Achmed The Dead Terrorist Analysis

Good evening ladies and gentleman and welcome to the Brisbane Comedy Festival. I am delighted to have this opportunity this evening to share my reflection of the nature of humour and the way it moves us to new ways of seeing the world. Humour can powerfully work to invite audiences to question the way our society constructs the social identities of other religions. It is through humour, that Jeff Dunham’s ventriloquial act featuring his popular dummy, “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” can elucidate this central idea.

Humour plays an important role in our society. It allows audiences to confront societal truths and create awareness of debated issues, such a racism or poverty. Furthermore, humour has the capacity to break down walls around a controversial topic and provide a window for reflection. When we stop laughing, humour is serious stuff, and it can be an effective way of delivering social messages. This can either affirm universal truths or change in our values, attitudes and actions.
“Achmed the Dead Terrorist” is one of Dunham’s greatest satirical creations.
Achmed is a terrorist, in particular a ‘terrifying terrorist’. He is a clumsy suicide bomber that set his timer too quickly. In the act, which was performed in Washington DC in 2007, Dunham draws upon a number of stereotypes of Muslims. The articulation of Muslims as extremists, within the text, made the audience pop with laughter. I enjoy satires that encourage me to think about current issues, like religious stereotypes, and this is why I was intrigue in watching “Achmed the Dead Terrorist”. Like me, you may well be wondering how could I possibly laugh at the character of a dead Islamic terrorist. But once I had viewed the entire presentation I came to realise, that humour can powerfully work to invite audiences to question the way our society constructs the social identities of other
religions.

“Achmed the Dead Terrorist” makes common social assumptions about Muslims. Today, Muslims are routinely depicted as incompetent and religious fanatics. The humour within “Achmed the Dead Terrorist”, critically trades in the negative stereotypes aimed at Muslims for laughs, this being only possible as Muslims have been successfully demonized within society today.

Now like all good comedies, Achmed makes me want to laugh, but like all good comedies, Achmed also made me question whether or not it is appropriate to laugh. From the outset, Jeff Dunham uses satire to mock and ridicule the stereotypical belief, that all Muslims are terrorists- a view that I suspect many might have held at times. Dunham asks Achmed where his group gets their terrorists from; Achmed describes their slogan as “We are looking for some idiots with no future.” Specifically, he says they get recruits from a suicide hotline. The satirical use serves to reinforce the ideals of Westerns’ rationality; Muslims are desperate and irrational people, uncritically drawing on racist representations for laughs. This shows the comedic purpose that even humour that seemed so offensive at the start, there was an important realisation about how we falsely stereotype people based on their religion allowing change of audience’s attitudes and beliefs of religions. Consequently, to quote Achmed, “Silence, I kill you!” Jeff Dunham uses parody as it’s a comic mockery, that imitates the manner of a particular ‘stereotypical’ Muslim. This is Achmed’s well-known phrase, therefore creating an immediate comedic effect and purpose. The use of this simple phrase mocks the common belief that all Muslims want to kill people.

Perspective can influence the way we respond to the texts we encounter. The same thing can be read or seen quite differently, based on what you are focussing on and where you are positioned. For many reasons, audiences might not accept the invited humour. Certain social, cultural and religious sensibilities can lead an audience to approve or disapprove of the decisions made by the producer of a comic text. This text challenges religious assumptions in a playful way, which indicates a growing racist society in the Western world, the likely audience for this text. Dunham’s racist comments create the certain perspective that humour can allow people to get away with prejudiced assertions under cover of ‘just joking’ or even through the use of a puppet! However, many people see Dunham’s jokes not racist, saying they’re just “over-the-top stereotypes” to make his act funnier.

So humour for me, does more than raise a laugh. It allows me to think and brings about a shift in the way I engage with the world. “Achmed the Dead Terrorist” challenged the audience to identify and think about the over used stereotypes of Muslims. Dunham’s use of satire and parody to target the religious group, demonstrated that humour can powerfully work to invite audiences to question the way our society constructs the social identities of other religions. Ultimately, stimulating personal reflection and change in certain attitudes, values and beliefs. I wish you all well for the rest of the festival and look forward to seeing some of your works. Thank you.