Rob McElhenney wants to be fluent enough to tell jokes in Welsh

Rob McElhenney has said he wants to be fluent enough in Welsh to be able to tell jokes in the language.

The Wrexham AFC co-owner alongside Ryan Reynolds has started learning Welsh after the Hollywood duo’s takeover of the club.

Rob shared his ambition during a Newyddion interview on S4C, with journalist Maxine Hughes, who is also his Welsh language teacher.

The Washington correspondent played a comedic translator in one of Rob’s Wrexham adverts with Ryan Reynolds.

Maxine asked: “Are you going to carry on until you can speak fluently do you think?”

Rob replied: “I hope so. I mean at least in football speak. I mean look, in an ideal world, what I would like to be able to do is tell jokes.

“If you can be funny in another language, that’s as fluent as I would be happy to be.”

Maxine said: “I mean honestly both you and Ryan have really been elevating the Welsh language on a global platform. Do you realise how much that’s done for the language?”

Rob replied: “No, no, I mean from our perspective and certainly from my perspective, I just thought it was really important to delve into the culture and into the people as much as I could, and the best way to do that is to understand the language that people speak.

“So of course I’m very early in my learning but it’s really important to me that I continue on with it.”