My soul is getting a much-need refueling these days from the cheery optimism of Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso. For those unfamiliar with the series, it’s a dramedy in which Jason Sudeikis’s Ted is an American football coach hired to head up a losing English football (that is, soccer) team, despite having absolutely no experience with or knowledge about the sport (he doesn’t even understand the rules at first). But even as things go wrong, as of course they do, he remains unflaggingly upbeat. His own personal motto — “Believe” — becomes something for the team to rally around. While some of the other characters might occasionally find Ted annoyingly chipper, Sudeikis makes him genuinely delightful, and the show is never sentimental or cloying.
“Believe” has me wondering:
What are the greatest one-word catchphrases in pop-culture history?
Two that come to mind immediately are Homer Simpson’s “Doh!” (from The Simpsons, of course) and the Fonz’s “Ayyyyy!” (from Happy Days).
"Excelsior!" - Stan Lee
"Engage." - Capt. Jean-Luc Picard