BMThe foul-mouthed teddy bear
Seth MacFarlane , compared with Bengal Mangle Productions
A washed-up, vulgar teddy bear lives in an adult human world, drinking, smoking and chasing prostitutes alongside human friends.
Ted, a former child-star teddy bear come to life, becomes a hard-partying, crude adult best friend. (paraphrase)
Ted (film), 2012find on YouTube ↗
A web-series bear from 2009 who is a washed-up child star with anger problems who drinks, uses drugs and visits prostitutes. (paraphrase)
Web series — "Charlie the Abusive Teddy Bear" (Acting School Academy spin-off), 2009find on YouTube ↗
Both are washed-up child-star teddy bears behaving badly, but no shared scenes or lines are on record, and the claim was dropped.
- Premise 28/40
- Structure 12/30
- Punchline 8/30
- Premise28/40Both are washed-up former child-star teddy bears living crude adult lives of drink, drugs and prostitutes.
- Structure12/30A feature film and a web series; the record describes characters, not any shared plot or scene order.
- Punchline8/30No specific jokes or lines from either are on record, so no payoff overlap can be shown.
Setup
Teddy bear come to life, a former child star, now grown up
Setup
Web-series bear who is a washed-up former child star
Turn
Becomes a hard-partying, crude adult best friend to a human
Turn
Has anger problems, drinks, uses drugs and visits prostitutes
Punchline
Signature jokes not on record; the vulgar bear is the gag
Punchline
Signature jokes not on record; the abusive bear is the gag
Scores and beats are our editorial reading of the public record, not a ruling.
Context
When and where
Bengal Mangle's Charlie appeared in the web series Acting School Academy and then in his own series, Charlie the Abusive Teddy Bear (from about 2009). MacFarlane's Ted was released in 2012.
What followed
Bengal Mangle sued in July 2014 but dropped the case with prejudice in March 2015. The filing conceded that discovery showed MacFarlane created Ted independently, and each side paid its own costs.
Receipts
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Seth MacFarlane by Kevin Paul, CC BY 4.0