Straights & Curves: Holy fools
Ted Lasso's uplifting ridiculousness and other stories.
Welcome back to Breakfast Club’s Straights & Curves digest for curious athletes and outdoorsy folks: 5 stories to start your week, recapped to read in less than 4 minutes.
5) Ted Lasso: Holy fool
Why is Lasso so compelling? Tish Harrison-Warren posits that the title character from Apple’s hit TV show follows the religious archetype of the holy fool. (NY Times)
Truth within silliness. In the Russian Orthodox tradition, the holy fool is a person who flouts social conventions to demonstrate allegiance to God. They feign insanity, provoking both outrage and new perspective through unruly goofiness.
Lasso, an American football coach, knows nothing about soccer. He angers fans with his unconcern about winning matches.
He wins them over by leaning into his own ridiculousness to point out that what’s seen as “success” in the world of professional English football is hollow and vain.
Ted is not a perfect man:
“Lasso carries around an aching loneliness. His marriage has dissolved…
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