"Ted" or "You guys should give things a chance once in a while maybe."

[Ecks]

So I took my girlfriend to see it yesterday. Yes, it's Seth McFarland. Yes, he reuses a shitload of Family Guy material. But a fairly good chunk of the movie was funny as hell, and even made us cry during the climax when Ted dies after the creepy guy rips him in half. All in all, for a first try at film making, I've seen worse out of more talented people.

So stop being edgy and ironic and whatever the hell else makes you hate on Seth crap and actually go watch this. It's going in my dvd collection the moment it's released.

[Nique]

Who's hating on Seth MacFarlane? And what does hating on him have to do with being ironic or 'edgy'?

[Meister]

And what does hating on him have to do with being ironic or 'edgy'?
No one can possibly genuinely dislike the things I like, they must be doing it for attention.

[rpgdemon]

How about if we think he's an unfunny hack? That's not edgy or ironic, that's the fact that he can't write.

Cut-aways are not comedy. They require no setup, no timing, or anything else, they're Seth going, "Hey. Hey, dude. I thought of something HILARIOUS. I dunno how we can use it. Let's just cut straight to it."

The fact that he rehashes Family Guy material just reinforces this view.

Like, I wouldn't have made a big deal about it, but apparently I'm being some hip ironic jerk about it, to dislike something that has no intellectually redeeming qualities.

[Osterbaum]

I laugh when I watch Family Guy or American Dad. Especially American Dad.

e: how's that for edgy!??!

[Solid Snake]

I loved Family Guy's first two seasons or so, you know, the content before the show was (initially) cancelled.
Then the concept kind of grew old, and newer episodes haven't felt as consistently innovative or fresh.

As for how I feel about MacFarlane these days, I'd personally probably feel less antipathy towards him if he didn't just straight-up copy and paste Family Guy and stick its exact formulas into American Dad and The Cleveland Show. If it was just Family Guy, I'd definitely tolerate it and maybe even watch an occasional episode. Not like regularly or anything, but if I happened to flip the channel to it, I might be inclined to give an episode a chance for old time's sake. If it was just Family Guy and then new shows that MacFarlane took in novel directions, I'd probably be a fan. Instead, it's just a complete over-saturation of Family Guys, and for one reason or another, I just find that annoying.

[POS Industries]

I laugh when I watch Family Guy or American Dad. Especially American Dad.
Well, American Dad's actually pretty good, considering it's written by old Futurama writers and all Seth does is provide voicework, which is really the only area in which he excels. It was only bad during the first season when he had more creative influence over it, which was when it was just Family Guy 2.0. It's a completely different show now.

[MuMu]

Pretty much what POS said. Family Guy is the bad seed and the Cleveland Show...sometimes I forget that it exists.

Since you thought it was pretty good, can you give us a summary instead of just "It's not that bad, go watch it"?

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Well, American Dad's actually pretty good, considering it's written by old Futurama writers and all Seth does is provide voicework, which is really the only area in which he excels. It was only bad during the first season when he had more creative influence over it, which was when it was just Family Guy 2.0. It's a completely different show now.

That kind of explains why I remember seeing one of the earlier episodes and not liking it and then catching a later one and thinking it had gotten a lot better.

[Bard The 5th LW]

My feelings towards Family Guy and American Dad tend to be reversed. I liked Family Guy early on, but felt it stagnated later. Didn't care for American Dad at first but felt it picked up later.

[Ecks]

Mind you, I read the summer movie thread before I typed this up. Whole lot of cynicism in there over Ted. Theres only one or two cut away gags in the entire movie, and they are plot relevant flashbacks. He actually does have a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.By the way, sorry for offending delicate egos, I thought we covered the whole "blue text ecks is a jerk burger, don't take him seriously" thing like a million years ago.

P.S. Patrick Stewart narrates the prologue (yes it has a prologue). Go see it. If you still don't like it go pm synk to change my name to arrogant mcdouchebag or whatever.

[Ecks]

oh, summary. Duh. Well, heres the least spoiler laden thing I can come up with that ironically is spoiler tagged: Mark Wahlberg is a grown up guy with a smoking hot girlfriend but still pals around with his magically alive teddy bear. Thunder buddies for life, yo. Anyway mila kunis is tired of him slacking off and fucking around and gives him one last chance to get his shit together, by kicking ted out and getting him a job and an apartment. Theres an actual tearjerker near the end, and also flash gordon makes a cameo. Most of the movie's charm does come from "vulgar disgusting teddy bear" kind of stuff, to be completely honest.

There, I tried.

[Locke cole]

Well, American Dad's actually pretty good, considering it's written by old Futurama writers and all Seth does is provide voicework, which is really the only area in which he excels. It was only bad during the first season when he had more creative influence over it, which was when it was just Family Guy 2.0. It's a completely different show now.

On the subject of voice work, one of my favorite jokes was a bit where Roger tried to impersonate Stan and couldn't get the voice right.