Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) is from KC and people from Kansas speak in a Midwest accent. I don’t get it. I grew up in STL and lived in KC for 3 years. We don’t have southern accents. I’m I missing something?
Ted doesn’t have a Southern accent. There’s at least 40 of them too. Texas has like 10 versions, depending on what city and if in the country. Alabama has several different than Georgia, etc.
There really isn’t a “southern” accent and certainly not used by Ted.
Grew up in Kansas, Michigan, and Indiana. Mom and her family are from Alabama. My partner is from Tennessee. I know midwestern and southern accents well and his was not midwestern, it was southern. I think he used more of a Missouri accent since he lived in KC.
He speaks Kansan.
I read the character is at least partially inspired by KU head coach Bill Self, who sounds a lot like Ted Lasso. Self is originally from Oklahoma.
I grew up in the actual South and people always ask which country I’m from. Maybe because I’m Deaf or could be because assuming an accent for a place is a little racist. Not that you are racist OP, just the assumption that Everybody from this place sounds exactly the same is a little racist.
I am from the South, Ted’s accent doesn’t sound Southern at all to me. I have spent a good bit of time in KC and he sounds a lot like people I know there to me.
Grew up and live in KC- Ted’s accent is much more mid to south rural Missouri/middle rural Kansas than KC. If you met people here with that accent, I can almost guarantee they moved to “the big city” from somewhere smaller.
KC’s accent is very neutral- look at Paul Rudd, Rob Riggle, Heidi Gardner, or David Dastmalchian.
A better famous parallel might be Walt Disney, who grew up in rural Missouri with a twang before coming to KC as a kid.
There are so many layers to the Midwest accent because the region is so large. The southern states of the Mid West sound very southern while the Northern states sound more nasally. I am originally from Michigan but not so Mid West to sound like I am from Minnesota and not so Southern to sound like I am from Kansas. A lot of people have trouble placing my accent.
It’s a country accent. People from all over the US can have hints of it. The South definitely has the most elements of it but I’ve heard similar from mid Atlantic, northwest, Midwest, northeast, southwest, etc.
It’s to varying degrees but it exists.
Sudeikis has said previously that he based his character from his HS basketball coach. Being raised in KC (KS side), the accent is fairly common around here. Some find it exaggerated, but I don’t. I guess I was raised around hicks 🤷♀️
He actually grew up in Virginia and moved to KC as a teenager.
How did he attend Brookridge Elementary School in Overland Park, KS if he didn’t live here? Actually.
Honestly, we sound pretty southern to areas up north here in the US. I went to Boston and a local asked where I was from. I said Kansas and he said “you all sound like you’re from Texas!!” I’m positive it was a character choice to show that’s how we sound to people not around here.
Can confirm, I’m from the northeast and a lot of midwestern accents sound southern to me. I’m not sure if I would confuse Kansas and Texas because I think of Texas accents as pretty strong, but maybe I would.
Jason Sudeikes was raised in KS. He probably just adapted Ted’s accent from what he knew growing up.
Jason grew up in Kansas… I’m not sure there is much difference between his accent and Ted’s.
That’s not a Southern accent. That is a straight up midwestern accent, West of KC.
That is absolutely not a southern accent.
That’s not a southern accent. It’s a rural Midwest accent.