Dunham Hating

Videogum blogs (rants, actually) about the NY Times Magazine piece on Jeff Dunham I mentioned a few days back.

Not so bad, actually, though the writing is more heated than clever, and more angry than insightful.  Jeff Dunham’s work is indeed racist, though his jokes are hardly “easy”; and yes, if all you do is listen to the material, it’s not that funny.  But Dunham’s work is a kind of magic: it’s more than what he says or doesn’t say — it’s how he breathes life into his puppets, and the ease with which he uses them to connect with his audience.

The fight then, is not — should not — be with Dunham, but with his audiences, because they define his popularity; they find racism funny.