New Taskmaster series

[ChedderGorgeous]

AIBU to have never heard of any of the contestants on the new series ? I love taskmaster so trust they have picked a line up that "works" but my god they seem to have run out of people who are in any way famous.
Had to Google the whole cast. From what I can see :
JOANNE MCNALLY – Irish stand up apparently
JOHN ROBINS - Seems to be a Freddie Mercury impersonator who doesn't look anything like him. Also 5live presenter ?

NICK MOHAMMED - Mr Swallow??!
SOPHIE WILLAN – stand up it seems STEVE PEMBERTON - used to be in 'Benidorm' which I have heard of but hate.

Anyone else scratching their head?

How is it hard to find out?!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robins_(comedian)

He's a normal stand up comedian. Has been on all the usual things you see stand ups I think, Live at the Apollo, Mock the week etc. I know he's known for being a massive Queen fan but not sure he's ever done impersonations / tribute acts (I could be wrong). He's clearly chosen a Freddie Mercury jacket for his taskmaster outfit though. But people wear all sorts for taskmaster!

He does a podcast with Elis James which I like 'How do you cope' interviewing celebrities about difficult things in their lives. I believe they also have a sport one / radio programme but not heard that as I'm not into sport. He seems to take himself very seriously and be a huge overthinker on the podcast which could be interesting for taskmaster.

TM is always a mix of more and less mainstream comedy people. It isn't 'celebs do tasks'.

From your posts it seems you don't know much about the British comedy scene - no problem with that, but I think it probably means you might need to readjust your expectations about recognising the contestants. Three out of five of them are very well-known even if you only follow comedy loosely by watching it on TV.

John robins is not a Freddie Mercury impersonator 😂

Not knowing them doesn't bother me, lots of the contestants I hadn't heard of ended up being my faves

OMG I LOVE Sophie Willan - she's amazing - if you haven't check out Alma's Not Normal on BBC - written from her experience as a care leaver - rather rude and very funny - sad in places.

John Robins was also recently in a relationship with emerald fennel, director of Saltburn and pregnant Barbie in Barbie movie. I only know this as DH is a fan and listens to his podcasts

Oh and 5 live is a new/sport/entertainment channel - not just sport - good news coverage

Well said , would love to see Reece on a future series too .

I thought it looked like a fantastic line up from the advert. Looking forward to it. I thought everyone was pretty well known.

Although I often haven't a clue who a lot of TV people are, no clue about soaps or reality 'stars' so it depends what you're into.

I've just googled this and I don't think this is true? DH cant be that much of a fan! I'm going to know EVERYTHING about this line up by the time it starts now ! 😂

Yes but I assumed he wasn't a news presenter!

I don't think if you went out to the man on the Clapham omnibus, Joe public would know 3 out of 5 . From the responses it looks like he might know Pemberton from Benidorm.

They've always had a mix of well known vs less known or tv newcomers, that's what's brilliant about it!

Not heard of any of them but isn't that part of the joy of taskmaster?

I'd never heard of at least 3/5 of the average line up and some of them are comedy geniuses!

Agree I have full faith in the mix of people picked.

According to Wikipedia, he was in a relationship with Emerald Fennel's sister, not EF herself.

Ah yes that rings a bell

John Robbins is the only one I know - he’s just a Freddie super fan rather than impersonator.

He is an absolutely brilliant stand up and his recent show was amazing.

He’s been on Radio 5 Live for years and his podcast with Elis James has won loads of awards.

Definitely Coco and not Emerald that he was previously engaged to.

Looks like Coco then say nono to their engagement! Poor guy!

Love the British Comedy scene , we obviously just don't have the same tastes !

Mr Swallow is brilliant. He’s completely ruined Jurassic Park for me but I’ll get past it!

You are missing out OP if you've never seen Inside No 9. It's brilliant TV and Steve won a BAFTA. Alma's not normal was very good too and Sophie also got a BAFTA.
Ted Lasso is well worth an Apple subscription and Nick is excellent in it. He is also quite enjoyable with David Schwimmer in Intelligence.
John Robbins won the Perrier at Edinburgh Fringe (whatever it's known as these days, showing my age).
The only one I'm scratching my head over is Joanne as she is big in Ireland presumably. But I didn't know Morgana Robinson and liked her so there's always usually one to get to know.

I'm only sulking a tad cos I'd hoped for another member of the Ghosts cast to be in this one.

It does seem like all the people you don't know come from different parts of the comedy scene though, so I think that's why you were surprised that you didn't know any of them, even after your initial Google to job your memory. Inside no 9 and League of gentlemen were huge shows if you like dark comedy, John Robbins is well known on standup scene, nick mohammed is in Ted Lasso that's pretty big in comedy/ drama field at the moment as well as the other stuff he does. i think people were surprised you didn't know any of them, not that you don't know all the same people as them.

I don't know McNally at all and only vaguely familiar with Sophie willan but recognised the name.

I agree with others saying that doesn't matter because some of the least well known are the best contestants. Mike Wozniak went from 'who?' to person i would love to spend time with in the course of about half an episode!