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March 29, 2024, 10:19:54 AM

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Taskmaster series 12

Started by Wayman C. McCreery, May 20, 2021, 01:36:36 PM

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Norton Canes

I must be totally out of kilter with the hive mind because I thought the football task was by far the worst task served up this series (outside the prize tasks obviously). For one, it was predicated on Alex's inconsistent ability to hit the target, and therefore unfair to some contestants. Also, how the holy heck does shooting a ball through the back of an upturned or reversed frame count as a 'goal'? I mean they've literally moved the goalposts on that one

(did no-one make that joke?) 

Anyway it was beyond hilarious that having come up with the best way of impeding the ball's progress, VCM didn't place her obstacles close enough or think to stand in the goal. She really is proving to be spectacularly useless. I quite like her now.

That cake stuff though. Alex.

Norton Canes

When the contestants entered the room for the cake task with their red Taskmaster seal badges, I thought for a moment they'd all been given poppies.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Norton Canes on October 22, 2021, 09:33:48 AM
I must be totally out of kilter with the hive mind
I certainly have been for the last couple of episodes, with people acting like they were war crimes or something.

g0m

Quote from: olliebean on October 21, 2021, 10:59:57 PM
Best strategy IWHT with the live task would have been to go for only one balloon on each turn, thus minimising your chance of hitting a "bad" balloon and maximising your chance of winning and getting the full 10 points. Assuming none of the other contestants had the same idea, of course.

but 2nd through fourth place were awarded based on number of balloons popped. if you don't think you're likely to win, the best strategy is to try and pop as many balloons as possible before you get out

g0m

Quote from: DrGreggles on October 22, 2021, 08:58:06 AM
Deflate the ball innit.

I thought of this but it's still pretty easy to kick a deflated ball into a goal. just look at alex's goal against victoria - if anything that'd be easier with a deflated ball

mjwilson


DrGreggles

Quote from: g0m on October 22, 2021, 05:32:19 PM
I thought of this but it's still pretty easy to kick a deflated ball into a goal. just look at alex's goal against victoria - if anything that'd be easier with a deflated ball

It wouldn't bounce.

jobotic

What was the cake task then? I was watching a WAM video washing up when that was on I think

g0m

Quote from: DrGreggles on October 22, 2021, 08:26:57 PM
It wouldn't bounce.

yeah, but you can wedge your foot under a deflated ball, so you could get it in in one go pretty easy. UNLESS as well as deflating it, you attach a bunch of extra stuff to the ball

There's no way anyone could kick a deflated football that far you mad bastard.

The Crumb

Quote from: jobotic on October 22, 2021, 08:32:07 PM
What was the cake task then? I was watching a WAM video washing up when that was on I think

Sitting on cakes. Clearly made an impression on Alex when he did it in a previous series.

DrGreggles

Quote from: g0m on October 22, 2021, 08:34:19 PM
yeah, but you can wedge your foot under a deflated ball, so you could get it in in one go pretty easy.

Then you stand in the goal and save it, if it reaches (which it won't).

g0m

Quote from: DrGreggles on October 22, 2021, 11:59:06 PM
Then you stand in the goal and save it, if it reaches (which it won't).

that hadn't even entered victoria's mind! look, i'm not saying this would work in every scenario, just that it would in that specific one

Captain Z

I can't believe everybody in the studio just let the cake stuff go without probing Alex's motivations or referring to his previous experience.

ElTwopo

If any of next week's tasks involve gunging, I'm calling the police.

I loved the football task, don't get the rule based criticism above when the whole thread has been calling for open ended tasks that give contestants freedom to express themselves. No one cares about the rules in these tasks and on this show surely, it's all a framework to produce funny moments rather than quibble Ed Gamble-style about whether the ball crossed the line on a Geoff Hurst hype.

I'm surprised no one did a Rhod Gilbert and tried to incapacitate Alex on this one as it reminded me a lot of that task.

Quote from: thelittlemango on October 23, 2021, 11:23:20 PM

I'm surprised no one did a Rhod Gilbert and tried to incapacitate Alex on this one as it reminded me a lot of that task.

My first thought was to make sure you save the first shot and then just launch the ball over the fence.

frajer

Quote from: Bobloblawslawbomb on October 23, 2021, 11:44:39 PM
My first thought was to make sure you save the first shot and then just launch the ball over the fence.

Yeah I said the same when Guz made his first save, I'd have hoofed that ball right over the gate. Bye Alex!

beanheadmcginty

I feel like the whole point of that football task was to give Alex a go as if he was a contestant. He was trying his best to solve a task set for him by someone else. A little indulgence for him as it was the 100th episode.

olliebean

Here's the next Google ad task: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9uojXIxGOI (presumably this will be in an ad break in the next episode, so obviously don't watch it now if you want to watch it during the programme).

Christ, Alan Davies really is an absolute humour vacuum, isn't he?

g0m

Oh man, that's the best prize task in ages. They finally figured out how to make it feel personal again

olliebean

Victoria's gift for Alan was so precisely off the mark, I couldn't help wondering if she'd done it deliberately, especially with the reveal that it wasn't even fully paid for but just a voucher towards it.

It was definitely deliberate as she mentioned that she knew Alan supported Arsenal, so was a wind-up about going to watch a 'good' team (statistically) instead.

Alan isn't very exciting but I don't mind him at all, there's more of a warmth to him than other similar contestants and his line about eating two Creme Eggs made me laugh.

DrGreggles

Davies has been fine. Not brilliant by any means, but certainly not as irritating as a Stirling or as pathetic as a Baddiel.

Gus and Morgana are the stand outs this series though.

Small Man Big Horse

Random thoughts while watching it:

Prize Task - Poor bar VCM, though at least Morgana talked hers up and made it amusing.

Iron Task - Tedious stuff, Guz, Alan and Desiree showed no imagination at all, and though VCM and Morgana were at least a little inventive that didn't translate in to it being funny.

Dog Task - Potentially could be good, so it'll be the contestants fault if it isn't. So VCM deserves some kudos for her weird cat face, and I guess Guz's was okay, but while Morgana and Alan came up with a good idea they made shit toys, and Desiree was really bland yet again.

Secret Tower - Sounded awful from the task readings, but it was even worse than I feared. Morgana approached it in a smart way, but otherwise it was incredibly annoying, abject shit.

Live Task - Watching people throwing paper planes was always extremely unlikely to be funny. But not even seeing them all fail miserably was funny. Horrendous, and Greg's description of it wasn't wrong.

I normally love Taskmaster but this is making me angry whenever I watch it so I think I'm going to wait until people respond to next week's episode, and unless they rate it I won't bother with it.

mjwilson

Quote from: olliebean on October 29, 2021, 10:57:23 AM
Victoria's gift for Alan was so precisely off the mark, I couldn't help wondering if she'd done it deliberately, especially with the reveal that it wasn't even fully paid for but just a voucher towards it.

I assumed that meant that it was just a piece of printed card pretending to be a voucher... I mean there isn't such a thing as a voucher towards a season ticket is there? Esepcially one which says "This entitles the bearer to one season ticket at Manchester United".

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: mjwilson on October 29, 2021, 07:43:14 PM
I assumed that meant that it was just a piece of printed card pretending to be a voucher... I mean there isn't such a thing as a voucher towards a season ticket is there? Esepcially one which says "This entitles the bearer to one season ticket at Manchester United".

I know I'm being a moany sod in this thread, but if true she should have been disqualified as anyone could have come up with an amazing imaginary gift, and it should have been something you could physically receive.

Spode

This is just background noise for me now, and probably has been since the end of the James Acaster series. I can watch, and rewatch, any series up to that on a constant loop and was always amazed by how they could make pretty much anyone come across as funny over the course of a series.

I'm not sure what's happened since then but I can't imagine rewatching a single series since. The tasks have been off, an increase in awful or plain boring contestants  (notable exceptions like Mike Wozniak last season, and I feel like Morgana and Gus from this would have been brilliant with a different line up) and the lack of a live audience hurts it too.

Also had the misfortune of catching Alex on that Peter crouch thing a couple of times over the summer and so even a lot of his bits are falling flat for me now, too.

Feel like it could do with a break to get audiences back and to prevent the number of filler tasks in each episode.

I haven't bothered watched Thursday's episode yet, which says lot.

I said earlier this thread that the show's got a phenomenally high hit rate. But in hindsight, only series 11 (Wozniak et al) has really done it for me since the (incredibly underrated) series 8 (the Lou Sanders one). I tried to rewatch series 9 recently but couldn't make it past the first episode thanks to Baddiel and Brand - and to a lesser extent, Gamble (Katy Wix was brilliant, mind).

It needs some sort of a shakeup, but I don't think it'll happen - the audience reaction to this series seems to be overwhelmingly positive and it's getting good ratings.

Maybe I'm just being a grumpy bastard but I feel like the show's being made for the benefit of the people on r/taskmaster and Twitter who like #wholesome lineups - whereas I miss antagonistic arseholes like Tim Key, Rhod Gilbert and Lou Sanders.

The majority of the rumoured-but-almost-certainly-completely-accurate series 13 lineup doesn't fill me with excitement, but hopefully the return of a studio audience will help make things fun again.