Jason Sudeikis, who co-created the series with Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelley, has said the character of Ted Lasso isn’t based on any one person, but that hasn’t stopped the writers from stacking up references and quotes from real people and notable places in their hometowns. Take the character of Roy Kent, for example. In the series, Kent is an aging soccer star who serves as AFC Richmond’s team captain. He bears a strong resemblance to real-life footballer and soccer’s most successful Irish player Roy Keane, who after he retired, became a coach for Sunderland—where Ted Lasso’s Roy Kent starts off his soccer career. Brendan Hunt also had a routine about Roy Keane back during his Boom Chicago days as an improv comedian/actor. And that friends is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Easter eggs hidden in Ted Lasso. We’ve collected all the Easter eggs from season 1, and without giving away too many spoilers about season 2, we’re adding more Easter eggs every week when new episodes drop. Check back here for more Easter eggs with each new episode premiere!
Ted Lasso Season 1 Easter eggs
Season 1, Episode 1 (Pilot) Ted Lasso Pilot Easter eggs
In the final scene of the pilot, when Ted is in his new flat in London, he’s wearing a T-shirt that says, “Joe Arthur Gatestack”. This is in reference to four Kansas City barbecue restaurants—Joe’s Kansas City, Arthur Bryant’s, Gates, and Jack Stack. The logo on the shirt is modified from the Three KC Clothing Co., the makers of the shirts. The owner and creator of Three KC is Brendan Curran, a high school friend of Jason Sudeikis. Lasso wears the shirt again in episode 7 when he’s in his hotel room about to sign his divorce papers. In a couple episodes in season 1, we hear Ted yell, “Sorry, Miss Shipley!” whenever he is talking too loud and the upstairs neighbor bangs on the floorboards. Miss Shipley was the name of one of his elementary school teachers.
Joe Arthur Gatestack Shirt
Victory character names
Season 1, Episode 5 Easter Eggs – Tan Lines
In his halftime speech, Ted mentions one of his teachers, Miss Scanlon, a boyhood crush. Mrs. Scanlon was the name of Sudeikis’ real art teacher at Brookridge Elementary, which is also mentioned in dialogue. https://www.reddit.com/r/TedLasso/comments/mlfk7z/the_real_mrs_scanlon_teds_art_teacher_from/
Season 1, Episode 6 Easter Eggs – Two Aces
The scene in season 1, episode 6 where Ted berates Jamie is almost word-for-word identical to a now-famous tirade from Allen Iverson. The Philadelphia 76ers basketball player mentions the word “practice” over a dozen times in this speech he made during a press conference almost 20 years ago.
Season 1, Episode 7 Easter Eggs– Make Rebecca Great Again
During a pre-match meeting, Coach Beard is seen writing the game’s opposing lineup on the whiteboard. He writes Hatch in the goalkeeper’s spot. Other names on the pitch are Fileu, Von Steiner, Harmor and Hayes. All these names are characters from the 1981 film Victory (Escape to Victory outside the U.S.), starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max Von Sydow and soccer great Pele as a group of Allied prisoners of war during World War II who play a soccer match against the Germans.
Season 1, Episode 8 Easter Eggs – The Diamond Dogs
Rebecca’s best friend Sassy (Ellie Taylor) says she’s going to order a huge breakfast and charge it to Ted’s tab after a night they share on the road. Ted says “I’ll be your ‘Underhills’ anytime.” Underhills is a reference to the 1985 movie, Fletch, starring Chevy Chase. In the comedy thriller, investigative reporter Fletch charges an extravagant lunch to a rude country club member named Underhill.
Season 1, Episode 9 Easter Eggs – All Apologies
In the opening scene, Dani Rojas jumps on the treadmill and begins to sing in Spanish as he jogs. The song he’s singing is the theme song for the show, co-written and sung by Marcus Mumford.
Season 1, Episode 10 Easter Eggs – The Hope That Kills You
In the season ender after that devastating loss, Rebecca explains to Ted how AFC Richmond can get promoted back to the Premier League. To which Ted theorizes that they can get promoted and return to the league and do something no one believes they can do, “Win the whole f—ing thing”. That line is a line Tom Berenger says in Major League after the team finds out the owner hopes the team will lose so spectacularly that she can move the team from Cleveland to Miami and replace all the current players.
Ted Lasso Season 2 Easter eggs
Season 1, Episode 1 Easter Eggs – Goodbye Earl
We’re just two episodes into season 2 of Ted Lasso, but we’re already finding plenty of Easter eggs. One of the first unexpected Easter eggs came from journalist Diane Sawyer. In the season 2 opener, after Rebecca asks Ted if he wants a cocktail after yet another tie game, Ted replies, “The same thing I’d say if Diane Sawyer ever asked me out on a date—‘Yes, please’”. Sawyer, who mostly remains off social media unless she’s promoting a cause or news segment, came off an over-one-year hiatus from social media to tweet the following:
Season 2, Episode 2 Easter Eggs - Lavender
One of the commentators on the sports show that Roy joins is George Cartrick (played by actor Bill Fellows). George is the AFC Richmond coach that Rebecca fired in the pilot episode and replaced with Ted Lasso.
Season 2, Episode 4 Easter Eggs– Carol of the Bells
In this Christmas episode there are several scenes that pay homage to Love Actually. Scenes where Roy, Keeley, and Phoebe (Elodie Blomfield) go door to door in search of a dentist is much like scenes in Love Actually where the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) goes in search of Natalie (Martine McCutcheon) on the “dodgy end of Wandsworth”. The scene where Phoebe confronts Bernard, the boy who made fun of her breath, with a series of handwritten cards pays direct homage to the scene in Love Actually when Mark (Andrew Lincoln) confesses his love for Juliet (Kiera Knightley), his best friend’s wife. The Leg Lamp in Keeley’s apartment is an obvious nod to the lamp in A Christmas Story. In the beginning of the episode, Moe Bumbercatch (Mohammed Hashim) gives teammate Colin Hughes (Billy Harris) his Secret Santa gift— a scarf he hand-knitted. It’s likely unintentional, but it certainly brings to mind Great Britain Olympic gold medalist Tom Daley, who went viral during the Tokyo Olympics for his knitting prowess or the mittens that Phyllis Lapin-Vance (Phyllis Smith) knitted for Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) in his goodbye episode of The Office. The incident with Phoebe and her case of halitosis was a problem one of the show’s writers experienced in real life with their child’s embarrassment over having mysteriously bad breath. The actress who plays the dentist, Claire Skinner, is the real-life mom of Bill Skinner, the actor who pops up from time to time requesting an “ussie” instead of a selfie. Phoebe’s cat, Dauphine, is named after the mother-in-law of the episode’s writer, Joe Kelly. The episode title, “Carol of the Bells” is named after his own mother—“because if I did one without the other, I’d never hear the end of it,” Kelly told The Los Angeles Times. Over at the Higgins home, when Leslie gives his Christmas speech and names each city the players are from— those are the real hometowns of the actors he is referencing. To make room for all the players who showed up, the Higgins line their small dining room table with their billiards table and Dana’s new surfboard to make room for everyone. As they all sit down to enjoy their Christmas feast, it’s done in one long tracking shot that was inspired by the silent movie, Wings, and specifically requested by Jason Sudeikis. Even though Hannah Waddingham had recorded the Darlene Love classic “Christmas, Baby Please Come Home”, she requested to sing it live the day of filming and does so. And while Waddingham is a professional singer, she reminded Kelly that “Rebecca is not.” Kelly found it “amazing that the singing she does on the show is her bringing it down a few notches from what she can really do, in order to stay in character.” Of course, the Ted Lasso Christmas episode beat Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas lineup to the punch with it’s release in August (Hallmark Channel typically debuts their Christmas lineup at the end of October and runs throughout the holiday season).
Season 2, Episode 5 Easter Eggs - Rainbow
“Rainbow” is my favorite episode of the season so far. There’s plenty of easter eggs and movie references including nods to Jerry Maguire, When Harry Met Sally and Notting Hill. Higgins mentions AFC Wrexham new owners, “Showbiz magnates Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds” when he is talking to Rebecca. One might think this is a joke but it’s not. In fact, as of November 2020, McElhenney and Reynolds are the new owners of the Welsh football team. Ryan Reynolds tweeted his response to Higgins believing his ownership might be a joke. Look for a picture of George Wendt, who is Jason Sudeikis’ real-life uncle in a trio of pictures at the kabob restaurant where Roy goes to grab lunch. The other image is of Marcus Mumford, who co-wrote and sings the Ted Lasso theme song. In the kebob restaurant scene, Ted comments on the pronunciation of “GIF”. This is the same line from the pilot between Higgins and Rebecca but reversed. The speech Ted gives to Roy after he helps Isaac (Kola Bokinni) get out of his head is a mashup inspired by When Harry Met Sally, Notting Hill, Jerry Maguire and a little The Princess Bride. The Richmond couple that tells of how they became a couple and how their story inspired Titanic is similar to the interviews of couples seen in When Harry Met Sally. Before the match, Ted is startled by Dr. Fieldstone. She tells him “my door is always open.” to which he replies, “Then why even have one? Coach Beard can take that thing out for you - Jack Torrance style.” This is in reference to the main character in Stephen King’s novel, The Shining and played by Jack Nicholson in the film adaptation. When Roy finally gives in to Ted’s importunate requests, Roy stops Lasso going into a long diatribe by saying, “You had me at ‘coach’” which is a nod to the famous quote “You had me at hello.” from Jerry Maguire. Another Twitter Easter egg: Ted tells Keeley he always leaves a ticket for Roy in case he decides to come to a game, but he leaves it under the name of various country singers. When Roy finally decides what it is he is meant to do, he goes the stadium only to be told he needs a ticket for entry. He goes to will call and asks for a ticket held under “Reba McEntire”. After watching the episode, Reba McEntire tweeted:
Season 2, Episode 6 Easter Eggs – The Signal
In the opening scene where Ted gets to work and greets everyone on his way to his office, he greets Liam who has a hysterically boisterous laugh. This is a callback to the second episode of the season (“Lavender”) where Higgins mentions “Laughing Liam” and both Rebecca and he imitate his laugh When Roy threatens to go to HR, Ted replies, “Tell Mr. Pufnstuf I said, ‘Hello!’ That is a joke for people born in the early to mid 70s!” He’s referring to H. R. Pufnstuf, a character created by Sid & Marty Kroftt. The show premiered in 1969 and only lasted one season but between reruns and syndication, the cult favorite was on air until 1985 and reintroduced to audiences on TV Land in 1999. Next, Here’s What You Need to Know About Apple TV+
