Striking while the iron's the hottest is the first thing to come to mind with Dunham's second special. This special made Jeff white-hot in stand-up comedy because at the time ventriloquism wasn't common and had yet to overstay it's welcome. A quick analysis: *His solo stand-up - Average it did provide fuel for some of the puppets acts and it's short because nobody came to see him without the puppets. *Walter - One of his star puppets and arguably his best. Grumpy old man that's easily the most digestible bit in the special. *Achmed, the Dead Terrorist - I'll start off by saying I hate this character. Cultural stereotypes are abundant as you would imagine and political correctness & right/wrong arguments aside, it's just not funny to me. *Melvin, the Superhero Guy - This is his one and only special which is a shame. I did find him amusing but I imagine he clashed with the Achmed and José fans to atempt to do anymore material with him especially since to superhero genre of film was getting ready to boom at that time. *Peanut - Along with Walter, one of the mainstay puppets. Peanut is hit or miss with me. A coked-up Sesame Street reject seems like an accurate description. *José Jalapeño on a Stick - So now we move away from cultural stereotypes to racial ones. Admittedly, I do find José more entertaining than Achmed but that might be due to be being partnered with peanut the entire time.
Despite my objections towards a few characters I did enjoy this special. Still though at this point with the collective puppets, Melvin excluded, you can see who the target audience is becoming or has already become and Jeff knows that and I do believe this is the tipping point before it is truly leaned into in future specials. And it is that lean I believe that will likely push me away completely.
Review by JasonVIP 5BlockedParent2021-06-30T16:20:47Z
Theme- 7/10
Rewatchibility- 7/10
Acting- 8/10
Kinematography 5/10
Time- 6/10
Total - 33/5 = 6.6
Striking while the iron's the hottest is the first thing to come to mind with Dunham's second special. This special made Jeff white-hot in stand-up comedy because at the time ventriloquism wasn't common and had yet to overstay it's welcome. A quick analysis:
*His solo stand-up - Average it did provide fuel for some of the puppets acts and it's short because nobody came to see him without the puppets.
*Walter - One of his star puppets and arguably his best. Grumpy old man that's easily the most digestible bit in the special.
*Achmed, the Dead Terrorist - I'll start off by saying I hate this character. Cultural stereotypes are abundant as you would imagine and political correctness & right/wrong arguments aside, it's just not funny to me.
*Melvin, the Superhero Guy - This is his one and only special which is a shame. I did find him amusing but I imagine he clashed with the Achmed and José fans to atempt to do anymore material with him especially since to superhero genre of film was getting ready to boom at that time.
*Peanut - Along with Walter, one of the mainstay puppets. Peanut is hit or miss with me. A coked-up Sesame Street reject seems like an accurate description.
*José Jalapeño on a Stick - So now we move away from cultural stereotypes to racial ones. Admittedly, I do find José more entertaining than Achmed but that might be due to be being partnered with peanut the entire time.
Despite my objections towards a few characters I did enjoy this special. Still though at this point with the collective puppets, Melvin excluded, you can see who the target audience is becoming or has already become and Jeff knows that and I do believe this is the tipping point before it is truly leaned into in future specials. And it is that lean I believe that will likely push me away completely.