Ted Lasso
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About
Ted Lasso is a television sitcom that began airing on Apple TV+ in 2020. The show follows the title character, an American college football manager played by Jason Sudeikis, who moves to England to coach a fictional Premier League soccer team called AFC Richmond. The show's positive reception overall has led to several memes based on various scenes or catchphrases, giving it a notable presence online.
History
The character of Ted Lasso originated in a series of commercials from 2013 to promote NBC broadcasting English Premier League games in the USA.[1] In the commercials, Lasso was the coach of Tottenham Hotspur, a real Premier League Team (seen below).
In 2019, Apple TV+ announced plans to create a series surrounding the character Lasso.[2] The first season premiered in August 2020, and the second season began on July 23rd, 2021, with the trailer receiving over 3 million views and 12,000 likes in roughly two weeks (shown below). A third season has also been announced following season two's release.
Reception
Ted Lasso was not widely viewed immediately but gained a larger audience through word of mouth in the months following its debut in 2020.[3] In an article for Vox from February 2021, Emily VanDerWerff called the show "a window into a handful of pop culture trends."[4]
Fandom
The show gained an online following by the start of its second season. The show's official Twitter account accumulated over 300,000 followers by the time season two premiered in July 2021, and the official Reddit page, /r/TedLasso, received over 23,000 subscribers since its creation in October 2019. The subreddit's top post is an AMA with co-creator, writer and actor Brendan Hunt, which generated over 450 comments in two weeks.[5]
Criticisms
The fandom of the show has been criticized for its zealousness, as diehards tend to get very defensive when the show is criticized. In August of 2021, pieces in Gawker and The New Yorker criticized the show's schmaltziness, leading some to discuss why the show's second season was not as well-received as its first. This led Twitter user @CarolBlymire to accuse user @DanielRadosh of not liking the second season of the show because he did not like seeing women having orgasms. Others expressed that the fandom discouraged them from watching the show.
Impact
Many professional soccer players have publicly stated that they are fans of the show.[6] For the 2020 Summer Tokyo Olympics, Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt introduced the U.S. Soccer Women's National Team in character as Ted Lasso and Coach Beard. The video of the introduction gained over 10,000 likes in one month on Twitter.
#Believe
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@USWNT) June 23, 2021
They do. We do.
Let’s bring it home 🥇🇺🇸⚽️ #OneNationOneTeam #RoadToTokyo pic.twitter.com/rloJ1rzu5M
Search Interest
External References
[1] Youtube – An American Coach in London: NBC Sports Premier League Film featuring Jason Sudeikis
[2] The Hollywood Reporter – Jason Sudeikis Revives Ted Lasso for Apple TV Series
[3] Business Insider – Data shows how Apple TV Plus' breakout comedy 'Ted Lasso' has grown into a word-of-mouth hit
[4] Vox – Why Ted Lasso became the hit that put AppleTV+ on the map
[5] Reddit – I’m Brendan Hunt (Co-Creator of Ted Lasso and Coach Beard)! Ask Me Anything in r/TedLasso!
[6] LA Times – How ‘Ted Lasso’ won over American soccer stars and contributed to UCLA’s Pac-12 title
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