Jason Sudeikis Based ‘Ted Lasso’ Kindness on a Classic Improv Rule

On Ted Lasso, kindness is the top commodity. The show became a hit on Apple TV+ in 2020 as audiences responded to soccer coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis)’s good natured attitude. Ted is making a difference at AFC Richmond, too. Sudeikis said he discovered Ted’s kindness through good old fashioned improv exercises.

Sudeikis and co-creator/co-star Brendan Hunt were guests on Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Startalk Radio podcast on Dec. 17. Discussing the development of Ted Lasso’s kindness, Sudeikis took it back to his comedy training.

The comedy fundamental that made ‘Ted Lasso’ kind 

In improv comedy there are rules you follow. It’s not just a free for all of making stuff up. One rule is never to contradict a scene partner. Furthermore is the principle of “Yes and…”

“Brendan and I both come from a background on improv, improvisational comedy which is as much of playing on a team, playing team sports as much as working in a chosen family environment,” Sudeikis said on StarTalk. “Just that whole notion of yes and is sort of almost like a prayer in improv where you accept an idea, you support the idea and then you add to it.”

Improvisation led Jason Sudeikis to ‘Ted Lasso’ kindness 

Ted Lasso began as a character in NBC Sports commercials. When NBC was airing Premier League soccer matches, they hired Sudeikis to promote the broadcasts. He created Ted Lasso with Hunt and Joe Kelly. The show came years later, but Ted Lasso’s kindness was born at NBC sports.

“It was made in kindness with friends and it was sort of in the DNA of the thing,” Sudeikis said “So I think it was just rooted in the way that we all play together, specifically Brendan and I and our buddy Joe Kelly. We did these commercials back in 2013 and 2014. That’s where the character initially started.”

Sudeikis said the original commercials were improvised. Ted Lasso the series is fully scripted.

Even the way we went about making those commercials for NBC Sports with the Tottenham Hotspurs, etc. we didn’t write a script. This isn’t a thing we invented. They do this all the time on shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm where we just had beats written out, but this is a multi, multi million dollar ad campaign. I wouldn’t say we were winging it because there was absolute intention behind everything we were doing. We just didn’t have a hard copy of the script that people were going through. We just trusted each other. 

As long as people laughed they kept going 

Eventually, Bill Lawrence joined Sudeikis, Hunt and Kelly to adapt Ted Lasso for Apple TV+. It got that far because the original three kept making each other laugh. So they just yes anded themselves to a streaming series.

“Brendan and I knew if we were making Joe laugh and I was making Brendan and Joe laugh and Joe was making Brendan and I laugh, when you have that alchemy of a little triangle, you just know that there’s good stuff happening there,” Sudeikis said. “So we just followed that.”