Taskmaster Series 18 Episode 5: The Stats Round Up

Jack Bernhardt
22 min readOct 10, 2024

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WARNING! Past Sara Pascoe’s dancing robot there be spoilers for Taskmaster Series 18 Episode 5! If you haven’t seen Series 18 Episode 5, do NOT go past the dancing robot!

They’re both having the time of their lives, ain’t they.

VENI, VIDI, SIDI: Emma charges her way to victory with a score of 19 (3.8PPT), narrowly beating series leader Jack Dee in a thrilling tiebreak (well, as thrilling as any tiebreak can be when one of the contestants gives up).

Emma in disbelief at winning an episode

Let’s kick up more of a stink than a grated Zaltzman welly boot and get stuck into some STATS!

Headlines

  • Emma wins her first episode of the series — it’s the first time the first five episodes of a series have produced five different winners. Every Series 18 contestant has won an episode, meaning Phil Wang (Series 7), Judi Love (Series 13) and Frankie Boyle (Series 15) remain the only contestants in a ten episode series not to have won an episode (sorry Judi. Phil and Frankie didn’t seem to care that much to be fair.)
All five contestants laughing (just after Baba has, once again, called Greg’s mum a slag)
  • Putting aside Jack’s maths in the tiebreak, it was a good episode for him — his score of 19 was his best outside of his hot-dog assisted win in Episode 2, and means that his lead over Babá stretches to seven points. This is the sixth biggest lead at the halfway stage — only Liza Tarbuck (10 points), Lou Sanders (14 points), Sarah Kendall (21 points), Dara Ó Briain (12 points) and John Robins (10 points) had bigger ones— and no-one with a lead this large at this stage has gone on to lose.
Jack Dee looking particularly sleazy in the team task
“I’d have that man arrested based on looks alone.”
  • However, it is worth saying that both Rose Matafeo (Series 9) and Daisy May Cooper (Series 10) had leads of 6 points at this stage — and both went on to lose. And, as we always say, this series is a little more fluid thanks to the Hot Dog joker — while Jack’s nearest rival Babá has used his, none of the other contestants have. With Emma just 9 points behind Jack it’s not unfeasible that she could catch him up with a well played hot dog.
  • Like the digestive tract of someone who’s just taken a big gulp of a four month old Eggy Milky Cheesy Surprise, there’s a LOT of movement at the bottom. For the fourth week in a row, last place has changed hands to a different person (after Episode 2 it was Andy, after Ep 3 it was Babá, after Ep 4 it was Emma, and after Ep 5 it’s Rosie). This is the first time in Taskmaster history that this has happened, as usually by this time you’re either looking at a Victoria Coren-Mitchell marooned in 5th, a Sophie Willan/Nick Mohammed style “battle” for 4th, or at the very best a three-way fight for third (like Series 14’s undignified scrap between Brady, Kearns and Chawawa). Not so here — with a record low 13 points between Jack Dee in first and Rosie Jones in fifth (and a hot dog still to play for Rosie), no-one can really be counted out.
  • To demonstrate how topsy turvy this series is, it’s worth looking at the scores without team tasks (where the gap widened once again this week):
Jack Dee 75, Rosie Jones 62, Babatunde Aleshe 61, Emma Sidi 59, Andy Zaltzman 57
Points Tally Without Team Tasks

Jack would be 13 points clear of Rosie in second place! As it is, Jack is only 7 points clear and Rosie is dead last. That points both to how badly Jackie and Rosie did in that live team task last week and how tight the margins are…

Prize Task (The Thing That Is Best When You Add Liquid To It)

  • This is the second prize task in the show’s history to specifically mention liquid, after the first prize task of Series 6, “Best Liquid”. Tim Vine won that task with Fizzy Benylin, possibly one of the only things to come out of Taskmaster that is legitimately a good business idea (along with Sue Perkins’ surprisingly pleasant sausages and Chris Ramsey’s invention of the Sausage Mixer).
  • Jack Dee received three points (AGAIN!) for his swimming pool — it’s the second time he’s modelled an item (after the safety harness in Episode 2), although the first time he’s done so with footage at home. The last contestant to do this was Steve Pemberton, who brought in “behind the scenes” photos of him making his papier maché moon — he received 5 points for his troubles. Jack demonstrated his swimming pool with a wet suit, and it’s a good thing he didn’t make that part of his prize — Chris Ramsey was the last contestant to bring in a wet suit and received 1 point for it.
Jack Dee in a wet suit in his pool
“This morning, I was… naked.”
  • This is the fourth time Jack has received 3 points for a prize task in the first five episodes — only Aisling Bea has managed as many 3s in the same amount of time. Jack is still yet to score higher than a 3 in his prize tasks — every contestant in a 10 episode series has managed to score more than 3 at least once. Will Jack continue his streak all series to take this mediocre prize crown?
  • Andy (inexplicably dressed as a snooker player with “Mission Master” written in simplified Chinese on his shirt, thank you Google Translate) got four points for his “powdered trampoline” from “Zaltztec”. While many contestants have brought in their own inventions (Tim Vine and his retractable stage spade in Series 6), and many contestants have brought in items that didn’t do what they claimed it did (Nick Mohammed and his good luck potion in Series 17), I believe (although as always I’m ready to be corrected by many pedantic fans) this is the first time a contestant has brought in a fake branded product (as in, a product part of a fake corporation). It’s an interesting tactic — other items from Zaltztec included Powdered Puppy, Powdered Hedge, Powdered Snooker (possibly explaining his outfit) and Powdered Powder.
The packet for Insta-Boing Powdered Trampoline
ZaltzTec’s Insta-boing Powdered Trampoline.
  • With a score of 3.60, Andy is doing the best in prize tasks now in the series — after Episode 1 (where he scored 1 point) he’s scored nothing but 4s and 5s. Currently he’s the 12th best prize tasker of all time, alongside David Baddiel, Bridget Christie and the Brian Blessed bribing Sue Perkins.
  • Rosie brought in a balloon — she’s the fourth contestant to do so for a prize task, after Series 5’s Sally Phillips (who brought in a bunch of helium balloons for The Most Awkward Item For Someone Else To Take Home prize in Episode 8, receiving 3 points), Series 8’s Paul Sinha (who brought in a caterpillar balloon for Best Burstable Thing, 4 points) and Series 17’s Joanne McNally (who brought in a video of her deflating a Che Guevara balloon, for reasons that have never been made clear to anyone, 1 point). After a good start to the series, Rosie continues her slide down the prize tasking table — she’s now joint 20th overall, level with seven contestants (including champions Dara Ó Briain and Katherine Ryan).
Just a very boring red balloon.
Rosie’s Balloon.
  • Emma won her first prize task of the series with a picture of Greg drawn with aquarelle pencils, drawn by her (drunk) brother. By my count she’s the 18th contestant to bring in a prize that features an image of Greg — over the years we’ve had a 4000 piece Greg puzzle (Mark Watson), a Greg effigy made out of Heroes chocolates (Ivo Graham), a Greg made out of Greggs pasties/glue (Sue Perkins), a Greg cappuccino stencil (Jenny Eclair) and, of course, a Greg puppet (Mae Martin/their dad).
A pretty nice portrait of Greg
The non-water version of Greg.
  • Babá brought in jelly powder, and in so doing became the first contestant this series to go last in the prize task and not receive 5 points (indeed, he got just 1 for his effort). It’s the fifth time jelly has been brought in as a prize task (although the first time the recepient has done so while repeatedly calling Greg’s mum a slag.)

Task 1 (Direct The Robot To Its Charging Station and Plug It In)

  • This task involved a character heavily inspired by Sara Pascoe’s robot in Series 3 (where she created a robot for the Do Something That Looks Brilliant When Sped Up Or Slowed Down task). Crucially it wasn’t the same robot — Sara’s robot was shorter as it was played by former AP Joel Porter (who has also done many of the brilliant Greg portraits in the living room each series), whereas this one was played by Alex Horne (extremely grumpily).
Jack looking at the robot disdainfully
Jack very disappointed by the very concept of this task.
  • This is the second time that Alex has played a named character separate from his “assistant” persona — in Series 16 he played Qrs Tuwvxyz, a very grumpy customer staying at the Taskmaster hotel. Like Qrs, this character (who insisted on being called “Robert”, not Robot) was a bit of a dick (one suspects that Babá would have wanted to floor Qrs as well).
  • In this task, contestants were limited to giving instructions that didn’t contain the letters O and E. There have been many tasks that have placed limitations on the words contestants could say — Mark Watson during the “Light the candle in the caravan” task couldn’t use any letters that were contained in the word TASKMASTER; in the New Years’ Treat 2024, contestants had to insult Alex or praise Greg but they lost letters every time they ate a poppadom; and in the first team task of Series 17 the contestants could only communicate in two word sentences. However, there was a (generous) difference in this task: unlike those tasks, where contestants were actively penalised if they broke the rules, here contestants could say whatever words they liked — it’s just that the robot would only react to instructions without O or E. This meant that Jack could do a running commentary about how useless the robot was, filled with Es and Os, without being punished.
  • The “platonically aroused” Emma won this task with a score of 6 minutes, 56 seconds — it’s her first “fastest wins” task win of the series (after coming last in two of the previous three). Emma has been in extremely topsy-turvy form for a few tasks now — she’s come either first or last, scoring 1 or 5 points, in every filmed task since the end of Episode 2.
Andy getting the robot to do starjumps.
“Starjumps!”
  • Emma is the second contestant in consecutive series to admit a fascination (dare we say obsession) with Mr Blobby, after Joanne McNally called him, unprovoked, the greatest physical comedian of his generation. To add to this, she’s the third person involved in the show to have publicly admitted an attraction to Mr Blobby — Sophie Williams, a member of the production team, voiced Mr Blobby in a task in Series 17, and admitted on Taskmaster The People’s Podcast that the task had been inspired by her own obsession with Mr Blobby. In the studio discussion, Greg brought up the air dancers outside carwashes (something else Emma is obsessed with) — it’s the third time air dancers have been mentioned on the show, after Desiree Burch brought one in as a prize in Series 12, and after the “Pie Wayne” task in Series 16 (where contestants had to splat a cream pie in an air dancer’s face).
Emma charging Robert
Emma so happy to charge the robot.
  • Babátúndé followed up his (controversial) “fastest wins” win last week with a 4 points here, doing the task in just 7 minutes and 39 seconds, while Jack Dee came in third with 9 minutes 3 seconds — it’s the second consecutive time that Jack has come third in a “fastest wins” task, having won the previous two.
  • Rosie grabbed 2 points for initially sending the robot to the wrong charging point (a sheet on the stage), while Andy took 21 minutes, having a meltdown in an objectively judged task for the second week in a row (after last week’s locket-in-a-pocket fiasco). It means that Andy and Rosie have both scored 10 points in “fastest wins” tasks in the series (2.50 points per task) — the lowest tallies in the series.
Rosie shepherding the robot to the charging station.
  • Not a fact but an observation: unlike last week, where Andy left the room in the locket task for no reason (overthinking the task by looking for non existent clues throughout the house, ultimately leading to his disqualification), here Andy made the Katherine Parkinson-esque error to stay in the living room, and refuse to countenance that the answer might be outside the room he was in. Of all the contestants this series, Andy must be the most versatile at failing, coming up with new and exciting ways of getting 1 or 0 points each week.

Task 2 (Make The Strongest Smell)

  • This is a slight reworking of a prize task from Series 8, where contestants had to bring in the strongest smell — as such it’s the second time this series where a previous task has been adapted to make it work in a new context, after the “drink the vinegar” live task in Episode 1 (itself a reworking of a filmed task from New Year’s Treat 2022).
  • In the previous version of this task, Iain brought in a fart in a jar (potentially where the ‘jar’ aspect of this task came from), receiving 2 points; Lou Sanders brought in a cologne called “Greg Davies all over your neck” (5 points); Paul Sinha brought in cider vinegar (3 points) and Sian Gibson brought in perm lotion (which came with a warning for the audience to never ever inhale it, 3 points). Interestingly in his unholy concotion, Andy used cider vinegar and hairwax (not perm lotion), so Paul Sinha must have been onto something. No-one in the Series 18 cast used Joe Thomas’ entry, a tomato stalk, because they wanted to win, not score one point.
Baba smelling his smell.
  • In that prize task, Greg merely had the option of smelling the entries — as it was, he smelt all of them (except for Iain’s fart in a jar, which he gave to Alex to sniff). Here, of course, there was more ceremony — with the jars being opened by the contestants and then smelled by the Taskmaster. I think this is the sixth time that the result of a filmed task has been revealed in the studio in its physical form (IE, not with VT footage or images), after the four “buy/make a present for The Taskmaster” tasks (Series 1, Series 2, Series 3 and Series 16), and the “hula” task between James and Phil Wang in Series 7.
  • There was, of course, a hidden clause on the back of the task, stating that in order for their effort to count, the contestants would have to smell the jar before the Taskmaster. This is the third time at least that crucial information has been revealed on the back of a task, after a clause on the back of a task in Series 4 revealed that if any contestants ate the chocolate in the task they would be docked 5 points, and the “completely unwind this ball of string” task in Series 15 had an extra part hidden on the back, telling them to effectively disregard the first part of the task. There are likely more, please make like the contestants and make a big stink at me if you can remember them.
  • Emma was the only one to spot the clause, but it might have been that, rather than giving her an advantage, the act of spotting it might have made her more conservative (as she scored just 2 points). In this sense it’s a classic “backfiring hack”, when a contestant finds a strategy that should help them but actually makes it worse. The best examples of this are Hugh Dennis in Series 4, when he was able to look around a curtain using mirrors for a portrait task, but then proceeded to draw the worst picture of the five (turning a Black woman into a “fat bald white man”); and Mark Watson in Series 5, where, in a task where the contestants were all in darkness, he was the only one to spot the lightswitch — and then drew a truly terrible rainbow.
  • Jack Dee won the task by putting an air freshener, possibly the most inspired (and dangerous) hack of the series. Having searched through the transcripts I couldn’t find any mention of air fresheners, so I think this is the first time anyone has used an air freshener in the show’s history for anything (although I’m guessing one or two came in handy after Sarah Millican spilt the milk in Series 14).
Andy grating a welly
Andy grates a welly.
  • Babátúndé Aléshé got four points for his coffee and Marmite combination. While Marmite has featured on the show before (usually as part of the disgusting flavour combinations they make contestants try to identify in the lab), this is only the third time it’s been used by another contestant — Katherine Ryan used a Marmite jar when she made her surprising silhouette in Series 2, while Nish Kumar used Marmite as an ingredient in a task where the contestants had to make Marmite (0 points, obviously, come on Nish).
  • Andy came third for his “growing” concoction — by all accounts, going on contestant reaction, the worst smell, but not necessarily the strongest. Along with cider vinegar, Andy used another ingredient which had been brought in as a prize task by a previous contestant — some raspberry bath pearls from Nick Mohammed in Series 17 for the “Most Splendid Spherical Thing”. It’s unclear if they were the exact same ones that Nick brought in — although chances are good given that no-one has used bath pearls since 1992.
Rosie smelling the jar.
Rosie smelling her smell, seconds before disappointment.
  • The most disappointing moment came from Rosie Jones, who had promised a lot with her “Eggy Milky Cheesy Surprise” — but didn’t register that the sealed jars would stop the milk from fermenting, meaning that even after six months it smelt “fine”. It’s possibly the biggest contrast between a contestant’s anticipation of a task and the actual result since Series 7, when James Acaster spoke at length about how long he had spent practicing his hula hooping (and then hulaed for 5 seconds, one second less than he had managed six months previously with no practice).

Task 3 (Team — Present The Most Heartwarming Final Story)

  • This is a relatively typical type of team task — one where a team must make a segment for a TV show or film. Other versions of this include Series 4’s “Make the best trailer for Taskmaster: The Movie”, Series 7’s “Write and perform the most suspenful soap opera cliffhanger” and Series 17’s “Present the best new sort form shiny floor American game show”.
Baba interviewing Andy.
Gogo Jenkins and Isabella Cratchington.
  • Andy Zaltzman rode a bike in this task, joining an illustrious group of contestants to do so — they include Asim Chaudhry (who rode a bike while having the most fun in Series 6), Jessica Knappett (who rode a bike while making her best noise in Series 7), Sarah Kendall (who used one to transport plates in Series 11) and the entire cast of Series 12 (who had to ride a bike as slowly as possible through an obstacle course, including Victoria Coren Mitchell, who learned how to ride a bike during the course of that task). Andy also wore the same wig that he wore in the first team task (the “become the best multi-headed creature” task, although thankfully without the multiple ducks on his fingers and smoothie), while I think the jacket that Babá wore as Gogo Jenkins was last seen on Alex during the “Enable Alex to bite his duck” task in Series 13.
  • Once again, the team of three triumphed, meaning that the gap between the teams is now seven points. For the past three series, Teams of Three have been trouncing the Teams of Two — not only has the eventual champion come from the Team of Three, but the Teams of Three have scored on average 14 points more than the Team of Two. However this is actually a relatively recent phenomenon — the Teams of 2 scored the most number of points in team tasks in eight of the first twelve series of Taskmaster, and taken across the full 17 series, the Team of Three (3.00) has a lower points per team task average than the Team of Two (3.04). So while recent history might be against Jack and Rosie, they need to channel the classic Teams of Two for victory (Tim and Frank, Mel and Hugh, Jessica and Kerry…).

Live Task (Land your skydiver closest to the seal)

  • This is the first time a catapult has been involved in a live task, although not the first catapult on the show — in Series 15, Ivo Graham brought in a branded Greg Davies catapult, designed for firing cheeseballs at a dog, while in Series 10 the contestants had to create a catapult capable of flinging a shoe into a bath (much to Katherine Parkinson’s horror and confusion). This is the first time this series that a live task has involved the area where the contestants’ chairs are normally placed, although we are yet to see the Knappett (the long thin extension of the stage) make an appearance this series.
Alex, Baba, Jack, Rosie and Andy watch on as Emma fires the parachuting man to the centre of the target.
Emma firing her parachute into the centre of the target.
  • Jack Dee won — in so doing he scored more points in this task (5) than he had in all of the previous live tasks combined (3). It means his overall live task score is looking slightly more healthy this week (1.60 points per live task), but he’s still doing the worst of any of the contestants this series. At the halfway stage, he’s in danger of being the worst live tasker ever — he needs another 7 points from the remaining five live tasks to squeeze ahead of Sian Gibson (Series 8), who managed just 14 points from her ten live tasks.
  • Despite his poor performance here, Andy Zaltzman is doing the best in live tasks this series with a score of 2.60 points per live task. If that sounds low, it’s because it is — it’s the joint 55th best live task score, level with the not particularly great live tasker, John Kearns (Series 14). Having said that, the fact that no-one in Series 18 is averaging more than 2.60 points per live task is not necessarily an indictment of their live task skills — they’ve been dealt a tough hand, with two “winner takes all” live tasks meaning that the maximum available points in live tasks is much lower than it is normally. Still doesn’t explain why two (TWO) contestants managed to fire their little man into the audience though.

All Time Leaderboard

1–10 leaderboard John Robins
 Dara Ó Briain
 Mae Martin
 Sarah Millican
 Sophie Duker
 Joanne McNally
 Chris Ramsey
 Morgana Robinson
 Jack Dee
 Katherine Ryan
All Time Top 10 After Episode 5 — Jack Dee in 9th.
  • Another good episode for Jack pushes his PPT score up to 3.36, which is enough to ensure he pops back inside the top ten at the expense of Ed Gamble (hah hah hah). At the halfway stage Jack is looking good for the win — he’s won 22.11% of all the points so far this series, which, if he were to replicate that for the whole series, would be the 8th highest percentage anyone has ever managed (just behind Richard Herring and Lou Sanders). Obviously, the major caveat is the hot dog — there are still three contestants who are yet to use their joker, meaning they could easily take a good bite out of that percentage in the second half of the series. Jack has scored 84 points after five episodes — if he were to keep that score up, he would be the 13th highest scoring contestant ever alongside Morgana Robinson. Having said that, Jack’s PPT score of 3.36 from five episodes is not insurmountable — plenty of other contestants have scored more than Jack in the first half of a series (Jenny Eclair, Daisy May Cooper, Mark Watson and Rose Matafeo) only to fall away in the second half. As long as Jack keeps dropping points in the prize tasks, he’s keeping the door open to other contestants.
Daisy May Cooper
 Lou Sanders
 Rhod Gilbert
 Babatunde Aléshé
 Mike Wozniak
 Jo Brand
 Richard Osman
 Ardal O’Hanlon
 Steve Pemberton
 James Acaster
All time leaderboard after Ep 5 — 31st to 40th (Babátúndé Aléshé in 34th).
  • Babátúndé Aléshé followed up his episode last week with an utterly fine 15 (3.00 PPT) — it means he slips down a few places on the all-time leaderboard from 30th to 34th, behind Lou Sanders and Rhod Gilbert. The concern for Babá going forward may be that, despite grabbing 10 points with his hot dog last week, he’s still only managed to score just over 20% of the total points this series — without the hot dog, he’d currently be in fourth place, just one point ahead of Rosie Jones. Babá’s big problem so far is in prize tasks — he’s averaging just 2.20 points per task, with only five contestants faring worse than him on the all time list (Nish Kumar, Morgana Robinson, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Roisin Conaty and Hugh Dennis). It’s what is dragging his subjectively judged task score so far down — he’s currently in 71st place in subjectively judged tasks, alongside Emma Sidi, Jon Richardson and Al Murray. But if you take prize tasks out, Babá’s subjectively judged score rockets up to 3.29, the 41st best score, level with James Acaster and ahead of Frankie Boyle and (surprisingly) Julian Clary. Maybe if Babá stopped calling Greg’s mum a slag in the prize tasks, he might fare better?
Mark Watson
 Sally Phillips
 Joe Lycett
 Lee Mack
 Munya Chawawa
 Emma Sidi
 Frankie Boyle
 Dave Gorman
 Mel Giedroyc
 Al Murray
All time leaderboard after Ep 5–43rd to 52nd (Emma Sidi in 47th place)
  • Emma’s episode win means she goes from last in the series all the way up to 3rd — and on the all-time leaderboard she’s jumped twenty places, from 67th all the way up to 47th, alongside Munya Chawawa, Frankie Boyle and Dave Gorman. At the halfway stage, her area to improve is definitely in the filmed subjective tasks — another poor return this week in the strongest smell task means she’s on 2.71 for subjectively judged tasks (not including prize tasks). Only twelve contestants have a worse score than that, including Katherine Parkinson, Lucy Beaumont, Roisin Conaty, Paul Chowdhry and Phil Wang — certainly going into the series, given her sketch comedy background, I would not have put her so low down in the creative filmed tasks. She’s somewhat making up for it in the objectively judged tasks — her score of 3.15 is the 25th best ever, ahead of champons Richard Herring and Sarah Kendall — and she’s only two behind Jack Dee and Babátúndé Aléshé, even though their objective task scores are inflated because of the hot dog joker. If Emma plays her joker right, there’s no reason she couldn’t leap ahead of both of them (even if she’s never going to knock Greg’s socks off with her spa smells).
All Time Leaderboard after Ep 5–51st to 60th (Andy Zaltzman in 57th)
  • After two strong episodes, Andy found himself rather snookered here — his score of 13 (2.60 PPT) puts him on 2.92 PPT for the series and means he drops ten places on the all-time leaderboard, from 47th to 57th (just behind Aisling Bea, and only fractionally ahead of Sophie Willan, John Kearns and Fern Brady). Andy is still yet to win an objectively judged solo filmed task, following up his disqualification last week in the locket task with a miserable 1 point in the robot charging task. It means his objective task score is 2.31, level with Victoria Coren Mitchell — only ten contestants have a worse score, including Paul Sinha, Phil Wang, Katherine Parkinson and David Baddiel. This is the big area that Andy needs to improve in, because he’s doing pretty well in other areas — his subjectively judged task score is 3.58, which is just outside the all-time top ten, level with Steve Pemberton, and this week he overtook Rosie Jones as the top prize tasker of the series. If he can bring the same nose-smashing attitude of his strongest smell tasks to his objectively judged tasks, he could start to creep up the table — but that’s a big if (especially from someone who tried to make the robot eat a power socket in his last objectively judged task).
John Kearns
 Fern Brady
 Hugh Dennis
 Judi Love
 Rosie Jones
 Asim Chaudhry
 Joe Thomas
 Doc Brown
 Susan Wokoma
 Lolly Adefope
All Time Leaderboard After Ep 5–61st to 70th (Rosie Jones in 64th)
  • Rosie Jones got her lowest score of the series, 12 (2.4 PPT), and as such dropped to last place in the series, and 10 places on the all-time chart to 64th (level with Judi Love and Asim Chaudhry). It’s the second time a contestant has won the first episode but then found themselves in last place by Episode 5 — Alice Levine in Series 6 also started strong before fading badly by the fifth episode. Unlike that series (where Alice was 27 points behind the leader Liza Tarbuck), Rosie is not necessarily out of it — she’s only 13 points behind Jack at the top and she still has her joker to play — but like Emma she needs to start making the filmed subjectively judged tasks count. Her score in that area is 2.86, which, while better than Emma, could use some work — only twenty contestants out of ninety have a worse return, and she finds herself behind Victoria Coren Mitchell and Nick Mohammed by that metric. Similarly her objectively judged task scores are not great — she’s in 64th place on 2.62 PPT and, if she has another poor showing like in the robot task this week, she’s in serious danger of falling behind Lucy Beaumont in 67th. While she is doing better than Andy in that regard, she needs to grab a few more objectively judged task wins — her only one came in Episode 1, when she was the only contestant to drink the vinegar in the live task.

And Finally…

  • This episode saw the first tiebreak of the series — and I think the first time a contestant has literally refused to give an answer in a tiebreak, or an answer to a maths problem posed in the show. We’ve had contestants who have not bothered to do any sums and then decided to guess a random number (like Liza Tarbuck when trying to work out the length of the string in Series 6), and we’ve had contestants throw a tiebreak away (Noel Fielding throwing a bottle of wine onto a tray from the high chair instead of decanting it), but never quite such a blatant surrender as Jack’s in this. It’s, of course, not the first time the contestants have had to work out someone’s age in a unit of time other than years — in Series 1 Episode 3, Josh Widdicombe and Romesh Ranganathan had to work out Frank Skinner’s age in minutes. Emma was only 293 days out in the end, which means she did much better than either Josh or Romesh (who were both out in their guesses by over 28 million minutes). It’s perhaps the most impressive bit of maths on the show since Series 6, when Tim Vine was able to estimate the length of a piece of string using a lobster system, and was out by just 10 lobsters (3 metres).

If you want more stats, simply yell “CRAWL! LAUGH! CRAWL! LAUGH!” at the nearest robot, or click here for the big terrifying spreadsheet!

And don’t forget to listen to this week’s episode of Taskmaster The People’s Podcast, where this week Jenny and I are talking about whether jelly is good for your nails, the morality of the “skip intro” button and exactly what “brap brap” means!

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Jack Bernhardt
Jack Bernhardt

Written by Jack Bernhardt

I write jokes (Amazing World of Gumball, Horrible Histories) and talk into microphones (Taskmaster: The People's Podcast) All enquiries kwilliams@theagency.com

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