TV Jason Sudeikis reveals origin of his famed SNL dance and why he did it again on Ted Lasso The Emmy nominee has been entertaining people with his Running Man for decades. By Clark Collis Clark Collis Senior Writer EW's editorial guidelines Published on July 26, 2021 01:16PM EDT Viewers of Ted Lasso learned in the show's pilot episode that Jason Sudeikis' football coach became a viral sensation by performing an extremely enthusiastic version of the Running Man while celebrating his team's victory. But the dance's origin story began way before that. "It's the same dance I did when I was 15 years old and one of the few white kids on a basketball team in Kansas City to make my teammates laugh," Sudeikis explains. During his time on Saturday Night Live, the comedian revived the choreography for his red tracksuit-clad character in the Kenan Thompson-fronted What Up With That? sketches that began in 2009. "Trust me, man, there's nothing I've done on SNL that people have enjoyed more, spoken to me more about, than that dancing on What Up With That?" says Sudeikis. "When people ask me [about] a favorite sketch, in those final three seasons or so I think it was doing What Up With That? It became one of those sketches that, when the set would start to be built on stage during a commercial break, you'd hear the energy in the f---ing room change. Everybody had a role, everybody had a function, everybody would make each other laugh. It's the best. It is literally the basketball of winning by f---ing 50 points and everybody scores 20. You look at the score sheet afterward and you're like, 'Oh my God, everybody scored 20 points!' Who's player of the game? The show is." Years later, Sudeikis decided to strut his stuff again as Ted. "The irony and the beauty is that I went through all this [comedy] training, did all this stuff, and the same thing that I did at 15 is the same thing I did at the beginning of [Ted Lasso]," he says. Season 2 of Ted Lasso is currently screening on Apple TV+. Related content: Ted Lasso review: Season 2 is sweeter, weirder, and almost as funny Ted Lasso star says playing Rebecca brought 'catharsis' for real-life 'verbally abusive relationship' Jason Sudeikis created the 'best version of myself' with Ted Lasso