Taskmaster s16

[Led Souptin]

Leave Alex alone!

His m.o has always been slightly annoying man with shite jokes and I think the fetishism thing is being projected by people. There I said it.

Are you a child of divorce was amazing. Didn't think I'd like Lucy but she was great in this. Didn't know Susan wakoma either but she's turned out to be a good laugh too!

[BeardFaceMan]

The only problem I have with the show is my increasing disdain for Alex Horne, when he was giggling away during the cans task I couldn't help but think he was a giant twat, it was designed to make the comedians look stupid and they're by far my least favourite tasks.

Theres definitely become an over-relience on tasks that have the answers hidden somewhere/in plain sight/around the corner etc, they're best used sparingly.

[DrGreggles]

Leave Alex alone!

His m.o Haa always been slightlt annoying man with shite jokes and I think the fetishism thing is being projected by people. There I said it. 

Alex has a gentle/silly sense of humour - that's about it.
Always seems like a nice bloke, and he's very good as TM's assistant. Just because Paul Williams is arguably better, it doesn't make Alex suddenly shit.

And the fetish thing seems to exist solely in the minds of some people in this thread.

[greencalx]

As usual I'll be running a day behind, so we can watch this at a bedtime-friendly hour without the shit ads getting in the way.

Good opener I thought. Kicking off with a simple fun task like the can task is probably the best way to get to know people - miles ahead of the weird silent dancing task they used to lead the last series to. Normally I have a strong reaction against The Location that gets used for the series, but when I saw the first shot of the one for this series I immediately thought "That place looks cool." Does anyone know where it is? The task itself was humdrum, but at least it allowed for some variation in approach and out-of-the-box thinking.

I was only peripherally aware of Julian (mostly through the infamous Norman Lamont comment). He seems to have got the 'I'm clearly going to be shit at this but I don't care' approach nailed, and in addition to the putdowns noted I liked his self-deprecating 'aging homosexual' remark. And his table, of course. Lucy seems like an interesting contestant - I got the vibe that her riffing on her legs was the kind of thing that would normally end up in the outtakes, with Greg pursuing it and Alex keen to move the show on, but glad they kept it in. Still trying to get the measure of Sam's personality, but seems ideally suited to the show. Sue and Susan both seem fine. Yeah, good cast.

[Clive Dogshit]

And the fetish thing seems to exist solely in the minds of some people in this thread.

Nah. It's been commented on outside of this thread. There was a noticeable increase in tasks involving messy eating, drooling, crushing, rolling in shit and sitting on cakes a few series ago. Dirty bastard he loves it, reckon it started when Liza Tarbuck "made" him take his pants off and sit on a cake. Anyway I like him now, he just annoyed me for a while. Certainly don't think he's "shit" otherwise I wouldn't watch.

[selectivememory]

I feel the need to defend Alex as well. Don't think I'd agree that Paul Williams is better in the role either, though I do like him a lot too

Dunno if he has a fetish or is just very amused by people either eating disgusting food, or eating food in a disgusting way. But I do wish he'd stop those tasks. Think Daisy May Cooper and Richard Herring feeding watermelon to each other was the last one I found in any way funny.

[superthunderstingcar]

After the hypercompetitiveness of certain contestants in previous series, anyone who comes in with the attitude of being funny first and foremost and who gives not a shit about the points, they automatically become my favourite.

The fact that this usually (though definitely not always) ends up being the oldest/most established comedian with the least to lose, career wise, probably helps.

[Old Thrashbarg]

It's worth remembering that the first task of the first series had Romesh crawling around, stuffing watermelon into his mouth from the floor until he was sick. So I don't think it's a new phenomenon.

[beanheadmcginty]

Clary is starting to look like Sam Neill now he's older.

[Small Man Big Horse]

My problem with Alex isn't the fetish thing, it's the amount of overly complicated tasks with a stupid amount of rules that are purely designed to make the contestant look stupid or annoy them incredibly, while he sits there giggling, as I just don't find them enjoyable to watch at all.

[greencalx]

Even that I think is a bit overblown. Some of the tasks are quite simple but, for some reason, explained in an overly complicated way - the luggage trolley task in s14 springs to mind, as indeed does the recent duck task, which was basically "push the duck into the lake without it touching any of the obstacles". The zenith of the complicated tasks seemed to be around S10 when contestants had to stop and do something else every 5 seconds or something. But there's not been any like that for a while - and if memory serves there were only a handful even in S10. (I had picked up ahead of that series from here that this was a theme of that series, so was quite sensitised to it, and pleasantly surprised overall.)

[mjwilson]

Even that I think is a bit overblown. Some of the tasks are quite simple but, for some reason, explained in an overly complicated way - the luggage trolley task in s14 springs to mind

Worst task ever.

[greencalx]

Are you thinking of the same one? I was thinking of the one at Gatwick airport where they had to bump a trolley as far as they could, or something like that (but the description was like that of a board game you've never played before).

The worst task ever, to my mind, was the airport security one in the Wozniak season, and is potentially confusable.

[Snrub]

Wonder if the first task shown was for once the first task filmed with Alex's "will anyone find the secret task this series" comment in it. Surely that will get called back to later in the series.

[greencalx]

Presumably yes. It's possible that some bits get re-recorded.

Also not sure how there can be a secret task, unless it's one that might get discovered during a different task?

[mjwilson]

Are you thinking of the same one? I was thinking of the one at Gatwick airport where they had to bump a trolley as far as they could, or something like that (but the description was like that of a board game you've never played before).

The worst task ever, to my mind, was the airport security one in the Wozniak season, and is potentially confusable.

I meant the airport security one, yeah.

[Wayman C. McCreery]

With a couple of notable exceptions, the tasks have got loads better since the Covid series (though I think the overly complicated ones started to creep in around series nine).

I think they get the balance between right these days. I've always preferred the creative tasks - the ones that let funny people be funny - but I thought the most recent NZ series had too many of them.

I don't know where this Alex hate has come from. Paul Williams is top but Alex is a GBOL.

[DrGreggles]

Apparently they all did one, but I doubt the others are as good:
https://www.channel4.com/press/news/qa-sam-campbell

[cakeinmilk]

Normally I have a strong reaction against The Location that gets used for the series, but when I saw the first shot of the one for this series I immediately thought "That place looks cool." Does anyone know where it is?

Wormsley Cricket Pavilion apparently

[Twilkes]

Apparently they all did one, but I doubt the others are as good:
https://www.channel4.com/press/news/qa-sam-campbell

https://www.chortle.co.uk/interviews/2023/09/21/54201/taskmaster_series_16%3A_interviews_with_the_contestants

Sam's was a bit wank to be honest.

[DrGreggles]

https://www.chortle.co.uk/interviews/2023/09/21/54201/taskmaster_series_16%3A_interviews_with_the_contestants

Sam's was a bit wank to be honest.

Chortle doing some top copying and pasting there!

I thought it was funny anyway. Makes a change from the usual gushing promotional stuff that comes out.

[amateur]

Sam's child of divorce line killed me. Never heard of the lad but like his chops.

[greencalx]

Wormsley Cricket Pavilion apparently

Thanks, though now I know its day job I find it inevitably less cool.

[Inspector Norse]

Apparently they all did one, but I doubt the others are as good:
https://www.channel4.com/press/news/qa-sam-campbell

Enjoyed the line in Greg and Alex's about Julian Clary being like the top half of a duck.

Also the anecdote that Sam Campbell had the brilliant idea of bringing his own equipment to the tasks, but kept bringing useless shit like a golf ball collector.

Watched the first episode and really enjoyed it - tasks were middling but it already seems a great line-up, all of them slotting straight into their comfortable niches and providing a good combination of personalities and styles.

[centristmelt]

Was the duck inflatable? If so why didn't they just burst it?

[MigraineBoy]

Was the duck inflatable? If so why didn't they just burst it?

The task didn't say you couldn't burst it, but I bet with it being location filming they'd have hidden anything even remotely sharp out of reach, so the contestant would've spent ages on a fruitless search.

[Norton Canes]

I guess you could have had at it with one of the metal poles holding the ropes up. Or a flamingo's beak.

[Inspector Norse]

Based on my experience of paddling pools, inflatable dolphins, etc, trying to deflate the duck would have taken longer than just pegging it down to the lake and taking your chances with the obstacles.

[g0m]

you may as well ask why they didn't just move all the barriers so there'd be more room for the duck to manoeuvre. the answer is that four of them didn't think of that

[centristmelt]

Do you think Lucy Beaumont is pretending not to understand lateral thinking for comedic effect or is she genuinely a bit slow