Jeff Dunham's Scrooged-Up Holiday Special
Prime Video · 2024 · 59 min
Jeff Dunham and his puppets butcher the story of Scrooge.
Jeff Dunham assigns classic Dickensian roles to his usual roster of puppets for a loose, chaotic retelling of A Christmas Carol. The format allows the ventriloquist to step back slightly and let his mainstays clash over their casting, most notably with Peanut mistaking the role of Tiny Tim for the leads of Annie and Home Alone. It is a structured narrative detour from his typical stand-up sets, designed to hit the familiar beats of his long-running act while wrapped in holiday tinsel.
The special was filmed over two nights in August 2024 at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, featuring an elaborate, snow-draped set that contrasted with the late-summer heat outside. Released on Prime Video in November 2024, the hour marked Dunham’s second special of the year, following February’s I’m with Cupid, and landed right as he transitioned to his “Artificial Intelligence” tour. While critics dismissed the writing as formulaic, fans of Dunham’s long-running act welcomed the holiday dressing and the natural fit of Walter as Scrooge.
The set list
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Walter complains about streaming on Amazon
Walter as Scrooge gripes about specials being delivered in oversized Amazon boxes left on front porches and stolen by porch pirates, while arguing with Jeff that Jeff is arguing with himself.
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Bubba J as the Ghost of Christmas Past
Bubba J riffs on the Grinch and jokes about whether Democrats would blame Trump if Christmas were stolen today, while making prison humor references.
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Peanut as the Ghost of Christmas Presents
Peanut acts out the plural version of Christmas Presents to plug new merchandise, performing with an even smaller Peanut puppet in a chaotic bickering sequence.
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Little Jeff as Tiny Tim
Presented as an independent standalone puppet character rather than Peanut's dummy, serving as an audition for Tiny Tim and a holiday gift plug.
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The closer (spoiler). Show it
Achmed as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come
Achmed dons a Santa hat for holiday tidings, performs newer ventriloquist tricks, and physically falls apart in Jeff's hands, causing unscripted chaos on stage.
How it plays
- Tone
- Racy and irreverent with rude humor, conservative political jabs, innuendo, and censored expletives.
- On stage
- Classic ventriloquist act interacting with and bickering against multiple distinct, ill-tempered dummy personas.
- Pace
- Starts off slow in the joke department but builds momentum, incorporating unscripted banter and chaotic bickering.
- About
- A Christmas Carol adaptation, Holidays, Amazon delivery culture, Merchandising, Conservative politics
What the critics said
Critics found the special largely formulaic, derivative, and reliant on hackneyed or outdated humor, though acknowledging that devoted fans of Dunham's signature character dynamics and physical unscripted mishaps would find familiar enjoyment.
Backstory
Dunham's third holiday-themed special, framed around a concept pitch of casting his iconic ventriloquist dummies into an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee
- Runtime
- 59 min
- Where
- Prime Video
- Director
- Manny Rodriguez
- Topics
- Before
- I'm with Cupid (2024)
- After
- 250th Red, White, And Blue Birthday Special (2026)
More from Jeff Dunham
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I'm with Cupid
Comedy Central
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Me the People
Comedy Central
-
Beside Himself
Netflix
-
Relative Disaster
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