Taskmaster series 11

[Artie Fufkin]

I think that Jamali intuits that Alex Horne is supposed to be a punching bag. Rhod Gilbert did this too: it takes a streetwise personality to pull it off. That's when the comedy really clicks with Alex, for me. But one of the joys of the show is how every contestant develops some sort of relationship with him. But there's always a inscrutableness to him. What's more, the show wouldn't work if he were any other way: it's well-calculated.

Wasn't it James Acaster who would almost blank him?

[greencalx]

There was a running thing where Acaster never returned Alex's greeting. In one of the tasks, Alex asked him why and I think he just got an Acaster face in response.

I seem to recall that the fact that Alex was present and up close in all the tasks wasn't revealed straight away in the first series. Certainly at first I assumed that the contestants were addressing the camera / audience / crew in the first few tasks.

[jobotic]

I liked Jamali saying that security was higher for him for "some reason" and Alex saying "do you think it's the glasses?"

[g0m]

There was a running thing where Acaster never returned Alex's greeting. In one of the tasks, Alex asked him why and I think he just got an Acaster face in response.

he said "the task isn't 'say hi to alex'" or something

[greencalx]

That sounds about right. I think Rhod might also have mentioned it in one of the team tasks. Never came up in the studio though  - so clearly there is some bait that the hosts don't take. See also, Mel pocketing the wax seals.

[The Roofdog]

Jamali? I think he's been good value. Someone willing to go at Greg and Alex is a novel approach and good fun. Him moaning at Alex for not helping him quickly enough was great.

It was maybe funny the first time he did it but overall he's terrible. He has a go at Alex in the same way in every task, and Greg in the same way in every studio discussion, because he can't think of anything else to say. Like if Acaster had extended the "not saying hello to Alex" gag to never speaking throughout the entire series.

[amateur]

It's on the edge of being unpleasantly aggressive for me. Bit of the ol' Iain Sterling energy, which is never a good thing.

Hopefully the schtick will evolve as the series continues.

[metaltax]

Where you've had people being antagonistic before (Gilbert, Acaster), it's done with the knowledge that they're there to do a job and make entertaining telly. What I see with the likes of Iain Stirling and Jamali (e.g. the way he ended the security task) fights against that purpose, and ultimately makes for a less enjoyable programme (IMHO).

[BeardFaceMan]

For me, Jamali has got the vibe of the show all wrong, I put that down to him not having seen it before. I'm hoping he gets better as the show goes on (for the studio bits anyway) and he gets the show a bit more, but he's the worst contestant for me this series, Clive.

[beanheadmcginty]

Charlotte reminds me of Margot Kidder from Superman.

[mjwilson]

Where you've had people being antagonistic before (Gilbert, Acaster), it's done with the knowledge that they're there to do a job and make entertaining telly. What I see with the likes of Iain Stirling and Jamali (e.g. the way he ended the security task) fights against that purpose, and ultimately makes for a less enjoyable programme (IMHO).

I would argue in favour of Jamali at the end of the airport security task, the card said "get all your luggage through security" and he did. "All the information's on the card" is it Alex?

It was (as everyone has said) a bad task anyway, the rules were simultaneously too complicated and under-specified.

[jimboslice]

Disqualified for putting bags through with water in doesn't make sense either. It's gone throuhg. You can (accidentally) get that sort of stuff through actual airport security too.

[amateur]

You can (and should) take as many miniature bottles of spirits as will fit in one of those plastic bags, for example.

[g0m]

Disqualified for putting bags through with water in doesn't make sense either. It's gone throuhg. You can (accidentally) get that sort of stuff through actual airport security too.

[notjosh]

Irrelevant as it wasn't on the card. Unless the water bottle was picked up on the machine then the bags successfully went through security, as per the task.

[BeardFaceMan]

And I'd be a prick and argue that the sign has a red line through 'no liquid' which makes it a double negative, so the sign is saying 'absolutely liquid allowed'.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

I think we can all agree it was a shit task.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It wasn't a classic, for sure. The plates one was similarly limited, but did at least provide the image of Wozniak crawling along on a hoverboard. I feel like there was unrealised potential, for either lateral thinking or comical madness. Perhaps with a slight tweak to the rules, it could have wound up much funnier.

[SteveDave]

Thanks to the PG versions of "Taskmaster" on Sky Go we've been rewatching old series with our son on the weekend and I never realised before how much Roisin Conaty looks like Carrie Symonds.

[frajer]

It wasn't a classic, for sure. The plates one was similarly limited, but did at least provide the image of Wozniak crawling along on a hoverboard. I feel like there was unrealised potential, for either lateral thinking or comical madness. Perhaps with a slight tweak to the rules, it could have wound up much funnier.

I liked the plate task but Wozniak absolutely made it shine. Rewatched this over the weekend and even though I knew how it turned out, I still had a horrible vision of him just going and faceplanting onto a pile of porcelain (especially when it started pissing it down).

Overall I think the simpler tasks with room for different, imaginative approaches are always best (catch the rat was a belter) and the airport baggage task was convoluted and too restrictive. Reminded me of that fruit-based task with the opening/shutting loading doors from the last series.

[bigfatheart]

I do wonder if the luggage task was the result of the airfield they're filming in not throwing up so many opportunities for tasks as previous outside locations have.

For me, it needed simplifying to either half of the task, so either get through a barrier maze with certain restrictions, or get some luggage through the machine (although that'd probably need a bit more work to make it good). Lumping it all into one task was just too much, and there wasn't a clever/stupid/interesting attempt from anyone to make it worthwhile.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

I'm not starting a series 12 thread for this, but someone reckons they've worked out the next lineup: https://twitter.com/muldoon/status/1379453748708261888

I think he's dead wrong about

Spoiler alert

Russell Kane

[close]

, thank christ, and

Spoiler alert

Kemah Bob

[close]

- which are based on

Spoiler alert

Desiree Burch

[close]

having recently followed those two on Instagram. Which doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.

Spoiler alert

Russell Kane

[close]

appearing would probably stop me tuning in.

The evidence for

Spoiler alert

Desiree Burch and Morgana Robinson

[close]

appearing is very strong, and I reckon

Spoiler alert

Alan Davies and Guz Khan

[close]

are right too. If that's the case then the identity of the fifth contestant would make or break the lineup for me, Clive.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

For me, it needed simplifying to either half of the task, so either get through a barrier maze with certain restrictions, or get some luggage through the machine (although that'd probably need a bit more work to make it good). Lumping it all into one task was just too much, and there wasn't a clever/stupid/interesting attempt from anyone to make it worthwhile.

Wozniak's talk of "luzzing" the bags was the closest anyone came to a funny/creative solution. When Maddix[nb]whom I think is in no way comparable to horrible toe rag Iain Stirling[/nb] pulled a bunch of smaller bags out of a larger one, I wondered if stuffing them all in the largest one would have been a viable solution[nb]It's possible I wasn't paying attention and that's exactly what he'd done[/nb]. I was half expecting someone to crawl under the barriers, like some sort of mad gekko.

[greencalx]

It probably would have been better if they'd not been allowed to touch the barriers at all, or had some other obstacle course to get the suitcases through. At least then we might have just had people try to throw all the cases over the maze, or just walk around it. Not particularly entertaining, but more entertaining than what we got.

(We watched the unedited versions of the earlier series with our child... we will ponder on the wisdom of that)

[The Roofdog]

Overall I think the simpler tasks with room for different, imaginative approaches are always best (catch the rat was a belter) and the airport baggage task was convoluted and too restrictive. Reminded me of that fruit-based task with the opening/shutting loading doors from the last series.

There was some entertainment in the fruit doors one as it went along in seeing who'd picked the doors in the right order and who'd been absolutely shafted (completely random, mind), the airport one was one of those really bad tasks where once I'd watched the first person doing it I'd gladly have skipped the rest.

[frajer]

There was some entertainment in the fruit doors one as it went along in seeing who'd picked the doors in the right order and who'd been absolutely shafted (completely random, mind), the airport one was one of those really bad tasks where once I'd watched the first person doing it I'd gladly have skipped the rest.

Yeah fair point. For me the restrictive timing of the shutters made it feel like a relentless slog where they just had to plough through and hope for the best rather than try different approaches, so ended up with five quite lengthy but very similar showings.

And as you say once you were shafted by the random order there was no way to pull it back, so it all felt a bit punishing. But this might be my brain as I found a lot of the Series 10 tasks a shade too convoluted.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I'm not starting a series 12 thread for this, but someone reckons they've worked out the next lineup: https://twitter.com/muldoon/status/1379453748708261888

I think he's dead wrong about

Spoiler alert

Russell Kane

[close]

, thank christ, and

Spoiler alert

Kemah Bob

[close]

- which are based on

Spoiler alert

Desiree Burch

[close]

having recently followed those two on Instagram. Which doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.

Spoiler alert

Russell Kane

[close]

appearing would probably stop me tuning in.

The evidence for

Spoiler alert

Desiree Burch and Morgana Robinson

[close]

appearing is very strong, and I reckon

Spoiler alert

Alan Davies and Guz Khan

[close]

are right too. If that's the case then the identity of the fifth contestant would make or break the lineup for me, Clive.

If true, on paper that would be the worst group they've ever had.

[vainsharpdad]

I'd still love to see John Robins on this - I love the Uber-competitive grumpy pricks.

[MigraineBoy]

That possible line-up does contain the elements they've seemed to go for when choosing the 5 - the elder statesman (i.e Mack, Vegas, someone who's been a TV regular 20+ years) & a non-comic, comedy performer (i.e Parkinson, Richie, actors who aren't panel-show regulars), two people who'd warrant a "oh, I know them" from the average viewer & the act for whom it's their first big TV job.

[DrGreggles]

I'd still love to see John Robins on this

Nah, the boring cunt will just keep banging on about Queen as if they weren't fucking awful.