The Ted TV Show Is Pretty Funny and the Internet Can Barely Believe It
Ted, the Peacock series based on Seth MacFarlane's 2012 film, has become an object of social media fascination.
With the content machine back and churning after two strikes and a pandemic, television has become pretty crowded again. Even the most dedicated television-watcher might not realize a given show exists until the day that it pops up on their streaming service of choice’s front page. Many TV fans are currently having that experience with Ted, a TV prequel to the 2012 film of the same name.
Written and directed by Family Guy and The Orville creator Seth MacFarlane, the original Ted followed a teddy bear named Ted (voiced by MacFarlane) who was gifted sentience by a little boy named John’s Christmas wish. He and John (Mark Wahlberg) stay best friends well into adulthood, leading a hedonistic lifestyle that makes everyone around them uncomfortable. The Ted TV series, also created by MacFarlane, flashes back to John and Ted’s ’80s childhood.
Despite Peacock‘s prolific efforts to promote the thing, the existence of a Ted TV show came out of nowhere for most folks. While the movie was warmly received, it wasn’t necessarily a generational blockbuster. For the most part, Ted hasn’t been heard from for more than a decade (with the exception of the sequel Ted 2 in 2015). Combine that with Peacock’s status as a glorified Office rerun machine, and a streaming Ted prequel didn’t see to be high on anyone’s to-watch list.
But now something amazing has happened. People watched Ted – many people to be exact. And based on the social media chatter, they seem to be enjoying it as well!
If your Twitter (now called X but not really) feed is anything like mine, it’s full of hilarious out-of-context bits from Ted. Bits like …
“They got him.”
“Jesus?”
“I jacked off a dog!”
“Talk about the right to bear arms.”
Accompanying many of these clips are posts expressing disbelief that Ted is actually funny, which is a little rude but can also be forgiven. As we’ve said, Ted wasn’t exactly the hottest property in Hollywood and Seth MacFarlane can be a divisive creative figure. It’s also worth noting that several funny out-of-context jokes do not a TV series make.
But at the end of the day if the only thing to come out to Ted were “They got him,” then I think it would be fair to call the whole production an unqualified success.
All seven episodes of Ted are available to stream on Peacock now.
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TV Editor at Den of Geek and Television Critics Association member. Based in Cleveland, Ohio. Very upset about various sporting events.