oldie but a goodie - Achmed the dead terrorist

"mr_gofast" (jake_berenshteyn)
05/08/2014 at 12:23 • Filed to: JEFF DUNHAM

full show

DISCUSSION (9)

Brian Silvestro > mr_gofast
05/08/2014 at 12:24

I saw him live on a cruise ship before he was famous.

Knew he was going places.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > mr_gofast
05/08/2014 at 12:39

I like this, and I find it funny, but has he ever done something about the KKK or the westboro baptist church? Or would that be considered not funny in the US?

mr_gofast > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
05/08/2014 at 12:46

he hasnt touched up on them yet

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > mr_gofast
05/08/2014 at 12:53

OK :)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
05/08/2014 at 13:13

The KKK really aren't typically in the news much. Small, no real impact or presence, and kind of pathetic TBH. There's not any restraint in mocking them (see, for e.g. Blazing Saddles), it's just that in the past 20 years there's been little point.

As to Westboro, it's less a true religious fundamentalist operation and more a very pernicious self-supporting-through-lawfare legal scheme. As such, though humorists of one stripe and another engage in Christianity-based humor in the US every day, there's little uniquely funny about Westboro and a lot of legal obnoxiousness. Little payoff, though neither the KKK or Westboro enjoy widespread support.

If your concern is whether Dunham's egalitarian in his mockery, he has a redneck stereotype puppet and a "bigoted old man" one that seemingly would imply a broader stripe of blowback than anything on the KKK or Westboro - he hasn't gotten any particularly.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/08/2014 at 13:21

I'm not concerned as such :) I'm just wondering if he's done anything that would ridicule what we in northern europe see as the "American Stereotype" ;) I know that the KKK and the Westboro can't be said to represent the average American, but to us "up here".. well.. The KKK, The Westboro and the Scientologists = More nuts than a barrel of squirrels :P I think it's like that every teen movie in the eighties described french women as the ones with hairy armpits :)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
05/08/2014 at 13:37

That's quite all right - if you want to see how his oeuvre expands to various American stereotypes in comedy, look up bits with "Bubba J" (his American redneck), "Walter" (angry old man), and Jose Jalepeno (world-weary latino laborer - who is a pepper).

The closest of his puppets to an "average American" stereotype in personality (witlessness, braggadocio, cheerfulness, blather, etc.) is probably "Melvin the Superhero Guy".

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/08/2014 at 13:43

I'll take a look at them :) Thanks.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh
05/08/2014 at 14:01

As a side note, you've expressed concern regarding how anarcho-socialists would be viewed in the US before - surprisingly well, actually. I'm fairly right-wing so far as American standards go, but the schism here is not so much between right wing authoritarians, left wing authoritarians, and left wing localists/limited gov. types, it's also very heavily tilted toward rightist limited government types. Because the American governmental tradition was heavily informed by classical liberal beliefs, the conservative positions in the US tend to reflect those, and are not conservative in quite the sense that preserving older, more moribund institutional forms in other countries would be. Particularly governmentally, American conservatism =/= Euro or Asian conservatism, but you'd be surprised how fundamentally US and world media are unable to comprehend this. Even the derided Fox news was developed as a product to market toward right wing authoritarians more so than the truly libertarian...

Bottom line - "leave me alone and I'll leave you alone" is more intrinsic in the American right than anybody gives it credit for. Don't believe everything you hear.