Saturday, January 5, 2008


Humor in the Jihad War

Jeff Dunham with Achmed the Dead Terrorist


"A...C...Phlegm ..."

Funny, creative, and to the point. Achmed blew himself up and Jeff Dunham deserves proper comedic credit for creating (and voicing) a character worthy of hilarious derision.

ON THE OTHER HAND, Brooklyn-born Joseph Cohen (like Adam Ghadan) converts to Islam and renames himself Yusuf [sp] al Khaddam and is apparently motivated by Dunham's 'Achmed' routine to reply in kind with what he must (in his demented fashion) imagine as a spirited rejoinder.

Try as I might, I couldn't find Yusef's original video. This, from My Pet Jawa is edited with commentary. The commentary is much more pithy than the original, I'm sure.

Version featuring Yusuf and Justin


Comedy done well by a pro always looks easy. It's not. And people that aren't really prepared to present it usually fall on their asses.

One Friday night in January, 1989, after a couple nights (in which we killed) at a club in Georgia, the management of that club booked a young Kathy Griffin wannabe to open for my partner and me. She was bombing (just as devastating as Achmed), and, as it was Georgia, decided to go with the LCD (lowest common denominator) and resorted to the tried and true 'dick' jokes.

Sitting in the middle distance and not having a clue who I was, she directed the spot around to the well-dressed moi, and asked me, "Do you remember your first blow job?"

I hemmed and hawed. Not really appropriate to answer with the QoS next to me.

So then she asked, "How did it taste?"

She received a few laughs.

But I'll never forget the look on her face--the absolute terror of what was to come--when she saw me take the stage as the headliner.

I'm a pro and, yes, I know what it is to bomb. I felt no burning need to excoriate her.

I just did it anyway.

"Be careful who you step on on your way up..."

Less humor here




and

Atheist vs Yusuf

No comments: