In keeping with the overriding themes of sincerity and wholesomeness in the multi-award-winning seasons of US comedy sports drama Ted Lasso, the series has released a new claymation Christmas special.

Just ahead of the big day next week, the four-minute short, titled Ted Lasso: The Missing Christmas Mustache, features Ted searching for his lost moustache with his animated cast (voiced by the real cast) pulling out all the stops to help him get it back on his face.

Jason Sudeikis (Ted), Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca), Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard), Jeremy Swift (Higgins), Juno Temple (Keeley), Brett Goldstein (Roy), Phil Dunster (Jamie) and Nick Mohammed (Nate), reprise their roles in claymation form.

“The special, like the series itself, features Ted, in his own way, delivering an important message about the holidays,” says The Hollywood Reporter.

Stay with me.

In an October interview with the magazine after season two wrapped, co-creator Bill Lawrence spoke about the claymation opening credits that were featured in episode four ‘Carol of the Bells’.

“It’d be cool if we had a Claymation Christmas special,” he said at the time.

And here it is.

And here’s the parable: His colleagues and friends go all out to help Ted find his “snot mop” after it goes missing, donating their eyebrows, bringing out a black beard from a disguise kit box, smashing a car window to search for it (even though Ted doesn’t own a car) and there’s even an attempt to scribble a Clark Gable pencil strip on his upper lip.

As a Zoom meeting approaches with his son Henry back in the US, and he’s stressing about being seen without his iconic moustache – of which there are multiple Twitter profiles simply called variations of Ted Lasso’s moustache – this lost item makes Ted panic, thinking he’s going to ruin Christmas.

And just then, he realises the true meaning of Christmas, as he says to his Zoom colleagues: “I realise that not having my moustache, it ain’t the end of the world … cause it’s not about making Christmas perfect for the people you love, it’s the people you love that make Christmas perfect.”

His moustache returns to its rightful place above his lip. Just like Tom Selleck would have wanted.

“Hey, everyone. Have a perfect Christmas, I mean an imperfect Christmas. ‘Cause it’s imperfections that make it, well you get it. You saw what we’re going for, right?” Ted says.

Tweet from @AppleTV

Is this redemption after ‘unspeakably bad’ episode?

Paste Magazine‘s Shane Ryan wrote a review on August 13 after the Christmas episode aired, describing the entire episode (albeit shown in the middle of the US summer) as “just unspeakably bad”.

“The lowlight comes in Episode 4, the Christmas episode. Here, it’s like the writers abandoned any pretence of a coherent plot and barely even put forth any effort into being funny.

“It is all about sentiment, but it’s more transparent and shallow than a Hallmark movie, and frankly, far less enjoyable,” he wrote.

In September, Ted Lasso scored 20 Emmys nods, including for best comedy series and lead actor Jason Sudeikis. Photo: Apple TV+

But by all accounts, this stop-motion animation has captured the hearts of all and comes right on cue with THR reporting the show is currently writing season three of the comedy, which recently was named an AFI Television Program of the Year.

“Production is expected to begin early next year for a summer 2022 debut.

“The cast and writers of Ted Lasso recently secured sizeable salary increases for season three, as producers Warner Bros TV and Apple TV+ are also negotiating linear rights to the comedy.”

Let’s put episode four behind us and celebrate the nominations, announced on Tuesday.

Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) received four Golden Globe nominations, the second-most nominations for a TV show behind Succession (with five), including best TV series (musical or comedy).

And opposition awards program, the Critics Choice Awards, also gave a nod to Ted Lasso in four categories: Best Comedy Series, Jason Sudeikis for Best Actor in a Comedy Series, Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham also got best supporting actor/actress nods.