Roy Kent’s constant swearing in ‘Ted Lasso’ is an effing delight

Welcome to Thanks, I Love It, our series highlighting something onscreen we’re obsessed with this week.

Around 12 minutes into the Ted Lasso pilot we hear the sexy, rage-filled gurgle of Roy Kent’s voice for the first time. He and the team are gathered before a television screen watching Coach Lasso’s first AFC Richmond press conference, and as the commotion grows, Roy mutes the locker room by shouting, “Oi! If I don’t hear silence I’m gonna start punching dicks.”

Viewers may be startled by Roy’s foulmouthed introduction, but they’ll soon learn that profanities are an inextricable part of the seasoned team captain’s personality. (Not to mention, “punching dicks” is mild compared to the deluge of colorful language Roy will drop throughout the series.)

You see, the legendary footballer — brilliantly played by Brett Goldstein — loves to swear. He’s always dropping f-bombs, slinging s- and a-words with ease, and sprinkling in British curses to keep things fresh. He cusses nearly every time he’s on screen, and, crucially, in every social setting imaginable. Whether he’s addressing authority figures, walking a charity benefit red carpet, or speaking to a group of primary school kids, Roy Kent refuses to censor his filthy mouth.

He just doesn’t give a fuck, and I must admit, it’s endearing as hell.

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In Season 1, fans get a taste of Roy’s penchant for swearing when he does things like call Ted (Jason Sudeikis) “Ronald Fucking McDonald” or shout “FUCK!” after reading the end of A Wrinkle In Time out loud to his adoring niece Phoebe (Elodie Blomfield). Ted Lasso is a mature comedy set in the UK, and Roy Kent is definitely (at least partially) inspired by former Manchester United player Roy Keane — a man known for using his fair share of expletives. So Roy’s swearing has always made sense. But in Season 2, which premiered on AppleTV+ on July 23, the writers (including Goldstein himself, who asked to play Roy after he’d already been writing for the show) make a clear effort to lean even deeper into the character’s love of cursing.

As Roy struggles to adjust to retirement and find new purpose in his life, he heavily relies on his R-rated vocabulary crutches. In Season 2’s first episode, Roy is reprimanded for calling a group of 8-year-olds “little pricks” while coaching Phoebe’s football team. He’s always freely sworn in front of Phoebe, and she’s called him out on occasion, but his influence on her and her vocabulary is thoroughly explored this season.

“He swears a lot.” – Phoebe after being asked to close her eyes and describe her Uncle Roy
Credit: appletv+

After viewers learn that Roy owes Phoebe one pound every time he swears, Keeley (Juno Temple) brings up a sports pundit job opportunity, which really gets Roy going.

“I don’t want to be a fucking football pundit and sit on fucking telly in a dumb fucking suit like a know-it-all twat. It’s a shit job for shit people. I’d rather shit out my own fucking mouth than do that fucking shit,” he explains in a single angry breath.

Once the swear parade concludes, Keeley turns to Phoebe (who’s been hard at work tallying her uncle’s curses) and asks, “Where we at now?”

“1,236 pounds,” Phoebe replies without missing a beat. That’s quite the tab, Uncle Roy.

In Season 1, swearing was almost exclusively used to help characters express anger or elicit laughs from the audience. But this time around, writers took the inclusion of foul language to whole new levels. In building on the swearing success of the first 10 episodes, Season 2 uses cursing for narrative purposes and even shows a self-aware Roy calling out his own potty mouth once or twice.

The magic behind Roy Kent cursing

Anyone who’s seen Ted Lasso knows that Roy isn’t only character in the series who swears. Curses fly freely in each episode, but nobody’s bad words stand out quite like his. That’s because the true magic behind Roy Kent’s cursing lies not just in frequency, but in Goldstein’s impeccable delivery.

Brett Goldstein, quite simply, has mastered the art of swearing. He joins the letters F-U-C-K together with the same level of passion that Olympic athletes give their respective sports. And he uses a winning combination of crystal clear enunciation, varying inflections, and fierce brow furrows and growls to give a new, energizing flair to tired old curse words.

Brett Goldstein, quite simply, has mastered the art of swearing.

As Coach Nate (Nick Mohammed) said in a memorable Season 1 locker room scene, Roy’s anger is his superpower. It’s true that at times he can erupt like Old Faithful. But what makes Roy’s angry, expletive-filled outbursts so enjoyable is the knowledge that underneath his rough, “brunette Oscar the Grouch” exterior is a complex, emotionally intelligent, empathetic man with a marshmallow center.

Roy doesn’t just swear when he’s angry, he swears when he’s verklempt. You can tell he cares deeply about someone or something in his life when there’s an uptick in foul language. Towards the end of Season 2, Episode 1, for instance, Roy gives an impassioned speech about dating and tells Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham): “You deserve someone who makes you feel like you’ve been struck by FUCKING lightning. Don’t you dare settle for fine.”

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Seeing tough characters swear onscreen is so typical that it barely registers with me as a viewer anymore. But Roy’s curse words are laced with an added layer of charm, because he can hold his own in a fight, but he also wears novelty socks, regularly does yoga and drinks rosé with a group of women in their 60s, went viral for sobbing during his retirement speech, and would — I believe literally — kill and die for his sister’s kid.

His heart is crucial to his character’s likability, but without all the swearing he just wouldn’t be Roy fucking Kent.

The Ted Lasso Season 2 premiere is now streaming, with new episodes dropping every Friday on AppleTV+.