'Ted' coming this summer. (2012)*

There have been tons of comedies that started off very, very raunchy, then suddenly the studio got cold feet and took a hatchet to the footage, cutting it down to get a PG-13... and unfortunately excising a lot of the funny as well. There are not as many studios willing to take the risks they did back in the 1970s, when R-rated comedies like Animal House and Blazing Saddles were huge hits (and still hold up as brilliant films).

 

Another r-rater comedy that comes to mind was The Groove Tube. A imagined afternoon to close down time of a TV station where the transmitted broadcast material was anything but for public viewing. The sperm bank deposit scene in a normal bank was hilarious.

 

I think the more recent success of The Hangover and Bridesmaids has caused studios to re-think their anti-R rating stance, and now we're beginning to see very raunchy R-rated comedies (like Ted) again. I have to admit, Ted wouldn't have been nearly as good a film if they had cut all the sex jokes, drug jokes, and bad language out of it.

 

Bridesmaids was rated R? Okay, I'll admit to fast forwarding some of it because I found the movie far more tedious than I expected, but I cannot recall anything that would warrant an R for that flick.

 

Hmm, you sure the sperm bank thing is in The Groove Tube? I've seen it a hundred times (found the VHS as a teenager and fell in love with it), but I don't remember that scene off the top of my head..

 

Profanity, profanity, profanity...

 

I think "Wedding Crashers" and "40-Year-Old Virgin" did the most to reintroduce the "R"-rated comedy. They kinda opened the floodgates back in 2005...

 

Definitely not Groove Tube, and it's not Amazon Women on the Moon either. Nor Kentucky Fried Movie. I have no idea what scene or film he's talking about.

 

NIGHT PATROL? May not have been the first to do that gag (ahem), but it's in there.

 

Perhaps you missed the diarrhea scene...

Actually, not a lot of films followed in the next 4-5 years. Note that Hangover ($462M) made almost as much as Wedding Crashers ($283M) and 40-year-old Virgin ($168M) combined. The Hollywood execs definitely sit up and take notice when a little film like Hangover makes almost half a billion dollars. The sequel made $565M. I'm not saying it's a great film, but there was clearly a big audience for it.

What's interesting is that Seth McFarland had been trying to develop Ted for several years now, and despite his success with his cartoon shows, it was still tough to convince the studios to take a chance on a raunchy, live-action feature.

 

The beginning had an almost pornographic sex scene with wiig and hamm.

 

Maybe I was already fast forwarding at the beginning since that doesn't ring a bell -- honestly! I was actually looking forward to seeing Bridesmaids on disc and was disappointed from the moment the credits finished. I usually bristle when people use the term "chick flicks" and occasionally enjoy some films labeled as such, but this film played like a female version of an Adam Sandler film.

 

Nope. That was one of the few things in the film that made me laugh. The bulk of it -- feuding between the old best friend and new best friend -- was just dreary. Part of the scene in the plane was also funny, but I don't remember why. As for diarrhea being R rated, though, since when don't kids laugh about bodily functions?

Back to Ted -- I know that one person here who isn't generally a fan of Seth MacFarlane's TV shows enjoyed this film. Anyone else in that boat? I have to say that I haven't found any of his shows funny, though I have found him amusing on talk shows and one of the Comedy Central roasts. I'm thinking I might find this film funny even though I'm generally not much of a fan of MacFarlane's work.

 

My point is that "Hangover" may not have gotten made without the prior success of "R"-rated comedies like "Virgin" and "Crashers".

And other "R"-rates hits DID ensue, like 2006's "Borat", 2007's "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" and 2008's "Step Brothers".

Other than the "American Pie" movies, "R"-rated comedies didn't make $100 million plus prior to 2005. "Virgin" and "Crashers" had a huge impact on the market place and made even bigger hits like "Hangover" possible...

 

The Groove Tube here had a strictly applied 18 years + rating.
If I am not mistaken that scene... it is all in there, together with the other scenes ....like where children are told to get rid and send their parents away from the TV during childrens' shows since they want to say something too adult to the children, plus the ads for spreads that represent 'toilet waste'
Where you saw men in business suits go to the night -deposit safe in the street to make ' an quick instant deposit' and then scenes in the bank where 'aided deposits' are possible at the counter' One such depicted situation is carried out. Then the next fella in the queue complains to the same woman teller -why he cannot make a withdrawal. She tells him he has not made a deposit lately. And we are not talking about money.
I can remember I saw Groove Tube at a then drive-in coupled with Flesh Gordon. In Australia, it is long held that our censorship on media is incredibly lax since 1971, regarding depicted sexuality and similar matters.. as long as it is not linked with strong violence ...then it is acted upon. I don't imagine U.S TV can show images of full frontal nudity of either sex, any time after 9.30 PM at night on public free to air TV. Here they can. We saw the Janet Jackson incident even if in daytime 'as a simple silly forgettable accident'

 

The film -Ted : just from reading the reports here...is already on my must buy Blu Ray list when it is disc -released.

 

Even the raunciest of these movies only had a MA rating here ...that of recommendation for 15 years and over. And then... kids even years younger ..went to to see them in theatres
What is an interesting exercise is to pick out various contentious films on the IMDB files and then follow and check the widely varying censorship ratings across the World, that of certain countries for some films

After a while, it points up trends and suggests the 'make-up' of the country itself and what are its 'hang-ups' both politically and culturally.

 

I just saw this movie last night and I thought it was OK.

But those "family guy" music breaks really bothered me.

 

Since I've not watched a lot of "FG", could you explain what those "music breaks" were?

 

I saw the movie and I don't really know what you mean by "Family Guy" music breaks.

 

The little lite jazz snips of music that played in the first half of the movie as one scene moved to the next.

 

I am definitaley going to see this. I love Family Guy, So I know I'll love this.

It's sort of like Stewie Griffin and his bear Grown up

 

Just saw the trailer on TV, and I think I will like it.

 

Hmm... I don't even remember those! Maybe they're more noticeable if you've seen a lot of "FG" and are tired of them!

 

Just got back from seeing Spider Man.It was so hot outside we just stayed at the theater and watched Ted.Great movie! I had no idea what it was about but my friend insisted we see it.I was expecting a Disney type of kids flick but it was the oppsite.I laughed all through it.It`s a really funny movie go see it!