Beside Himself

Jeff Dunham spent decades building an arena-sized comedy empire based on a simple premise: a guy with a suitcase full of wood and latex can say the quiet part out loud as long as he is throwing his voice. For his second Netflix special, taped in front of a massive crowd at the American Airlines Center in his hometown of Dallas, Texas, Dunham sticks to the formula that made him one of the highest-earning touring comics in the world. He opens with ten minutes of solo stand-up about family life and the perils of getting pink eye from his young twins, establishing a relatable, down-to-earth persona before bringing out the puppets.\n\nThe centerpiece of the show is the introduction of a new character named Larry, a hyperventilating, chain-smoking advisor to Donald Trump. Designed to dance along the edge of late-2010s political exhaustion without alienating either half of his audience, Larry exists to joke about the sheer stress of the presidency rather than the policy. The rest of the hour relies on his established crew of caricatures, including the curmudgeonly Walter, the hyperactive Peanut, and Achmed the Dead Terrorist, whose physical props literally begin to fall apart mid-routine. Dunham uses the puppets to voice a broader pushback against modern political correctness, aiming his sarcasm directly at the internet and media outlets that might find his act out-of-date while thousands of arena-goers roar in approval.