There are very few interesting things about Ted 2--Seth McFarlane's follow-up to his 2012 stoner comedy released this past Friday. It's a vulgar and stupid film, lacking any of the charm that saved its predecessor from sinking to the level of Family Guy or McFarlane's western parody A Million Ways to Die in the West. In the film, the titular foul-mouthed teddy bear has just achieved marital bliss with his girlfriend Tami-Lynn, a walking cartoon who talks like your drunk friend doing a haphazard impression of the cast of The Departed. Unfortunately for Ted, when the pair attempts to adopt a child to save their crumbling union, Ted is informed that he is, in fact, not a person in the eyes of the law. He is subsequently stripped of his job, his credit cards, and all of the legal rights he was afforded when his status flew under the government radar. What follows is a belabored allusion to the civil rights movement (complete with cringe-worthy references to Dred Scott, Brown v. Board of Education, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Roots) as Ted and his friend John (Mark Wahlberg) attempt to take Ted's case to court. Despite all of McFarlane's attempts to turn his sex comedy into a parable for acceptance, the film's awkward high-minded rhetoric feels like little more than a thin veil to excuse the film's deep seated insensitivity. After all, if your film is supposed to be about the fundamental rights of minorities, you might not want to throw in a Ferguson joke.
What is interesting, however, is the unexpected context in which Ted 2 premiered. Certainly, no one expected a comedy about fighting for civil rights in the court system to come out on the same day that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of nationwide marriage equality. The result is an awkward contrast, especially considering how willing Ted 2 is to allude to the oppression of LGBT Americans (and to throw in some bonus transphobia early on). Where McFarlane crows half-heartedly about his commitment to civil liberties, the nation has watched real successes and failures in this arena over the last couple of weeks. We've seen racial hatred and violence rear up once more in Charleston, South Carolina. We've seen a long overdue legal victory, and the political vitriol that has latched onto its tail.
Now, perhaps it is too much to ask a film like Ted 2 (or a writer like McFarlane) to do justice to the social and political climate of the nation, especially on such a heated issue. Still, watching Morgan Freeman and Amanda Seyfried's characters stride across courtrooms, espousing the importance of human dignity while the film around them does everything possible to undermine the goodwill of its supposedly tolerant premise should be a reminder of the battles we still have to fight. Certainly, the victory for marriage equality is one to be celebrated, but not one that should inspire complacency. We have not earned laurels to rest upon. If Ted 2 is about anything, it is about--whether McFarlane knows it or not--the difference between the empty gesture, the half-hearted promise, and the reality of what dignity actually means. It's about the challenge that faces America in the wake of both horror and triumph: to do more than just say we'll do the right thing, to actually commit to our words, and to continue one of our country's most important fights.