Celebrity Inventory: Jeff Dunham’s car collection is a gearhead’s dream | Gemr
You won’t believe what Jeff Dunham has in his garage.
We’d forgive you for thinking Jeff Dunham would primarily be a collector of dolls and dummies.
After all, that is his schtick as a ventriloquist and comedian. And to be fair, he does, in fact, like to collect plenty of toys! But that’s not the collection we’re here to talk about today. Oh yes, there is something Jeff Dunham collects that puts all of his… nay, all of our collections to shame.
That’s right, Jeff Dunham likes to collect cars. And he has a lot of cars.
Let’s cut right to the chase: as of 2016, Jeff Dunham owns 72 cars. Yes, 72 real, full sized, exquisitely designed cars that most of us would fantasize about owning one of. That’s one of those numbers that’s hard to fully grasp at a glance, so let’s put this into perspective: the average American household owns around 2 cars. In other words, imagine a neighborhood of 36 houses, and then imagine one person owning every single car in it. That is the scale of Jeff Dunham’s collection.
Of course, it’s not just a random assortment of used, cheap cars. Dunham has curated his collection to primarily consist of American-made luxury cars, though there are a couple of exceptions. Some of his cars include a 2005 Ford GT, a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, and a pair of AMC Gremlins.
Oh, and Dunham also owns the Batmobile.
Not a Batmobile, the batmobile. Dunham actually got his hands on the Keaton Batmobile from Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, and he put in the work to make it a legitimate, roadworthy vehicle.
“I put a Corvette engine in it and re-engineered things so it’s drivable and safe,” Dunham told the Wall Street Journal. “It has blinkers, taillights, and five cameras in it so you can see everything around you. With all the upgrades, I easily spent a half-million dollars on it.”
“When I go to a car show, I see all these guys with their Lamborghinis. I drive up in this plywood and fiberglass movie prop and people go nuts. It’s nothing but happy.”
But rest assured, the Batmobile isn’t the only gimmick car in his garage. In true Jeff Dunham fashion, he also modified a custom 1934 Hot Rod to sport a giant skull of his Achmed the Dead Terrorist puppet. Believe it or not, the car originally had a skull mounted on it, but Dunham still went ahead and made a custom skull to better fit the character. It just goes to show how far a 3D printer and a little ingenuity will go!
Yet for as big as Dunham’s car collection is, he never wants to own more than 100 at once. According to him, cars “are supposed to be driven,” and “they’re sad if they’re not.”
“If you get a leak, fine,” Dunham explained. “If it’s not bleeding, it’s not alive.”
Sure, if you compare Dunham’s collection to, say, Jay Leno’s infamously large garage, it’s clear that Dunham could grow his collection a lot if he wanted to. And considering his net worth is over $60 million, he can probably afford to, too! But for us at Celebrity Inventory, we love how Jeff Dunham approaches his collection with an almost childlike wonder. For a guy whose car collection is inspired by his childhood love of Hot Wheels, it isn’t about having the biggest or best collection in the world. He sees his car collection as entertainment, and for those who have seen some of his crazier cars in the wild, we can only imagine they were just as amused by seeing these vehicles.
So here’s to you, Jeff Dunham. People can think what they like of your comedy, but when it comes to cars, we’re not joking around when we say your collection is awesome.
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Originally published at https://gemr.com on October 27, 2017.