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Taskmaster!
Feb. 19th, 2021 03:05 amSo, I've been mentioning Taskmaster on and off for the last few years, without ever actually making clear what this particular media property is. It is easily my most-watched television series of the pandemic, a highly comedic thing of joy, and just generally a good time! Perhaps it is the sort of thing you would enjoy watching as well?
Taskmaster is a game/panel show, in which British comedians watch footage of each other doing various "tasks" and add entertaining commentary, hoping to win the task and gain points from the Taskmaster, or at least make each other laugh. The same group are competing across an entire season, so they are hoping to win both the individual episode and the entire series to gain a Golden Taskmaster's Head Statue, a deeply coveted and beloved prize.
The tasks are...highly absurd and extremely varied, but well summed up by the very first task in the very first episode of the very first season: "In the other room, there is a watermelon. Eat as much watermelon as possible. You have one minute. Your time starts when you open the door to the room". Please picture for a moment, how you would prepare for this task. If you have twelve minutes to spare you can find out if you did as well as any of them.
The points matter only barely more than they do in Whose Line Is It Anyway --each episode starts with a prize task, in which the contestants all bring in items for the prize haul around some theme, such as "most impressive item", "cutest thing" or "thing you'd be most pleased to find in a field". At the end of the episode, the winner of that ep gets to bring home all the cheekiest foods or what-have-you!
After the prize task, there are 3-4 pre-filmed tasks shown, and the whole thing ends with a "live task", many of which feel like excellent party game activities. The tasks are all overseen by the Taskmaster's assistant, Little Alex Horne1, both during the filming and here in the studio. Sometimes people do well at the tasks, and you laugh at the ingenuity. Sometimes people do poorly at the tasks and you laugh really fucking hard at how enjoyably awful they are (I love you Nish).
There've been ten full seasons (the shortest being five episodes long, the longest being ten) along with a Champion of Champions special (featuring the first five series winners and *yes* we are all expecting a part two!) and a New Years one-off treat and who knows what other goodies to debut. Advised starting points are series four (Noel Fielding, from Mighty Boosh and late Bakeoff! Mel Giedroyc from early Bakeoff!!!), series one (the place it all started!), and series five (my absolute single favourite contestant, I love you Nish.)
You can watch the first seven series completely legally on YouTube, or all ten series legally on The Channel 4 Website. Disclaimer for that latter --you have to make an account, I don't know if accounts are geo-locked.
It is a thing that has been bringing me huge amounts of joy across the last four years or so, and I hope you two can find that joy. If you want someone to watch them with, honestly, there's a pretty high chance I would be willing to put together some TM afternoons where we all text-chat together on the discords as we watch a series or two.
Enjoy!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: a man who, at 6'1", really is quite small compared to the Taskmaster himself. Greg Davis is sixteen inches taller than I am, and I deeply love any moment that causes him to rise from his chair and show that fact
Taskmaster is a game/panel show, in which British comedians watch footage of each other doing various "tasks" and add entertaining commentary, hoping to win the task and gain points from the Taskmaster, or at least make each other laugh. The same group are competing across an entire season, so they are hoping to win both the individual episode and the entire series to gain a Golden Taskmaster's Head Statue, a deeply coveted and beloved prize.
The tasks are...highly absurd and extremely varied, but well summed up by the very first task in the very first episode of the very first season: "In the other room, there is a watermelon. Eat as much watermelon as possible. You have one minute. Your time starts when you open the door to the room". Please picture for a moment, how you would prepare for this task. If you have twelve minutes to spare you can find out if you did as well as any of them.
The points matter only barely more than they do in Whose Line Is It Anyway --each episode starts with a prize task, in which the contestants all bring in items for the prize haul around some theme, such as "most impressive item", "cutest thing" or "thing you'd be most pleased to find in a field". At the end of the episode, the winner of that ep gets to bring home all the cheekiest foods or what-have-you!
After the prize task, there are 3-4 pre-filmed tasks shown, and the whole thing ends with a "live task", many of which feel like excellent party game activities. The tasks are all overseen by the Taskmaster's assistant, Little Alex Horne1, both during the filming and here in the studio. Sometimes people do well at the tasks, and you laugh at the ingenuity. Sometimes people do poorly at the tasks and you laugh really fucking hard at how enjoyably awful they are (I love you Nish).
There've been ten full seasons (the shortest being five episodes long, the longest being ten) along with a Champion of Champions special (featuring the first five series winners and *yes* we are all expecting a part two!) and a New Years one-off treat and who knows what other goodies to debut. Advised starting points are series four (Noel Fielding, from Mighty Boosh and late Bakeoff! Mel Giedroyc from early Bakeoff!!!), series one (the place it all started!), and series five (my absolute single favourite contestant, I love you Nish.)
You can watch the first seven series completely legally on YouTube, or all ten series legally on The Channel 4 Website. Disclaimer for that latter --you have to make an account, I don't know if accounts are geo-locked.
It is a thing that has been bringing me huge amounts of joy across the last four years or so, and I hope you two can find that joy. If you want someone to watch them with, honestly, there's a pretty high chance I would be willing to put together some TM afternoons where we all text-chat together on the discords as we watch a series or two.
Enjoy!
~Sor
MOOP!
1: a man who, at 6'1", really is quite small compared to the Taskmaster himself. Greg Davis is sixteen inches taller than I am, and I deeply love any moment that causes him to rise from his chair and show that fact