Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos

Tldr: all the jokes were either racist or poking fun at his ex/divorce. Awkward silences. Awkward laughter. Wasn't funny in 2011 and straight up unacceptable in 2023. I was looking up reviews to see if I was maybe taking it too seriously but the more I read and the more I watched, the worse it got. There's no two ways about it. This show flopped. It's now 2023. The culture has changed and so has acceptable humour. Except that this humour wasn't actually funny back then either. His attitude and style immediately looked like that of a divorced man and then he started making jokes about said divorce and that was the point I realised it wasn't going to get better. Walters set seemed terribly vindictive. It was laced with cruel intent that made it uncomfortable to watch especially since he kept bringing up his divorce which most of the jokes were about. And when he wasn't making jokes about that he was being unbearably racist . Ahmed the DT was as usual exaggerated nonsense wrapped in middle eastern stereotypes. Even his new character, Ahmed's son apparently, didn't provide fresh humour. Peanuts set which then featured Jose. I honestly don't know how this set was approved. The blatant mockery of Asian people was disgusting. Which was followed up with blatant mockery of Mexican people. I used to enjoy his older material. Which just made this show sad. The funniest part was the set guy taping Ahmed's legs cause they kept moving while Jeff was doing the set with Ahmed and AJ. I spent 97 minutes watching the crowd shots and pointing out the people that weren't actually laughing or had very obvious fake laughs/smiles. The awkward silences during his jokes were painful to watch. So much so that "Ahmed" at one point asked if he said the joke the way it was written. Because surprise surprise. No one really laughed. The laughter and applause was obviously instigated because there'd be a few people clapping and a whistle or two, then suddenly everyone would start clapping but the crowd shots wouldn't show anyone clapping? Yeah. Idk what happened but it wasn't good.

Finally got to see this special on Comedy Central last night. I already knew that he had two new guys in the show, although to be honest, Little Jeff he has done before. Check his autobiography. The beginning I didn't care for with Bubba J as the guard and Achmed driving. This was leftover from the Jeff Dunham show, which didn't work because these are dummies, not Muppets. As for his opening segment with his pictures, which you can see in his autobiography, it was cute and I wish he had mentioned the names of the earlier dummies. Is he ashamed of them? I liked the Walter segment and Achmed and his son was funny too. Peanut and Jose had some great lines, like when Jose called Peanut a Muppet reject. Walter once called him a Muppet on heroin. Nice little joke at the end with a mini-Peanut. I wish though he had tried to use Diane and Bubba J more than in the beginning. I know he can't put everyone in, but maybe he shouldn't try to do new characters in special 5 and just put everyone in as a reunion or something. Jeff is still great and one of the best.