Season 2, episode 9 of Ted Lasso dropped an incredible Fight Club reference and it was perfect in the context of the rest of the episode. The episode, "Beard After Hours," finally devoted itself to the long-overdue task of making Brendan Hunt's Coach Beard the focus. The episode picks up right after AFC Richmond's devastating and humiliating loss to Manchester City at the famed Wembley Stadium and follows Coach Beard on what turns out to be one of the longest, strangest nights he's ever experienced.
The entire Ted Lasso season 2 episode and Coach Beard's nighttime urban odyssey was a brilliant homage to Martin Scorsese's underappreciated 1985 gem After Hours. That movie follows protagonist Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) on the worst night of his life as he gets caught in progressively more farcical situations and small disasters after he agrees to meet up with a girl he met earlier that night in a coffee shop. Ted Lasso's "Beard After Hours" is such a well-done homage that it recreates certain scenes from After Hours right down to the framing and the color palette, such as the purple cross behind Jane and on the wall of the club she's at reflecting the purple light behind the bouncer at the private club Paul finds himself stumbling to in Scorsese's film.
However, there's a reference to another revered director and one of his cult classics that eagle-eyed, or rather, cat-eared viewers may have spotted. In order to gain access to an exclusive club in the Ted Lasso episode, Coach Beard has the lads from their local pub prank call and distract the snotty front desk attendant, Sarah, by pretending to be the local fire department informing her that her apartment has burned down. As they're riding up the elevator, X remarks he feels bad for Sarah before Y points out that she'll be excited when she finds out her apartment hasn't actually burned down. "Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Sarah Coons' life. Her apartment will look more amazing to her than any place any of us have ever lived," says Coach Beard. It's an oddly-phrased line and seems out of place, but it's actually a reference to David Fincher's movie Fight Club paraphrasing some of Brad Pitt's dialogue as Tyler Durden. Of course, the context around Coach Hunt's line wasn't nearly as dark as Fight Club.
In Fincher's movie, Tyler Durden speaks his lines under much different circumstances. While out drinking with Edward Norton's Narrator, Tyler randomly grabs a convenience store clerk and drags him outside then puts a gun to his head with the pretense of robbing him. He even demands the clerk's wallet so Tyler can see his name – Raymond K. Hessel – and his address, but lets him go after making Raymond promise he'll be on his way to going back to school within the month and on the path to doing what he really wants. After Raymond runs away, the Narrator unloads on Tyler for going too far but Tyler is unfazed. "Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel's life," Tyler waxes philosophically in his bizarre way. "His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted."
In the Ted Lasso season 2 scene, the unflappable Coach Beard adopts Tyler Durden's same sanguine approach to pulling what otherwise might be considered a mean prank. It's fitting of Beard in many ways. He's made multiple references to things in his past that hint he has led a fascinating life and may very well be the most interesting character on Ted Lasso, but he is often inscrutable, and his taciturn nature means that the advice he does drop comes across as wiser and more knowing, similar to Tyler's worldly air in Fight Club.
Even the prank Coach Beard and the lads pull – convincing Sarah her apartment has burned down – is another oblique reference to Fincher's movie as it's exactly what happens to the Narrator for real in Fight Club. His apartment burning down is what sets him on his path to living with Tyler Durden. It's all just a testament to the brilliance of the Ted Lasso writers that even in the middle of a full homage to Martin Scorsese, they'd find ways to work in a complex and clever reference to David Fincher, as well.