Last week comedian, and I am not even sure I should be using that word to describe him, Jeff Dunham was at the Van Andel arena to do a show.  If you are unfamiliar with his work you are one of the most fortunate people in the world.  He is a ventriloquist, that pretty much sums it up.  I thought ventriloquism was dead, unfortunately I was wrong.  A number of years ago I was in Vegas and the Mirage was featuring Mr. Dunham, at that point I knew he was awful, but so were a lot of other people who had featured acts in Vegas, even the Osmonds were still bringing it at the Flamingo.  That being said,it still pained me to see his face plastered across the Mirage holding one of his puppets.

Obviously funny is subjective, what makes one person laugh is based upon that person’s personal taste, and in the case of Jeff Dunham, lack of IQ.  I was speaking with my brother about the Dunham phenomenon and mentioned that he had the highest rated premiere show in comedy central history.  That may be what made Dave Chapelle loose his shit, Jeff Dunham held a record over him.  He premiered at 5.3 million viewers and 6 weeks later his show was canceled.  One of his skits involved having his homophobic puppet go to a gay counselor.  Hilarity obviously ensued.  Even though his show bombed, he has still managed to thrive in the stand up comedy world despite the fact that he is a racist homophobe.

While being a racist homophobe shouldn’t preclude him from being successful, the fact that he isn’t funny should.  The reality is that comedians are given quite a bit of leeway in the material they choose to use, and many comedians choose to use off color and politically incorrect topics as part of their routine.  I don’t have a problem with that if the person is actually funny, and bringing up humorous things about the differences between races or sexual preferences can be humorous, and for most comedians can be comedy gold.  The problem is is that Jeff Dunham puts about as much creativity into his act as Adam Sandler does into his movies.

Granted, there are plenty of people who lack intelligence and talent but despite that have either been in the right place at the right time, or faked their way to success.  Good for them, that is what our country is built on, people with little to no talent fooling people and faking their way to the top.  I’ve never been a fan of Howard Stern, getting attractive women to come on your show and asking them to show you their tits doesn’t seem to be too terribly difficult when they are hookers or strippers, nor does it seem to be a talent set.  Fortunately for Howard he was able to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and the lowest common denominator is a large segment of our society, and doing so has been lucrative beyond his wildest dreams.

Howard Stern, Jeff Dunham, and countless other people have managed to, in my opinion, snow over the American public on their way to unimaginable wealth and fame.  And even though I don’t find them to be particularly talented, I am sure they have put in an incredible amount of work and experienced quite a bit of adversity on their way to the top. Furthermore, their success has not had a detrimental affect on society as a whole.  However, Donald Trump’s continued rise to the top of the Republican party has.  I heard someone claim that he is intelligent.  Is he really?  He is a race baiter who is also a misogynist and his basic tactic when confronted for his fucked up views is to be a bully or call the person stupid.  Yes, the front runner of the Republican party resorts to tactics most people stopped using after elementary school when people call him out on his shit.

Even though society as a whole has very little discernment, I have always believed that when we choose people to lead our country those who appeal to the lowest common denominator will be weeded out and exposed.  This has not happened as of yet with Trump and he continues to gain momentum.  He has absolutely no substance, doesn’t know the issues, filed for bankruptcy and divorce a handful of times, yet people think he is the answer, the shot in the arm the Republican party needs and the shot in the arm this country needs.

Trump should have never made it this far but he has and what is most troubling in my mind about Trump is his insistence to pretend he is something he isn’t.  Damn it Trump, you are bald, just admit it, that is the world’s worst comb over and you can not be the nominee for the Republican party with that god awful combover.  Does the Republican party want their nominee to lack the confidence to acknowledge the fact that they are bald?  I can just see Putin at some foreign summit tackling trump and pulling his comb over off, revealing his bald misshaped head.  It is fairly obvious that he is insecure for two reasons, his combover, and the fact that he bullies everyone by claiming they are stupid and inferior to him.

So, what is the end game here?  What happens if Trump somehow manages to secure the Republican nomination?  He will get his ass kicked in the general election, the Democrats could put a ticket together of Jeff Dunham with one of his puppets running as VP and they  would beat Trump.  The brush back from all of this would be the complete disintegration of the Republican party as we know it with the conservative faction of the party breaking off and forming their own party, leaving the democrats to take complete control of the national political landscape for the foreseeable future.

Obviously this is all speculation on my part, but the American political landscape thrives on gridlock, and if one party is able to dominate it will allow politicians to actually accomplish things, do we really want politicians accomplishing things?   Allowing one political party to become the New England Patriots of politics would be like giving Jeff Dunham his own show, it may seem like it’s working in the beginning but ultimately it will fail.