Spoilers for Season 3 of Ted Lasso ahead. If you haven’t streamed the hit comedy, you can watch all three seasons with an Apple TV+ subscription.
“Sexy bab-eh,” “bingo el ringo,” holy guacamol-eh,” the list of silly phrases made sillier by Jamie Tartt’s Mancunian accent and Phil Dunster's hilarious performance feels never-ending. However, during Season 3 of Ted Lasso, I think his best line was cemented when he said: “It’s just poop-eh, let it flow.” Turns out, this absolutely iconic line of dialogue was also Dunster’s favorite line to say with his character’s accent, and he opened up about why.
In Season 3, Episode 1 Ted took the team down into the sewers to teach them a valuable lesson about letting negative comments and attention flow over them, like poop down a sewer. Then, when the team was all down in the dumps because they had been chosen to get last place in their league, Jamie Tartt not only lightened the mood but provided a valuable lesson by saying:
Notably, Jamie Tartt has a thick Mancunian accent that turns all his “y’s” into “eh’s” among other things, and it adds a little extra flair to all his dialogue, especially when he says goofy things. So, when Phil Dunster’s character decided to comfort the team with this life lesson they’ve all learned by way of sewers, and you add that accent on top, it’s an immaculate moment. So, it makes sense that it was also Dunster’s favorite line as he told Popsugar:
It’s gotta be ‘poop-eh.’
I 100% agree. Not only is it a hilarious line, it’s also a piece of life advice that I honestly think about frequently. This moment in Season 3 really cemented Jamie as one of my favorite characters on Ted Lasso, and it showed how much he’d grown as a character. It acted as a moment where you could clearly see Tartt’s personal growth and his drive to not only improve himself but help out his teammates. However, while the moment is both hilarious and heartfelt, it stemmed out of pure tomfoolery, as the actor said:
That was literally born out of me standing next to Brett [Goldstein] and just trying to make him laugh as much as possible. It’s just from me being an idiot, really. Aren’t I crazy? But, no, it was basically just from me being stupid [laughs] is where that came from.
I love that so much for both of these hysterical actors. It’s well-documented that Phil Dunster and Brett Goldstein love each other, and adore working together. From their bike scene in Amsterdam to that emotional moment Dunster cited as the most challenging scene to film, where Roy hugs Jamie after he has a mental breakdown, these two have proven over and over again that they’re a match made in comedy heaven.
I’m so happy these two goofing off turned into one of the show’s most iconic lines from Season 3. Getting to learn about how legendary dialogue came to be is always fun, but knowing Dunster was messing around trying to get laughs makes his legendary “poop-eh” line even better.
