Season two of Ted, the surprisingly charming sitcom prequel to the Seth MacFarlane–Mark Wahlberg movies, just dropped on Peacock. And one episode has a very special cameo: a time-traveling, pre-veganism, pre-Epstein-testimony Bill Clinton. Series creator Seth MacFarlane’s voice comes out of this artificial-intelligence-enabled ghost to castigate Matty Bennett (Scott Grimes). MacFarlane told the Associated Press that making an AI deep fake was the only way to portray Clinton. “I’ve been doing my Bill Clinton impression since the early days of Family Guy,” he said. “It’s an interesting example of how AI can be used as a tool and not necessarily trample on the art that the rest of the industry is doing. We tried prosthetics, we tried traditional CGI, and everything just looked terrifying. So we just said, ‘To hell with it, let’s try AI.’ It worked. It was the only way to look like Bill Clinton.”
To that we pose two questions: (1) Why is it essential that Ted’s Clinton look like the OG (original governor)? The scene is mostly focused on Grimes’s shock — couldn’t you just shoot it blocking out his face for the most part? And (2): Are we entirely sure AI-deep-fake Bill Clinton isn’t terrifying? Ted has always done a really great job of a grounded, non-theme-park version of the early ’90s. One could argue the most realistic-looking Clinton works toward that same aesthetic goal. But one could also argue it breaks the reality the show has otherwise been so careful in crafting.
Seth MacFarlane says they used AI to make him look like Bill Clinton in ‘Ted’ S2
“It’s an interesting example of how AI can be used as a tool … We tried prosthetics, we tried traditional CGI, everything else just looked terrifying”
(via @AP) pic.twitter.com/lbjY50vMcr
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) March 6, 2026
