We agree with you if you think Ted Lasso is alive.
The sports comedy has been praised for its depiction of mental health struggles and for its lovable characters. The show's attention to detail is still under-rated, as shown by the impressive roster of Easter eggs scattered throughout its 22 episodes.
We don't mean the overt pop-culture gags and celebrity mentions that pepper the show's dialogue when we say Easter eggs. We're talking about more obscure shout- outs that writers slip into scenes for their own satisfaction and to reward fans who are watching carefully.
Ted Lasso has its fair share since co-creators Bill Lawrence and Jason Sudeikis both outed themselves as Easter eggs fans. The most hardcore fans of the team will have missed some of the details.
1. Rebecca and Sam are named after each other.
If Ted Lasso fans had doubts about the writers' appreciation for a good rom-com, the fifth episode of Season 2, "Rainbow," clears that up. It's full of classic rom-com references, from "the Three Kates" to "Titanic" and more. Ted Lasso's rom-com references are easy to pick up on, but others are made for eagle-eyed experts, such as this You've Got Mail reference from Season 2.
Rebecca and Sam's Bantr usernames are special. They are a nod to the screen names of Joe and Kathleen in the movie. Ryan's character in You've Got Mail has a screen name of "Shopgirl", while Hanks' character has a screen name of "NY152." Rebecca is known as "Bossgirl" and Sam is known as "LDN152." The locations of the men are NY and LDN, but according to the film's synopsis, the number 152 is when Kathleen and Joe meet.
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2. The Kansas love.
Fans have come to know that Ted and Jason are both proud Kansas boys, and that they have a lot in common. Whenever he gets the chance, Sudeikis shows his hometown love on-screen.
Ted Lasso paid tribute to Kansas City barbecue. Brendan Curran, a childhood friend of Sudeikis, created the "JoeArthur Gatestack" shirt for the coach, which refers to four Kansas City barbeque spots: Joe's, Arthur Bryant's, Gates, and Jack Stack.
Ted received a bottle of Arthur Bryant's barbecue sauce in one of his care packages, which was one of the best barbecue sauces in Kansas City.
Ted said "barbecue sauce" after throwing the final dart in "The Diamond Dogs". That's love. "There's an old adage to write what you know," Sudeikis said. This one has really struck a cord. I'm proud of the fact that people from back home enjoy those little touches.
3. A nod to Saturday Night Live.
Ted's locker room dance is a tribute to SNL's "What's Up With That" sketch, which features a red tracksuit-wearing character.
Sudeikis told Entertainment Weekly that the dance he did when he was 15 years old was the same one he did when he was on the basketball team. The irony is that I went through all this training and did the same thing I did when I was 15.
If you're a fan of the dance, you should follow the dancinglasso account, which regularly sets Ted's moves to different songs. It's wonderful.
Sudeikis is a big fan of Cheers and Ted is also a fan. He's the nephew of George Wendt, who played Norm on Cheers. Roy's favorite kebab place has a wall. A signed photo of Wendt is to the left of our favorite former player. Aww.
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5. A Marcus Mumford appearance.
A signed photo of Marcus Mumford is on the wall of the kebab shop. The two men met on SNL in 2012 and have been friends ever since. In the band's "Hopeless Wanderer" music video, Sudeikis was joined by other actors. When it was time to find Ted Lasso, Sudeikis reached out to Mumford. He scored the show and wrote the Ted Lasso theme song, so he's earned that kebab shop glory.
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6. Don't love the player.
Ted Lasso fans know the last names of players who get major screen time, such as Kent, Obisanya, and McAdoo. You can find a few stealth Easter eggs in the locker room when you look at the jerseys of lesser-known players.
The player with the last name Cockburn is the ex-lover of Sudeikis. A reference to a former professional basketball player is Kuko. Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard and also writes for the show, said that the show's character Kuko is the real number 7 when he played for the Chicago Bulls.
Fans analyzed a white board in a locker room scene and found a shout out to one of Sudeikis' friends, Billy Brimblecom. Sudeikis and Brimblecom have been friends for more than two decades. The Steps of Faith Foundation is an organization that helps amputees with the cost of their prosthetics. Sudeikis has supported the foundation for a long time, and they host an annual charity concert.
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7. More real-life inspiration is being woven in.
There are references to real people in the show. Sudeikis said that Donnie Campbell, his basketball coach at Shawnee Mission West High School, was an inspiration for the character Ted Lasso, but he also mentioned his former elementary school.
Sally Shipley, Sudeikis' high school forensics coach, is a reference to Ted's upstairs neighbor Mrs. Shipley. The voice that says "Ruby" at the end of the show's credits is a nod to the show's main character.
8. What's the song being sung?
"All Apologies" begins with Roy wallowing alone in an ice bath while thinking about his less than ideal performance in the last game. After a pep talk from Ted, Roy looks forward to being alone with his sorrows again, but his teammate, who is Spanish, enters the room and starts running on the treadmill behind him.
It's not just a song. The show ends with a big old "siiiiiii!" before the real Ted Lasso Theme song plays.
9. Escape to victory.
There are many references to sports in Ted Lasso. One of the latter is in "Make Rebecca Great Again." Many fans noticed that Coach Beard wrote the name "HATCH" in the goalkeeper's spot when he was writing names on the white board. If you had any doubts, just check the rest of the names on the board, because that was a reference to the 1981 movie, Victory, in which Sylvester Stallone plays a goalkeeper named Robert Hatch. The whole lineup is on there. King.
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10. The head coach is back.
Some characters on Ted Lasso are never seen. George Cartrick, the former head coach of the football team, who Rebecca fires at the start of the pilot, reappears multiple times. Cartrick will be a football pundit on Gillette Soccer Saturday with Roy Kent on Sky Sports in the UK. Jeff Stelling apologized for Roy's language while challenging the sour-grapes former coach.
11. Deez signs.
Ted Lasso Easter eggs aren't all intricately woven into the story. The "Nutz" written after the "Ds" for defense on the whiteboard behind Coach Beard in Season 2 is as simple and satisfying as any of the others. Puerile and also brilliant.
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12. Practice makes perfect.
Francis, the handshake guy, was practicing his handshakes on a skeleton in the back of the scene. The show is all about the details.
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13. Actually, Bernard is.
It's time to talk about rom-coms again. In the Christmas episode, "Carol of the Bells," Roy, Keeley, and Phoebe stand in front of the bully's door and deliver a crucial message via large notecards. The bully's name, Bernard, was a nod to Love Actually's director.
Bernard is the son of Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman's characters in the 2003 rom-com, but the name Bernard is reportedly given to an unlikeable character in every Richard Curtis screenplay. Why? When he was in college, his girlfriend left him for a guy named Bernard.
14. The ultimate Australian.
In the Christmas episode, Roy and Keeley find out that the mom of Tommy is a recurring character who took a photo with Ted on their flight to London. The real-life mom of Bill Skinner is the dentist played by Claire Skinner. Think of all the ussies that those two have taken together.
15. The hometowns of Higgins.
The Christmas dinner speech that was made for his large table of guests? According to the LA Times, the real hometowns of all the actors in the scene were the hometowns of the players. Awww.
16. A man has a beard.
The second episode of the season, "Beard After Hours," tells us about Coach Beard's inner turmoil and also shows us that he's a Burner. A large print from Burning Man is in his living room. The 2002 version of the Man is what Beard pays his respects to, which is one of the best years to go.
Brendan Hunt is a Burner as well. Hunt told the New York Observer that the play Absolutely Filthy was inspired by dancing alone at Burning Man during a dust storm shortly before sunrise. The plot of "Beard After Hours" seems to reference the kind of crazy nights that are common at the annual event, from the colorful shiny pants Beard receives as a gift to the random rave filled with hula hoops.
17. The obscure organ is obscure.
In the same episode, Beard convinces a group of Oxford graduates that he is a professor at Merton College. One of the smallest colleges in Oxford University is called Merton. Beard mentioned the sound of the "Dobson organ" in the chapel.
Dobson Organ Company is located in Lake City, Iowa, across the state line from Brendan Hunt's alma mater, Illinois State. Ted Lasso's most obscure American shout-out is the organ Merton.
18. There are Easter eggs of success.
There are several Easter eggs related to the title of the finale. On the plane to London, Coach Beard is once again reading a book by Jonathan Wilson, Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics. Ted and Beard's office wall has a framed "Pyramid of Success" signed by UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. There's a theory that the three time jumps at the end of the episode signify the "Pyramid" formation.
Sudeikis has a special place in his heart for the "Pyramid of Success". Donnie Campbell, his high school basketball coach, was a big fan of Wooden. Campbell used the Pyramid of Success to teach Sudeikis and his players, as was heard in an episode of The Lead. The Pyramid of Success poster and dry erase marker were used by Sudeikis.
19. Mom is going to Spain.
Roy gave two paper plane tickets to Keeley to go to Spain where he used to work at a strip club. He says Kathy is his travel agent and that printed tickets are no longer being used. Kathy is an old-school travel agent. Kathy Sudeikis is the mother of the man.
20. The person is in the frame.
Ted Lasso saw a lot of character development in the second season. One of the most stomach-churning examples was the transformation of one of the show's nice guys into its next big villain.
When the credits rolled on Season 2, a chilling final image of the Formerly Great staring into the camera mirrored the season's opening shot. Nick Mohammed, who plays Nate, explained in a post that the two shots were scripted.
"In the final shot, the light in the eyes of the man has gone out," Mohammed wrote.
Chris Taylor is a Burning Man veteran.
Ted Lasso is on Apple TV.
