Racist And Offensive or Just Plain Humorous

The following information was pieced together from an article written on 11/03/2009 for AOL Television by Daynah Burnett.
This interesting article is about a popular ventriloquist by the name of Jeff Dunham. Dunham has been a ventriloquist for 25 years and currently has his own show on Comedy Central called.....The Jeff Dunham Show...what???....did you expect anything other than that? Dunham's acts generate both controversy and passionate reactions. In his act, five of the seven puppets in his cast of characters are based on racial or cultural stereotypes (José, the jalepeño pepper; Sweet Daddy Dee, the jive-talking pimp; Bubba J, the beer-guzzling redneck), and although Dunham claims he skewers everyone equally, the skewering doesn't seem intended to bridge racial and cultrual divides. In fact, it seems to cement, if not widen, them. Take skeletal Achmed, the Dead Terrorist, whom Dunham claims is not offensive to Muslims in the least (though South Africans disagree). During the act it's revealed that because the dummy has a "Made in China" stamp, Achmed doesn't even think he's Muslim. But one only needs to get to the "72 virgins" joke in Dunham's Achmed bit before it's hard to deny that he's indeed Muslim -- oh, and homophobic, too!
Take a look at the video clip below and you make the call...Racist and Offensive or just Humor. To read the complete article, please click on this link.......
Jeff Dunham Story