The year is 2024. The Vulgar Wave of the 2000s may very well be making a comeback. Shane Gillis, who was fired from Saturday Night Live in 2019 for off-color jokes, was just invited back to host to the DNC propaganda machine sketch comedy show, and has a new show out on Netflix called Tires with former Cumtown co-host Stavros Halkias. People are finally starting to get comfortable admitting in public that ok, Trump might not be a good person and was a questionable president at best, but he was pretty damn funny. Many a thinkpiece has been written about how the pendulum has swung the other way and so-called “wokeness” is no longer en vogue the same way it was in the mid to late 2010s. And, as the title of this post suggests, the streaming service Peacock has released a TV series based on Seth McFarlane’s 2012 movie Ted.
I first found out there was a new Ted series while scrolling through Instagram, and I thought it looked like something I’d be into. You see, I have two sides. One of them is the one whose idea of a perfect day is frolicking in a field of flowers and chit-chatting with my girlfriends. The other part of me is the “unrestricted internet access from a young age” side who loves irreverent and crass humor, as long as it’s done smartly. An edgy sitcom in 2024? I’m all in! So I looked up some more clips on YouTube and debated rather I should sign up for a free Peacock trial just to watch it. But a few weeks later I was on a Jet Blue Flight, and was able to watch the first three episodes free of charge.
Admittedly, I have never seen the original Ted movie nor its plainly titled sequel Ted 2. But I didn’t at all feel like I needed to see the source material to enjoy the series, and I had a blast watching it.
The series, which takes place a few decades before the events of the first movie, focuses around John, your average high schooler, and Ted, his cherished teddy bear who came to life only to grow into a trash-talking, weed-smoking, lovable sleazeball. Together, the two navigate the trials and troubles of teenage boyhood circa 1993.
Episode 1 starts with John’s liberal cousin, Blaire, scolding Ted for using derogatory terms like “midget” and “Pollack” (Ted tries to defend himself by pointing out that he’s small enough to be legally considered a little person, and “Pollack” isn’t racist since the Polish aren’t a race, they’re just a “group of guys.”) This leads to a well-written (and very funny) dinner table argument. My favorite one-liner of the episode was when it’s revealed that Blaire isn’t as progressive as she thinks, since as a kid she cut her Black Barbie’s hair off first. Ted then wisecrackingly asks, did Blaire have a separate but equal dollhouse for her called “Barbie’s I-Have-A-Dreamhouse?” Eventually, the family decides that the only solution for Ted’s ignorance is to send him to school with John, and Ted soon becomes annoyed that he’s not getting expelled. As a last-ditch effort to get him kicked out of school, Ted and John take their very first hit of ganja.
In Episode 2, Ted and John prank the school bully Clive by pretending to be his absentee father on the phone. However, the two soon grow sorry for Clive, and continue with the prank because they feel like he needs the guidance of a father figure. Good episode with a cute ending.
The plot of Episode 3 is simple: John and Ted rent a porno DVD. At first, I was prepared to roll my eyes at cheap Reddit-type “it’s funny because porn exists XD” jokes. But the episode doesn’t just rely on gross-out closeups of sex scenes, which I appreciated. Also has a subplot with John’s Mom worried that the porn tape is actually her husband’s, which was entertaining to watch. And the best part? This episode has a Camille Paglia Easter egg!
I know complaining about how modern Family Guy is too “mean-spirited” sounds like a commentary YouTuber in 2015 who reviewed subpar episodes of cartoons in a overserious tone like they were recapping Salo or The 120 Days of Sodom or something.
Still, the best part of OG Family Guy (Seasons 1-3) is how the show mixed irreverent humor with genuinely heartfelt moments. The Ted series follows the same formula, with one scene having cheeky jokes about sex, drugs, race (in a way that most other modern shows wouldn’t dare to touch on) politics, etc, and the next scene will have a sweet interaction between the characters that makes you realize “aww, they really do care about each other.” It was also a nice touch to portray John’s conservative Dad as an Archie Bunker-esque “lovable bigot” type, giving him more depth (and also making him way more fun to watch) than if they made him a cartoonishly evil caricature of a racist/homophobic boomer.
Finally, one aspect of Ted I personally have a soft spot for is how New England it is. Although I was born and raised in Connecticut, which is different from the tough-as-nails, “pahk the cahr” Bostonian culture the show takes place in. Still, there are plenty of parts that I find so relatable as a former Nor’easterner, such as the references to Dunkin Donuts and the general vibe of Irish Catholic eccentricity.
Overall, is Peacock’s Ted series a piece of prestige television on par with The Sopranos or The Wire? Of course not, it’s a show about friggin’ CGI teddy bear pothead. But it’s funny, witty, and enjoyable. Not only that, I think it’s a step in the right direction that a modern sitcom isn’t afraid of controversial humor and doesn’t feel the need to add hamfisted, one-sided political messages that the audience is meant to clap, not laugh, at.
There’s still an argument to be made that the only reason a show like Ted was able to be made in 2024 was because it meets the “correct” qualifications. After all, Seth McFarlane is a seasoned guy in showbiz, and at this point pretty much has tenure to do whatever the hell he wants. Could a total newcomer have an edgy sitcom greenlit today without excessive executive meddling? I’m honestly not sure. Furthermore, like how F Is For Family depicts the 70s, Ted’s 90s setting gives the show more leeway for un-PC jokes by having the excuse that “hey, that’s just how people talked 30 years ago.” Still, I think Ted is a good sign that the cliché “they couldn’t make a show like that today!” is slowly being proven wrong, since a show like this was made today.