I dunno’ if you’ve noticed but there’s a lot of outrage in the World right now.

Sure, there’s plenty of good reason for much of it. There are plenty of good reasons to despair. The economy is bad. The climate is changing. The pandemic has left us sick and exhausted. It’s winter. All of us are feeling spent.

As someone who spends a good chunk of his day professionally doom-scrolling, I can’t help but notice that uncertain times often bring out the worst in people. We don’t trust each other. We’re intolerant. Our political discourse is nasty and tribal.

Maybe that’s why I’ve been so surprised, so delighted over the last few weeks to find a reprieve from the gloom and funk. Throughout this winter of discontent, I’ve been astonished at just how much joy I’ve found… in a TV show.

To be honest, I’m embarrassed about the whole thing. Embarrassed for a few reasons. First of all, I’m embarrassed it’s taken me so long to watch this TV show, given it’s already aired several seasons, has won all sorts of awards, and has been recommended to me a million times over by all and sundry. And honestly, I feel a little embarrassed to admit that a popular comedy, made by Hollywood mega-studios for the broadest possible audience, could tickle me quite as much as it has.

The show is Ted Lasso. It’s on Apple TV+. If you haven’t seen it, the premise is pretty simple: An American football coach moves from Kansas to London, from coaching college football to coaching an English Premier League football club. This, despite the fact he has no experience coaching football and doesn’t understand the sport’s history, culture, or rules.

It’s a comedy that pokes fun at the differences between Britain and the U.S. It pokes fun at football culture in both countries. It pokes fun at class divisions and celebrity culture.

But really, it isn’t a show about football. Most of the Premier League in-jokes fly right over my girlfriend’s head but she’s still more enthralled by the story than I am. It isn’t a show about sport. It’s a show about one man, whose infectious, charming, unwavering decency and irrepressible optimism slowly turns a profoundly cynical World, one person at a time.

I can’t imagine the writers ever pitched it that way. It wouldn’t have won over any network executives to say, ‘We just want to make a show about a nice guy who treats people incredibly well.’ That wouldn’t fly. And honestly, if you told me that was the premise of Ted Lasso, I would probably never have got around to watching it.

But I’ve found Ted Lasso refreshing. It does what all good art does. It sits with me. It lifts me. I still think about it, days after I last watched an episode.

I can see ‘Ted Lasso’ becoming a verb. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Can you ‘Ted Lasso’ a person or a situation? Sure you can. I’m sure, all over the World, there have been little moments of decency or acts of kindness inspired by Ted Lasso. Imagine if instead of sniping and bickering, we all took a page from Ted’s book, once in a while.

WWTLD? What Would Ted Lasso Do?

This will sound crazy. And I’m only admitting it because I feel it’s what the main protagonist would do. In a way, the best episodes of Ted Lasso have affected me, quite profoundly.

Ted Lasso’s character exists to make a fictional World a better place. And though you can write it off as a silly TV show, I reckon Ted Lasso might be making the real World just bit better, too.