According to The Hollywood Reporter, in the new season of Ted, Seth MacFarlane (The Orville, American Dad) uses AI to turn himself into an unsettlingly realistic portrayal of Bill Clinton. The clip from the upcoming second season is going viral online for how realistic it is in the Peacock comedy. MacFarlane has performed Clinton’s voice many times on Fox’s animated hit Family Guy. This time around, he was able to not only use the voice he has mastered but also pull off an eerily accurate 1990s-era Clinton in a live-action.
Below is the full clip portraying MacFarlane as Bill Clinton.
“I’ve been doing my Bill Clinton impression since the early days of Family Guy,” MacFarlane told the Associated Press via The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
As per The Hollywood Reporter, the footage has thrown many viewers off as one posted the following, “They had Bill Clinton appear in an episode, and I can’t tell if it’s a lookalike or some sort of CG or AI deepfake because he looks EXACTLY like the real thing.” Another wrote, “It’s actually insane how much Seth looks like Bill Clinton here. You could have told me they invented a time machine and kidnapped him from 1995, and I would have believed you.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ted set in 1993, following a teenage John Bennett and his living teddy bear, Ted, in Massachusetts. It explores high school life, family dynamics, and the chaotic, foul-mouthed friendship between the two as they navigate adolescence.
The second season of Ted is available to stream on Peacock.