Ted Lasso had its own feel-good Christmas episode in season two. But the Apple TV+ show isn’t done celebrating the holiday season just yet. Everyone’s favorite English Premier League coach has returned with an old-fashioned stop-motion animated short. And “The Missing Christmas Mustache” has all of AFC Richmond on the case. Because the last thing anyone wants to find under their tree is rogue facial hair.
Apple TV+ has what it calls an “early present” for fans of Ted Lasso. This surprise stop-motion short is a throwback to classic Rankin/Bass holiday fare. It stars Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster, and Nick Mohammed. They all voice adorable little claymation versions of themselves. (Note to Apple: We’d buy all of these as figures.)
Everything begins okay. As they all wish each other a Merry Christmas inside the team’s locker room. Things take an unfortunate turn though when Ted shows up without his mustache. Where did it go? No one knows. What does it want? That’s the real terror. Can Roy’s eyebrows replace it? No, too bushy.
Things look bleak for Ted’s FaceTime call with his son after Rebecca, Jamie, Coach Hunt, Nate (this is obviously set pre-betrayal), Higgins, Roy, and Keeley efforts to find the missing mustache prove fruitless. Or rather, hairless. Alternate solutions don’t prove anymore successful either. Though it does lead to everyone finding out Higgins can pull off a Clark Gable look.
But this is Ted Lasso we’re talking about. And this is a Christmas special no less. So everything works out in the end when AFC Richmond’s manager’s mustache miraculously returns in time for Ted’s call with Henry.
Which gives us hope for a positive ending to the live-action show’s own current story, “Nate’s Missing Morality.” For now though we hope Santa gives him coal.
