Ted's not funny anymore

SETH MacFarlane's brand of sophomoric R-rated humour - which relies mainly on the liberal use of four-letter words, random pop culture references and sight gags involving male private parts and drug paraphernalia - is deliberately crude, as if to emphasise his well-deserved reputation as an arbiter of extremely bad taste.

In Ted 2, the symbol of MacFarlane's unrelenting assault on common decency is a stuffed teddy bear who - through the magic of stop motion animation - can swig a beer, swear like a trooper and even dance like a star performer in a Busby Berkeley-style musical (while wearing a fitted tux, of course). The film is a sequel to Ted (2012), a surprise comedy smash that answered the question: Can a stuffed animal steal Mark Wahlberg's thunder?

The original Ted marked TV funnyman MacFarlane's directorial debut and became a cash-churning commercial success. Unfortunately, he followed up with the abysmal A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014), a movie that was about as funny as bubonic plague. By returning to the scene of an earlier triumph, MacFarlane figured to have a safety net of sorts. But if Ted 2 is anything to go by, the teddy is a one-trick pony.