Plenty of people were talking about HBO’s The White Lotus this season, and for good reason. Between Parker Posey’s accent, Aimee Lou Wood’s scene-stealing performance, Sam Rockwell’s monologue, the Ratliff brothers’ taboo relationship, and the season’s controversial ending, there were no shortage of talking points. One topic that stood out and is likely to live on in meme form for many years to come is Ratliff patriarch Timothy’s affinity for alma mater Duke while going through an existential crisis. Throughout the season, Ratliff, played by Jason Isaacs, is seen contemplating suicide, holding a gun to his head, and daydreaming about murder-suicide scenarios to prevent his family from living destitute following the discovery of financial crimes he committed.
For pretty much the entire run of his existential crisis, Ratliff wears a blue t-shirt with the Duke logo emblazoned on the front. Screenshots of those moments, as well as various images of Timothy looking miserable while wearing his Duke shirt, have already become memes to represent Duke fans’ feelings when their men’s basketball team lost in the NCAA Tournament (which they did heartbreakingly for Blue Devils faithful). The school didn’t find it amusing, with one official telling The New York Times that the show “not only uses our brand without permission, but in our view, uses it on imagery that is troubling, does not reflect our values or who we are, and simply goes too far.”
Isaacs has responded to the controversy by doubling down and appearing at the season finale screening wearing a Duke T-shirt featuring the school’s Blue Devil mascot. “I found the whole thing faintly amusing,” he said on the Prestige Junkie podcast of the feud between the school and the show. “I don’t like anyone getting upset about anything, but clearly, it was just someone fancying seeing their name online and, in some department, wanting to go viral. Their real-life alumni are such a rogue’s gallery, many of them, that the notion that this rather spiritually enlightened character on television caused them any trouble is fanciful and ridiculous.” In fact, he plans to continue wearing a Duke shirt during his media appearances for the foreseeable future.
“I didn’t wear [a Duke T-shirt] today, if I’d known [Lowe’s son was a Duke alum,] I’d have it on now,” Isaacs said on Literally! With Rob Lowe this past week. “But I am intending to wear them whenever there’s a camera around, so sorry, Duke. There goes my honorary degree. Someone at Duke decided that was really untoward and was not happy with the association. Other people online were pointing out that there’s real-life alumni of Duke to be far more worried about than a fictional alumni.” Isaacs also added that it was his idea for Timothy to wear the Duke shirt in the show.
“I said, ‘Maybe he wears a Duke T-shirt to sleep in,’ so, we got a Duke T-shirt for me to wear when I’m sleeping in it,” Isaacs said. He told Lowe that he was “pretty sure” the show “got it cleared” even though the school has rebuked its usage publically. “I’m pretty sure they got it cleared because, as you know, you don’t ever go on television without getting all the logos cleared,” he said. “There are scenes in [White Lotus] in which I’m suicidal and even homicidal, and they are the ones in which I’m wearing my Duke T-shirt because it’s bedtime.” The whole drama is likely to die down during the summer. But once college football, and then college basketball, come back around, expect any bad Duke result to be met with an image of Isaacs in his Duke shirt.
