Saturday, June 30, 2012

Should you see Ted?: A Brief Quiz

1. Do you like Family Guy? This should be pretty much a no-brainer, as the driving creative force behind the Fox show, which enjoys a following rather cultish in its devotion, and the film are the same. That also means you best like the episodic, parodic, and absurdist style and content of the animated series, as the same methodology is at play in Ted. They try to impose a "plot" to stitch together the comedic bits, but trust me, they shouldn't have.

2. Do you like Team America: World Police? Do you find objects usually associated with children--puppets, say, or teddy bears-- doing adult things like swearing and snorting coke and banging chicks inherently funny? Like, just the idea of it? Then buy your ticket for Ted today.

3. Do you like Flash Gordon? Just trust me.

4. Do you like I Love the '80s? Ted is packed with references to '80s culture, both visual and material. Though not at all integral to the "plot," there is a certain pleasurable nostalgic frisson in seeing Tiffany and a Darth Vader Action Figure Carry Case again.

Though I would answer yes to only one of the above questions, Ted still made me laugh periodically. The film tries to marry a literalized Apatovian plot (man-child must put away childish things to please/keep mature, career-oriented girlfriend) with a sensibility a little too Sandlerian for my taste (no one ever takes a literal shit on the floor in a Judd Apatow movie). And if nothing else, it's fun to hear Marky Mark really explore the space with his Boston accent.

No comments:

Post a Comment