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Where can I watch it? If you live in Her Majesty's kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the current home of Taskmaster is Channel 4, who nabbed it after Series 9 finished. You can view all series 1 through 11 on International viewer are best off visiting the official Youtube page for the show. Full episodes of the show are uploaded there for Series 1-8, 10 and 11. As for Series 9, they've just started uploading that at a rate of one a week. There's also various bonus content like outtakes, contestant interviews, compilations, and the lockdown contest "Home Tasking". The "make a snowman without any snow" task is a classic bit of Taskmaster, and it really is interesting to see the varied and creative responses to the task. Then there's Paul's attempt, which is one of the funniest moments in all of series 3
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May 28, 2021 07:57
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tsob posted: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 11:20
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There were some interesting little inner perspectives from the podcast with Al Murray. It was nice to hear how much he enjoyed it, and how he wished he'd been on a later series so he could have got more episodes. He also explained how on a few occasions he began worrying about his interpretation of a task, and defending what Dave Gorman had been up to as a pre-emptive move, to shore up his own attempt. Will be interesting to rewatch the rest of the episodes, and see how much of that chumminess really might be him playing the game...
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May 29, 2021 10:36
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If the right schedule is to watch the episode the day before the new podcast, then tomorrow is Taskmaster Day. S03E02: The Dong and the Gong, featuring...
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Jun 1, 2021 23:03
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Fair enough, probably makes sense. I'll post my S03E02 thoughts anyway, then I can copy-paste them into the new thread in 12 episodes time! My feeling is it's a pretty classic slate of tasks, yet the episode ends up a bit less than the sum of its parts. The prize task category seems incredibly susceptible to dull-as-ditch-water submissions, and it's only really the contestants that try to subvert it that are enjoyable. Al's more metaphorical interpretation of "heaviest" was clever, and I really enjoyed Sara playing for laughs with her obviously BS story (a bit like Mike's smashed glass sculpture in series 11). For all the good it did her, last place, one point. First house task contains the two highest points of the episode - Al's gong and Rob's pressure washer. End of series spoiler: This episode is also where Rob really starts to look like the series champion - this task helps a lot, and he also picks up a ton of confidence in the studio. He completely botches the live task (which was to me like the prize task - nothing entertaining in the successes) - and yet it doesn't matter, he wins the episode anyway. I believe this episode marks the first "mystery task" in the series (if you don't count Taskmaster Squash) - it's a formula that they use with variations in later series, usually still as a team task. I like how most of the clues are just vague enough that your first guess might not be right - "look at the phone"/"look behind the picture". It's also a classic bit of Alex frustrating the contestants, both teams are so annoyed to discover Alex has just been holding the key the whole time. Even second time round it's funny to watch. Funniest bit of the balloon task is seeing Dave already holding his face in embarrassment, while Greg revels in putting on an air of disbelief that anyone would just launch into the task without preparing. Classic Taskmaster gag, still funny. This task has been popular in the foreign remakes of Taskmaster, some of which featured much better performances than this lot if I'm honest. None of the remakes carried the morse code part over, which is understandable as it's pretty esoteric. Al contemplated it for a second, but couldn't do anything with the idea, and I find it pretty surprising that they even managed to get that much mileage out of it.
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Jun 2, 2021 22:31
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He plays a blinder in Episode 3, speaking of which... I've decided to keep posting my impressions ahead of the podcast, having found it nice to gather my thoughts before hearing what Ed Gamble has to say. Here goes. Best battery operated item Prize category with some potential, not everyone rose to it. I've always thought that a good panel show host needs the skills of a compère, so Greg rebuking the audience's first reaction with "gonna be that kind of crowd" made me smile. Seemed to put them in "awww" mode for the first two entries, which rightly got low points. Sara's iPod is the only half-decent prize, but it's not interesting enough to rise above mid-table - which is maybe one reason why the stakes got lower as the show went on. Sweat Al's "oh, yeah" is a great reaction to a task being announced. This task did at least get its limits tested via two creative interpretations; one that's just canny enough to succeed...and one that pushes it too far. Satisfying that Paul won through actually trying hard at the A1 route of the task. One overall impression I've got while rewatching Series 3 is that more of the laughs come from the banter in the studio than what happens in the tasks. It's quite the opposite of the last two seasons where the social distancing has put a dampener on interaction between contestants, and all the big laughs are in the footage. It might be why Series 3 is less memorably funny to me, and combined with the line-up feels to me more like a typical panel show than distinctly Taskmaster. Domino rally Classic task in concept, but apart from Paul nobody created a particularly spectacular success or spectacular failure. In one of the foreign remakes of taskmaster this task was revised to be "Create the best domino effect", which gave the contestants more scope to solve it laterally. Gift Lots of people complain that they didn't keep this task going in every series. I disagree, there's diminishing returns from this task, and I'm not surprised that this is the last time they did it. That said, I'm not against other tasks in a similar vein, something you have time to prepare like a prize task, but you have to accomplish in the studio like a live task. The Hula Hoop task from Series 7 is a potential model for that. Flag meals Bottle of champagne was a great move, totally in character for Dave, and Greg and Alex land the gag. Given that the food here seems pretty palatable compared to lots of other Taskmaster fare, Alex really seems pretty critical of everything he eats here. Live task Interesting in theory, but it did seem like a solved task by the end. Sara's approach is clearly leagues ahead of anything else you can do here, so thank goodness that the people who copy her don't have time to catch up.
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Jun 9, 2021 20:45
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Forgot to rewatch S03E04 yesterday, so just catching up on that... Shiniest thing Think the scoring was pretty fair here, although I find Paul's entry hard to judge. Sara as usual put some thought into finding something distinctive to bring and it paid off. Al's entry felt clever for a second, then dull on second thought, and then it was broken anyway. Far and wide Possibly Paul's weakest (and funniest) attempt at a task - how hard did he work for paltry results? Other four attempts were pretty same-y, although a nice moment in Al's attempt: how Alex completes a task unguided - timing the end of the taxi ride to the last minute then hurling the cap for extra distance. Five way tie! What's my line? Love the idea of this task. I like to think there's a category of "social tasks" on Taskmaster, like "Impress this mayor", "Cheer up this traffic warden" or "Learn the names of the football team". That said, I really think I would have taken a long time if I was doing this task... SFX I had genuinely forgotten about this task. It was OK. Both sides were going for funny, but they ended up a bit first-draft, improv that isn't firing on all cylinders. The team task in series 4 to "make a trailer for Taskmaster: The Movie" operates in a similar way but the returns are much higher, Mel and Hugh take their parody more seriously and it's funnier for it. Live task! This task makes for a pretty fair contest, and it got the audience involved well. I liked Dave's eyelashes. I have to say that on reflection, Taskmaster live tasks have improved over the years. Like, even with the constraint of social distancing, I think that every live task in the past two seasons was funnier or more exciting than this one.
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Jun 17, 2021 20:01
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Final podcast for series 3 is about to go up, wonder if we go straight into series 4 next week? Thoughts on the finale. While I nit-picked some parts of series 3, this episode is a great capstone to it; all the tasks work well, and there are loads of callbacks to the other episodes in the series which tie everything together. It's a great example of why the show would not be half as good if the contestants rotated like on a typical panel show. Prize task: obviously not a prize worth winning, but it's still entertaining watching people try and sell their entry. Dave wins it quite rightly, and in a very Dave Gorman way - easy to imagine him spending hours researching his family tree for something like this. Buckets: a classic "screw-you" taskmaster task, obviously very funny to watch four desperate attempts to square the circle and make the useless junk functional. Then we get the definitive Al Murray moment, and one of the few times that Alex's impartiality is rightfully challenged - it was a treat to see that go down in the studio. And if that wasn't enough, another Gorman cheating scandal! Charades: Sara and Rob giggling in anticipation of the VT was a lovely little moment. The farce that unfolded was incredible, every little moment of miscommunication edited into a joke. Then Dave finally threads the needle of finding a loophole that completely breaks the task without breaking the rules. Slow-Mo/Fast-Mo: much better than last week's video task; as said on the show, they were all pretty good. I personally think Al's film was better than last place, but it was a tricky one, and Rob probably deserved the five points. Donuts: this was a really tense finale, yet there was loads of opportunities for some funny lines as well. Paul in particular with his remark "I wouldn't be so stupid", and insisting that the donuts were still suitable for donation to the audience after he threw them onto the stage in "anger".
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Jun 23, 2021 21:35
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Time for the weekly bump - and it's only one more week before the next series of Taskmaster NZ starts, so that's good. Tomorrow the podcast starts on Series Four, which I have to say is one of my favourite line-ups/series in the show. So here are my thoughts on the upcoming episode. Prize task: Autograph on a vegetable - it's an all time classic prize task category, the concept is funny, and the top three entrants all put in a very strong showing, given that it's not a category you can just grab an entry out of the cupboard at the last minute. Well, unless you're Hugh. Cake: Lolly makes a very artistic effort here that I feel gets undermarked. Hugh goes into a fugue state, very scary, but again the end result isn't terrible. There's a shot about half way into Joe's effort where a perfect shower of fruit is blasted out by a firework, and that half a second is beautiful all by itself. This is also notable for being the first appearance of the caravan in Taskmaster - iconic as it seems, it was absent for three whole series. A detail I like about Noels' footage is that he's added a plastic duck and balls into the mix, and they only appear once the barrel is set in motion. What sells Mel's is the decisiveness about it, finishes reading the task, bam, cake crushed, zero hesitation. Charicture: Obviously one that plays to Noel's strengths here, but yeah, easy to see why everyone struggled with it. Hugh shows good lateral thinking in this task to mixed effect; the mirror provokes a good argument but no payoff in terms of points, getting the bonus point was a clearer success. Ducks: Classic task. This is really where Hugh's analytical approach starts to pay off, well deserved win. Also really loved Lolly's attempt for the absurd persistence to it; when the hose fails, don't rethink it, just reset the task so it will work. Juice: While the details of how this task works are a bit complicated, the essence of it is pretty clear: try to pick items no-one else will, then get juicing. Like the last live task of the previous series, it's built around one of those "game theory" conceits, requiring you to anticipate what the other players will do when weighing your options. Series 5 has a pre-filmed task with a similar idea, and given how the live shows are recorded well after the house shoots, I do wonder which one happened first. Bonus bit of fun: it's sometimes fun to try and step into Alex's shoes, so why not try coming up with new prize categories? To make the challenge complete, make sure that you also write Alex's bit of slightly lame banter to introduce the category. Two examples: The contestants have been asked to bring the Best Waterproof Item. The best item will win five point, and the contestant with the most points will take home all five items, and be able to have a great time in the bath, the shower, or even the rain! Today, the contestants have been asked to bring in The Best Thing With Two Completely Different Functions for the prize pool. At the end of the show, this week's winner will take home all the items, and be able to do not five, but ten completely different things!
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Jun 30, 2021 23:13
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Superrodan posted:Today's overall winner will go home with all five things, and presumably, a smile on their face. I can hear this one exactly in Alex's cadence, love it! I've seen a few home-made Taskmaster things, and one of the traps a lot of them fall into is setting too many objectively scored tasks, leaving the Taskmaster with no judging to do. Part of the appeal of the format is that you have a means of judging entirely subjective things, and you have the freedom to choose a thought-provoking adjective like "do the most preposterous thing with this chickpea" to work towards. You can even have the judging operate on two independent axes like "slowest and most dramatic fall wins". Here's a good example of a homemade task in Rocket League of all things... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM4UK8CDg7s I know nothing about the game and still found this video pretty funny.
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Jul 1, 2021 23:33
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Yeah, that sounds good. I guess it also depends if you're both playing the Taskmaster and setting the tasks. The ones I've seen where becoming the Taskmaster is a birthday gift, given by the person who plays the assistant and sets the tasks - that's where it kinda sucks to not give the birthday girl/boy anything to judge. Sometimes it can be fun to have an objective goal but subjective rules, and it's up to the Taskmaster to decide whether you crossed the line or not. However, if you're only doing one "episode" worth of tasks, a disqualification is a much bigger penalty. With your haiku two-parter there, you've got the option to score the first part or not. If you aren't interested in giving five points to the person who writes them as fast as possible, you could change the last line to "as fast as you can", or flip it round to as many as possible in a half-hour or something.
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Jul 2, 2021 08:00
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Speaking of inventing tasks, there's an article about the approach the NZ creators took when creating series two. Be warned, it does contain a big spoiler for the climactic task of TM NZ S1 if you haven't seen that yet. https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/300346161/taskmaster-nz-reveals-the-secret-to-making-comedians-feel-uncomfortable The final house task of the series is usually quite a momentous occasion in a series, and TM NZ delivered on that (as it did in most other ways) - but the article does reveal that the task they used was perilously close to being cut. It makes me wonder how often it comes down to simply holding back a really good task for the final episode, versus how often Alex prepares a task he hopes will make a good finale. Series 5 ends with an absolute stunner, but it does seem like it's a pretty ordinary task elevated to greatness by how well both teams tackled it (Mark Watson's comments on the podcast this week about it push me slightly in that direction). Whereas the endings to Series 7 (tie yourself up + boiler suit) and Series 9 (complete all seven tasks) seem like they were intentionally big "headline" tasks. I mean, maybe my theory's wrong, but it didn't sit right with me when I saw some of the foreign remakes of Taskmaster repeat those latter two as just random tasks in the middle of the series run. It seemed like a waste!
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Jul 2, 2021 19:36
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After seeing the whole show, I like Paul as assistant, he's got a weird dynamic with Angela going on. And yeah, Jeremy isn't 100% there yet - what he lacks is that ability to interrogate the contestants about their performance. At least over the series he gets better at explaining the points he's giving out. One of the things that' took me a while to realise is how much more "compressed" the taskmaster's involvement in the show is. The assistant and the contestants have been pre-filming for ages, preparing for the prize tasks, etc. The Taskmaster only really enters the scene for the week of taping studio shows, so there's not nearly as much time to grow into the role. Maybe it's more of a miracle that Greg could nail that from day 1. Thought of something else I meant to post before - setting your haiku task in haiku form has a really nice double benefit. It's a great bit of flavour to it, and it's also a helpful aid for the contestants. If any of them wonder out loud how many syllables there are in a haiku, you can slip in a "all the information is on the task" there!
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Jul 3, 2021 23:04
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stev posted:Is there a legal way to watch the NZ version in the UK? While it hasn't happened yet, I really think it would be a great move for Dave to acquire the rights to air TM NZ. Even if they weren't the original home of Taskmaster, it's the type of show they'd import into their line-up - what better way to get original TM content again? Nerdy fact: in the first episode of TM NZ S2, each of the contestants came first in one of the tasks - and this is surprisingly rare! The first UK episode you could make a case for is S03E05, where the team of three wins Charades five-nil, then Sara and Rob both get five points in the next task. But for me this is an unsatisfying example, because these are joint first place (which is inevitable when team tasks are in the picture). S04E06 is the first episode where all contestants earn five points in an individual task, but Joe Lycett only comes first in the sleeping bag task and that's shared with Lolly and Noel. Two more like that during Series 5 in episode 2 (Mark shares first with everyone but Bob in the live task) and episode 6 (Nish shares his only first place in the episode with Bob). Series 6 finally yields an undisputed example in episode 6 (after two episodes where everyone gets five points in the same task, first in a team task and then in an individual task). The only other episode where each contestant has an untied five point win is S09E03. Also-ran in that category: Series 8 has two back-to-back episodes where a contestant has a highest task score of 4, but that was the winning score for the task: S08E05 - Paul Sinha gets an extra point in a team task, meaning he earns 4 points, the highest total for the task. Each other contestant earns five points untied in another round. S08E06 - Joe Thomas gets 4 points in a terrible prize task round. Everyone else gets 1 point for their prize, all four win a later task.
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Jul 10, 2021 14:52
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Escobarbarian posted:Season 10 is so brilliantly mean I’m loving dying One of my favourite bits of the first episode is Richard Herring's genuine concern that the vanishing task is going to be interpreted literally and result in another five disqualifications - and that was before they all botched the egg task. Katherine's monologue to camera during the vanishing trick seemed to me like she was channelling Derren Brown, maybe subconsciously - does anyone else see that in the clip? I'm behind on my rewatch of Series 4, as the podcast for episode 3 comes out tomorrow, but here's my thoughts on episode 2 while I play catch-up. Prize task (boasting): seems like it should an exercise in how you pitch this one to Greg, but a lot of the contestants self-sabotaged with entries that were easy to undermine. I do think Hugh could have sold his a lot better by emphasising that the team got to the final. Noel is a worthy winner; Lolly probably did well to get 4 points, but it wasn't an injustice on the other contestants either. Treadmilliards: Some real savage comments from Alex here, lobbing "would have been a lot more if you'd been better at it" at Mel, and correcting the record on the margin separating 3.8 from 3.75. And of course Hugh crushes this task to a frustrating, almost pointless degree, given that nobody else reached the 20 second mark. Portraiture: Loved Mel's concern about what Hugh's disqualification would mean (this time an example of him overthinking a task). The rules of the task strike a good balance in terms of complexity and restrictiveness - even building in a apparently obvious loophole, two contestants missed it and another botched the execution. Good little individual task for Joe, and some really great pictures as well. Flour bombs: This is like a much nicer version of the water and buckets task from Series 3. The equipment supplied isn't completely useless, but at the same time there's no obvious right approach. Hugh is too ambitious for his own good here, it seems like they expended loads of time on a longshot plan, and had a last minute panic to get anything at all on target. Team youth had a series of much more practical attempts, then a lot of messing around late on, before pissing it all away with some blatant and utterly unnecessary cheating from Noel. Egg and cup: another appearance of the game theory mechanic. Nice decisive work from Noel and Joe, setting up a great contrast with Hugh's attempt. Nothing on Mel though... Live task: it's a great dramatic reveal at the end of the task, and "look at me" is a very worthy title for the episode. Staring at the Taskmaster is also a smart device to make sure there's something happening on screen, given it's a task where the actual activity is entirely hidden.
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Jul 14, 2021 22:17
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Still playing catch up, so I've got some nearly two week old news from the S04E02 podcast. It seemed to contain quite a lot of interesting "things you might have missed", including the fact that Alex wears a tie in all of the house tasks he records with Mel, something he hasn't done with any other contestant before or since. I thought to myself "I'll try and catch that in episode 3", but just finished watching it and completely forgot to. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow for episode 4. Other thoughts on the episode: Best membership/subscription: Mel is skirting dangerously close to infringing on Have I Got News For You with her entry. Quite a lot of very similar entries, not much separating the top three. Camouflage: including a nice callback to the cloud subscription. This task has that enjoyable element where Greg gets to play along (and by extension so do we). I feel kind of torn by Noel's attempt here: it's very creative, but is employing camera trickery in the spirit of things? Trailer: I've been looking forward to this one, and TUGTEMESTER didn't disappoint on a rewatch. It really nails the tone, and leaves you wanting more, like any good trailer. Noel doing his impression of Greg is the absolute highlight of the other trailer. Shepherding: A sort of inadvertant individual task here. Lolly's bonus points are completely deserved in my book, the chickens looked much harder to handle. Other than that, four similar solutions, everyone went with the sausages. Fishbowls: an absolute fiasco to round off the house tasks. Lolly with a triple-underlined breaking of the rules, and then the sting in the tail with the chocolate penalty, knocking Joe from his podium as soon as he reached the top. This round is a great example of Greg's utter authority as host, shutting down Hugh's quibbling about commentary with a "It's not fuckin' point-worthy so...just leave it!" And then a few minutes later dismissing Mel's attempt to sacrifice herself for Joe. Jeremy Wells, take note! Live task: it sounds so simple, and yet, the players fall so fast. Hugh manages to get away with Sweden's..and then immediately throws the reprieve away. Surprising that this was scored as winner takes all, when it could have been points according to the order you went out, but that did bring us to the... Tie break: Noel gives us a spectacular finish here with the wine drop, after just drinking for 50 seconds. Is this the funniest moment across all tiebreakers?
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Jul 20, 2021 19:27
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drunken officeparty posted:They also mention Joe sent a tweet out to get people and Alex says he got x amount of responses in an hour. But the task was 20 minutes I thought that you had 20 minutes to plan, which would be a bit of a get-out. As long as he sent the tweet within the time, and committed to the plan by the end, I think Alex would allow that.
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Jul 20, 2021 20:29
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The_Doctor posted:Watching Champion of Champions. Watching Katherine call her family was some pure In terms of lateral thinking about what a task means, this is one of my favourites. Genius idea, and very entertaining (if not 100% successful) execution. Superrodan: Glad to see this is still coming along. As you probably saw in the NZ episode, there are practical difficulties in having the points depend on whether the Taskmaster can guess who wrote what - but you can still have your TM do that "just for fun" prior to the actual marking. I wondered if there's a way to work that idea you had that the contestants don't quite know the whole task when writing the haikus. Like if the prompt was something like "write five haikus about your week" - adjacent to but not specifically describing yourself, and then you have to pick the one that represents you best. Ploughing through to thoughts on Series 4 Episode 4, because I heard a rumour that Mel reveals what she did with all the wax seals in this week's podcast... Surprising photo: Greg tried very hard not to put Hugh last, but it's unavoidable. Joe had a strong entry here, but I think Lolly deserves the win because the picture is surprising on so many levels; it's surprising that she'd choose to do it in the first place, the initial look at the image give you a surprise, and then it's surprising how close she gets to pulling it off Splash: the telescope is a bit weird - although it pays off when Greg points out that nobody needed to use it. Guessing who you think will win is another one of those game theory bits that are common in these series, and it was fun even if ultimately nobody got it right. Bit of a twist here in what the definition of a "splash" is, which sinks Lolly's otherwise pretty smart effort. I think they have settled on highest splash being "the longest distance a drop of water falls after being set in motion by impact with a solid object", which is why raising the height of the bucket helps Joe's attempt. Ringtones: Lovely moment of Alex's bewildered persona Mel: '96 Alex: tries awkwardly to join in hand dancing 104 Then the whistle bit in the studio as well. The little moment in Noel's dance where they look back to watch the greenscreened fireworks is pretty neat. Mel's dance was geniunely good! And I liked Lolly's story beat. The nicest thing you can say about Hugh's is that he's approached it like he's on Strictly, on the week where you have to incorporate a lift into the routine. Portraits: Noel, ever with the creative touches, using the cardboard roll to accentuate the eyes in his work. Tricky task, and the five portraits do end up looking pretty similar. Gym: time starts when you next blink is a great detail, so good it became it's own task in Series 7. Hugh talked about this task in the podcast last week, he still wishes he didn't have to land on the mats, which stopped him from standing back up. Lovely bit of BS deflection from Joe when Greg put him on the spot; Greg was equally great at quizzing Lolly in the ringtones task, letting his teaching persona pay dividends. Interesting judging here, Mel managed to outperform Noel here by two whole points, given that they had fairly similar ideas. And I think there is something to be said for Hugh actually rising to the challenge of physically performing over the contestants who went more lateral with the task. Tower: pretty simple live task - Alex is right to describe it as "cagey". The more recent task in series 11 where they had to stack buckets had the added twist of giving the contestants bean bags (and letting them decide what they were for). Heavy_D fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Jul 24, 2021 |
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Jul 24, 2021 13:57
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Yesterday was the anniversary of the first broadcast of Taskmaster, but was took busy watching the latest NZ episode to post here! Nearly caught up with the podcast, here's thoughts on episode five of series four: Cuteness: On the face of it, a prize task that could go either way. You might get four* things that are undeniably cute, and Greg has to break the tie on very slender grounds. Or you might roll something that really gets on Greg's nerves and lose instantly, and this is where Mel landed. * Hugh need not apply Slide: unusual arrangement of the task clips, showing us the prep for Joe and Lolly, then everyone else's attempts, then the payoff. Good way to build suspense, I think it really worked here. Not a task you really wanted to go route #1 like they did, the key was getting propulsion into your slide Scuba: a kind of combination task here - the "social task" of sustaining small-talk while also having to do something else. Has a different feel watching it back in the Zoom era. The final scores seemed fair even though there was clearly a lot of post-task fudging, to compensate for how much everyone bent the rules. Bathtub: another one I've been really looking forward to rewatching. I worried it would wouldn't be as funny, but it really was. The Series 11 task with the bag of salt has a strange similarity - both tasks revolve around how just one team got what the task was about. It also has to be noted just how much of a Mel move it was to pause and bandage Alex's feet. Throw: Good adjective on this task: "most unbelievable" - but hard to argue any of the attempts live up to it. The slow accumulation of toast around the toaster wordlessly tells the story. It does show how hard it is to actually do one of those viral videos. Noel was the only one that operated on the right level - it just didn't stick the landing. Sound: Really nice read of the live task by Hugh here. In fact there were loads of really fun small moments here - Noel getting distracted by Greg, Hugh being the only person not to make the sound with his mouth, then missing out on a clear victory through hubris, leading us to a... Tie break: it would have been a real shame if this tie-break task hadn't played out with Mel, and the world never saw her sweeping peas off a table into her waiting mouth. She was so glad for Hugh as well! In fairness the podcast episode with Mel did observe that she won three times during the series, so she's not gonna begrudge Hugh one victory. Incidentally, Mel's episode is well worth the listen, the story about the wax seals is actually heartwarming.
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Jul 29, 2021 23:50
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Terra-da-loo! posted:I've not read all the posts in here yet, nor have I even seen the end of s11, I don't think, but Taskmaster (UK) is a genuinely ingenious and enjoyable series and I love it. Join our cult! Join our cult! There's a kinda similar Christmas songs task in the Danish version of Taskmaster. One of Stormester's more delightful deviations from the regular format is that they invite the previous season's contestants back for a one-off Christmas special. Their song-based task started by asking the contestants to name something "unchrismassy". Then the main task is revealed: compose the best Christmas tune on the topic they just selected. A real tightrope for the panellist who decided to say Islam.
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Jul 30, 2021 23:02
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Awesome bit of Taskmaster fan-art has finally reached completion https://morgangirvin.com/taskmaster-wimmelbilder Note that there's a coloured version on a carousel with the pencil drawing at the top of that page which you can zoom in properly on to properly appreciate all the detail. To avoid clashing with Taskmaster NZ, I've rewatched episode 6 of series 4 today, notes on that one: Best ovine item: forerunner to the fish puns task in Alex's intro here. Hugh finally gets above fifth place, but I think Mel missed a trick in presenting hers here. Imagine if rather than just tediously describing the 19th century characters, she actually had photos ready to go of her recreating them with the wool. Could argue that Lolly's submission came top though a visual element like that, when I was sure that Joe's entry would win Greg over. Camel: Harsh assessment of Lolly from Greg here - and her A1 route through the task actually does fairly well here. Honestly, I think the blender plan was not realistic and I'm surprised Joe and Hugh both tried it. Mel's solution is rightly rewarded for its creativity, and the reassembled camels is a very nice capper to the segement. Old bag: Lolly and Noel first again here, both gone with the given prompt: putting the bag over the football. Not to great effect. Until it became clear that there was a time penalty per kick it seemed like a difficult task to score, as there was a strong divide between slow/few kicks and fast/many kicks. A rare occasion on which Hugh triumphs just purely on the merits, rather than finding a loophole. Mel: She really is the loveliest contestant on the show, isn't she? One of the most memorable individual tasks in all of Taskmaster as well. Sleeping bag: This task gives rise to some of the funnier banter in the series, Joe on the attack about taking of virginity, and Greg's retort to Noel about flights of fancy. It seems like there should be a smarter way to do this task - obviously Hugh's approach is way too blunt. It does seem amazing that nobody even went so far as to put their hands inside the sleeping bag. Mel's conviction that there was a theme connecting the items seems to have been the genesis of the similar Series 6 task: drawing items inside a box without seeing them, then finding the connection. Studio task: "Prepare these items for the second part of the task" is a great opener, the kind of thing you can only do once but wish you could do again. It's about the right point in the show for it; the contestants have a bit more of an idea of what Taskmaster is from earlier series, and from sitting through the playback of most of their own tasks. Gives them enough of a sense of what to expect. A variety of responses is what makes this work, and Noel's plan in particular gets enteraining results.
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Aug 3, 2021 21:22
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drunken officeparty posted:Has anyone ever gotten a perfect all 5 episode? Or all 1? We're still waiting for the perfect episode, from memory the closest anyone ever got was 24/25. Mel from Series Four ended an episode with just 4 points, less than what you'd get for coming last in five tasks - but that was with a five point penalty for eating chocolate in the fishbowls task.
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Aug 8, 2021 08:07
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OK, nerdy post incoming: got the proper details on the lowest scores and highest scores 3 points - Mel. As discussed already, this would have been a low but less remarkable score had she not incurred a five point penalty for eating some chocolate. 5 points - Richard Osman in S02E04. I'm as surprised as you are! But it wasn't 5 scores of 1 point, he got 3 in conceal the pineapple, but then DNF on Patatas' rescue, and DQ on the live task (which I honestly thought was winner-takes-all until I checked, because Doc Brown was the only person to score in it). 6 points - Alice Levine in S06E03. Despite being the third lowest score, this is actually the closest anyone has come to five tasks, five last places, five points. Just barely avoided it by beating Tim Vine on identifying baby food. Joe Thomas was the contestant who came closest to the perfect game in S08E07. Only let down by bringing a bar of soap as his Best Slippery Thing, which came (joint) 2nd to Lou Sander's slide. Katy Wix also finished with a score of 24 in S09E07, 19 of which came from the first four rounds, BUT the live task was Horse or Laminator, with no upper limit on the points on offer. Jo Brand got 13 in the same round, meaning 5 is not a winning score, or even that close to winning! Other contestants have earned 24+ points, but only with caveats The most common connection is episodes with six tasks: Tim Vine (26) and Liza Tarbuck (25) in the same episode, Jon Richardson (25), Richard Herring (25), Jessica Knappett (25), Mel Giedroyc (24) and Russel Howard (24). Aisling Bea and Mark Watson got 24 points each in the same episode, but one that effectively contained seven tasks, The other connection is called appearing in series 2 episode 3 where an incredible number of points were on offer for the live task, getting high scores for Katherine Ryan (30), Richard Osman (27) and Joe Wilkinson (25) One interesting point with Joe Thomas is that we knew from the first round that he wasn't actually going to have the perfect game. Likewise, Katy Wix's 24 point episode opened with a four point prize. So how many players have ever been "on course" for the perfect game? Josh Widdicombe was the first player to make it to the half-way point with 15/15 points (he then lost the episode to Frank Skinner). Since then, only one other contestant has managed to equal that feat: Charlotte Ritchie in Episode 9 of Series 11.
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Aug 9, 2021 20:19
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pre:Invent new names for the creatures in the garden You may not eat from the Tree of Knowledge Your time starts now Chair: feel like Noel really smashed this one, and so Lolly's ill-judged backchat helped restore the balance in this round. About time that one of Hugh's gambles paid off as well. Dinner: there's a fun little painting behind Alex in this task, don't quite understand it. In the moment I liked Lolly's decision to eat all the sandwiches at the end, but it didn't pay off. I guess the others were multitasking by eating as they went. Hugh with a smart solution on the right side of valid, but Noel has the execution. Hide: another task I've been looking forward to - "he has already started counting" is a great bit of task writing. This is an Alex showcase as well - just look at the crazed glee on his face as he catches Hugh and Joe. Equally entertaining to watch Alex fail, while Lolly trolls him over the phone. And of course, his genuine embarrassment both in the house and the studio over catching Mel. Bins: this is a fairly complicated task when you add up all the rules at the start and at each of the five stations. I probably would have gone for German as well. Entertaining to watch it play out, but not much solving to it. Handshake: feel like Mel and Hugh went for the most elaborate handshake rather than the best, which made this a bit like ringtone dancing mk II. Lolly's went down a different route (very confidently), which I liked more than Greg did. And Joe's went to a really strange place, much more successfully than Noel's. Live task: good task, seemingly simple, but where you have to reckon with the lack of time and resources given. Not sure if Lolly was intending to depict a semi-peeled banana, but that was the resulting impression I got from her work, which I think earned five points. Can't fathom how Joe got four points for taping two bananas to a pillar at the last minute, but it lead us to... Three way tie: Joe massively out-thinking Hugh here, Lolly must have been disappointed that her solid route-1 attempt was up against that.
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Aug 11, 2021 08:19
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Might have said this before, but I really think that Australia ought to be the next frontier for Taskmaster (or at least, easily accessible English-speaking TM). Between recent panel shows like Have You Been Paying Attention and Patriot Brains (NZ produced but with an Australian team), plus previous comedy output like Chasers War on Everything, it really seems from my outsider perspective that they have the well of TV comedy to draw from. Surely they can't let their islander neighbours have all the fun?
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Aug 13, 2021 20:29
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Finally got round to following up on Aphex and Pablo Bluth's suggestion to listen to Joe Thomas on Off Menu. That 24 hour lamb story was very funny... It's the end of series 4 on the podcast this week, so time for one final lot of thoughts: Cash: beyond the initial laugh over the mercantile nature of the category, the question becomes "most in what sense?" Hugh and Joe each claim a unique "most": most denominational value and most cash by weight. Both are good creative answers in my book. Mel blunders by spending an astonishing amount on the part of the prize that anyone can see will get disregarded. And of course, Lolly pulls the old Al Murray and steamrollers into first. Sandwich: Lovely to see the role-reversal for Mel in this one, and her sandwich is suitably bake-off in flavour. And the "oh, gang" of defeat... One of my fave moments is the audience getting ahead of the joke when Noel learns he needs to eat his sandwich. And while Alex often challenges contestants when they're riding the line during a task, he's unusually forthright on this occasion, observing Noel hasn't eaten the "filling". Golf: classic task here, you can play along deciding which combination you'd use. Is snooker cue and cheese the best option on offer? Could Lolly's rounders technique have worked better with other instruments? Obviously props to Noel on his incredible strike. Duck: I'd forgotten about this task, and it's surprising that two attempts occured in studio. Joe really pushed the boat out here, but Hugh's really tickles me, like a silly dad joke. And Noel's attempt has a lot going on, the Duck's side of the family, the rice, the dress, Tim Key. Mel's victory here is a little baffling. Duck: Another game theory task to round things off, but the drawings all have more going on than just entering into the competition. Personally I think Mel's co-median duck deserved more credit than the audience reaction gave it. And great to see Greg forensically demolish a contestant one final time when Joe tried to label his entry to victory.
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Aug 17, 2021 18:35
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The "I've finished...just repeating what your dad said"/"completing the set" exchange on TM NZ this week was my fav moment, even though the caravan task was also excellent, and the live task might be Jeremy's finest hour on the show. Just finished listening to the S04E08 podcast, two interesting points - they ran the numbers, and it will come as no surprise to learn that Noel has the highest average score in Taskmaster history for subjective tasks - the podcast is pausing until Series 12 begins - which suggests that's less than 8 weeks away. That makes it likely there won't be much downtime between TM NZ ending and TM UK starting.
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Aug 21, 2021 22:01
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It was good to see Paul demonstrate he's a triple threat: he can sing, dance, and administrate tasks. There are a couple of tasks that I really hope end up in one of the international versions eventually, like the time travel task from last week, or the art heist from this week. They're really great tasks, and they both seem like they have unfulfilled potential, nobody quite nailed them. Kongen Befaler used the toaster live task from TM NZ at the end of their most recent series so it has precedent. Urzila approaches her tasks with that same note of suspicion that Aisling Bea brought to things, seeing ulterior motives behind all the tasks. For some reason, her lobbing a juice box at Paul during their "date" has stayed with me as one of the funniest moments in the episode.
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Sep 2, 2021 22:00
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I guess we need to update the thread title to Taskmaster Series 12 then! Trailer didn't give us much in the way of quotes ("On your marks, get set, task" is the wrong kind of pathetic when out of context). Anything the thread can suggest from earlier seasons? The video Greg and Alex put together for soliciting NTA votes is also pretty funny - it's a candid glimpse into their relationship which the show can only hint at. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DpxAycYAhg
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Sep 7, 2021 20:59
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Really liked the final house task there, sort of the opposite to the Series 1 task where they had to leave as fast as possible. The cast had a watch party to mark the final episode followed by some chat and Q & A. Even if you skip through the parts where they're watching the show (which they do on mute, no commentary) it's a pretty long watch, but there are some fun tidbits from behind the scenes: - The suncream task was meant to be a tie-breaker, but they forgot to put a time limit on it and so everyone bar Urzila went crazy with it - There was an unused tie-breaker where you had to guess what word Paul was thinking of "Is it spaghetti?" "No" "Is it house?" "No" "Can you tell me what the word is?" "No" Matt was the only one to correctly solve it, the word was "no" - The art heist was supposedly on the cutting room floor, but apparently got reinserted because Matt was so excited backstage to see it - An intriguing task got cut along the lines of "Defend yourself. You have ten minutes to prepare before Paul launches his attack". Part of what made it interesting was that Paul had a different attack prepared for each contestant, from rolling a giant fake boulder, to peas, to a water gun. Laura donned armour and barricaded herself in the caravan, but wasn't protected from a verbal attack. Sadly it seems like that really interesting side of it might have been the undoing of the task, as it was too long to include, and having to screen five different attacks would have contributed. Scariest part: David armed himself with a knife! Near the end of the stream the contestants put forward names for comedians they'd put in a third series of TM NZ, which hopefully means it isn't far-fetched to expect some more.
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Sep 8, 2021 23:42
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Oh man, I'm excited like it's Christmas Eve...
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Sep 22, 2021 21:54
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People have said that some of the clues in the book are "time-locked" somehow, you can't solve them yet. Think the idea is to give everyone a chance to receive their books before someone solves the whole thing. What I just wondered is whether any of the clues might be time-locked by being somewhere within Series 12? Given how far back the shooting starts, it seems possible that Alex could have incorporated something he knew was coming up while writing it.
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Sep 23, 2021 07:34
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Taskmaster S12 - Not Another Marvel Series
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Sep 23, 2021 09:47
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Often thought a lot of effort must go into picking the tasks to screen for the first episode, so that they teach the audience who these new contestants are, their basic strengths and weaknesses. A show that was less confident in their premise might contrive to use the interview tasks for that. Clearly did a good job of it here, everyone got a good showing. Greg also seems to be implying that these tasks were filmed early on, when the contestants were new - and there were bit that supported the idea; people not knowing where the lab is or where to find a ball. Scoring spoiler: the contestants with 11 points going into the live task only had the slenderest chance of winning the episode, they needed to win and each other contestant get ranked exactly in reverse scoreboard order, to eek out a win 16-15-15-15-15.
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Sep 23, 2021 23:39
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If you watched the live, accidentally censored version of last night's episode, here's a chance to catch up on the foul language https://twitter.com/taskmaster/status/1441426769819602944 Also, here's a bit of a personal TM project - a gift I made for my housemate's birthday    Derived from the following concept piece: https://mobile.twitter.com/1000_Monsters/status/1422657911537508354
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Sep 24, 2021 21:58
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Unkempt posted:Amazing. Is that David Tennant?  The costume needs a bit of tweaking, have to get rid of the tie, bring the shirt collar out, and change it into a double-breasted jacket. Also the hair needs to be a bit messier to really resemble James. Those changes were all done with modelling putty, here's a blurry scan of how it looked at that stage:  Then it was just a case of repainting everything into the correct colours  I would share it over twitter with Alex, but it just seems a bit much to register an account specifically to do that... Heavy_D fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Sep 25, 2021 |
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Sep 25, 2021 08:07
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Yeah, that and Desiree's stardust onesie are pretty great clothing, but I get where Pablo's coming from, you could wear them in day-to-day life. Desiree's clothing was also the key back when the TM sleuths figured out the S12 line-up a few months back: she tweeted a photo thanking her outfitter for sorting out ten outfits in a short time. One eagle-eyed viewer clocked that might correspond to the studio shoots, and also noticed the background matched the green room section of the studio TM is shot in. Following the thread, they checked which comics Desiree had recently followed on Instagram, and deduced four of the five from the line-up correctly. It's certainly the time of the year for Taskmaster - the two best foreign-language series also have new seasons starting this week. Stormester starts this weekend, and Kongen Befalen started on Thursday. The latter seems to be doing even more original tasks than in earlier series - the live task was Sausage or Finger, but all the others were somewhat new: - Prize: The thing that deserves more respect than than it currently receives - Get a hat on Olli's head from the furthest distance - Eat or drink one of these five delicacies. The one who consumes what the fewest of the others have chosen, wins. You have to eat or drink the whole thing you choose. A la carte: a raw potato, a chili pepper, a Dumle [chocolate toffee], a full bottle of wine, cat food - Perform magic for Atle.The magic trick is over when you say 'hepp' The middle task has that UK TM S4/5 game theory flavour, and it's a great prize category as well. Heavy_D fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Sep 25, 2021 |
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Sep 25, 2021 11:45
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Serious Taskmaster overload - on top of original TM, there have been two episodes of Stormester to catch up on, and this season the episodes are 65 minutes long. Stormester tends to use UK tasks for the most part, so watching it as a UK fan means it's more like revisiting some classics with a new line-up But this season they've had four tasks that are new/heavily modified to feel completely different: - Receive a picture of the Taskmaster on this fax machine. Fastest wins. Bonus point for the best picture - [setup: pyramid of filled champagne glasses, with notes from various currencies trapped under them] Remove the money and place it in Mark's inner pocket. You may not touch the glasses. You have ten minutes, or until you spill the first drop. Highest total kroner value collected in Mark's pocket when time ends wins. - Create a film that will give the Taskmaster food for thought - Teach this eight-year-old something remarkable. You have 20 minutes for your lesson, then the child has one minute to demonstrate what they have learnt. Most remarkable thing imparted wins. The middle task is worth clarifying - once you get the note in Mark's pocket you've banked them - you don't get disqualified if you then spill the champaign. You just can't continue after the first spillage. Also it's not obvious which notes are more valuable than other because of the different currencies and exchange rates. UK series 6 had a task that employed the same basic mechanism - but it turned out to be a bit easy. I wonder if this refined version is more like what Alex would do differently if he had another go. Now I think about it, possibly this version of the task was in Kongen Befaler - harder to go back and check that now...
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Sep 27, 2021 23:27
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Desiree's 'Oatmeal & Death' destroyed me. It's a great title. Watching Taskmaster back to back with Outsiders, it's pretty night and day. Outsiders seems flat and cursory, hard to imagine it having longevity. Another good outing for the series 12 cast; it's the most obvious pairings for the team tasks, hoping to see Alan and Victoria really pull their fingers out next time. Scoring update: It's really close after two episodes: from left to right 31, 32, 34, 34, 25. Victoria doing poorly in the live tasks puts her a bit behind the pack.
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Sep 30, 2021 23:22
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 12:43 |
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Khanstant posted:This is really cool, I love custom toys with believable packing to match! What is the reason some of these photos are really hazy, like they're in a space with lots of fog or grey milk? Because I didn't have a camera available so I had to substitute my scanner. I have another one on the go right now, will have to find a way to share that when it's complete...
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Oct 1, 2021 07:57
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