Taskmaster- just me?

[anonacfr]

To me this is the ultimate comfort TV.
Every season I miss the previous year's contestants and then end up loving it all over again.
This year the less well-known candidates (to me as well) have already won me over. And Dara O'Briain is like the exasperated yet optimistic supervising the chaos.
The question group task at the end of last episode had me crying.

I'm watching series 1 at the moment and thoroughly enjoyed watching Alex have to bite into a pie he knew full well contained hot toothpaste 😂😂

Have to say the podcast also raised a good pint about the ice cream task - the instructions just said “identify the flavours”. It did not say they could not leave the room, and as Ed Gamble pointed out there’s only one freezer in the Taskmaster House so they probably had labelled tubs in there that they could have just looked at 🤣🤣🤣

Haven't listened to the podcast yet, but it's on my to do list asap.

Yours was the last comment on this thread that I read before bed last night. I ended up having a saucy dream about Greg Davies! My mind obviously went into overdrive on the Magic Lamp teaser 😂

Can confirm Greg was as good as I'd imagined not that I've given it much thought. Nope, not me

I've just added the podcast to my "listen to" list.

i love looking for loopholes in the tasks.

@SoupDragon there are podcast episodes for every episode of TM so plenty to catch up on once this Series is done - 100 episodes so far!

I think I'd love this if Greg didn't host it, I can't watch him at all.

Just two of my favourite moments...

When Greg takes James Acaster aside and tells him off.

When making small films Bridget Christie makes one about a Soviet Space dog which was so moving it made me cry.

I love getting to know the new (to me) comedians like Paul Sinha.

I love how there's always at least one comedian you've never really heard of, then they usually end up being your favourite!

My username is a highly specific Taskmaster reference that I think you'd have to be a real aficionado to pick up 😁but five points to anyone who can answer what animal is referred to in it.

I haven't RTFT in it's entirety but does anyone know how the tasks are ordered? As they're prerecorded the production can put them in any order and in any episode. They would have a good chance of knowing who would win which tasks before Greg gives points for the majority - and so could do a whole episode where the underdog wins an episode by basically running their best tasks in one episode. It wouldn't affect the eventual winner but could influence public opinion maybe?

But is it done like this or some other way? Anyone know?

The tasks are all filmed together and then they choose the tasks per episode. And in the tasks where there are objective "win" criteria, they will know in advance who won. I did leave the last episode with the feeling that they had set up the ep for John to win, because he was doing so terribly that it was becoming unfunny. And Dara has turned out to be frighteningly good at everything, which would be fine except that he's by far the most famous person on the panel, so it's just not fun or funny if he wins everything.

Ii think so too. VCM had a good episode where lots of her good tasks were grouped together, and so did Judi Love last time. Obviously they don't know how the prize tasks or studio task will come out, and some of the other tasks are judged subjectively or have bonuses, but they still have a pretty good idea, and practically everyone was willing on Judi to win that episode (but she didn't, because of the live task)

I think it was the John episode that brought this back to my mind. It doesn't matter at all I don't think. It's entertaining telly and that's the whole point.

I do think that some tasks don't do much for a lot of comedians likely dyspraxia (and other similar things). But presumably they know this going into it (eg David Baddiel was very like ds).

I really warmed to Judi Love. I see she is doing some interesting telly stuff on black women and beauty. I think C4.

Sorry DAvid Baddiel was very like my ds - it is quite funny watching ds trying to put up a tent or even wash up or pack a bag but he wouldn't do it on telly!

The last episode was the first time it felt to me inorganic like an episode had been "rigged" so that the series' buttmonkey could win. I remember Baddiel finally winning an ep but it felt more like he got there on his own, despite the serious handicap of being David Baddiel (and he did have flashes of brilliance, like his "Davidbloke" builder character in the spy task). Also it was like Ep 8, so much later in the season. I kind of wondered if the betrayal task was devised for John on purpose to give him something he could get points for by being hapless, his natural talent.

I adore Judi Love. She doesn't have to speak to have me in stitches, her facial expressions and body language are hilarious on their own.

I wasn't keen on Judi Love at all before Taskmaster and was irrationally annoyed when they announced the line up.

But she was hilarious on TM, completely won me over.

@LoopDiL00p me too! It's happed a few times with Taskmaster, people I thought I wouldn't like I've found myself really enjoying. The format seems to bring the best out in people.

Another one who starts some series' thinking 'Who?!' and ends up falling totally in love with them by the end! Jessica Knappet is a prime example. See also; Asim Chaudhry, Guz Khan, Daisy May Cooper, Sarah Kendall and, as with PPs, Judi LOVE!

I'd heard of most of them 'in passing' before, but TM has totally done what I assume their agents were hoping!

Phil Wang! Loved his costume, too.

Hoping it's only a matter of time before Nigel Ng gets on the show.

Judi Love is amazing. She just has to raise one eyebrow for me and I'm I'm stitches.

Dara is indeed clever. If anyone is watching the last (dying) episodes of Mock The Week, it's a fecking travesty that it's ending. Hope another channel takes it on <narrows eyes at short sighted TV producers>

I mentioned to DS how there hasn't been anyone I have ended up disliking on TM, it brings out the best of the contestants.

I'm not into it. I'm not sure what I'm missing! Normally love these kind of shows and generally enjoy organised panel stuff

This song task is one of the best so far!

I feel like the snake had something about it that means that task isn't finished yet. The snake is coming back somehow.

I thought they just had to tidy the snake up.

I thought Mel Giedroyc did well, didn't she? She's one of the many Oxbridge graduates who've appeared.

I've always liked her, and the series just showed how genuinely lovely she is. I've also found Rob Beckett and Aisling Bea funny, amongst so many others.