act racist? hard to say sounds more like identifying racial stereotypes. If the people in the crowd go ha ha, thats so what they do, then its more likely that simply his audience is racist.

Also who cares if he plays to the crowd, i guess he should be sorry that he knows how to please a huge core demographic and make shit tons of money.

For me: I think he is funny, but i deffinatly can see that type of humor getting played out fast, aka the videos have less of a replay value for me, then say bill cosby, or chris rock.

SeraRelm said:

I think he's a hack who got lucky. I don't find him funny, I find him annoying. His ventriloquism is sub par and he's riding it. The only reason he's making it big is because he's using mediocre humor with puppets at a time when that fad has died down enough to explode again.

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Observe above for a proper assessment of the situation.

And yes, that terrorist muppet is pretty racist.

Dunham's hilarious and racism is delicious.

To me, fairly entertaining with a couple of the puppets, quickly boring on repeat viewings.

I refused to eat at a restaurant unless it served blackened chicken, until a kind college-educated chap in his 20s taught me the evils of racism. Now I eat african-americaned chicken.

Qonas said:

Dunham's hilarious and racism is delicious.

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Calling out the absurdism in racism is delicious; just being racist is kind of just not funny. Very fine difference that people who aim to be "edgy" kind of miss.

I think you and Chuck and others who take offense at Dunham and don't find him funny because of "racism" need to unwad your panties.

I'm going to avoid the protracted argument as I'm going to quickly devolve into just yelling and insulting (it's why I can't go into any political thread, as much as I want to tell every single liberal how wrong they are), but it's like this. The best comedy comes from exaggeration of some sort. An exaggerated situation, leading to comical misunderstanding. Exaggerated emotions leading to unrealistic behavior. Slapstick is exaggerated violence. What Dunham has tapped into with his puppets is the exact same thing. It's not offensive because it's ludicrously funny. He's taken the most recognizable and easily exaggerated traits from a group of people (suicide bombers, old white men) and turned up the dial on overblowing the stereotype. Why? Because it's funny.

Sorry to break it to you Chuck but last I checked, I was not an uneducated yokel living in the boondocks of the middle of nowhere America laughing at Jeff Dunham between my missing teeth while polishing my old Chevy Duster and wishing the dishwasher on my lawn would work. (Hey look, "racist" comedy that no one ever finds offensive!) Neither are any of my friends who enjoy Jeff Dunham like I do. We simply don't think harmless comedy, meant to be laughed at and not ever taken seriously, is somehow throwing the civil right's movement back eighty years or is causing people to suddenly want "White", "Colored", and "Arab" bathrooms.

I don't find him funny because he is just not very funny. The racism is there, too. Racism isn't only segregated bathrooms and lynchings. I think what Jeff Dunham does is more harmful than someone on the street calling someone a ******.

Qonas said:

I...find...panties...as I'm...polishing my...old...friends...back

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~

*sigh* Quonas....... *sigh*.

crono1224 said:

Grue, and yet neither of those are still touring / popular now, they maybe great but they aren't current.

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1) I make a lame joke
2) Gusto calls me on it
3) I play along for fun
4) You make serious reply
5) I am satisfied and quit the list
6) ???
7) Profit.

I just don't find him that funny. I'm not going to say he's 'racist', but his jokes all seem to fall along the lines of, 'Stereotype, but with puppets, so it's funny!'

Most of his humour is derived from racial stereotypes. If that's your bag, sweet. It's not mine.

Never heard of him, until CDS pointed him out. Since this thread has naught but negative things to say about him, I'm not missing much.

Our opinions are mute, apparently... as he's getting a TV show on Comedy Central later this month. Not a special... a full on show.

Comedy Central does weird things to comedians. Dmitri Martin is hilarious, but his show was kind of lame... same with Daniel Tosh's show about the internet.

---------- Post added at 08:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------

...And let's not forget Carlos Mencia.

Qonas said:

I think you and Chuck and others who take offense at Dunham and don't find him funny because of "racism" need to unwad your panties.

I'm going to avoid the protracted argument as I'm going to quickly devolve into just yelling and insulting (it's why I can't go into any political thread, as much as I want to tell every single liberal how wrong they are)..

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And you were head of your school debate team? Damn. Wish I'd come up against you lot.

The issue with 'edgy' comedy, the way I see it, is how many lines you cross and how inventively you do it. Cross the line once, and you're spewing over-the-top racist propaganda. Go beyond that and cross it twice, and you're in the happy fantasy world of sublime absurdity.

The problem is that with many of these things, Poe's Law can hit you hard. When legitimate racist propaganda is as absurd as it has often been, it is difficult to differentiate spoof from reality. Just look at the whole LGBT business - how can you parody those prejudiced against homosexuality when the Westboro Baptist Church is playing your whole act straight (pun not intended)? I mean, I'm not saying it's impossible, but you have to be very good indeed to get it right, and Sturgeon's Law dictates that few are.

That's why people often don't find it funny - because they've too often seen very similar stuff delivered with an earnest 'See? That's how they really are!'.

... Well, that and sometimes it's just not very good, regardless of content.

^Yep, Iaculus... The people who will probably be my future in-laws creep me out with how much outrageous parodies of other ethnicities ring absolutely true for them. I personally don't think that that's what Dunham is going for. I'm sure he doesn't think his old redneck character fairly depicts all Southerners. I know it's different, but his 'thing' is making these ridiculous, silly characters. Ahmed might not be in good taste, but I've laughed in an "it's funny because it's absurd way..." not "it's funny because it's true."

That doesn't prove his intentions, but I guess I think there are worse, more offensive things out there.. If people want to be bigoted and believe things that aren't true, they don't require the help of a tame ventriloquist comedian. They'll find any outlet they can.

---------- Post added at 08:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:49 PM ----------

Amorous Eyes said:

Was that guy ever funny to anyone?

Even all of his 'impersonations' sound alike as well.

Cannot stand him.

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I can't lie... I liked him in the very first special he did on Comedy Central, because he seemed a lot more earnest. Now he's got this whole, "Yeah, I said it! Look how edgy and funny I am!" thing going on... and that "dee dee dee" thing makes me want to stuff his mouth with used jockstraps.

Carlos Mencia is a hispanic Dave Chappelle. Like it or hate it.

Amorous Eyes said:

I never even considered his act or the guy himelf to be racist, that almost sounds like people are projecting.

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Yeah, that's possible.

Louis C.K., David Cross, Demetri Martin, Chris Rock, Norm MacDonald, Dave Chappelle, Brian Regan, Jim Gaffigan, Brian Posehn, Patton Oswalt, Jeff Ross, Nick Swardson, Daniel Tosh, Dave Attell, Zach Galifianakis, Mike Birbiglia, Dana Gould, Stephen Lynch, Greg Giraldo, Maria Bamford, Paul F. Thompkins, Robert Schimmel.

These are the comics that matter as of now.

Also, maybe Sarah Silverman.

Mitch Hedberg and George Carlin are currently more relevant that Jeff Dunham and they dead.

Fuck Dane Cook. And Carlos Mencia.

AshburnerX said:

Our opinions are mute, apparently... as he's getting a TV show on Comedy Central later this month. Not a special... a full on show.

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Moot

Shegokigo said:

Carlos Mencia is a hispanic Dave Chappelle. Like it or hate it.

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last time I checked, Chappelle never stood in the middle of a stage and screamed niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggggeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrssssssssssss to rapturous applause and cheers

Hahaha wow.

SeraRelm said:

No, he just made a skit about it.

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That is different from Mencia yelling 'beanerssssssss' and you know it.

Um, yeah, that's why I said "No, he just made a skit about it."

Am I taking crazy pills or something here?

ElJuski said:

*sigh* Quonas....... *sigh*.

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Conservative and racially insensitive? Madness!

Shegokigo said:

Carlos Mencia is a hispanic Dave Chappelle. Like it or hate it.

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Minus wit and humour and I agree.

And originality.

Of course, of course. How could I have forgotten that.

And a huge black cock.

Really? I guess humor is subjective as I didn't find Chappelle's Show the least bit entertaining, but I chuckled a few times in the first two seasons of Mind of Mencia. :shrug:

So having a puppet making fun of terrorist suicide bombers is racist? Good to know I guess.