The Best 124 Moments In Taskmaster History (As A Way Of Escaping The Despair of 2020 & 2021) [40–21]
[Part One][Part Two][Part Three][Part Four]
Here it is, Part 5 of my desperate attempt to flee from the reality of life in 2020 and 2021 by listing the best moments of Taskmaster Seasons 1–10!
(I know, I know, this was supposed to be an “end of year” 2020 thing to distract us in the purgatory bit between Christmas and New Year, and I’m aware that it’s no longer “sort of” 2021 (January 1st-January 10th) and it’s now “proper” 2021 (the rest of this miserable year), but in fairness to me, I have been extremely busy panicking about the collapse of civilisation. It turns out though that 2021 is functionally the same as 2020, except the novelty’s worn off so it’s wearing as thin as Phil Wang’s yellow jumpsuit.)
We’ve already had 84 classic moments, with some controversially consigned to low on the countdown (Sally Phillips throwing a jelly into the bin was all the way down at Number 80, which is frankly ludicrous), but now we’re hitting the Top 40. The heavy hitters. The big boys. The crème de la crème of cream pies being hit into Alex Horne’s face. The moments where we discovered that truth is friendship, and friendship is indeed truth. Without further ado, let’s kick it off with one of the worst (and therefore best) players to ever play the game. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for Last in PE, First in Being A Legend: Nish Kumar.
40. Nish Kumar Tries To Kick A Basketball Into A Hoop (Series 5, Ep 1)
Task: Get the basketball through the hoop without using your hands.
What happened: In a task where other competitors used buckets, wellies and various other complicated implements to get the basketball into the hoop, Nish Kumar went for simple, perfect glory. His plan was to chip the ball into the hoop with his foot, like an off-duty Premier League footballer showing off on a basketball court — this despite the fact that a) he was wearing black brogues, b) it’s really, really hard to do and c) he’s not some kind of sporting comedy god like Russell Howard. And yet, against all the odds, he did it — a cute little dink, one little bounce off the backboard and in. The crowd goes wild. Both Nishes (VT Nish and studio Nish) lose their minds. In the video Nish screams “HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES, HORNE” at Alex before pulling off his jacket and whirling it around his head like a fabric helicopter. In the studio Nish walks around the stage, arms outstretched, like a scene out of a budget remake of Gladiator on Dave. It’s a truly wonderful moment. Such a shame, then, that Alex had to reveal that this gloriously successful kick wasn’t actually Nish’s first attempt — far from it. Nish is forced to watch, head in his hands, as we see a montage of the other fifty one truly dreadful tries. How do you like them apples indeed.
Why is it so good: There are great sporting moments in Taskmaster, and there are moments where glory is cruelly pulled away at the last second. This is neither of those moments — instead, it is a Moby Dick style battle of wills, Kumar vs basketball, where a man sets out to do something impossible and is willing to lose it all (his dignity, his sanity, the respect of thousands of people watching at home) to make it happen. There’s one aspect that I find fascinating on a psychological level — at the start Nish says “this is Plan A,”, implying of course that there are other plans to be tried if this one doesn’t work. He tries it a few times and fails miserably, but after each one he says “OK, once more”, as if he’s acknowledging that this is a long shot and he’ll try something else after this. But after around the tenth attempt, it’s like a switch goes off in his brain — all he can think about is kicking the ball into the hoop. There is no Plan B. There is no way out. He will do this, he declares, “if it kills me and everyone here”. It’s a stunning collapse, and as the ball bounces back and hits Nish in the face after attempt number 30ish, it’s an illustration of how this show can turn the brightest minds into irrational sludges of basketball-chipping fury.
Position in task: Incredibly, Nish didn’t earn the fewest points here — he came last but ahead of Sally Phillips who was disqualified for wellington boot chicanery.
Watch out for: Nish calling the ball racist twice, and saying “this is like Groundhog Day” four times.
39. Mark Watson Steals Greg’s Trousers (Series 5, Ep 5)
Task: Most high octane item. (Prize Task)
What happened: Mark Watson took high octane to mean “most adrenaline inducing”, so something that would scare him the most — and he decided that the thing that would produce the most anxiety for him would be stealing something from the Taskmaster himself. Mark presented his item: a pair of Greg Davies’ trousers, stolen from backstage during a gig a few weeks previously, by none other than future Taskmaster champion Ed Gamble. Greg is both furious and amazed — not least because he had been wondering what had happened to his trousers after the gig, apparently shouting “who loses fucking trousers?!” to anyone who would listen. The description by Mark of the heist — with Ed Gamble sprinting into his car and Mark shouting down the phone “just go, leave, leave now!” like an awkward Bristolian Danny Ocean — makes this a brilliantly bold prize, not least because of how nervous Mark is to even admit to it.
Why is it so good: throughout the series, Mark’s prize tasks were consistently high effort, low reward (at one point he spent £400 on a light up hat which came second last), but there’s something next level about this, mostly because you feel like the terrible knowledge of the theft is making Mark physically ill. He doesn’t even seem particularly proud of pulling off the trouser heist — a bit like Joe Thomas in Series 8, he seems to perceive the tasks not as opportunities for hijinks, but as terrible chores that must be completed regardless of the pain it will cause him, and this is no different. The fact that he used the definition of “high octane” that would cause himself the most discomfort is telling — he could have gone for something easier, something less likely to incur the wrath of Greg, something less risky… but Mark can only play the game one way. To him, Taskmaster is not about cutting corners or sneaky interpretations — it is penance, it is suffering. And that is oddly admirable.
Position in task: Last, obviously. He stole the judge’s trousers, for crying out loud.
Watch out for: the fact that, upon discovering that his trousers have been stolen, Greg’s first instinct is to turn furiously to look at Alex Horne, assuming he clearly had something to do with it.
38. Tim Key Lies About Being On Comic Relief To Win (Series 1, Ep 2)
Task: High-five a 55-year-old.
What happened: in the first (and thankfully last) task where contestants had to interact with members of the public, Tim Key struggled to work up the nerve to approach people to ask for a high five (back before that was extremely illegal). After about a dozen failed approaches where Tim would march up to someone, lose his nerve, puff out his cheeks and gurn helplessly (also known as the Jack Bernhardt Technique For Flyering At The Edinburgh Fringe Festival), he finally worked up the courage to ask someone and got them to high five him — and luckily for him, that person happened to be 55. The only problem? He did it by saying he was filming a show for Comic Relief. Cue cheers from the audience but gasps of indignant horror from Romesh Ranganathan, who, it turns out, deeply cares about about the integrity of one of the best loved charities in Britain if it means there’s a chance he’ll get slightly more Taskmaster points.
Why is it so good: This task was an odd one — the public setting and the forced interaction with ordinary people made it feel less like Taskmaster and more like a subpar segment on Impractical Jokers, and it says a lot about that the show has never dared to venture somewhere vulgar like a mall since this task (Mel Giedroyc’s trip to Baby Gap aside). But it’s to the show’s credit that even a task that didn’t quite work out can produce such a fantastic moment, where Tim Key lives up to his reputation as the most villainous of all competitors, like if Nasty Nick had a beard and a penchant for poetry. The initial crime in the VT is bad enough — lying to the man about Comic Relief is so brazen that it seems to surprise even Tim himself, given the way that he starts to laugh midway through, as if he’s internally asking himself if he’s really about to lie about charity to win a task. But what sells this is the way that Tim tries to negotiate his way to a higher position after he’s told he has to donate £185 to charity if he wants to keep second place (a figure that Alex Horne arrived at on the spot because “it just feels right, not too much but it’s quite a lot of money.”) “OK, how much to go back up to one?” he asks, leaning forward like an East End gangster selling out his friends to the cops, in a manner so blunt it would be admirable if it wasn’t so disgusting. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of all of this is less Key, and more the effect his shameless attempts at corruption have on the rest of the show: the moment that the Taskmaster even entertains the notion that he can be bought, he loses control of the show immediately — Romesh again starts up his horrified tirade, Frank Skinner offers twelve grand for first place, Josh says they’re basically as corrupt as FIFA now. By trashing the norms of what is acceptable, Tim Key nearly destroyed the entire system and came closest to challenging the Taskmaster’s authority. This, perhaps, was the greatest demonstration that for the show to work, Greg would need to be an incorruptible authoritarian who could not even contemplate the pleas of the competitors.
Position in task: It would have been first if he’d paid twelve grand, second if he’d paid £185 — but Tim Key is a cheapskate, so third.
Watch out for: Josh trying to help Tim by pointing out that the task didn’t explicitly say he couldn’t lie about Comic Relief. “It didn’t specify ‘Don’t punch an old woman in the face’ either,” Greg shouts back.
37. Johnny Vegas Sits On A High Chair And Recites Lines From Watergate (Series 10, Ep 2)
Task: Mount the umpire’s chair and make a different noise for 10 seconds every minute for 20 minutes. Each noise must be slightly louder than the last. (“Team” Task)
What happened: Undeniably one of the biggest effects of the global pandemic, aside from the lockdowns around the world, the political turbulence and the largest recession in the UK since the 18th century, was how much it changed the team tasks in Taskmaster. While Richard and Daisy filmed their team tasks before March 2020 so got to be close to each other and touch (let’s call them Team “Don’t Know They’re Alive”), Mawaan, Katherine and Johnny filmed theirs after The Event so had to observe social distancing protocols (Team “Constant Reminder of our New Horrible Reality”). This worked relatively well for most tasks, but here there was a slight issue — the teams were supposed to be searching for treasure, but surely all three of them wouldn’t be able to search the house and garden while keeping 2m apart. The solution? Get Johnny to do his own secret task where he sits on an umpire’s chair, making a series of noises every minute, each one louder than the last. The result was Katherine and Mawaan trying to get on with their treasure hunting task while every fifty seconds Johnny Vegas would inexplicably shout something from the Watergate scandal. In Mawaan’s words, “that’s just Johnny being Johnny”.
Why is it so good: that Johnny decided that the most logical noise he could make — the first noise he chose, in fact — was an impression of Richard Nixon saying “I am not a crook” over and over again. To me, that’s a noise you come up with in Minute 13 once you’ve run out of farmyard noises, maybe Minute 7 at the very earliest. But Minute 1, straight out of the blocks, you choose lines from the Watergate scandal to bellow out from an umpire’s chair? That’s brave. Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to live next to the Taskmaster house, especially if you lived alone during lockdown — imagine you’re sitting in your garden and the first voice you’ve heard in the flesh since March other than your own is Johnny Vegas shouting his impersonation of a dead disgraced president. You’d think you were losing your mind. And this is before we got to the actual treasure-hunting task, where Katherine and Mawaan tried to work out if Johnny was actually giving him clues (“maybe it’s a hot and cold thing?” suggested Mawaan as Johnny screamed like a monkey). “Is there anything you need to tell me, Johnny?” asked Mawaan at one point as Johnny helplessly made noises like a typewriter. Honestly it was like watching a classic episode of Lassie.
Position in task: Not available — Johnny was the only one doing this task. Did he win? Did he lose? It’s genuinely impossible to say.
Watch out for: Katherine Parkinson jumping out of her skin when Johnny started making loud noises. “Help! Someone!” Good to know Katherine can handle herself in a crisis.
36. Noel Fielding Hides In A Banana Bowl (Series 4, Ep 3)
Task: Camouflage and hide yourself within a scene.
What happened: While Mel suffered a minor breakdown and tried to hide behind a bunch of flowers, and Lolly covered herself in astroturf and hid on a lawn, Noel thought outside the box by putting himself in the fruit bowl. Dressed in his trademark garish yellow bodysuit, and with the help of some Camera Trickery, he curled up, shrunk himself down and camouflaged himself flawlessly into the middle of a bowl of fruit as a slightly overripe banana. In the words of Greg, “absolutely incredible”.
Why is it so good: One of the greatest strengths of Taskmaster is its versatility — the fact that character actors, absurdist alternative comedians, observational stand-ups, even Radio 1 DJs and presenters of Pointless can all come on the show and thrive is a testament to the format. Noel Fielding’s victory in Series 4 is a good example of this — on topical panel shows, he can seem out of place as his surrealist humour clashes with the more traditional comic reality of down-to-earth shows. Taskmaster is different — rather than forcing comedians to change to suit the show’s needs (making Noel Fielding come up with a funny line about Brexit, for example), it adapts to the comedians by offering them the chance to play to their strengths within the confines of a task. Perversely, because the structure of the show is so rigid and prescriptive, it means the comedians can be themselves rather than having to worry about whether or not their material matches the tone of the show. The fact that Noel Fielding can win this task by doing the Mighty Booshiest thing he could think of (I can practically hear Noel shout “I’m going to shrink myself down into a banana, Bolo”), and that Hugh Dennis could come second by hiding behind a door, reflects the brilliant adaptability of the show.
Position in task: First, obviously. The man became a banana.
Watch out for: Greg struggling to find Noel because everything in the caravan could conceivably be something that Noel wears on a regular basis.
35. Josh Widdicombe Counts The Beans (Series 1, Ep 4)
Task: Count baked beans, spaghetti hoops and rice grains.
What happened: At the end of the first part of this episode, Greg posed Alex a question out of the blue — how many beans are there in a can of baked beans? Alex declared there was absolutely no way of knowing. Oh ho, said Greg, there is if you’re the Taskmaster. Cut to a shot of Josh Widdicombe sitting in the lab and dutifully counting all the beans in a can of beans, under the sadly misguided belief that it was for a task. It was not. When we returned from the break (and Josh had revealed there were 406 beans in a can of beans), Josh was apoplectic. Not only had no-one else done the task, but he was getting no points for it. That, you would think, would be the end of that — and it was, until the end of Part 2 when suddenly Greg wanted to know how many spaghetti hoops there were in a can. A fuming Josh Widdicombe sat in the studio, watching as his VT counterpart dutifully counted out the hoops (433). Surely, after that, you would think Josh had been tortured enough. But no. At the end of Part 3, the Taskmaster had something else on his mind — he wanted to know how many grains of rice there were in a bag of rice. Cut to an exhausted Josh, sitting in the lab, counting grains of rice (around 25,000 — he counted five grams and then multiplied, the lazy cheat). At the end, Josh sat in the studio, humiliated, furious, staring daggers into Greg’s eyes. “I genuinely think I deserve a point,” he said, in the exact way one would ask to speak to the manager at John Lewis. And to Greg’s credit, he does eventually give him one.
Why is it so good: In the history of the show, there have been many cruel secret tasks that only one contestant has had to do — Mel Giedroyc having to hide a giant inflatable ball, Mark Watson being banned from saying any letters from the word TASKMASTER during a task, Paul Chowdhry having the most fun on a bouncy castle (fun, of course, being Paul’s most hated thing). This was the first, and quite probably the cruellest, and it’s made all the better by the way it’s spread out over the whole episode. Josh goes on an emotional rollercoaster through the course of the live episode as the scale of the deceit is unveiled— from disbelief, that he is being singled out this way, to fury, to despair (at one point he mentions that this is the first time he’s been winning in the show and yet it’s the saddest he’s ever felt) to a unique mortified shame, right at the end, when the perfect punchline is delivered by an unsuspecting Josh on the VT, who still thinks that the other four contestants are doing this task. “You feel like a loser, but then you realise that you’re not the one having to watch this five times. So I don’t know who’s the bigger loser out of me and you on this one.” Cut back to Josh in the studio, who has gone a kind of embarrassed purple as Roisin comforts him. “Do you know now?” asks Greg. We do. We do.
Position in task: NA — special task. But he did at least get a single point for counting 1500 beans, hoops and grains of rice.
Watch out for: Greg’s incredibly creepy line to cheer Josh up when he’s at his angriest: “maybe you should be thinking that the glass is half full, and you’re one of my special little boys.” Disturbing.
34. Mel Giedroyc and Hugh Dennis Star in “Tugtemester” (Series 4, Ep 3)
Task: Make a trailer for ‘Taskmaster: The Movie’. (Team task)
What happened: Tasked with making a trailer for Taskmaster: The Movie, Britain’s favourite double act Mel and Hugh at first prevaricated between The Two British Film Genres (Ken Loach and the Carry On franchise), before deciding to go Scandinoir with an inspired, pitch perfect parody of The Killing. Intense music, jump cuts, shots of Mel (or Møl) putting on gloves and staring at bodies through tarpaulin, shots of Hugh Dennis being chased in the dark via torchlight, while Mel speaks what I can only assume is fake Danish (unless “ne ne Copenhagen!” is something you say in Danish when you see a dead body)… it’s moody, it’s dark, it’s powerful, it makes no sense, and I would happily watch 12 hours of it with subtitles.
Why is it so good: It’s the way that both Mel and Hugh play it perfectly straight. Mel is doing her absolute best Sarah Lund impression with a ridiculous yet flawless Danish accent (the moment when she murmurs “Heeyou Denneeess” into the phone as the dramatic music rises is so good, I want it to be my ringtone), while Hugh’s acting is more physical — sprinting through the grounds, terrified eyes as the camera gets closer, before succumbing to his fate as a dead body on the floor — it’s genuinely compelling. What’s happening? No idea. Does it matter? Absolutely not. At one point Mel pulls back a tarpaulin in the “morgue” to reveal a mannequin and her eyes convey such horror, such pain, such shock, that you can’t help but want to know more. Who is the mannequin? Was it supposed to be Hugh Dennis? Is Hugh still alive? What does “ne ne Copenhagen” mean? BBC Four, you need to commission Tugtemester immediately. Maybe with a change of name, as Greg points out “Tugmaster” is a very different show.
Position in task: First
Watch out for: the “task” next to Hugh Dennis’ lifeless body, which reads “ratings are down. One of you must die. You have one hour.” Don’t give Channel 4 ideas, you guys.
33. Sally Phillips Films The Birth of Alex Horne (Series 5, Ep 6)
Task: Record the most incredible footage with a camera strapped to your head.
What happened: While all the attempts for this creative task were varying levels of fantastic (with the usual Nish Kumar caveat, who did a sudoku), Sally Phillips birthed something truly incredible — Alex Horne. Her POV footage was a gloriously graphic and yet surprisingly moving account of the birth of “baby Alex Horne”, brought to life with plastic sheeting and a warm red light to simulate the womb, a large piece of draining to mimic the umbilical cord, and a bearded 40 something man in flesh-coloured knickers and about fifteen rolls of clingfilm to represent the baby. As Greg put it, it was one of the most horrific, disturbing and yet astounding pieces of art anyone has ever created on the show, and we even got an insight into how the piece was filmed — mostly Sally having to get right up into Alex’s screaming face as he writhed his naked clingfilm covered body on the floor. Horrible. Staggering. Brilliant.
Why is it so good: Look, it’s always funny to see Alex Horne naked and slopping about in fake amniotic fluid. That’s a given. And yet there’s also something about this particular bit that transcends comedy, that is actually, despite its inherent stupidity…quite moving and beautiful? Yes, it’s basically the Teardrop video by Massive Attack if it was written and directed by Smack The Pony, but at the same time there’s a kind of tenderness, a kind of warmth and beauty to watching the baby Alex struggle his way through the plastic sheeting, to seeing him emerge into the world, blinking and mewing, taking his first triumphant breaths (albeit with a fully grown beard). The reaction of the studio audience and the other contestants recognises this. It’s yet another Sally Phillips standing ovation, one of the most prolific performers in the show’s history — the applause, the shocked, honoured handshakes of Nish Kumar, the whoops and cheers of Aisling Bea — they know they have witnessed something wonderful. They have witnessed creation. They have witnessed the miracle of birth. They have witnessed…Sally Phillips.
Position in task: Where else? First.
Watch out for: Sally quite freely offering up titbits about the shoot, like the fact that Alex had to wear Sally’s flesh coloured underpants, lest he had his “knacks” (her word, not mine) hanging out.
32. Romesh Ranganathan Introduces The Tree Wizard (Series 1, Ep 2)
Task: Film something that will look impressive in reverse.
What happened: The first task in the entire show where the contestants had the opportunity to be legitimately creative (apart from the “paint the best picture of a horse while riding a horse” task in the first episode), and Romesh Ranganathan grabbed it with both hands with his masterpiece, Tree Wizard. “Tree Wizard! Back from the dead to create some balloons!” Romesh croons over the top of footage of him “creating” balloons out of thin air (ie, reversed footage of him popping balloons). “Has to make sure, he double checks the balloon” (ie, reversed footage of him failing to pop a balloon), before getting down onto all fours and suddenly leaping up into a tree (ie, reversed footage of him jumping down from a tree and very slowly getting up onto his feet). “Tree Wizard! Tree Wizard! Tree Wizard!” Glorious.
Why is it so good: There’s something quite wonderful about watching someone as deliberately grumpy as Romesh Ranganathan, whose professional comedy career depends on cultivating a deadpan world-weariness, doing something as joyful and stupid as Tree Wizard. The fact that in the studio he has his head in his hands, and the fact that Greg immediately asks him if everything is alright, speaks to just how out of character this is — it’s like the show has given him the tiniest permission slip to do something weird and he’s taken it and ran with it. You feel like this was not just a breakthrough in the show for Romesh, it was almost a breakthrough in his life — the image of Romesh sitting in his tree, waving manically at the camera, feels like the first time he’s been happy, truly happy, for a long time. All thanks to the magic of Tree Wizard.
Position in task: Tree Wizard will accept nothing more than first place. Joint, with Roisin.
Watch out for: Romesh’s mounting irritation at his own failure to pop the balloon in his song (“How many times will he check the balloon!”), and Romesh’s line in the studio afterwards (“do you know how long it took me to find that song?”). Genius.
31. Lolly Adefope Hides Really, Really Well (Series 4, Ep 7)
Task: Hide from Alex in a game of hide and seek.
What happened: while everyone else had rubbish-to-distinctly average Hide and Seek scores (Hugh Dennis did literally the most Hugh Dennis thing ever and, by trying to constantly move through the house instead of hiding, accidentally walked into Alex’s eyeline almost immediately, prompting the brilliant Greg line “You are as stealthy as a cow”), Lolly Adefope came into her own with a brilliant hiding place and some remarkable trolling. First, she managed to cram herself into a little gap behind the shower in the lab and cover it up with a plank — a move which transcends Hide and Seek and goes up into full-blown “spy on covert operation in bad guy’s mansion” levels. Next she called Alex and claimed to be “somewhere noisy” with “a lot of people”. When Alex asked her to put someone else on, she put on a pretty mediocre Scottish accent and said “Hello there!” She also sent two photos — one of her on a beach (he saw through that because she was wearing a different outfit) and one of her as a baby (baffling, has she hidden herself in time?) In the end Alex found her after twenty-three minutes, a frankly terrifying amount of time for someone to be hidden (seriously, if I was playing hide and seek and I couldn’t find someone after 20 minutes, I would have burst into tears and called the police.)
Why is it so good: It’s a combination of the close-ups of Lolly’s grinning smug face (she is rightfully so proud of her hiding spot) and of Alex’s increasingly desperate attempts to find her. At one point, he opens a tiny little stationary drawer in the main living room, as if Lolly has somehow Noel-Fielding-bananaed herself and become eight inches tall. At one point Alex also uses The Extremely Sneaky ‘Mum Said It’s Dinner Time’ Move, where he shouts “Lolly, we’ve finished” — honestly, I lost a little bit of respect for Alex at that point, a true shithouse strategy, and I’m glad Lolly didn’t see through it for a second. It’s also incredibly satisfying to see something where Lolly is just in her element — so much of her Taskmaster experience is either being punished for being hatefully young (Greg admits as much almost every time he marks her down), or doing something remarkably, irredeemably stupid (“without moving the fishbowl…”). This is her greatest achievement — hiding so well that you can see the cogs in Alex’s brain turning, wondering at precisely what point he should call her agent to let her know that she’s fallen through a gap in the space-time continuum.
Position in task: First, with time to spare to pretend to be a confused Scotsman.
Watch out for: Alex’s nervous little chuckles when he can’t find her as the panic sets in. Also, Alex’s ringtone is the Taskmaster theme tune? Excellent branding.
30. Liza Tarbuck Hops (Series 6, Ep 5)
Task: Find the link, then do it exactly 100 times. (“Team” task)
What happened: Contestants were taken into a room that looked like Charlie Day’s basement after a few too many conspiracy theories, where they had to work out the connection between various clues: a picture of an overhead projector next to switching arrows; the lyrics to a House of Pain song; a piece of string which connected “Steps Guy” with “No J Simpson” with “Urinating”… Team Funk (Russell Howard’s choice of name, not Alice Levine’s) worked together to realise the link relatively quickly (HOP), and then hopped together, fifty times each, to complete the task. Simple teamwork. Team Distinctly Unfunk, on the other hand, were slightly more dysfunctional — despite the fact that Liza Tarbuck worked out the answer almost immediately, she was summarily ignored by Tim Vine and Asim Chaudhry, who just stared at the wall of clues and said random thoughts as they came into their heads. After a few minutes of saying “it’s hops. Hop. We should hop” to literally no response from the men, Liza was left to do it herself — hopping around the room while Tim and Asim ignored her. Once she reached one hundred hops all on her own, Alex blew his whistle and the task was over — leaving Tim and Asim staring at the clues still and wondering what had just happened. Never in the history of Taskmaster has the “Team” in Team Task been so redundant.
Why is it so good: In many ways this task is genuinely quite upsetting — the sight of a woman saying the correct answer over and over again while two men stubbornly ignore her, leaving her to do all the work herself, is less a charming segment in a comedy show and more a comment on entrenched misogyny in British society in the 21st century. Tim and Asim’s resolute commitment to being wrong is almost hypnotic, and the latter’s tactic of just saying random thoughts that come into his head as if he’s just solved the Da Vinci Code is admirably misguided. “H… urinating… PISS!” declares Asim at one point, as if he’s got the answer right there. All they have to do is H urinating piss. It’s so obvious. Both Tim and Asim at least have the good grace to be Incredibly Embarrassed in the studio, and Liza basks in all of it. The highlight is probably when Liza remembers how angry Tim was at the end of the task — “No ‘well done’, he just went ‘Greg’s going to bloody demolish me for that.’” How right he was.
Position in task: The “team” came first.
Watch out for: Asim’s tragic observation after realising that the link was something to do with the letters H, O and P… “You know what this could be? …the alphabet.”
29. Romesh Ranganathan Destroys A Watermelon (Series 1, Ep 1)
Task: Eat as much watermelon as possible in one minute.
What happened: In the first ever episode, and the first ever video task, contestants were given a relatively simple challenge — eat as much watermelon as possible in a minute. Josh Widdicombe used a knife and a spoon (cultured), Frank Skinner cracked it open on the side of a table and shovelled it in (urgent but still dignified), Roisin Conaty, expecting a pre-sliced buffet of melon, spent 54 seconds trying to open the watermelon and then nibbled a tiny bit (distressingly slow), and Tim Key smashed it on the table and piled it into his face (chaotic neutral). But it was Romesh Ranganathan’s effort that will be forever remembered. In a moment of madness, he picked up the watermelon with both hands and threw it down onto the floor, sending juice and flesh everywhere — the walls, the floor, his shoes — before getting down onto his knees and feasting like a zombie on rancid innards. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, after the whistle blew, Romesh remained on his knees and vomited a tiny portion into his fist. Disturbing. Disgusting. Degrading. And only just the beginning.
Why is it so good: if nothing else, it’s staggeringly bold from a production point of view to start your brand new show with this, arguably one of the most disgusting two minutes of television ever broadcast. Is it bravery? Is it stupidity? Is it just that they knew this was how mad the show could be, so decided to go as big and crude as possible to start with and fill in all the charming details later? It’s hard to say — and watching this I do wonder what must have been going through the heads of the execs at Dave, as they reviewed this footage of Romesh Ranganathan, writhing about on the floor and slurping watermelon into his face. What exactly had they bought here? And yet at the same time, this moment also acts as a perfect proof of concept for the entire show. The task itself is not particularly cruel or devious — as Josh’s attempt proves, it was entirely possible to carry out this task in a dignified manner. The genius here is that Romesh’s degradation is entirely self-made — he chooses to eat a watermelon like this. He chooses to go to these lengths, to put himself through this hell, not because the show demands it exactly, but because there’s the slightest hint of competition, the vaguest notion that someone will do it better than him unless he humiliates himself like this. Romesh’s act is one of madness but also of commitment to the show — and it’s only through that dogged commitment from the contestants that this show works. Arguably this is not just the most disgusting moment in the show’s history, but also the most important.
Position in task: First, a horrible, pyrrhic victory.
Watch out for: Romesh’s justification for throwing the watermelon on the floor — “I just didn’t realise it was that soft, I thought it was going to be rock hard. And then when I threw it, I was like, ‘Holy shit, that has gone everywhere…’” Next time Romesh, give it a tiny squeeze beforehand, save yourself some bother.
28. Daisy May Cooper Furiously Makes A Very Quiet Cocktail (Series 10, Ep 6)
Task: Silently make the tastiest and prettiest cocktail with the best name. If you make a noise over 60dB, you must pour your cocktail into the bucket and shout your given phrase at over 100dB.
What happened: In what was probably the most frustrating task ever, contestants had to make a cocktail as quietly as possible. Even something as simple as opening a bottle or putting ice into a glass could push them over the limit — upon which they would have to shout a phrase and throw the cocktail away. While everyone found this task annoying up to a point — you can see Mawaan’s irritation growing as he’s made to scream “I’m SO SORRY!” after just clinking a few bits of metal — it was Daisy May Cooper’s absolute white hot rage that was the most memorable. Made to shout “I LOVE THIS” after every failed attempt, you can see her fury grow by the second — after she opens a bottle too loudly (“I LOVE THIS!”), after she cuts a lime particularly emphatically (“I LOVE THIS!”, eyes closed, seconds from a tantrum), after she opens a lid fractionally too quickly (“I LOVE THIS!” with a knife in her mouth like something out of a Saw movie), after she puts down a glass on the table (“I LOVE THIS fuck’s SAAAAAAKE!”), after she puts a tiny umbrella in her glass the wrong way up (“I LOVE THIS I need to calm down, I just need to calm down”, pacing back and forth like someone who has killed and will kill again)… eventually she manages to get the tiniest amount of alcohol into a glass and labelled it “The Fuck’s Sake” (or Fuck’s Japanese Rice Wine). Alex admitted it was disgusting as he tasted it, but that wasn’t really the point — what really mattered was that Daisy had got through the task without killing someone.
Why is it so good: This task is probably the one where I’ve feared most for the safety of Alex Horne. The challenge itself is conceptually brilliant, and it gives the whole segment a kind of compelling tension — watching it again I find myself mimicking the contestants, making as little sound as possible and listening as intently as possible out of a fear that the slightest movement could set off Alex’s dB sensor. It’s like watching a bomb disposal expert defuse an IED — one wrong move and the contestant will explode. For the audience it’s thrilling — for the contestant it’s probably the most aggravating task ever. And when that contestant is Daisy May Cooper, well… Daisy is up there with Iain Stirling as one of the most competitive comedians to be on the show, and the one most prone to a rage-based breakdown (who can forget the tragic final live task of Series 10, where Daisy lost her cool and handed Richard the Taskmaster title). From the very first “I LOVE THIS”, you can tell that Alex is in danger — Daisy’s eyes are wild, her jaw is clenched, her every movement fizzes with anger. This is a person on the edge. To display the kind of vulnerability that gets you to scream into a bucket of discarded vermouth — that is true bravery.
Position in task: Second last, which given that last place went to Katherine Parkinson for serving up just a glass of milk, is saying something.
Watch out for: Alex’s pained tense expression throughout, and the way that he doesn’t even have to say when she’s gone over 60dB by the end — he just looks down at the meter, looks back to Daisy and stares sadly. She’s going to have to explode again.
27. Tim Vine Loses The Big Hook (Series 6, Ep 9)
Task: Make this plastic bag as heavy as possible in ten minutes. It must then hang unassisted for one minute.
What happened: In a moment which defied every law of physics, which if it happened in a cartoon you’d tut and say “oh come now, that’s not realistic”, Tim Vine somehow managed to get a big hook, hanging from a scale and pretty crucial for the task, stuck on the lapels of his charmingly ornate safari outfit without noticing. Tim wandered about the garden, searching for this hook that, as I say, was literally on his own body, for the majority of the task, before giving up and using another comically long and inappropriate hook for the task, which collapsed immediately, breaking the bag. After the whistle went, the task pathetically failed, he spent another few minutes wandering about the garden saying “where’s the flipping hook?” before eventually (after some gentle coaxing from Alex) discovering it on his lapels. “You are joking me. How… how did it end up there?” In Tim’s words, “it’s like a magic trick. I still don’t know how that happened.” Neither do we, Tim. Neither do we.
Why is it so good: Often in Taskmaster, as an audience member, you find yourself asking questions of contestants. “What are you doing?”; “Why have you done that?”; “Why are you getting off the mobility scooter, Paul Sinha?”, etc. This is the first time I’ve found myself screaming instructions at the contestants, like I’m someone watching a panto on the telly and doesn’t understand that the people on the box can’t hear what I’m saying. “IT’S BEHIND YOU! TIM! IT’S BEHIND YOU! IT’S ON YOUR LAPEL! TIM!” It’s hilarious and frustrating at the same time, and again special credit has to go to the editing and the camera team for spotting where the hook was so quickly, and playing the dramatic irony (we know where the hook is and Tim doesn’t) so adeptly. In the action replay they show exactly when it happened — Tim’s putting bricks into his plastic bag underneath the hook and it swings onto the lapel, attaching itself to Tim like a magnet. Taskmaster, the show so cruel and unfair, even the inanimate objects are against you.
Position in task: Last. But first in his own special task of “attaching things to his body without realising”.
Watch out for: Greg describing the whole misadventure as a “one man Last of the Summer Wine”.
26. Johnny Vegas Falls Off A Stepladder (Series 10, Ep 3)
Task: Catapult this shoe into the bath using a homemade contraption. You may only use your foot to operate the contraption. You may not move the bath or the red green, and you must build your contraption on the red green.
What happened: We’ve already spoken about Katherine Parkinson’s dramatically inept performance in this task (hopefully staring at a shoe, willing it to fall into a bath), but while Johnny Vegas fared slightly better overall, there was one moment of pathos and humiliation in his attempt which overshadowed even Parkinson. Having set up his contraption (a stepladder with a rake pushed through it, held up by a large barrel), he proceeded to climb up it to get more purchase and power. Alex asked him if he wanted anyone to hold it. “Naw,” said Johnny, hubristically, before turning to the camera with a cheeky wink. “Had an accident at work that wasn’t your fault?” he said, before stamping on the rake, breaking the stepladder and falling down onto the floor in a heap of crumpled clothes and flatcap. He had had an accident at work, and it was definitely his fault.
Why is it so good: Watching Johnny Vegas in this series, it’s hard not to get infected with his childlike sense of excitement. There’s a bit during this task, when he realises he can use a barrel, where he runs about the garden with a look of impish joy on his face and the subtitles just say “INCOHERENT MOANING” for ten seconds. Watching it back, those moments of innocent happiness are all the more poignant with the knowledge of how this will end — Johnny on his back, bits of broken stepladder all around him, a rake perilously close to his face, his ambitious but misguided efforts all for naught. It’s also another one of those moments you wouldn’t dare write — a character in a sitcom is absolutely not allowed to make a joke about falling off a stepladder before falling off a stepladder, because it’s too self-knowing. Here though, there is nothing self-knowing about Johnny — the idea that he could possibly hurt himself is so far away from his mind that when his contraption turns against him, you can see the look of shock and horror in his face as he falls. How could his stepladder betray him like this? The slow motion replay shows us so much more again: the way he goes down, his foot giving way, the leg of the stepladder snapping, dragging the rest down on top of Johnny — it’s like watching slow motion footage of a boxer hitting the mat after a knockout blow. A beautiful, tragic moment.
Position in task: The fact that Johnny came second after nearly killing himself with a stepladder probably says more about the rest of the contestants than it does about him.
Watch out for: Alex’s look of fear as Johnny Vegas hits the deck, ranging from “oh my god I’ve killed Johnny Vegas” to “Johnny Vegas is going to sue me with one of those InjuryLawyers4U companies he was just taking the piss out of”.
25. Bob Mortimer Has A Special Cuddle In The Boot Of His Car (Series 5, Ep 1)
Task: Give Alex a special cuddle.
What happened: Interpretations of what a “special cuddle” entails varied between the contestants — we’ve already seen how Aisling Bea assumed it meant “robotic sex”, while Mark Watson spent most of his time taking Alex out to a brook and awkwardly spooning him near a river. For Bob, it was simple — a special cuddle required a special place, and for Bob there is no more place more special than the boot of his Audi. He drove it into the Taskmaster grounds, got out, opened up the (surprisingly spacious) boot and clambered in, right to the back, before inviting Alex in. “Can you turn your arse towards me?” he asked tenderly. “I think it’ll be more snug if you do.” Bob then invited Alex to close the boot lid (which he did with the simple press of a button), and the two of them were blanketed in darkness. After a few initial misfires (the first few cuddle attempts were a bit “too low”, according to Alex, a fact which Bob attributed to a miscalculation of “angles”), Bob managed to gently spoon Alex with a tender squeeze of the breast, thus completing the special cuddle. A quick spray of the deodorant (because what special cuddle doesn’t have deodorant?), and they’re done. A strangely sweet special cuddle.
Why is it so good: There is a confidence to everything that Bob Mortimer does that is almost intoxicating — a man so funny and so utterly at ease with his absurd persona that everything he does (on Taskmaster or off it) has this effortless charm. That confidence, combined with this simple yet ridiculous execution of the task (don’t overthink it, just shove him in the boot of your car), makes this so darn watchable. Bob, to his credit, plays it entirely straight, with the vibe of a masseuse combined with a timid car salesman on a test drive. “There’s a banana, there’s deodorant, use them if you want, I’m fine with that,” as if Alex’s first thought upon getting into Bob Mortimer’s boot would be “can I use the banana?” and not “what am I doing inside Bob Mortimer’s boot?”. The strength of the moment is so good, it doesn’t even matter that cameras weren’t able to fit in the boot with Bob and Alex — instead we hear awkward noises and giggles over exterior shots of the car, like a sex scene from Grand Theft Auto. What’s amazing is we didn’t even “see” what was surely the strangest bit — Alex revealed in the studio that Bob sang “Have You Seen The Muffin Man?” to him in the boot, and it was such a heart-rending performance that it made Alex weep. Where’s that footage? Release the Mortimer cut, you cowards.
Position in task: The deodorant pushed him over the edge — first place.
Watch out for: Greg mentioning the most adorable bit of all of this — that Bob had apparently told Alex that he’d always been looking for an excuse to get into the boot of his own car. Taskmaster: making the weird dreams of comedians happen since 2015.
24. Ed Gamble Entirely Loses His Temper With David Baddiel (Series 9, Ep 9)
Task: Standing in a queue, draw the most accurate pictures. Alex will show the person at the back of the queue a picture for them to draw on the back of the person in front of them. The person at the front of the queue must draw the picture they think has been drawn on their pad. No-one may communicate with anyone else. (Live Team Task)
What happened: In this live team task, one contestant had to draw on another’s back, with the latter having to recreate the drawing on their back onto their pad. Sort of like “Pictionary” mixed with “Telephone” mixed with a back massage. On the face of it, Team Ladies (Jo Brand, Rose Matafeo, Katy Wix) were at a disadvantage because they had an extra person to “translate” the image through — but in actual fact, Team Men were the ones with the real handicap because they had David Baddiel. So it proved as Ed Gamble very rapidly loses his temper with David’s inexplicable antics. First David gripped Ed’s finger as he was trying to draw, actively sabotaging him (remember, they are on the same team here). Then David completely ignored Ed’s instructions and instead starting drawing his own picture (prompting Ed to scream “WHY ARE YOU STILL DRAWING?!” and “WHAT IN THE LIVING FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?!”). The task was to draw a horse, and yet somehow David ended up with a man with a smiley face — when David showed his (obviously completely wrong) picture to Greg, Ed muttered “David you PRICK” with a rage that was both genuine and barely contained. This bickering continued in the next two rounds — at one point David started drawing and then said “oh, no, I’m starting again”, prompting another furious outburst from Ed. “YOU CAN’T START AGAIN!” By the end, Ed was barely able to speak or look to David, such is his fury. In the final round, Ed completed his drawing, his anger simmering but not quite Daisy May Cooperesque, before looking at what David has done and fully (but silently) losing it — head in his hands, mouth agape, he cannot believe he has to work with this amateur. Beautiful physical comedy, and the greatest double act in Taskmaster history.
Why is it so good: The tone was set from the get-go with this one — as soon as Ed Gamble realised it’s a team task, he feared the worst. “Can I just check, have I been put on a team with David Baddiel?” he said, his voice wavering. This perhaps was Ed’s biggest mistake — that was the moment that David Baddiel decided to go rogue. You could almost see it in his eyes as he smiled to the audience. “If he thinks I am a monster, I will become a monster.” From there, the dynamic stayed pretty constant — a trolling David Baddiel, barely cognisant of what he’s supposed to be doing, an agent of chaos, VS a furious Ed Gamble, a good, hardworking man pushed to the edge, wound up and unleashed by the incompetence of his partner. It’s a wonderful performance by Ed that deserves special attention , because rage — real rage — can be hard to get right on TV. Too small and you just seem petty and false; too large and it’s just scary. Here Ed pitches it just right — his rage is genuine but he uses it to play up to the audience with exasperated, furious groans, and because David doesn’t care it just adds to his anger…which just makes it funnier. It’s a brilliant, natural moment in the show — real anger underpinned by a real warmth and affection that this cast clearly feel for each other.
Position in task: Last, although the fact that they even got a single point is probably a bit of an indictment of Katy Wix’s drawing skills.
Watch out for: the fact that David (the episode leader) and Ed (the only person who could catch him) were put on a team actually meant that David’s lead at the top was unassailable from the very start of this task — and given that the prize Ed had offered, it meant that David was going to wax Ed’s chest live on stage at the end regardless of what happened in this task. So you can maybe forgive Ed for being a little bit upset throughout this bit.
23. Johnny Vegas Falls Over For No Reason (Series 10, Ep 8)
Task: Fill this cup until it overflows. The cup must remain atop the pole. Only liquids may touch the red green.
What happened: We’ve already discussed how Katherine Parkinson approached this task by filling up a net with water — but just like the catapult task earlier in this countdown, she has Johnny Vegas to thank for doing something even stupider during this task to take the heat off her. During this task, Johnny got very excited at the prospect of using a hose (as we all do) — he sprinted to the red green with his hose and aimed it at the cup. “I didn’t turn it on!” he screamed, like a drunk five year old, before turning around and running to the back of the hose. At this point I have to point out that he was comfortably clear of the hose. There were no impediments on the ground. The grass was short and well-cut. Johnny turned back and then just… fell over. For no reason. Bam, straight onto the floor. Did a couple of rolls, then got up again, with no reaction whatsoever, as if pretending it didn’t happen meant that it didn’t happen. Johnny then got on with the task, and did it as one would expect: he got Alex to plug the hose in, realised the hose was too short, tried to extend the hose by putting it in a drainpipe, realised the drainpipe was too short, shot the hose into his mouth, tried to spit the water into the cup, before fashioning a device out of a watering can and a hammer to drag the cup closer to him. But really, what happened after The Phantom Fall was entirely irrelevant. This task would always be remembered for that moment when Johnny fell over for no reason save for sheer excitement. Immaculate.
Why is it so good: I cannot stress just how much of nothing Johnny fell over. There was literally nothing there. It wasn’t even like Johnny tripped over his own feet like Harry Kane winning a penalty — I’ve watched the footage back, I’ve slowed it down, I’ve looked for the moment of contact, the point of obstruction and I just cannot find it. The conclusion I’ve come to is that he’s so excited by the prospect of using a hose that his legs just forget how to work. All I can liken it to is a toddler at the beach in midflight, who hears that they’re about to have ice cream and loses all control of their limbs. The roll is also magnificent, and actually surprisingly graceful — although I appreciate that this is a person who was previously felled by a wonky stepladder so that bar is not particularly high. To his credit, he does not react, he does not break for even a second — he doesn’t look around to see if anyone’s concerned, he doesn’t look for sympathy, he doesn’t appeal to the referee. He just gets back to the hose. Because in that moment, that’s all that matters. There is no pain. There is no time. There aren’t even functioning legs. There is just the hose.
Position in task: Like every other competitor in this task, Johnny was disqualified — so his tumble didn’t even matter.
Watch out for: the way that Johnny enlists Alex to plug the hose in and Alex sprints towards the tap with as much energy and gusto as he can manage — despite the fact that he knows full well that the hose is far too short and Johnny will never be able to use it. Cruel, Alex. Cruel.
22. Rose Matafeo Sings The Taskmaster Theme (Series 9, Ep 8)
Task: Write the best lyrics to the Taskmaster theme tune and perform them in the most memorable way.
What happened: we’ve already seen how Ed Gamble took the Taskmaster theme music and turned it into that little known musical genre “baby scream rock”. David and Katy did passable versions, Jo came last for calling Greg “just a twat” and “fat” (at least it rhymed), but the best version — one of the best songs in Taskmaster history? — came from the greatest musician to come out of New Zealand since Salmonella Dub (had to Google that): Rose Matafeo. Her lyrics to the Taskmaster theme — reworked as an upbeat banjo-fuelled Western — are ludicrously, breathlessly good. She tells the tale of how Alex Horne, a little boy obsessed with setting tasks for “cows and chickens to test their intellect”, sold his soul to Greg Davies, who had a vision of putting the show on the TV: “We’ll get five guys and gals to play your game/Who’ll all be of varying levels of fame/…And that’s the tale, told from you to me/of how Taskmaster came to be!” It’s a brilliant, chaotic, addictive performance, and one which sends the audience into raptures — it’s so good that Greg isn’t even annoyed that Rose refers to him as a “tall old man”.
Why is it so good: For me, the best thing about Taskmaster is the subversion of expectations. More so than any other show, there is a perception not just that anything can happen, but that the most glorious moments can come out of the least auspicious beginnings. Rose’s performance here is an illustration of that — when she starts up, standing in front of the caravan, wearing a pink cowboy hat and a look of not insubstantial dread, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was going to be a disaster. There are a few nervous laughs, anticipating the worst. Even a few lines in, before it becomes clear that she’s doing a banjo version of the Taskmaster theme, you can feel a sense of unease in the studio audience, like they’re asking themselves “what is this? What’s she doing? Is this… good?” Then, as Rose gets into her stride and you can feel that confidence building, and suddenly the audience get on board. This isn’t just not a disaster, it’s not even just “actively good” — it’s genuinely brilliant. Midway through, half the audience starts clapping along (to a video! Not a live performance! A video! That’s how good it is!), and by the end it’s like the whole theatre has been transformed into a Rednex gig from 1995. It’s a remarkable turnaround, and a testament to the brilliance both of Rose and of this show. Yeehaw indeed.
Position in task: Any song that refers to Greg as a “tall old man” will get full marks. First.
Watch out for: Rose suddenly remembering in the studio that she refers to Alex as a man with a “brain full of corn”, and Alex saying he’s been called worse.
21. Bob Mortimer Makes An Edible Mask (Champion of Champions, Ep 2)
Task: Make a mask that tastes delicious and looks great. The mask must be entirely edible and entirely wearable. Wear your mask so that Alex can taste it.
What happened: In one of the most “Oh you couldn’t do that post-Covid” tasks imaginable, contestants had to create edible face masks which Alex would then taste off of their face. Josh Widdicombe made a version of Alex Horne out of Nutella, strawberry laces and a tortilla wrap, while Katherine Ryan very reluctantly allowed Alex to eat a Wotsit off her eyebrow. Fairly standard stuff. But the deserving winner was Bob Mortimer, who didn’t just create a mask, he created a full-blown character: a Geordie alien with crisps for eyes who urged Alex to “taste my facial flesh”. Alex was made to kneel down next to Bob, who took him by the shoulders and murmured in a soft Geordie accent “take me in, go for me nose, pet”. When Alex started to lick the nose, Bob groaned with pleasure. “Come on, eat me up! I’m a sinner! I have sinned!” When Alex went in for another taste, this time of the crisp eye, Bob grabbed him with a renewed, terrifying vigour. “Come ON! Howay! Please, enclose me! I’ve sinned again! I’ve sinned again!” In the end, Bob pulled off the mask. “Alex! It was just me! Pretty sexy, huh?” Thank you, Bob, for your bizarre character study of a new race of sexy, edible-faced aliens with a religious complex.
Why is it so good: Simply put, it had everything. Aliens. Sex. Cream. Wotsits. Religion laden with undertones of guilt. Geordies. There was just so much going on in Bob’s character — he’s an alien (who prays to find more people like Alex on Earth), who is from Newcastle, who has clearly done something for which he must atone, but also, the atonement is something that he finds sexually gratifying. So is it like a sadomasochistic thing with a religious fetish, or is it a religious experience that is so transformative that it makes the Geordie Alien feel sexual pleasure? It’s not clear, and to be honest, at the end Bob doesn’t seem to know either. “Did he cure me? Was that the little story?” he asks Greg, as if Greg is the one who wrote the character of Sexy Repressed Geordie Alien Who Wants His Face Eaten As Part Of A Religious/BDSM Experience. Whatever it is, it’s another masterpiece by Bob Mortimer, which goes to prove that if the show presents him with a weird task (edible faces that Alex will eat), he can always go weirder. Always.
Position in task: In Greg’s words, “I can’t not give Bob first place”. Too right.
Watch out for: Bob, after breaking character, getting up at the end of the task and shouting “THANK YOU” into the camera and storming out, leaving Alex holding his crinkled cream-covered mask. The perfect exit.
So there you have it, the penultimate part of the Best 124 Moments In Taskmaster History, and oh boy were there some yeehaw humdingers in there. I think we can all agree that this is the kind of content that would make you scream “I LOVE THIS” with a knife jammed between your teeth, or “ne ne Copenhagen” at a mannequin. But what’s been YOUR favourite? And moreover, why should I care? Who are you? Did you watch these moments 15 times in a row to get all of the details correct? No? Didn’t think so, mate!
I mean, get in contact if you want to tell me “your” favourite moments I guess, hashtag engagement. I’m on @jackbern23 on Twitter, and I love getting into pointless arguments with strangers, so do your worst, The Internet!
There’s only one part left now. What will be crowned the greatest moment in Taskmaster history? Subscribe or like or clap or do whatever is appropriate to find out*!
*or just read the final part when it comes out at some point in the next five months, I dunno
