Ted Lasso gets even more wholesome with a Rankin/Bass-inspired Christmas special
In this special, Ted's mustache goes rogue and disappears from his face. The Richmond gang help him find it
Ted Lasso has done more than enough for the holiday season this year with its delightfully corny Christmas episode from the show’s second season, but Apple TV+ gave us the surprise gift of a Ted Lasso claymation short anyway.
The Rankin/Bass-inspired special is somehow more wholesome than Ted Lasso’s second season altogether. For starters, this claymation Nate is still sporting his dark hair, and he wishes everyone a merry Christmas within the first fifteen seconds. And when Higgins winks and says, “Don’t ever change, Nate,” it’s clear that the claymation creators are being tongue-in-cheek and joking about Nate’s transformation into a monster in the second season’s finale.
Roy also stops by the locker room to say “[Bleep] Merry Christmas”—but he ruins the sweet moment by noting that one of his presents to Keeley was doing this good deed, “so Merry fucking Christmas.”
Of course, this special is called “The Missing Christmas Mustache” for a reason. The mustachioed coach loses his mustache, so Rebecca asks everyone to chip in to try to find the runaway ‘stache. And in the meantime, Keeley decides to make Ted’s face less strikingly bare with marker-drawn mustache, that makes him look like John Waters, as Ted points out. (Do we think Ted has actually watched Waters’ movies? Would love his thoughts on Pink Flamingo.)
Roy, out of the kindness of his heart, makes a nice—yet bizarre, even for a claymation—gesture by ripping off his bushy eyebrows so Ted can use them as a mustache. Unfortunately, that option isn’t a good fit for Ted either as it makes him look more like Magnum P.I. than Ted Lasso.
Luckily, in the true magic of Christmas, Ted’s mustache pops up back on his face just in time for him to FaceTime with his son, Henry.