Better Off Ted: Difference between revisions

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Ted Crisp (Jay Harrington) is the head of Research and Development for Veridian Dynamics, a company that manufactures anything and everything that could make them a profit (weaponizing pumpkins and cryogenically freezing employees is just the tip of the iceberg - no pun intended). His boss is Veronica Palmer (Portia de Rossi), a terrifyingly together executive always looking to cut costs and seem intimidating so that employees do not feel encouraged to talk to her. Although Ted and Veronica had a brief affair, neither seems to be holding a torch for the other in the first season, though in the second season their friendship deepens. On the other end of Verdian Dynamics' employee list is Linda Zwordling (Andrea Anders), a sweet, if off-beat member of Ted's team, who often provides the voice of humanity when the team gets carried away with science.

** weight loss toothpaste

** horribly uncomfortable office chairs

** fabric softener with a high chance of causing deafness

** plates that light on fire when smacked against a hard surface

* [[Action Girl]]: Linda appears in [[The Tag]] of "You Are the Boss Of Me" in full [[Xena: Warrior Princess]] regalia, complete with sword.

* [[Acquired Situational Narcissism]]: Phil, "Trailblazer of the Year"

* [[Ad Bumpers]]: In every episode of the first season and some in the second, there will be a fake ad for Veridian Dynamics before the first commercial break.

{{quote|''"Veridian Dynamics: Don't Cross Us. Ever. Seriously. Just Don't."''|"The Lawyer, The Lemur, and the Little Listener"}}

* [[Altum Videtur]]: Apparently the company has a [[Pretentious Latin Motto]] that translates as "Money Before People" (according to Veronica "it sounds more heroic in Latin").

* [[Bigger Is Better in Bed]]: Veronica implies this about Ted a few times.

* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: The entire science team is mentioned to be terribly awkward socially, but are still employed due to their incredible scientific skill.

* [[Black Best Friend]]: Although Lem is definitely Phil's best friend, and as was proved by "Racial Sensitivity" is in fact black, he is decidedly [[Black and Nerdy]].

** She defrosts further in season 2 as she increasingly treats Ted as a confidant, discussing the appeal of having a child in one episode, expressing how much she'd miss him if he spent more time with Veridian's CEO in another, and closing one episode by singing a duet of "I Got You Babe" with a reluctant Ted. She also bonds with both Rose and Linda as the series progresses.

* [[The Dividual]] (Syndividual variant): Phil and Lem. Oh so much.

* [[Epunymous Title]]: A play on "better off dead" with the main character, Ted.

** Also sometimes played with in other areas of the show. The above episode "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" uses the fact that 'crisp(s)' and 'chips' are both terms used to reference potato chips/crisps or similar snacks.

** An odd aversion, and probably an unintentional one: "It's My Party and I'll Life if I Want To" features lying as a plot point. "It's My Party (and I'll Cry if I Want To)" is the name of a song. One gets the distinct impression that 20th Century Fox Television is not using their best and brightest to type <s>memos</s> episode titles.

*** The above item might be an error as a check of episode lists for this episode does not show this error, only "It's My Party and I'll LIE if I Want To".

* [[Fake Static]]: Veronica uses this to end a conversation with a subordinate... in person.

* [[Fan Service]]: The aforementioned scene with Linda dressing up as Xena, and also Veronica's stint as a magician's assistant. And Ted brothers' non-brotherly love, which is "all about the sex".

* [[Green-Eyed Epiphany]]: Subverted in "Racial Sensitivity". Linda gets Ted to play racquetball with her new boyfriend Don in the hopes that he'll have a terrible time because he's not over her. This backfires when Ted and Don have a great time and become friends. After {{spoiler|Veronica explains this to him}}, Ted pretends to hate Don to make Linda feel better.

* [[Henpecked Husband]]: Although his wife never appears in the series, Phil seems almost completely whipped by his worse half, who is so completely indifferent to him that she encourages him to cryogenically freeze himself.

'''Phil:''' "Usually, I hold perfectly still until she goes away." }}

* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Phil and Lem fit this trope to a T (even though Phil is described as being married).

* [[High Heel Face Turn]]: Veronica often uses her position to undermine company efforts when they negatively impact her underlings (as she likes to call them; except for Ted the use of the word "friends" is alien to her).

* [[Human Popsicle]]: Veridian attempts to freeze Phil for a year. It only lasts a day before the machine that froze him malfunctions (thanks to clumsy workmen knocking the pod over). Phil ends up suffering the side effect of screaming uncontrollably at inopportune moments.

* [[I Banged Your Mom]]: Lem's mom has sex with Dr. Bomba.

* [[I Know You Know I Know]]: Veronica has a conversation like this with her father, who controls a rival company.

* [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: Potentially referenced in Beating a Dead Workforce who turns into an [[Memetic Badass]].

* [[Line-of-Sight Name]]: After rejecting "Boots" and "Sandals" to name her new pet kitten, Linda takes a move away from footwear:

** This is also how Ted came up with the name Jabberwocky.

* [[Logic Bomb]]: The plan to reboot the mainframe is to feed it data that would lead to a diagnosis that it was malfunctioning.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: Lem and Phil claim not to be, despite what their bowling shirts say. For consideration, here's this quote:

** However, there is a second season episode in which Lem and Phil are horrified to come to the realization that they are, indeed, mad scientists.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Mordor The Unforgiving. "And I just hope he understands."

** Played with: Linda is definitely the voice of reason when it comes to product testing, but is also trying to teach a fish to talk and has a merciless pranking streak.

* [[Pity Sex]]: When Veronica was promoted to management, there was another employee with the same last name up for the same promotion, and a typo in the memo made it unclear which of them had been promoted. A few years later she meets the other employee again and finds out that his life since then had gone completely down the toilet, so she starts dating him out of guilt. {{spoiler|She finally brings herself to dump him when Ted finds another memo proving that the promotion really was meant for her, though she even feels guilty about dumping him, so she gives him an office with a window view.}}

* [[Pretentious Latin Motto]]: We are told that one of these is engraved in the lobby floor, as a [[Altum Videtur|more attractive]] translation for "money before people."

* [[Prim and Proper Bun]]: Veronica is a powerful, cold hearted executive; also, when Ted takes his daughter to work, Veronica teaches her to put her hair in this kind of bun. Apparently if you're doing it right it should hurt, but that goes away after a couple of years.

* [[Salt and Pepper]]: Phil and Lem, lampshaded in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips." When outlining who should be where in the plan with various household objects, Ted gets nervous when Phil and Lem ask which one of them is the salt and which one the pepper. Lem then proceed to sidestep the obvious racial implications by declaring that he must be pepper because "[he's] spicy." Phil decides that he's "salty, like a sea captain," and they move on from there.

* [[The Schlub Pub Seduction Deduction]] : Veronica flirts with Phil in "Get Happpy" to get him to sign a waiver promising not to sue the company.

** Possible further screwing action by the decision not to release Season 2 on DVD.

** In ABC's defence it should be noted that the network did announce plans to air the final two episode in June 2010, contingent on that year's NBA Finals not needing a 7th game. The inconsiderate basketball players went overtime, however, and the broadcast was cancelled and not rescheduled.

* [[Sex Dressed]]

* [[Sex Equals Love]]: Averted as Ted and Veronica, who have slept together, have a seemingly less confusing relationship than Ted and Linda, who didn't even kiss {{spoiler|until the second-to-last episode of the series}}. This is lampshaded in "Racial Sensitivity". Ted and Veronica, in fact, are depicted as growing closer as friends as the series progresses.

** In "The Great Repression" episode a [[Doctor Who|Dalek]] is shown in the background of a robot storage area.

*** Ted refers to the sexual harassment group as a [[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen|"league of extraordinarily perverted gentlemen"]] in this episode as well.

* [[So Beautiful It's a Curse]]: Parodied in "Racial Sensitivity." Veronica, handling a complaint from a group of black employees, tell them that she, too, knows what it's like to deal with discrimination... and then proceeds to talk about how no one liked her in high school because she was so pretty.

* [[Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond]]: In "Get Happy," Ted finds that he is not as popular with males over 50 in the company as he is with all the other demographics. He discovers after a series of surprising and unpleasant encounters with the males over 50 in an effort to win them over that he doesn't really care.

* [[Spiritual Successor]] : To Andy Richter Controls the Universe

* [[Spoof Aesop]]: The end of "The Long and Winding High Road", where Veronica delivers the moral "if you're taking the low road, you need to coordinate".

'''Ted:''' ...Sure, let's go with "cool"... }}

* [[Tastes Like Purple]]: The beef made without cows "tastes like despair."

* [[The Unseen]]: Phil's wife, the Octo-Chicken, and the ever-present "They" Veronica answers to. The show drops a few hints that nobody is really sure who "they" are.

** Also, Ted and Veronica are mentioned to have lost a three-legged race to "something Phil and Lem made".

* [[Unperson]]: Ted, when the IT network accidentally deletes his employee records.

* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Ted, whose father wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a plumber, and is unimpressed by Ted's success.

** And [[Metaphorgotten|build a house made out of rules]].

*** [[Moral Event Horizon|A house made of his own children?]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Work Com]]

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Better Off Ted]]