There have been some great ongoing bits throughout television history – like the Slap Bet in How I Met Your Mother. However, one that’s more recent, and a personal favorite of mine, is the gag from Ted Lasso about the goalie Zoreaux and the evolution of his name. The Canadian football player was constantly reminding people that his name was not pronounced “Zorro” in Season 1, it was subtly different. Then in Season 3, he suffered an injury that led him to accept the pronunciation as he donned the Mask of Zorro. It was a hilarious inside joke, with a great payoff. But, to pull it off, the finale’s director Declan Lowney explained that it was actually a bit “complicated and convoluted.”
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So, the Season 3 finale of Ted Lasso was loaded with callbacks and jokes made for longtime fans of AFC Richmond. From teasing fans about Ted and Rebecca to an A+ Cheers reference in Mae’s bar, the episode is packed with detail and care, and it’s a big reason why this comedy is one of Apple TV+’s best shows. Another one of those jokes came when Dani Rojas gifted Zoreaux (who was going by Van Damme at the time) a black mask. Earlier in Season 3, Dani had injured the goalie, and at the end of the episode, he offered an olive branch by way of this Zorro-like mask.
This moment brought the ongoing joke about Zoreaux’s name full circle. In Season 1, Ted kept saying “Zorro,” and the goalie kept correcting him. Eventually, he changed his name to Van Damme. Then when he got the black mask from Dani, which looks like Antonio Banderas’ Zorro mask, he declares that he’ll now be Zorro, making his mask The Mask of Zorro. Admittedly, this joke is pretty inside baseball, and probably made for massive fans. According to Declan Lowney in an interview with CinemaBlend, that is one of the reasons shooting the mask reveal was a bit “complicated and convoluted.” He told me:
The mask was complicated and convoluted. And if you’re not privy to all the detail in earlier episodes, you know, the director may not understand some of these things. And there may have been an element of that.
Being “privy” to the overarching story is vital, and with directors switching up consistently on television shows, tracking an ongoing joke, like this one, must be a challenge. Along with that, Lowney said shooting the reveal was also a bit difficult, he said:
When we came to shooting it, and Dani Rojas opens the box, I know I took a shot of the mask in the box. But we didn’t think it looked that fantastic, but we had it. But I noticed the other day in the final edit the shot is gone. And Jason [Sudeikis] must have taken it out because maybe he felt the reveal was better when you saw it on his face. So I shot the box, and you see Zoreaux go ‘Oh wow!’ And then he cut away and then you come back he’s wearing it. And so I think maybe he felt the reveal was better on his face.
Declan Lowney continued to explain the behind-the-scenes mentality about the Zorro joke. He said everyone on Ted Lasso cares deeply about detail, and they wanted to make sure they shot enough options that the moment would be well done and pay off in the way they wanted. The Emmy-nominated director said:
So you’re always trying to give yourself those reveal moments, and it is something Jason will talk about a lot with the director. You know, while you’re directing it, it’s like, ‘Is this the reveal? Is that the reveal? I think that’s gonna be funnier if we do the reveal that way.’
Well, the reveal was hilarious, and the payoff of a joke that lasted all three seasons was so satisfying. Much like seeing Phil Dunster recreate a classic Jason Sudeikis bit in the finale, the Mask of Zorro joke was another detail that made longtime fans, like me, so happy, and I think it’s one of Ted Lasso’s best running jokes.
If you are interested in seeing Zoreaux’s hilarious story with his name and getting his own Mask of Zorro, you can stream all three seasons of Ted Lasso with an Apple TV+ subscription.