Ranking Seth MacFarlane's Properties From Worst To Best

To give Ted 2 its dues, it genuinely does have some stand-out jokes. Somewhat unfortunately, most of the ones that work best are taken wholesale out of Family Guy - or at least feel like they were - and the bits between those laughs sag quite noticeably.

It's not really that the film is bad, despite all of its faults: it's just that it doesn't really say anything new that pushes it beyond feeling like an extended Family Guy. But then perhaps that's the point?

When invited to make a sequel, MacFarlane could have followed expectations and gone with something as bland as sending Ted and John on holiday (see Paul Blart 2), or taking one element and pushing it relentlessly (as Magic Mike XXL somehow brilliantly did). Instead, he just made a second episode of the Ted franchise, which would always delight fans of the first, but which would inevitably deliver diminished returns.

Ironically for the film, it's all a little like masturbation. Do it once, and it's great fun: so much so that you might want to do it immediately again. But should you scratch that particular itch, you'll find it doesn't flow as easily, it doesn't feel quite as good and it definitely doesn't leave you as satisfied.