Ted 2
Don't Go! Lame, shameful and culturally painful.
Talking potty-mouthed teddy. Again.
The original Ted (2012) was a feeble film. One reviewer (ahem) accurately described it as being "like it was made by a drunken seventeen-year old boy" - it stumbled around aimlessly, mouthing off, making rude gestures and clumsily humping everything that moved; like a sexually immature hippopotamus. But it turned out to be a wealthy 17 year old, becoming the highest grossing R-rated movie opening of all time and generating nearly $550 million worldwide. Sadly, with success, come sequels.
Having said that, Seth MacFarlane's Ted 2 has something more of a storyline than Ted. Although "more" isn't necessarily an improvement on "barely nothing", there was some potential here. This time, John (Mark Wahlberg, Transformers: Age of Extinction) and his somehow-alive teddy bear, "Ted" (voiced by MacFarlane) are still best pals, although Ted is now married. Problems begin when Ted and his wife Tami-Lynne decide to adopt a child. Aside from being a wholly unsuitable parent, the State also decides that Ted is property, not a person, and he starts to lose all of his rights. John and Ted vow to fight for Ted's civil rights so appoint a young lawyer (Amanda Seyfried, Les Misérables) to fight their case. Morgan Freeman also makes an appearance as an older lawyer to help the cause.
What MacFarlane's original project, Family Guy, often does so well is hold up a mirror to American culture and show us how comically perverse it can be. In this same vein, the concept of a teddy bear fighting for civil rights makes the film ripe for satire. Instead, Ted 2 is not only an opportunity missed, both to redeem the guttural dry heave that was Ted and to produce a comedy that is intelligent and meaningful; but far worse, it consistently crosses the border into racism; belittling the entire civil rights movement and the still sensitive subject of slavery.
What MacFarlane's original project, Family Guy, often does so well is hold up a mirror to American culture and show us how comically perverse it can be. In this same vein, the concept of a teddy bear fighting for civil rights makes the film ripe for satire. Instead, Ted 2 is not only an opportunity missed, both to redeem the guttural dry heave that was Ted and to produce a comedy that is intelligent and meaningful; but far worse, it consistently crosses the border into racism; belittling the entire civil rights movement and the still sensitive subject of slavery.
MacFarlane's apparent fascination with black people and their culture is fine on his own time, but the idiocy and ignorance with how he expresses it in Ted 2 - especially to tens of thousands of people handing over hundreds of millions of dollars - is downright shameful. First, the frequency of "black" jokes in the film is bizarre and entirely incongruous, particularly given the lack of black characters in the film. As a general rule of thumb, if you want to make fun of certain people, at least put more than a couple in your movie. Whether it is making fun of black men's genitals, Samuel L. Jackson, Clubber Lang (from Rocky III), sickle cell anemia (which most commonly affects people of African descent), the troubled city of Ferguson, using the n-word, or pacifying a black judge with soul music, the film's crude obsession with and denigration of black culture is unrelenting.
Added to this, the biggest 'joke' in the film is that Ted is equivalent to a black slave, defined as property and not a person (incidentally a connection that MacFarlane has the galling arrogance to make explicitly) and the entire film lurches from being unfunny and tiresome, to baiting offence and dangerously reducing huge social and cultural issues to a catalogue of puerile jokes. This is all without even mentioning the sexist and homophobic gags - again all problematic because they just aren't educated enough to either be funny or subversive.
Added to this, the biggest 'joke' in the film is that Ted is equivalent to a black slave, defined as property and not a person (incidentally a connection that MacFarlane has the galling arrogance to make explicitly) and the entire film lurches from being unfunny and tiresome, to baiting offence and dangerously reducing huge social and cultural issues to a catalogue of puerile jokes. This is all without even mentioning the sexist and homophobic gags - again all problematic because they just aren't educated enough to either be funny or subversive.
Even putting the offensive overtures to one side, there is little else left to be amused by in Ted 2. Besides a couple of laughs, the cinema remained largely silent throughout its nearly 2 hour running time. This is probably because if there are 100 jokes about smoking pot, masturbating and pornography, we are given the 90 least funny ones. Maybe they're saving the remaining 10 for Ted 3. In which case, hopefully we'll never need to hear them.
So just don't go. Many people will watch this film and struggle to see how extensive the appropriation and degradation of black culture is; but it is constant enough to be astonishing. In the end, virtually the only laughable thing about this joyless comedy is that so many people will be exposed to it.
So just don't go. Many people will watch this film and struggle to see how extensive the appropriation and degradation of black culture is; but it is constant enough to be astonishing. In the end, virtually the only laughable thing about this joyless comedy is that so many people will be exposed to it.
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