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Taskmaster is a British game show where comedians vie for the approval of the all powerful Taskmaster by completing mundane tasks he's too lazy to do himself. The show only has two permanent members: Greg Davies  The Taskmaster himself. A giant bear of a man, magnificent and magnimonious. Contestants compete for a replica of his head, which is awarded to the player with the most overall points at the end of a season.  Greg himself is 6" 8', and a former schoolteacher before he went into comedy fulltime. He'll fully admit himself he was kind of a poo poo teacher, but you can see the former teacher in his attitude fairly regularly. Alex Horne  Otherwise known as "Little Alex Horne". The Taskmaster's tiny and pathetic assistant. Actually, Alex is quite tall, at 6" 2', and he's the brains behind the show. Which he made because he was jealous a friend did better at a comedy festival than him. Jealous roots aside, he liked the idea and ran with it. He didn't want to present himself though, since he knew the show needed someone more aloof and capricious in that role. Hence Greg. Alex and Greg are good friends in real life, but Greg has said that for some reason he's taken on the show's conceit during film, and Alex's little gestures and attempts at comedy, which he normally finds fun, just annoy him most of the time during filming. Which he makes pretty clear in the moment. Alex comes up with the games, and keeps track of them along with the score while Greg decides the winners (and losers) of more ambiguous tasks based entirely on his whimsy. Edit: Reposting "Heavy_D"'s guide to watching the show with permission. Heavy_D posted:Where can I watch it? tsob fucked around with this message at 11:28 on May 28, 2021 |
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May 28, 2021 04:34
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 06:46 |
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After some discussion in The Great British Programming Discussion it was decided to make a dedicated Taskmaster thread, as well as to make the thread a re-watch, to promote discussion of the show (and stop said discussion dominating the UK thread). The show recently started an official podcast, helmed by season 9's Ed Gamble (who is staunchly opposed to ever giving up control of the podcast, as a fan of the show as well as former contestant), and each episode of the podcast reviews one episode of the show, usually with a guest from the season. The podcast has already discussed seasons one and two, as well as season ten and eleven as they aired and just started on season three, so the watch along will just fall in line with that. As such, season three: The contestants are: Al Murry, Dave Gorman, Paul Chowdry, Rob Beckett & Sara Pascoe. Al is a stand up comedian, best known for his comic persona the pub landlord, who is an obnoxiously patriotic British stereotype. He also does some history channel style stuff, and is a bit of a war buff from what I gather. Dave is a stand up and television presenter who uses graphics and displays as a large part of his comedy, and is a big fan of traditional games so Taskmaster seems like something that'd be in his wheelhouse. Paul is, at least to me, unknown outside of this show. Rob is a guest on panel shows, but that's about all I know him from. Sara is also a frequent panel show guest, but does some television writing to, to my knowledge. If you're on the fence about Taskmaster, or have never watched it, then I recommend watching this task: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyQyBTXlpmg Which was the first (proper) task of the first episode of the show. Where things start rather sedately with Josh Widdicombe eating a watermelon normally, to establish a baseline then quickly build with Frank Skinner being a bit weird about it and Roisin Conaty completely missing the point of the task before climaxing strongly as Romesh Ranganathan and Tim Key come in like a pair of loving savages. The value of the show in any individual season is dependent on whether you like the guests or not, but it's generally agreed that even seasons with people you don't like are pretty good as a baseline and that a weak season of Taskmaster is still a strong season by most show's standards. As this is a watch-along based on the podcast, we'll just set the watch time for new discussion based on the podcast, which puts out new episodes every Thursday. So feel free to discussion episodes spoiler free after they "air" Thursdays, and try not to discuss seasons 4 through 9 at all. As the podcast has already covered seasons 1, 2, 10 and 11 though, people can watch them at their leisure and discuss them as they wish in the thread. You can't really spoil a show like Taskmaster, beyond revealing winners of individual episodes or seasons (so don't do that), but nothing in one season is going to spoil a subsequent season, so you can watch them or discuss them any time you'd like if you have a hankering for more Taskmaster between episodes. tsob fucked around with this message at 04:42 on May 28, 2021 |
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May 28, 2021 04:34
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As initial discussion, I can say that you get a taste of the contestants for this season right off the bat. Al basically tries to solve problems by throwing money at them, since he's pretty well off, Dave comes off as quite savvy and someone who loves games normally but loses himself in the moment and just goes with the first thing he thinks of, good or bad, and bless his heart, but Paul is kind of lost most of the time. Edit: Well poo poo, forgot to select a thread tag and hosed up the title with a typo. Oh well. tsob fucked around with this message at 04:54 on May 28, 2021 |
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May 28, 2021 04:37
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Heavy_D posted:Where can I watch it? I can't believe I forgot something this elementary; teach me not to try and make threads at 4 o'clock in the morning when I just want to go to bed, I guess. Regardless, can I copy/paste this into the OP?
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May 28, 2021 11:04
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That was the suggestion in the thread, but I don't mind changing it to be just starting at season one, if people want to start at the start. I have no problem with an excuse to re-watch the show.
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May 28, 2021 14:33
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I'll give it a day or two for people to throw opinions in the thread, and then change the opening posts to reflect that if people want to just start with the first season.
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May 28, 2021 15:12
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drunken officeparty posted:Jo Brand is the worst contestant I actually like Jo when she talks about her experience as a psychiatric nurse and the health industry in general, since she has a more direct insight into it than most comedians. Sadly, that's quite rare, and outside that I agree that she can be very trying. She mostly falls back on either self deprecating fat jokes, jokes about how she hates her husband or "lol so random" answers, usually naming a minor celebrity for something that it's obviously not the answer to, like historical figures or what have you. tsob fucked around with this message at 21:51 on May 28, 2021 |
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May 28, 2021 21:26
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 06:46 |
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Heavy_D posted:If the right schedule is to watch the episode the day before the new podcast, then tomorrow is Taskmaster Day. I was kind of hoping by keeping quiet for a few days while I was mostly busy with other stuff that there'd be a bit more consensus built up over whether to start a re-watch with season 3 or season 1. As is, there's only been a few replies on it and the consensus is basically "I'm good with whatever". In which case, a re-watch starting at the start is probably for the best since as someone else pointed out, most people probably aren't going to give a poo poo about the podcast anyway. So I'll probably close this thread, and start a new one with a season 1 re-watch. Which will, by complete coincidence, give me a chance to erase the stupid typo I made in the title of this thread. The only question remaining being whether it's better to interrupt said re-watch for new seasons and so to schedule the "new" episodes to be the same day/time as the new episodes drop on Channel 4. Which is currently set for 9pm on Thursday, and will presumably not change when the new season starts at some point in the next few months. Or would it be better to just go through them all in order, leaving actually new episodes to be discussed in the UK thread and setting a more convenient time, like Mondays or Fridays, that everyone can sync to easily as the start/end of a work week? I'll do it tomorrow either way, and by default probably just plump to make it a Friday thing ignoring the newer seasons until we get to them since interrupting for new seasons is kind of weird and confusing schedule wise, but I'm open to opinions or suggestions.
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Jun 2, 2021 21:54
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