Much of the success of the original Ted predicated on the novelty of seeing a cute little child's toy, in the form of a teddy bear, speaking and behaving in an inappropriate manner. Because of that novelty, any humor was bound to be a case of diminishing returns since the more you see of this bear, the less shocking it becomes. There are still some things to laugh at here, but overall it just feels like another unnecessary sequel being churned out by Hollywood to make a quick buck.
The comedy is typical McFarlane humor based mostly on shock value and political incorrectness, but there's also a weird juxtaposition with an old fashioned plot straight out of old Hollywood that's played with enough sincerity to make Frank Capra smile from beyond the grave. This nod to old school Hollywood is present right from the opening credits, which features a Busby Berkeley style fantasy dance routine by Ted atop his wedding cake after he marries his girlfriend Tami-Lyn, and it runs right through to the end during Morgan Freeman's courtroom summing up speech when he tries to prove that Ted is a conscious being in his own right and not merely property. Of course, in between these attempts at heartwarming we are presented with multiple scenes of a teddy bear smoking dope, spouting profanity, and lots of jokes about sperm and masturbation.
While Ted has found romantic happiness when the movie begins, Wahlberg's John has divorced from his wife (played by Mila Kunis in the first film, but who couldn't return for this one due to being pregnant). The plot really gets going though when Ted and his wife decide they want to have a child. Since Ted doesn't have a penis, they first try and find a sperm donor, which involves trying to hijack some of Tom Brady's sperm and includes a scene at a fertility clinic where Wahlberg ends up coated in male ejaculate. When they turn to adoption, the State denies them because they deem Ted not to be a person, but property. This leads to a court case with Ted, John, and their lawyer Samantha (Seyfried) suing the State to prove that Ted is indeed a person with rights.
It really seems as though McFarlane, who wrote and directed the film, is trying make some kind of bizarre statement in the courtroom, but in a movie with such an implausible central character and such juvenile humor, it makes very little sense and feels out of place. The original idea for the sequel was a Smoky and the Bandit type buddy road trip with John and Ted transporting marijuana across country, but with the release of the similarly plotted We're the Millers, McFarlane went back and did a rewrite. Supposedly he was inspired after reading several John Jakes Civil War novels on the set of A Million Ways to Die in the West. I think I would have enjoyed the original idea more.
Like the first movie, this one runs long at nearly 2 hours. And there's plenty of room for trimming. McFarlane throws in random jokes that have nothing to do with the plot and aren't even that funny, such as Liam Neeson buying Trix and Jay Leno having gay sex in a men's room. There are also a couple of inside jokes such as having Patrick Warburton dress up as the Tick and Michael Dorn dress up as a Klingon, parts they had both played in real life. There's even a character dressed up as Peter Griffith from McFarlane's Family Guy in the scene at Comic Con.
McFarlane throws a lot of jokes at the screen and inevitably some of them land successfully. And some of them are laugh out loud funny. Too many of them though, just feel forced and unfunny. So many jokes revolve around being high that I suspect McFarlane wrote the script while under the influence and perhaps in that state the movie will seem much funnier. Sober though, this feels like just another failed sequel.
