Jeff Dunham

Mr. Dunham, a ventriloquist with a collection of outspoken dummies he uses as a license to make politically incorrect remarks about all sorts of groups, had built a huge following even before “The Jeff Dunham Show” made its debut on Comedy Central in October. “Huge” somehow feels like an understatement. One of his YouTube videos just racked up its 100 millionth viewing.

Mr. Dunham developed that fan base through long years on the comedy circuit, late-night talk show appearances and DVD sales. But now that he is in prime time — yes, it’s on cable, but still prime time — something about his weekly show has caused both bloggers and mainstream television critics to get out their knives.

“The Jeff Dunham Show Is the Worst Thing in the Entire World,” a rant on videogum.com was headlined. And a writer for The Chicago Tribune said, “There are gay jokes, bathroom jokes, racist jokes and a bit that will surely be offensive to White Trash Americans,” adding: “At best, you won’t laugh. At worst, you will weep for the half-hour you have lost and destroy all the puppets in your home.”

Mr. Dunham’s dummies are not exactly lovable Lamb Chops, or even mischievous Charlie McCarthys. They include Achmed the Dead Terrorist (he of the 100 million views), a skeletal suicide bomber; Walter, an angry old white guy; and Sweet Daddy Dee, a jive-talking black man identified in skits as Mr. Dunham’s manager. Any given Achmed bit is liable to have jokes about the 72 virgins and to carry the strong implication that the only thing Arabs and/or Muslims are interested in is killing everyone else (though Mr. Dunham has tried to sidestep criticisms of Achmed by saying the character isn’t Muslim). A Sweet Daddy routine is sure to mock Mr. Dunham for not being able to talk “street,” and Walter is prone to making exceedingly vulgar remarks about women, among others. Oh, and the puppets like to question Mr. Dunham’s sexuality.

Sure, people who like their humor only a certain way are going to find such stuff offensive, but the history of television is filled with comedies that found somebody to offend. Sometimes it was the offensiveness of an earlier time when sensitivity wasn’t a top priority — the whole tone of the television version of “Amos ’n’ Andy” in the early 1950s, for instance; the mentally dim Goober of “The Andy Griffith Show” and the whiskey-brewing Indians of “F Troop” in the 1960s. But often it was calculated.

Spike TV plays to a crowd that views women as sex objects, but so did “Three’s Company” 30 years ago. Whom might Mr. Dunham have looked to for precedent when creating his deliberately stereotypical dummies? How about the revered “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” of 40 years ago, with its dumb blonde (Goldie Hawn), broad black caricature (Flip Wilson) and irascible old people (Ruth Buzzi’s Gladys character and Arte Johnson’s leering geezer). What constitutes “offensive” has a lot to do with who is doing the judging, and when.

And nothing in “The Jeff Dunham Show” comes close to the scathing satire of the average episode of “South Park,” which has been praised for years for boldly going where no show has gone before. Just a few weeks ago “South Park” managed the difficult trick of outraging both big-engine-loving flag wavers and some gay-rights advocates with an episode that involved repurposing a slur applied to gay people so that it referred to Harley owners instead. Dunham critics might argue that “South Park” is funny while Mr. Dunham’s show isn’t. Ultimately, though, viewers define “funny.” Mr. Dunham’s first episode drew an audience of 5.3 million, a record for Comedy Central. That Harley-related “South Park” drew 2.8 million viewers, the Nielsen Company reported; Mr. Dunham’s show that same week drew 2.3 million.