In Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, Jason Sudeikis plays a fish out of water soccer coach who’s defined largely by his unflagging kindness and care for the players he manages. Presumably sick of this role, or afraid of being pigeonholed as an encouraging mentor figure, Sudeikis has played a different kind of coach altogether in the latest Foo Fighters’ video—one who threatens his team of bladder-challenged synchronized swimmers in a routine based on the band’s “Love Dies Young.”
Sudeikis dons a white wig and mustache and appears with a nondescript accent and an American flag jacket. While Ted Lasso leads with kindness, this guy prefers tough love, telling his team, “I picked you up out of the water with my hands, from the scruffs of your necks, and I looked at you and said, ‘You will be a champion! Or not.’”
Rather than throw on elaborate costumes to play music video dress-up, Foo Fighters have embraced technology to have their deepfaked faces (which looks only a little unsettling) slapped onto the swimmers. The band members grin out from under their little caps, nose plugs clamped on and Dave Grohl singing the lyrics underwater.
Everything goes swimmingly until two members begin fighting, resulting in one passing out, during which Sudeikis attempts to distract the judges by pulling out his own dance moves. They still manage to pull it together and earn a perfect score, but not before someone decides to leave something unsightly behind...
The routine ends with pee in the pool and, eventually, a horrible piece of poop floating around so disgusting that the judges begin projectile vomiting in sheer horror. Pat Smear’s janitor, to clarify the Caddyshack homage, ends up sterilizing the pool and sampling the contaminating object.
When we asked whether Medicine At Midnight, the album “Love Dies Young” comes from, was “a triumph or a turd” earlier this year, we did not have this outcome in mind. Alas.
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