6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and his collection of colorful puppet characters perform their Christmas special from the stages of the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee.
Starring: Jeff Dunham, Brian HanerComedy | 100% |
Holiday | 23% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special is the third of the five (to date) specials on Comedy Central that cemented the reputation of the popular ventriloquist and stand-up as one of America's most popular comedians working today. Dunham had been selling out clubs and auditoriums for years, and he had found a niche on TV in the Nineties after appearing on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. But it was the Comedy Central broadcasts, and their ancillary sales on DVD and Blu-ray, that brought him his greatest success. Christmas Special was the most-watched broadcast in Comedy Central's history up to that time. The DVD and Blu-ray were released two days later and are a seasonal favorite. Dunham looks so young that it's hard to believe he's been performing for thirty years (longer, if you count his high school performances). To watch Dunham at work is to observe the ease of an entertainer who built his audience gig by gig, often in the face of resistance from a comedy establishment that doesn't value ventriloquists and a critical establishment that still doesn't "get" his popular appeal. An old entertainment adage holds that, if half the people love you, you're a star. More than half the people love Dunham, and many of them attended the taping of Christmas Special. For unknown reasons, the Blu-ray was not reviewed at the time of release. We are now rectifying that omission. (For Martin Liebman's review of Dunham's most recent Comedy Central broadcast, Jeff Dunham: Minding the Monsters, go here.)
Jingle bombs, jingle bombs, Mine blew up, you see. Where are all the virgins That Bin Laden promised me? Oh! Jingle bombs, jingle bombs, U.S. soldiers shot me dead. The only thing that I have left Is this towel upon my head.Is it juvenile? Sure. Offensive? No doubt. Funny? I couldn't help laughing. It's that damn puppet. Achmed is also the mouthpiece for some of Dunham's more off-the-wall improvs or, as the puppet explains, "This is where Jeff makes up crap just to make Guitar Guy laugh." "Guitar Guy", whose real name is Brian Haner, tries his best to retain his composure, but there comes a point where the only party on stage who can keep a straight face is Achmed, because it's painted on. A highlight of the evening is the conversation between two of Dunham's oldest characters, Peanut and José Jalapeño on a Stick. Peanut is a purple-skinned, white-furred, green-tufted creature of undisclosed species (on YouTube, he calls himself a "woozle") who's pure id. José Jalapeño is exactly what the name describes and the frequent butt of Peanut's jibes. Watching the intricate verbal choreography between these two, with their distinctively different voices and cadences, and Dunham's own interjections, is to be reminded, if one is old enough, of the dazzling timing of Señor Wences with Johnny and Pedro ("Hello in the box!"). Peanut puts his own personal stamp on The Night Before Christmas, which Dunham attempts to read, without much success. ("Fat, drinking and driving, and a furry gay outfit, covered in soot, he's smoking, and you let him in the house because he said he had something for your kids? What the hell kind of father are you anyway?") By the time St. Nick shouts "To all a good night!", Peanut is exhausted and so is the audience.
As it frequently does with video-originated hi-def material, Image Entertainment has released Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special in a 1080i presentation encoded with the AVC codec. However, the 1080i treatment does not seem to have created any noticeable issues. There were no visible combing artifacts while the image was in motion (although screencaps may reveal them), and the image did not lack for sharpness or detail. The cheerful holiday lighting, which has been separately designed for each puppet character, shines with apt saturation, so that the essential primary colors glow with holiday cheer. Blacks are solid and deep, which is important for Dunham's preferred stage garb (a contrast with the more garish look of his "cast"). As usual, Image has cut corners for a BD-25, but the program is sufficiently short, and the extras sufficiently brief, that compression artifacts are not a problem.
Considering the possibilities, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 for Christmas Special is something of a disappointment. This may be related to the TV origins of the project. One doesn't expect Dunham's act to be anywhere but front and center on stage, even when there's musical accompaniment by Brian Haner's "Guitar Guy". However, with audience reaction so critical a part of the experience, one could reasonably expect a more involving and immersive use of the surrounds than one finds in this mix. TV sound designers still seem far too reluctant to use the rear channels for anything other than the odd sound cue, but that shouldn't be. Standup is entirely about the relation between the comic and the audience. Why not use the technology of discrete 5.1 sound to capture that relation for accurate reproduction on home video? In any case, the reproduction on the track is certainly blameless in terms of clarity. Dunham and his artificial co-stars are clear and intelligible, and Guitar Guy's licks pack the requisite impact. It should be noted that the track is TV-friendly, and that all the language bleeped for broadcast remains bleeped here. There seems no good reason why an unbleeped track couldn't have been included as an option, especially since two separate tracks are available.
One of the pleasures of being a reviewer is that I get to watch programs and films I might not otherwise make the time to see. In recent years I have stopped watching standup comic performances, for a variety of reasons, including the passing of some of my idols. As a result, I'd missed Jeff Dunham's biggest hits to date, of which I now plan to view the entire collection. Dunham's humor isn't deep and it isn't especially witty, but he belongs to a venerable tradition of clowning that connects across a broad spectrum and has worked reliably from one era to another. May it never grow old. Recommended.
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