I don't know if Jon Mooallem knew that insanely-popular-in-the-heartland ventriloquist comic Jeff Dunham was making a guest appearance on 30 Rock three days before his profile of Dunham landed in the New York Times magazine on Sunday. But it's too bad he didn't include the episode, because the episode is a perfect expression of the tension between American tastes Mooallem teases out in the piece. He writes:
Lots of people don’t find Jeff Dunham funny. As hard as he works to find a universal funny bone, there are clearly some Americans he is resigned to losing, or even brutally alienating. Maybe you’re one of them. Maybe you don’t think Walter’s telling Dunham, “You’re from Planet Retard,” is as hilarious as the audience in Springfield did. Maybe you don’t love it when the dummies call Dunham “gay,” which they do a lot. Maybe it’s offensive to you. Maybe you’re just bored.
Gradually, a lot of Dunham’s material has come to reflect his exhaustion with political correctness — though he needles taboos in the same impish way that his dummies used to cut down untouchables like the lunch lady or Jack Welch when he was a kid. Unlike the acts of some other comedians with a big red-state following, Dunham’s doesn’t feel resentful or vindictive, and he’s not eager to brand himself ideologically. His outlook struck me as almost alarmingly uncomplicated. He defends himself by noting that he tries to insult all races and ethnicities equally, and ultimately seems to treat jokes about all Indians being customer-service operators or all black people drinking malt liquor not all that differently from jokes involving other well-worn comedic tropes — like all wives being annoying nags or Florida being way too humid.
In the 30 Rock episode, Dunham plays a vent from Kenneth the Page's hometown of Stone Mountain, Ga., who Jack decides to hire because he's convinced the show needs a middle-American cast member. When Liz objects, Jack scolds her, saying "in your mind, a Southern ventriloquist act can't be funny. But you know who does think it's funny? These people. These wonderful, folksy, simple people." Distressed by the hire, Liz decides to go to the club and heckle him, hoping it will dissuade him from coming to New York. Instead, the dummy points out that both Liz's assumption that he's a hayseed and Jack's assumption that he's super-pure and innocent are wrong, declaring that "I'm an amateur astronomer and Rick's black wife speaks French. Her name's Jamilla."
But he also unleashes an incredibly nasty and sexist torrent of insults on Liz, whose heckling has been comparatively mild. It made me hideously uncomfortable. I suppose it was an effective rebuke to the idea that being from the rural South, or the rural anywhere, makes you inherently nice. But in an odd way, it seemed to me to be the epitome of 30 Rock's problems this season--far too much of the wrong things. One of those zingers might have been great. A whole string of them just felt ugly. And I'm guessing it's nastier than Dunham's act actually is. I'm sure the appearance was designed to introduce Dunham to a wider audience, and to demonstrate 30 Rock's savvy in the world of comedy. I'm not sure it worked for either the man or the show.