Guess What Comedy Central's Highest Rated Premiere and Worst Show Ever Have in Common

Placing The Jeff Dunham Show within Comedy Central's programming array is a challenge. Let's see: It combines Chappelle's Show's sketch format (We're doing OK so far), South Park's invocation of racism and homophobia -- minus that onus of irony, darn it!-- and the googly-eyed, happy-slappy contrivance of Mind of Mencia. So what do we have? Voila: a quagmire of petty laughs and offensive gags aimed at the desperately ignorant. You'll be relieved to find there is a niche for such obscure humor; The Jeff Dunham Show dragged in Comedy Central's highest premiere ratings ever.

Scoring 5.3 million viewers and a 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demo, The Jeff Dunham Show combines what you love about ventriloquism with not-at-all-veiled jokes about blacks and gays. That president we have? Let us laugh about electing him. The gay psychiatrist we hired? Let's exchange befuddled panic with our puppets, hide in the bathroom, and laugh. There's that word again: Laugh! It keeps happening! Someone turn down the hilarity knobs in the control room. The Hoover Dam could not handle this surge of coy wit.

The point is, Movieline will be watching this show every week and reporting on how legendary it gets. We'll come up with a cute little title for the segment too. I like, "Go, Dummy, Go!" so far.

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The Jeff Dunham Show Scores All-Time Comedy Central Record [Comedy Central]