Comedy? Uh, try Woodworking channel

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Dunham and some of his humour-challenged friends find a parking spot tonight on Comedy. (COMEDY NETWORK)

When he met with TV critics last summer in Los Angeles to promote his about-to-launch Comedy Central comedy series, Jeff Dunham went pre-emptive by tossing out a few possible headlines for reviewers who might not like his show.

SDLqThe Jeff Dunham Show -- cast is kind of wooden."

"Dunham is for dummies."

"Dunham makes dolls talk, but can't make audience laugh."

"The Jeff Dunham Show -- funny as a block of (expletive) wood."

Having previewed the first episode of The Jeff Dunham Show, which premieres tonight at midnight on Comedy, I'm forced to admit that he was headed in the right direction.

Simply put, this weekly sketch/standup/ventriloquism combination doesn't offer much evidence as to why Dunham has become the most popular comedy performer in the world. The series premiere, which features four of Dunham's signature characters in a variety of out-in-the-real-world situations, barely registers a blip on the TV-comedy gigglemeter.

The show opens with Dunham in front of a studio audience, briefly explaining the show's concept before introducing his most frequent hardwood-headed companion, Walter the Grumpy Retiree. After a brief bit of mostly-abrasive back and forth, the prickly pair is shown in a videotaped session with a couples therapist.

The central joke -- the only joke, really -- in the segment is built around the revelation that the couples therapist is gay... which has Jeff and Walter re-thinking their own relationship during a post-therapy visit to the men's room (one supposes the notion of a ventriloquist's dummy seated on the commode must be flat-out hilarious to some folks).

The entire exchange falls flat. Even fans with an inclination toward gay-nudging humour will be left wondering where the laughs went.

Other bits in The Jeff Dunham Show's premiere include an arranged "date" between hyper-horny ventrilo-pal Peanut and "celebrity" guest Brooke Hogan -- who? Exactly! -- that goes south after Peanut suffers a peanut-allergy attack; a faux-promo for Achmed the Dead Terrorist's standup-comedy DVD release; and a visit to a rifle range with slack-jawed redneck Bubba J.

If you're a hardcore fan of Dunham's brand of comedy (and let's face it, 350 million YouTube visitors can't be all wrong), you might find a few things in the series premiere that inspire a chuckle... if you look really, really hard. But for the most part, The Jeff Dunham Show is standard, old-school ventriloquist-schtick comedy with a bit of 21st-century meanness added in for good measure.

There's nothing here that's inspired or insightful -- and it certainly doesn't take a complete dummy to figure that out.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 27, 2009 D3