Jeff Dunham Is Not Only Tightlipped Behind His Characters but Also About His Politics
By Jamie LernerMar. Four 2021, Published 7:07 p.m. ET
Comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham does not shy clear of being offensive. Onstage, he brings on arguable characters who include the perspectives of many Americans, and his arena-sized audiences howl with laughter. But a character is only a character. That doesn’t imply Jeff agrees with the political parties his characters frequently align with, or does it?
As Jeff prepares for a guest spot on Tim Allen’s Last Man Standing, many ponder whether the 2 are real-life buddies. Tim Allen speaks openly about his conservative political perspectives, which leads some to expect Jeff to trust him. Regardless of what Jeff’s political party strains are, he and Tim undoubtedly share an target audience, and that is pretty telling.
Jeff Dunham tries to keep quiet about to which political party he belongs.
Throughout Jeff’s over 20 years traveling America together with his ventriloquist characters, he has used these characters as quite of a defend. Rather than being forced to share his own perspectives, like many standup comedians, Jeff is able to share views in the course of the voices of characters he creates. Many of those puppets make amusing of disenfranchised populations, however simply because Jeff’s characters make fun of positive folks doesn’t mean that Jeff feels the same manner.
Many comedians create personas to mock a definite thought or point of view, like Stephen Colbert’s alter ego on The Colbert Report, during which he performed a staunchly conservative version of himself to mock conservative politics. However, the difference with Jeff is that his target market is a lot whiter, much more conservative, and much more center America. There are few folks guffawing at themselves in the audience, however slightly laughing on the stereotypes Jeff is openly mocking.
From this fact on my own, it’s simple to surmise that Jeff leans to the correct in his political party. And to solidify this, Jeff said he supported then presidential candidate Donald Trump in a 2015 interview with FOX News Talk Radio, in which he shared he’d “moderately have the crazy one, the one who has run companies and succeeded than the one who truly didn’t do anything.” He went on to say it annoyed him when other people supported Hillary as a result of she's a lady.
Jeff Dunham has not been in a position to dodge controversy surrounding his characters.
Jeff’s characters can be construed as so offensive that a Columbus Alive reporter even ranked them from least to most racist. Even nonetheless, Jeff denies that his characters are racist and homophobic. He shared, “I’m honestly puzzled once I see ‘racist and homophobic’ and I in reality assume it is other people reacting to maybe a couple of jokes I mentioned previously."
However, it can be argued that Jeff’s characters are inherently offensive. A middle-aged white man impersonating a Mexican immigrant named Jose Jalapeño on a Stick and a deceased suicide bomber named Achmed the Dead Terrorist, whose jokes are simply mocking their accents and stereotypes, can be seen as a form of racism.
Jeff also isn’t apologetic about who he offends. He shared, “I don’t mind pushing the boundaries and making a few people angry. I have always said … if a comedian is offending a small percentage of the audience he is probably right on that line of where he should be. Because whatever those people are offended at is what everybody else is laughing the hardest at.”
However, comedians are often encouraged to punch up and mock people more powerful than they are, but Jeff definitely punches down as well.
Jeff Dunham is all about pleasing his audience and playing to their political party.
Although Jeff claims that it’s okay to mock certain people because he mocks everyone, he actually doesn’t mock everyone. In a New York Times piece, Jeff confirmed that he’s more sensitive towards his “conservative ‘country crowd.’” He shared, “That’s why I don’t pick on basic Christian-values stuff … Well, I also don’t like to, because that’s the way I was brought up.”
Even despite the fact that he tries to stay out of politics, his characters can’t say the same. However, Jeff has been taking the COVID-19 pandemic severely and went so far as to donate winnings from a COVID-related lawsuit to coronavirus aid. On the flip facet, Jeff has not taken court cases about his offensive characters as significantly, mostly because those proceedings aren’t coming from his target audience. Jeff desires to please his target market since they’re the ones purchasing the tickets to his displays in spite of everything.
You can catch Jeff on Last Man Standing March Four at 9:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
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