About Me
Achmed The Dead Terrorist is a wisecracking skeleton with a beard and a white turban (an early version of Achmed stated that it was not a turban, but underwear, because "when someone says it's time to kill yourself, it scares the crap out of you!"). He is used by Jeff Dunham (an American ventriloquist and a stand-up comedian) to perform comedy based on the contemporary issue of terrorism. He is known for yelling "SILENCE! I KILL YOU!" at any in the audience who dare laugh at him.
He insists on pronouncing the "ch" in his name with a hocker (voiceless velar fricative). When asked how his name is spelled, he replies "A ... c ... phlegm ..." and is interrupted by the audience's laughter. He responds with his usual cry of "SILENCE! I KILL YOU!".
Achmed's normal routine involves him realizing that he is dead. He looks out into the crowd for his 72 virgins, then asks, "Are you my virgins? I hope not!". When Jeff asks why, Achmed responds, "There's a bunch of ugly-ass guys out there!" and, "If this is Paradise, I've been screwed!". Jeff replies, "Did they say they would only be female virgins?" which causes Achmed to realize that the gender of the virgins was not specified and says, "Holy crap!" Achmed adds, "Wait, I can have Clay Aiken!" which refers to the popular belief that Aiken is gay (though Aiken has denied this). Achmed may seem like he is Muslim, but he has refuted this claim. When asked, he replies "Look at my ass"; it says 'Made in China'". He is afraid of Walter, with whom he shares a suitcase, he claims that "Saddam's mustard gas is nothing compared to a Walter fart!".
Achmed is a Suicide Bomber and has received training from the "Suicide Bomber Training Camp". It used to be a nice facility until a new recruit "tried to practice." The training camp, he explains, recruits people with a slogan not unlike "We're looking for a few good men" — "We are looking for some idiots with no future." It is noted that a typical place to recruit potential suicide bombers is from the "Suicide Hotline".
Achmed's fatal accident, while making him unafraid to crack potentially offensive jokes ("I'm dead, what do I care?", he points out), has apparently left him somewhat remorseful ("I am a horrible suicide bomber," he laments. "I had a premature detonation" "I set the timer for 30 minutes but it went off in 4 seconds!" "You know how that is, right? Mr. Hurricane..." He asks Jeff refering to when Jeff told Walter that his wife called him like that some times.). The Jingle Bombs special, implies that Achmed was shot rather than blowing up "That's when I got shot in the ass by the U.S. military". He has apparently also become a fan of rock music and video games such as Guitar Hero and Halo since joining Jeff's suitcase posse.
Jeff and Achmed did a Christmas special in which Achmed sang "Jingle Bombs" (among his other carols include "Bin Laden Is Coming to Town", "O Holy Crap", and his personal favorite, "Silence! Night"), accompanied by "Guitar Guy" A.K.A. Brian Haner, comedian and father of Synyster Gates, lead guitarist of the band, Avenged Sevenfold (Achmed jokes that Brian was doing drugs backstage and called him a "racist bastard").
Achmed was originally introduced in late 2001, just after the 9/11 attacks. At the time, he was introduced as Osama bin Laden; it was not known at the time if bin Laden had survived the assault at Tora Bora. When asked what sort of training occurred at a terrorist training camp, Achmed/Osama replied "explosives training, weapons training, arts and crafts ...". Indicating his turban, he added, "See my turban? I made this!".
After the TV debut of Spark of Insanity, a YouTube user posted Jeff's performance with Achmed on the website. Immediately, the video became an instant hit. The video, to this day, has been watched over 42 million times. It is one of YouTube's most popular videos. He is also known to have many alternative voices which Jeff Dunham uses in the Tom Mabe series of prank phone calls.
