Slang for Teddyboy.
The opposite of Mods -- they were the boys that your mother warned you about, the black leather-jacketed rough boys, the British version of greasers. The Beatles when they were on the Reeperbahn were Ted Lite.

Punk can be said to have grown out of the Teds. If James Dean and Marlon Brando were British they would have been Teds.

TED, ideas worth spreading.

Since its founding in 1984 by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks, TED has worked to bring together the worlds most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are all challenged to give the talk of their lives. Currently the event is hosted by Chris Anderson and owned by his non-profit organization The Sapling Foundation.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, the three worlds it originally tried to bring together, but its scope has widened considerably since its founding years.

The original TED conference is held annually in Long Beach, California, USA, with more than a thousand people attending as over 50 speakers each take an 18 minute slot to talk about topics varying from the original three (Technology, Entertainment and Design) to new ones that mater to the world like science, business, the arts and global issues facing our world. Around those 18 minute slots there are also many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. The result is that TED becomes a mind opening experience, connecting the various topics together and showing the links between them that make up the intricately interconnected whole.

This original TED conference has also spawned off some interesting extensions, like TEDGlobal, a twin conference held in Oxford, UK that has now also become annually, its topics are slightly more international in nature but the TED format is maintained. A similar initiative will start in november 2009 in Mysore, India called TEDIndia, exploring the beckoning future of South Asia.

Another extension on TED is the TEDPrize, which tries to leverage the growing TED community's exceptional array of talent and resources in collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact. The TEDPrize is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and the granting of 'One Wish to Change the World'.

Finally the most interesting extension according to me is the TEDTalks initiative, which began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. With its limited seating capacity at the TED conferences, only a limited amount of individuals would be able to see the mind opening talks, so the TEDTalks initiative, under the moniker 'Ideas worth spreading' started releasing the talks online as short videos. This soon attracted a global audience in the millions, including myself, who where all enthusiastic at the chance of hearing the world's most inspiring voices.

This all leads to what TED is today, while TED is still based on the various conferences, it is probably best thought of as a global community, welcoming to people from every discipline and culture, all of which just two things in common, the search for a deeper understanding of the world and the hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all.

Ted is a reoccurring character in Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip. Along with the Pointy Haired Boss, Dilbert, Wally, Alice and Asok the Intern, Ted is one of the people seen around the conference table at Dilbert's work. Unlike the others, who all have somewhat developed personalities (or at least personas based on a few humorous traits), Ted has no defined personality, life, or history. This is acknowledged by Scott Adams in his Dilbert book "Seven Years of Highly Defective People", where he says that he thinks of him as "Ted, the Generic Guy", and states "If I have to fire or kill someone, it's often the generic guy". Ted has no personality traits and a generic appearance, and does whatever is necessary to move the gag of the comic forward.

Someone could draw a contrast between this and other comic strips, such as Peanuts, Doonesbury and Bloom County, where many of the characters that were in supporting or even walk-on roles had fairly well defined backstories and personality traits, or at least some basic idea of continuity. While this contrast could be drawn, it is not particularly meaningful: Dilbert is meant to be a gag-based comic strip, and having a generic character to get electrocuted or deported or whatever is needed that week fits well with the purpose of the strip.

"Fuck you, thunder! You can suck my dick! You can't get me, thunder, 'cause you're just God's farts!"

Ted is a 2012 movie by Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy. The story begins in 1985: when all the other Boston kids get NESs for Christmas, John Bennett wishes only for a friend. His wish comes true overnight, and the teddy bear he received from Santa Claus comes to life. Fast forward 27 years, and that bear has an attitude. His lifestyle of sex¹, drugs, alcohol and wild parties is starting to put a crimp on the relationship between John and his girlfriend of four years, Lori. Chuck in a sleazy douchebag of a boss who wants Lori for himself, and a man and his son who are attempting to stalk and kidnap Ted, and that's pretty much the story. Oh, and Flash Gordon makes an appearance and does tequila shots.

Spoilers start here. Get out while you still can.

Alright. It's pretty clear from all the synopses out there that the film is all about the familiar idea of best friends vs. a relationship. Any sane guy picks the girl and tells his bro "Dude, I'mma just need a little space with <insert chick's name here>, but don't worry, we be hangin' like we always do" (yeah... I'm decidedly NOT a bro). It's also pretty clear from the trailers and posters that it's about a talking teddy bear. Obviously, there's a bit of surrealism in this thing. Ted became a celebrity overnight, then got lost in obscurity and turned to hedonism for a lifestyle. Roped his best mate into it and suddenly you've got a relationship on the rocks. Seen it before, except this time we're talking about an anthropomorphic stuffed animal. Hollywood has definitely not changed much.

Cards on table: on the whole, I liked Ted. It kept me laughing, it kept me entertained, and a couple of times, kept me guessing. Having said that, there were several drawbacks. Throughout the entire wild party that Ted throws as a housewarming, I knew - KNEW - that John would get into deep shit when Lori found out, and she would find out. The entire rest of the scene dragged on as I waited and waited for Lori to turn up. That was probably one of the most drawn-out scenes in the whole film - I wasn't particularly impressed by it. I also wasn't impressed by some of the humour that MacFarlane employed - at one point, Ted says to an Indian woman "Thanks for 9/11" and I winced. I'm told that this is MacFarlane's way of pushing the boundaries, and that this sort of humour is particularly rife in Family Guy - MacFarlane's other claim to fame. That makes sense - I've seen a little bit of Family Guy, and I have to admit, Ted does feel like a stripped-down version of Family Guy².

Not only that scene, but unfortunately some of the jokes were a little predictable as well. Early in the film, for example, the film makes a joke early on about Christmas being a time for "all the other neighbourhood kids beating up the Jewish kids", or something to that effect. When John walks past, every one of those kids says "get lost" to him, then the kid who's being beaten up says "get lost" as well, then the beating continues. Obvious joke was obvious. Sorry, but I'm not going to laugh at that one - not because it's offensive, but because it's been done to death. There were more than a few of those gags scattered through the film, but thankfully, they were only scattered, and there were a few good gags as well. Thankfully, I didn't hear a single "yo mumma" joke. I also didn't see the final joke from Fenway Park³ coming, as I was expecting the whole scene to be as bittersweet as possible.

And on that note: if there's three things I love about a movie, they are a good stream of consciousness, a good humourous twist (think Spaceballs), and a good unexpected ending. I was willing the ending to be bittersweet - John and Lori make up but Ted reverts back to a regular teddy bear - but alas, Lori had to make that final wish. I guess it brings the "moral" of the story together and everyone lives happily ever after, but seriously, I've seen enough happily ever afters. I'm not seven any more, I'm 22 and I want to see something fresh come out of Hollywood (and there's that bitterness about Hollywood again...) But I digress.

Alright, I've been snarky enough. There were quite a few positives to this movie. The titular character was funny (though he had to throw in a possibly-way-too-self-promoting Peter Griffin reference). The idea of Thunder Buddies was a good one. Mila Kunis played a good pissed-off girlfriend. Mark Wahlberg played a good buddy torn between his best friend and his girlfriend. Joel McHale played a good arsehole. The whole movie seemed to remind me of my own childhood teddy bears, and reminded people that you're never too old for a stuffed toy. (Hell, I still collect owls.) Yes, it had a Peter Pan feel to it, but it was Peter Pan who owned a bong-smoking teddy bear and that made it just different and funny enough to laugh at. Oh, and Sam J. Jones makes an appearance and marries John and Lori at the end.

Do not watch if easily offended, or you hate Family Guy and all it stands for, otherwise it's not too bad. Rotten Tomatoes has given it 6.5/10 so far, and I agree with it.

¹ Well, as close as you can come to sex as possible... if you're a teddy bear, and hence, no penis. Yes, this was lampshaded.
² Ted is also linear and doesn't resort to a myriad flashbacks, which undoubtedly makes it easier to follow than any given Quentin Tarantino flick.
³ At least, I assume it was Fenway Park... the film didn't seem to move away from Boston from '85 to '12, unless my knowledge of US geography is lacking. Which, being an Australian, it probably is.

Ted (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tedded (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Tedding.] [Prob. fr. Icel. teja to spread manure, fr. ta manure; akin to MHG. zetten to scatter, spread. 58. Cf. Teathe.]

To spread, or turn from the swath, and scatter for drying, as new-mowed grass; -- chiefly used in the past participle.

The smell of grain or tedded grass. Milton.

The tedded hay and corn sheaved in one field. Coleridge.

 

© Webster 1913.