Seth MacFarlane talks to Details about Ted, controversy, and Prop 8

Seth MacFarlane has been talking to Details magazine about his R-rated live action film Ted, being controversial on Family Guy and Proposition 8.

For those who haven't heard about Ted it's an R-rated live-action/CGI comedy that Seth has written and is due to direct about a man and his teddy bear. "Ted is definitely an R-rated comedy, but the story is relatively, dare I [Seth] say, sweet." Asked if Ted could be Seth's 'Howard the Duck' he responded:

"That thought has crossed my mind. There's an old episode of Star Trek  about this perfect society where the people live in absolute harmony with each other, but the one catch is every day there's something called the red hour when they all go berserk. I think that's a good analogy for Howard the Duck's place in George Lucas' career. But there's something exciting about entering an unfamiliar medium that you can possibly completely fuck up. The danger of career annihilation is kind of appealing."

Details also asked about the controversial aspects of Family Guy including Sarah Palin's remarks that the episode featuring a character with Down syndrome was like a kick in the gut. He responded to that by saying, "I would never kick a pregnant woman in the gut. Surprise!" He described the reactions of some to the controversial aspects of the show as being lazy in the willingness to use their brains. All jokes in the show get challenged with a "is it smart enough and funny enough that it warrants being as abrasive as it is?" question.

Seth has long been a campaigner for gay rights and was asked about Proposition 8 that has just been overturned in California. "The ridiculous thing about something like Prop. 8  is that it will be overturned. They put something like $40 million into that campaign, and they might as well have just bet all that money on the Red Sox," he said.

Seth expressed his surprise that the LGBT community responded badly to Quagmire's Dad, the transgender episode from the last season of Family Guy. "I don't meet a lot of stupid homosexuals," he said. "They seem to be a pretty smart bunch. But it seemed that they were not picking up on the fact that it was a very sympathetic portrayal of a transsexual character." Asked if perhaps it was Brian's reaction towards the end of the episode that caused the upset he responded saying:

"Hey, we're still Family Guy.We're not suddenly going to become 7th Heaven. Actually, I guess on 7th Heaven they would probably burn the transsexual at the stake. Let me think of another example. We're not Mr. Belvedere. Look, Brian happens to be a heterosexual character, as I am. If I found out that I had slept with a transsexual, I might throw up in the same way that a gay guy looks at a vagina and goes, "Oh, my God, that's disgusting." It's just the way we're biologically wired. They should give that another look."

The Q&A with Seth appears in the August issue of Details magazine and can be read over on the Details website. The interview also contains discussion of his 9/11 experiences and his relationships.