Taskmaster s17

[Norton Canes]

Not a 5-pointer though.

Tricky one to score - the flying Tudor one had to win by virtue of being more epic, but the pancake one clearly deserved a lot of points

Is Pemberton too smart to win? Where will he come a cropper, do we reckon? 

Team tasks. Tasks with a negligible skill factor. Tasks that are basically there to satisfy Alex's oral fixation. Plus, although he's won the first two shows he's only a point ahead of Joanne.

But even on the shows he doesn't win he should always come away with a decent points haul by virtue of actually putting some fucking effort in to things like the prize task.

[Norton Canes]

Definite Quentin Smirhes vibes to the pancake scene.

[boinkboink]

Do a lot of extremely 'intellectual' people present as 'it seems a miracle that they are physically capable of dressing themselves' - it used to be a trope...

Thinking of Paul Sinha who had similar problems, but was never less than hugely funny on TM.

And Sinha was obviously suffering from the yet undiagnosed Parkinson's.

[jobotic]

One of episodes where I got bored and distracted I'm afraid. Although I did laugh at Jumungo.

STill angry that they can get some old shit off Facebook for the prize task.

[Twilkes]

On some previous episodes they have been judged on the actual object they brought in, which would have been a plastic bat. The capricious judging is part of the show though.

[selectivememory]

Steve Pemberton is great on this, and seems to be a wonderful human being in general. But while I think Sophie and Nick seem nice, I'm not finding them that interesting or entertaining. And John and Joanne just bring nothing to the table.

Maybe I have Taskmaster fatigue. I still want to keep watching for Steve, but maybe just need to give it a break for a while.

[BritishHobo]

I think it's a sad, inevitable thing. They're so lovely and funny and brilliant, but anyone is gonna struggle being on the series following the one with Sam and Lucy, because sincerity can't compete with that madness. I think the Bob Mortimer/James Acaster serieses had the same effect.

[thelittlemango]

It's always interesting when you get people like John who are clearly big fans of the show and desperately want to go on it and win, yet their obsession misses out the main point of the whole thing and what makes the most memorable contestants...being funny/inventive.

You could see it in the cat rescue task, where he instantly looked for a trick, found it, then in the studio was agonising when they pretended he'd been disqualified, not a seconds thought into it being good TV or funny, just determination to win and complete failure to understand the concept, admittedly the task construction didn't help on that one.

[FeederFan500]

I thought the studio task was weak, and also flawed, since they were allowed to make sounds other than what the first three letters were.

I liked the board task, but was expecting a bit more from the green screen one. Studio stuff has just been ok so far

[mjwilson]

When Luke Littler came to prominence it was all about his playing ability and not mocking his looks compared to his age at all iirc.

Do you mean on this forum? Because Twitter was full of jokes about how he looked.

[DrJ]

We were possibly spoilt last season with Julian and Sam and Lucy who just have "funny bones" and worked so well together.  Nick is nice, Steve seems brilliant, John R I was not aware of and I watched some of his stand-up and didn't crack a smile, and as a Dublin person I am not a fan of Joanne McN at all as Dublin is full of overbearing people like that.  Episode 2 was better than episode 1, but S17 is not a patch on S16.

[jimboslice]

Worth mentioning that Sam & Lucy's podcast "Perfect Brains" is now 2 episodes in and very promising so far.

[Bobloblawslawbomb]

Worth mentioning that Sam & Lucy's podcast "Perfect Brains" is now 2 episodes in and very promising so far.

Lucy Beaumonts personality certainly makes a lot of sense after listening to 15 minutes of her mum. Tim Key good value as always.

Could you maybe split this topic off Barry?

[FeederFan500]

Do you mean on this forum? Because Twitter was full of jokes about how he looked.

This forum was full of the same jokes, I don't think questioning someone's age is inherently sexist/misogynistic.


A very minor thing but Robins' t shirt annoyed me, not the design but the stretched out collar. You're on TV man! Mnd you I do remember him once joking on the Radio X show that he wore a shirt on Cats Does Countdown that he'd had since year 9.

[holyzombiejesus]

Today's Guardian crossword compiled by 'Sphinx' has a secret message. https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29186

Spoiler alert

Clue for 24 down: He follows Nick, losing task finally: a comfortable position (5)

[close]

[Led Souptin]

Actually enjoying this lot after going in with very low expectations. Prize tasks have been good so far, but a bit lazy of john and Joanne to just bring in things theyve found funny on the Internet

[amateur]

Bat video should have got 0 points EOM

[Snrub]

It's always interesting when you get people like John who are clearly big fans of the show and desperately want to go on it and win, yet their obsession misses out the main point of the whole thing and what makes the most memorable contestants...being funny/inventive.

You could see it in the cat rescue task, where he instantly looked for a trick, found it, then in the studio was agonising when they pretended he'd been disqualified, not a seconds thought into it being good TV or funny, just determination to win and complete failure to understand the concept, admittedly the task construction didn't help on that one.

I've listened to John on the podcast with Elis for years and he is an intriguing character. I guess reading between the lines - and I may be way off base here - he's in one way or another burnt a few bridges in TV post his Edinburgh win and maybe made a few bad choices. He's turned his life around with his alcoholism over the past year or so and obviously sees this as the start of a new leaf.

Yet with that he's kind of lost some of the fire that might make him good TV here - see multiple episodes of the games he plays with Elis on the podcast and him arguing the toss and being incredibly pedantic etc which is missing so far. Maybe it's to come - and he has said around this he's kind of on his best behavior which might mean maybe not.

At least he'll complete the trilogy of "podcasters trying a bit too hard" along with Gamble and Herring. Would have bet on him to win pre series but I suspect Pemberton is going to blow everyone out of the water Dara style

[FeederFan500]

Yet with that he's kind of lost some of the fire that might make him good TV here - see multiple episodes of the games he plays with Elis on the podcast and him arguing the toss and being incredibly pedantic etc which is missing so far. Maybe it's to come - and he has said around this he's kind of on his best behavior which might mean maybe not.

At least he'll complete the trilogy of "podcasters trying a bit too hard" along with Gamble and Herring. Would have bet on him to win pre series but I suspect Pemberton is going to blow everyone out of the water Dara style

On his podcast with Elis I saw some of my less favourable traits on show which is why I noticed it really. But he would think about how to be petty, and actually go through with it despite it going beyond just a joke. The Winner Plays On was a prime example of this and Made Up Games had some Finchy pub quiz pedantry, but when Elis asked him a trivia question which referenced an interview, the next week all five questions were "In an interview with some newspaper, who did Bill Shankly describe as X?". If he'd started with one, then done 4 normal questions, he'd have made the point but not ruined the spirit of the game. Instead he spent time researching the questions just to make the same point and joke 5 times (although the last one was funny, I'll grant him that). I think on TM you can be pedantic but it has to be funny at the same time.

There was also one time Sarah Millican was on the show and mentioned that sometimes it's ok to just say "this isn't my cup of tea" when you happen not to like something, and I was reminded of one of Robins' Fringe anecdotes where he apparently kept saying "not my cup of tea" in earshot of an agent who had said that about his show. I think I'd take criticism of my work badly but even so come on man.

[amateur]

I think on TM you can be pedantic but it has to be funny at the same time.

Ardal O'Hanlan did this very well.

[TheDevilPuppet]

Ardal O'Hanlan did this very well.

He played it perfectly. You have to be mischievous & doing it to stir the pot but not for personal gain. If it looks like you are doing it to score points, neither Greg nor the audience are on your side.

[Twilkes]

To be fair, Ardal was absolutely doing it to gain points, at least in the early episodes - the amount of times he would try to denigrate a contestant's efforts, only for it to be shown that his was identical or worse... :)

[Tiggles]

John Robins is a TM dweeb. I hope they torture him throughout.

[IsavedLatin]

John Robins is a TM dweeb. I hope they torture him throughout.

I detest him for his delight at

Spoiler alert

removing the baby carrier, and his stress afterwards when Greg and Alex toyed with him on the scoring.

[close]

That's no way to Taskmaster.

[neveragain]

Found that quite a dull episode on the whole. Only the tension task pulled it round for me, Clive.

[boinkboink]

It was an okay episode, but I'm seriously starting to dislike John Robins.

[amateur]

It was an okay episode, but I'm seriously starting to dislike John Robins.

He doesn't seem in a great place (at time of filming). Feel quite sorry for the guy.

[SteveDave]

It was an okay episode, but I'm seriously starting to dislike John Robins.

Welcome brother.

[holyzombiejesus]

I dislike his Jeremy Vine voice and sixth former vibes.

He really expected a round of applause after saying how he'd taken one of those cruel elephant seats off the open market

[errolstrainer]

I detest him for his delight at

Spoiler alert

removing the baby carrier, and his stress afterwards when Greg and Alex toyed with him on the scoring.

[close]

That's no way to Taskmaster.

I felt it too. The loopholes are usually fun either because everyone misses what's right in front of them or maybe one person finds it by accident after failing badly for a bit. Actively looking for a loophole before the task starts feels a bit like cheating.