Rom-Communism, Fav Rom Coms, And Doing What You’re Meant to Do

Rom-Communism, Favorite Romantic Comedies, and Doing What You’re Meant to Do on the Torg Stories Podcast

Ted Lasso Season 2, Episode 5 titled “Rainbow” Summary and Discussion Questions:

• Why is this titled “Rainbow”? Ah, the song She’s a Rainbow by the Rolling Stones.
• The episode opens with Nate in Richmond entering a restaurant called Taste of Athens trying to make dinner reservations for he and his parents for their 35th wedding anniversary. There’s a joke where I think Nate is trying to tell the hostess that it’s his parents 35th wedding anniversary and that’s the jade anniversary but it also happens to be the hostess’s name and she wants to know how he knows her name.
• More on the Jade anniversary: Jade is said to represent good luck, fortune, wealth, and wisdom, and gifts made of jade are thought to bring these qualities to the couple.
• Nate wants the window table but isn’t able to secure it. We start to develop a major plot point of this episode, Nate isn’t able to be assertive.
• Anne, I don’t think Greek food is your thing? Here’s a list: tzatziki, souvlaki, gyros, baklava, Greek salad, or grilled octopus…
• Did we already talk about it’s Marcus Mumford who wrote and sang the theme song?
• Cut to football action! For me, not a football guy, it looks good. The team loses and we go to a locker room film session. We find out Ted believes in Rom-Communism which is the belief that everything will work out in the end.
• We get a list of a bunch of rom-com stars including Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore.
• What’s your definition of a rom-com? I’d say the primary story is about whether a couple will get together and it needs to be above average funny.
• Ted shows his team film. Here’s what I do:
• The English word piles is used and I didn’t know what it means. Do you? It means hemorrhoids.
• Ted makes this joke to describe Issac the captain: He’s a wigwam in a tepee. What’s that, Anne? Too Tense.
• Keeley catches Regecca giggling as she chats on her BANTR app. The guy quotes Rilke: “Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasures.”
• Keeley passes out free cappuccino makers. We learn Dani’s mom says he was born caffeinated. Nate doesn’t get one because he is not a player. We start to see what is going to add up to quite a few Nate slights even though I don’t think they would register with us.
• There’s a joke about a call from Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, owners of Wrexham AFC. I watched and enjoyed that show but then didn’t make it back after the break. That show did give me Deadpool.
• Higgins ringtone is “She’s a Rainbow” because it’s his and his wife’s song. Previously, Keeley explained your personal brand matters in relationships too. Higgins offers a different take. The best brand is being yourself.
• Anne, the first brands that come to mind? Apple, Coke, Amazon, Nike
• Who jumps to mind personal brand? Taylor Swift, Jordan, Trump, Curry, maybe not for someone such as Clark, or waiting for it to develop?
• Famous people trying to sell me stuff?
• Nate goes to see Keeley about if she can make him famous. She takes him on as a pupil to be assertive. Anne, are you assertive?
• Roy is at his kebab place and Ted goes to see him to try and talk him into coaching and to see if he can help Isaac McAdoo.
• Do you say GIF or JIF? Think it stands for Graphics Interchange Format but maybe the person who coined it wanted it said JIF anyway. AND, do you have a place like Roy’s kebab place? I def don’t have a sanctuary place to eat. I feel like the Boone Tavern could be but I don’t go there much and I think I need more comfortable seating than that.
• Assertive training continues with Nate the Great, Keeley, and Rebecca who shows a trick she has of making herself big.
• Isaac plays pick up soccer where Roy grew up for having fun and this seems to work. McAdoodle-doo!
  • I remember doing this at ONU being bummed I didn’t get to play. Anne, any pick up sports for you? My two favorite pick ups: 3v3 at the Uptown YMCA and the lunch game in New Canaan, CT.
• Nate tries making himself big and cursing at himself but he kind of stumbles into spitting in the mirror to pump him himself up to be assertive. It works and he gets the window table for his parents anniversary. Jade declines to give him her number.

Let’s pause to see if you can tell me where these lines come from. Roy mentions them all:

1. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want to start the rest of your life as soon as possible. -When Harry Met Sally
2. I love you. You, complete me. Woman: Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at hello. – from Jerry Maguire
3. I’m also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her. -Notting Hill Julia Roberts to Hugh Grant
4. As You Wish – Princess Bride

Back to the summary and discussion questions:

1. Back to football action. We get a lot of shots of couples. They pay homage to When Harry Met Sally and get a couple talking about how they first met and what it had to do with the Richmond Football Club.
2. Rebecca is texting about football in the owner’s box, cut to Ted texting as he walks in the tunnel onto the field.
3. I have yet to develop Beard’s use of “baby” and I’d like to: Lumberjack world qualifier baby!
4. Roy gives a speech on Football Sunday saying what I’ve always said about that job. They aren’t in the fight. They just sit around and give short soundbites about games that come and go. Pays well but looks meaningless and boring! Roy says it isn’t what he’s meant to do and he makes a dramatic return to the field to join’s Ted’s coaching staff.

1. There’s a great shot near the end from behind Roy with the field in front of him.
2. Anne, if you coached basketball, what would you wear? Do you have opinions about what men and women should wear coaching basketball?

Torg’s Fav Rom Coms:

1. Notting Hill – Hugh Grant the bookshop owner and Julia Roberts the movie star as the couple with Rhys Ifans the incredibly hilarious roommate to Hugh.
2. Jerry Maguire – Tom Cruise is a sports agent and Renee Zellweger is the mother of a really cute son and she leaves her job to be Tom’s only employee. (almost not a romantic comedy for me)
3. The Princess Bride- Cary Elwes is a good guy pirate trying to get together with Robin Wright as Buttercup. Billy Crystal plays Miracle Max and there’s the Fire Swamp with the ROUS’s.
4. High Fidelity – John Cusack again owns a Chicago record store and it’s one of my favorite books too. As part of the plot, he visits his ex girlfriends to try and see what happened.
5. Sleepless in Seattle – Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan
6. Groundhog Day – Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Punxsutawney Phil live the same day over and over.
7. When Harry Met Sally – Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, can men and women just be friends?
8. If Lucy Fell – Sarah Jessica Parker and Eric Schaeffer are roommates. Also has Ben Stiller, Elle Macpherson, and Scarlett Johansson as a little girl. Sarah and Eric agree to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge if they don’t get some kind of romantic life going in 30 days.
9. Pretty Woman
10. Four Weddings and a Funeral
11. So I Married an Axe Murder with Mike Myers and Nancy Travis.

Thanks for listening to the podcast!