Taskmaster series 12

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Despite not usually being a fan of the more complicated tasks I thought the bike and riddle ones were fine. My problem with this series is that Guz and Morgana are the only funny contestants.

It's still an ok hour of TV, but the last series and NZ series 2 were guaranteed to deliver a few belly laughs per episode. This one just raises the odd smile.

[amateur]

I can't get over what a void of humour Alan Davies is. It's breathtaking.

[DrGreggles]

I can't get over what a void of humour Alan Davies is. It's breathtaking.

Compared to Baddiel he's Groucho fucking Marx.

[jobotic]

I can't get over what a void of humour Alan Davies is. It's breathtaking.

You never seen him in anything else before?

[olliebean]

I guess maths isn't Alex's strength - in the bike task, Morgana's adjusted time was half what it should have been, and Victoria's, inexplicably as he was only supposed to be dividing by twos, was 1/3 of the correct value.

Also, I guess he doesn't know what sort of moustache Charlie Chaplin had.

I reckon the best approach to the bike task would just have been to ride around the course for ages before starting the sub-tasks, thus building up a good time that could weather a few halvings.

[BeardFaceMan]

I can't get over what a void of humour Alan Davies is. It's breathtaking.

Without Stephen Fry there to fawn over his audience mugging, there really isn't a lot left he can do.

[AsparagusTrevor]

Also, I guess Alex doesn't know what sort of moustache Charlie Chaplin had.

I've got a feeling you can't generally buy the kind of moustaches that Chaplin wore.

[Uncle TechTip]

Throwing forks into a bucket - fuck me this show is interminable much of the time.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

Throwing forks into a bucket - fuck me this show is interminable much of the time.

Yeah, I've been defending the tasks this series but the live ones have been absolutely rotten.

[Enzo]

Morgana stuffing frozen food down her top is another win for the fetishists

[Norton Canes]

It just amazed me that when asked to spread jam on toast in a cool way they all went for really lame visual gags, rather than acting in an outlandishly faux cool way. As Greg pointed out, by far the funniest part of that task was Alan wandering around with his leaf blower.

I mean Morgana is an impressionist, could she not have caricatured someone cool?

[Norton Canes]

Thinking about it, she must be the only impressionist I've seen on a comedy show who hasn't jumped straight in with a load of impersonations. I mean if [insert impressionist here - I'll go for Rory Bremner] turns up on anything you know within moments they'll be firing through their repertoire.

[BeardFaceMan]

I think she's already done Cheryl Cole and Natalie Cassidy but she does show remarkable restraint compared to most other impressionists.

The tasks could do with a good kick up the arse. I'm looking forward to the NZ version more than the UK version these days, that's not good.

[AsparagusTrevor]

It just amazed me that when asked to spread jam on toast in a cool way they all went for really lame visual gags, rather than acting in an outlandishly faux cool way. As Greg pointed out, by far the funniest part of that task was Alan wandering around with his leaf blower.

I mean Morgana is an impressionist, could she not have caricatured someone cool?

Huh? It was bad because they didn't all pretend to be the Fonz?

[neveragain]

Last episode very good I thought. Also, despite all the ear-biting, I don't find Alan Davies as annoying as some people seem to. In this.

[Virgo76]

The only thing that annoys me about Victoria (in general, not just on TM) is not her fault whatsoever. It's the way everyone treats her as an Einstein-level genius when, as far as I can tell, she's just fairly bright. Does everyone assume that she personally comes up with all the questions on Only Connect? Or is it the poker thing? Are we meant to assume that all successful poker players are geniuses like chess grandmasters?

She's definitely unusually intelligent. It's obvious every time she says anything e.g. on the latest Taskmaster podcast.

[JamesTC]

VCM makes out she isn't cool, but she is a professional poker player which is pretty fucking cool.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've got a feeling you can't generally buy the kind of moustaches that Chaplin wore.

Richard Herring gave out a sod load of them when he was doing Hitler Moustache at Edinburgh, though it was more just a bit of sticky tape than a proper hairy fake moustache, admittedly.

I thought this was awful yet again, Morgana and Guz in the jam task entertained, the rest of the time I was staring at the screen in disbelief as to how bad it was.

[The Roofdog]

I reckon the best approach to the bike task would just have been to ride around the course for ages before starting the sub-tasks, thus building up a good time that could weather a few halvings.

You had to keep moving forward, best you could do if you had some mad BMX skillz would be a really tight zig-zag

[frajer]

Duffer of an ep for me too. Tasks are definitely feeling a bit limp and linear this series. How will they each ride this bike as slowly as possible? Almost identically and with no funny bits, it turns out.

Not sure it's a great group either but it's hard to blame the contestants when the tasks are stuff like "copy Alex" and then you just watch five people repeat the same thing to varying degrees of accuracy. Didn't hate it, but can't really say I enjoyed it either, which is an odd thing to feel about Taskmaster.

[gilbertharding]

I'm surprised, myself, that Victoria Coren Mitchell didn't just do a 10 minute track stand.

[BeardFaceMan]

I'm suprised Alex has managed to go this long without getting any real help with the tasks, quite impressive really that's he's mostly done it on his own. But now it's time for him to get over himself and get some proper help.

[JesusAndYourBush]

You had to keep moving forward, best you could do if you had some mad BMX skillz would be a really tight zig-zag

Would it have been within the rules to put your feet down (incurring one penalty) then just keep them down, basically just standing there for an hour, then continuing (and most likely incurring more penalties but you've got that hour, so assuming nobody else did the same thing you'd win.)

[selectivememory]

I've gone from quite liking the whole group after the first couple of episodes, to being completely bored by most of them now, and only really wanting to see more of Morgana.

And yeah, the tasks have been abysmal. What the fuck was that bike task? Felt like one of the weakest ones they've ever done. Surprised they decided to broadcast that.

[JamesTC]

VCM riding the bike after the task was really sweet though.


I must say that despite it being an improved episode this week, Outsiders was still stronger. There was a camouflage task in this week and it was proper classic Taskmaster style with one particularly ingenious moment from Jamali.

[The Crumb]

I must say that despite it being an improved episode this week, Outsiders was still stronger. There was a camouflage task in this week and it was proper classic Taskmaster style with one particularly ingenious moment from Jamali.

Quite enjoying Outsiders, don't think there's loads of mileage in it but should stay entertaining for a series or two. Agreed that the camouflage task was a really good one. Nice bunch of contestants, even making me like Ed Gamble a bit more.

[MigraineBoy]

Would it have been within the rules to put your feet down (incurring one penalty) then just keep them down, basically just standing there for an hour, then continuing (and most likely incurring more penalties but you've got that hour, so assuming nobody else did the same thing you'd win.)

IIRC it said the clock stopped when your feet touched the floor.

[thelittlemango]

Not sure it's a great group either but it's hard to blame the contestants when the tasks are stuff like "copy Alex" and then you just watch five people repeat the same thing to varying degrees of accuracy. Didn't hate it, but can't really say I enjoyed it either, which is an odd thing to feel about Taskmaster.

I just don't get it, surely if you're sat there coming up with tasks the next thing you'd do is think of how it might unfold and what possible funny outcomes could come from that. In the 'copy Alex' task that would just amount to "they might get it wrong and do it all out of time!" which is a pretty flimsy basis for including it in the show.

Genuinely baffled that some of the recent tasks don't seem to have been given that scrutiny before they ran with it, unless they've decided they want a more competitive/less funny format.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I hope the (subjectively) poor task quality is down to cramming too much production into a short space of time, probably to try and get as many in the can as they could in case they had to stop production due to covid. We know they've filmed another series already, so that's 4 series, plus the New Year's special, filmed in a very short amount of time. I think Alex should have a rest.

[amateur]

Throwing forks into a bucket - fuck me this show is interminable much of the time.

If they'd done it one at a time, and had to get it the furthest or something, it would have at least had some jeopardy. And yes, of course they've done that before, but I'd rather see something entertaining again than new and boring.