Taskmaster

[LowCalCalzoneZone]

I think everyone I knew fell in love with Rose Matafeo a little bit that season, and Katy Wix was quiet but adorably weird.

Plus, you had Team "Old People Can't Be Bothered By Such Unimportant Things As Timescales or Instructions" in the form of Jo Brand and David Baddiel, versus Ed "Hypercompetitive" Gamble, which made for some entertaining bits in the studio as Gamble raged impotently in the face of their complete disinterest.

The task where Jo and David stopped to make a sandwich and have a cup of tea - not because they were playing up to the cameras and trying to be funny, simply because they wanted a brew and a sandwich - has to be one of my favourite Taskmaster moments

 

[Gilmoregirl18]

The last episode I honestly laughed out loud, what a way to end an amazing series.
At the start I wasn’t looking forward to any of the lineup, but they have all made me laugh especially Ardal and Judi, the light relief i didn’t know i needed.

 

[AngryBird]

That's why this show works and why comedians work best. The quick off the cuff quips and lack of worry about looking silly make this the gem it is.

 

[ButtonDownTheHutches]

Ooooooh, new series starts this Thursday!!!!!!

 

[Lola UK]

Taskmaster always makes me laugh out loud, even when I’m having a super bad day! It’s definitely becoming a comfort show.

I also had completely missed out a series?! Series 11!! So I’m watching that too! LOVE Mike Wozniak!

 

[runningbutnotinfluencing]

I assume scheduling couldn’t be worked out but I’m quite happy - he’s much more entertaining than Mae who was just robotic in executing the tasks

 

[Ratatat-tit]

Just rewatching some old ones and I definitely think it's the tasks that are lacking not the contestants. The best bits of tasks IMO is when either a. The contestant finds a sneaky way around the task b. The contestant finds Alex's sneaky tricks and the others don't c. When the best way to do it is revealed in the studio

I feel like its lost the sneaky element, and people are just dicks to alex because its show lore rather than because he's genuinely been a trickster. I think the show works best when alex appears to be some kind of imp character rather than we are just shown the task and it's straightforward who has won.

 

[LittleMissOnions]

What a horrid individual Sue Perkins is.
That story about 'my ex' being a big eater and wearing an adult nappy knowing full well everyone will assume it is Anna Richardson.

I’ve always disliked her since an incident involving Giles Coren (being his mate is enough) a couple of school girls had to read an article of his in school, they tweeted saying it was rubbish and made derogatory comments (they were 14yr old idiots and it was clear from the tweets that they were young) he responded by threatening to rape their father, yet SP rang the school to complain about their behaviour and demanded that they were the ones to be punished, not a word about her mates threats.

 

[mindlessness]

I think they purposely did the cake task on this ep because it was the 100th! Which makes sense - referencing one of the most iconic moments on the show on a milestone ep.

I still do really enjoy this show - I like the silliness and frivolity and the competitiveness that comes out.

 

[Katykatykaty]

I’ve always really like Mel and Sue with Mel being my favourite of the pair. I do like Sue individually when she’s done other things but I’m just not sure she fully gets the vibe of Taskmaster but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I like Lucy for the first couple ditzy comments but then it starts to annoy me.
I’m not a massive fan of Julian - I just don’t get dead pan comedy and I wish he had a bit more energy to him.
I’d never heard of Susan or Sam but I’m enjoying them on TM. Sam hiding behind Greg in the live task last week had me howling as did Susan’s “30 grand!”

Overall this series seems really flat, like it’s lost its shine completely. I think it’s a mix of dull tasks, dull contestants and Alex’s “comedy” bits wearing thin now. Normally I’m engrossed with a series and laughing throughout but this time around I find I’m on my phone for half of it. Hopefully it’s back on track for the next series.

 

[HoGi]

The final task on this week's episode was brilliant. I actually laughed out loud several times, which can't be said for many of the recent tasks.

 

[LByrne74]

Sending so much love & I hope watching this gave you much needed respite. X

Sorry just saw this now. Thank you so much. Yes watching Taskmaster did indeed provide respite. As did coming onto Tattle for the latest celebrity gossip, in my mothers final weeks and after her death. It was one of my lifelines.

 

[nbt]

Really enjoyed tonight’s episode. Laughed out loud a few times which I’ve not done in a while at this show. It reminded me of the older series.

 

[Lostcat]

Sam reminds me of a young Christopher Walken.

In that they both seem to be aliens pretending to be people, with only the very vaguest idea of normal human interactions? Oh, absolutely.

Though his shocked face as he realised that Lucy Beaumont could effortlessly and unwittingly out-weird him, just by being herself? Absolutely golden.

 

[Lostcat]

Anyone know how they managed to film at the airport? Surely airports are open 24/7?

One of Gatwick two terminals was closed right up until March 2022 due to reduced demand during/post lockdown. You could hire it out for filming though: apparently a fair amount of movies and TV shows took them up on that offer, I would expect to see it a good few times in shows over the next 18 months!

It was a fun episode. Fern is so delightfully weird, I would like to see her do her live act, I'll need to keep an eye out for tickets.

Dara continues to be my favourite, he's so quick-witted in the live sections, I could watch him and Greg verbally bounce off each other all day. John Kearns was a little better this episode in that he did actually seem to be trying at the tasks, though I still don't get the appeal that he seems to have to so many viewers. I find myself getting very irritated by his extremely passive presence in the studio.

 

[Jelly Bean]

MUCH better tonight.
Has some of the old spirit task wise.
And I could not love Sam Campbell any more.

 

[November_again]

I loved Susan on RADA - "I know it's annoying but it's literally all I've got"

Susan is so likable, happy for her to get this exposure.

Julian was also his snarky best:

"One of your better efforts"
"heterosexual male banter"
"Do you want me to bend over?"
"Do we have a problem?" "No, Sir"

Joe Wilkinson was on Richard Herring's podcast this week and they talked about Taskmaster and what I found interesting was that he got 4k per episode, so that's 40k for a 10 episode series during the Dave run and most likely much more these days on Channel 4.

 

[EyeSpy88]

Oh no I loved them both on it. I think Jessica is one of my all time favourite contestants.

the live/studio task when she fell off the stage, honestly I still laugh now after watching it quite a few times and she handled it really well so fair play to her too!

 

[Chinese_whispers]

I quite like Jimmy Carr, but I don't think he'd be that good on Taskmaster - in the same sort of presenter/comedian hybrid, I don't think it's the show for Rob Brydon either.

I saw on a few Facebook comments over the past few weeks that people were disappointed that Sean Lock never got to be on the show. I feel like he would have been great at the prize tasks but not really on board with the rest of it. Agree about Rob Brydon.

 

[Chinese_whispers]

Find yourself someone who looks at you the way Greg looks at Sally Phillips in S5