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March 28, 2024, 11:42:54 AM

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Taskmaster Series 13

Started by MigraineBoy, August 25, 2021, 10:05:38 PM

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MigraineBoy

I don't normally listen to the podcast but tuned in as Bridget was the guest - she said aside from seeing Sophie at gigs she'd never met any of them before the show and praised the Taskmaster booking team for getting the perfect mix of contestants.

I know others have said it before but it's true - 13 series and they've rarely messed up.

selectivememory

I feel the meeting task would have worked better as a team task. Sometimes the creative tasks are better when the contestants can collaborate. I can't really blame them for it being a letdown; as Twilkes says, they had too much to do in too little time.

Sausage mixer and Bridget's walking were great, obviously, but I also loved Ardal's insane attempt at the cement mixer task. Was surprised he only got one point for that!

Quote from: The Lurker on May 20, 2022, 11:17:03 AMThe meeting task was a good idea but one that was poorly executed by the contestants, I thought.

I've banged on for ages about how the best tasks are the ones with the simplest instructions, and this one was pretty simple on paper. But it's a very a tough ask for someone to write and perform a sketch for eight characters in such a short amount of time. If anything, I thought they all did pretty well. But it probably should've been a team task.

This series has definitely benefited from the tasks being pretty simple though and giving the contestants space to be funny. I wonder if Taskmaster NZ has influenced that? I can't remember there being any so far with convoluted instructions or restrictions that just suck the creativity out of the contestants. I've just looked back at the tasks in the last series and there were too many like this:

"Sit on the red chair in the secret tower. You may only step on circles on your way. You may only stand on each circle once, unless it is black. You may stand on a black circle twice, but never twice in a row. Also you must put this task in the shredder within the first minute. If you fail for any reason, Alex will blow his whistle. Return everything to its starting position and you must start again. Fastest wins."

I know I'm cherrypicking here but it's great to see stuff like that booted out in favour of "Give Alex the best stag minute."

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

It must be a right bastard to arrange a really good lineup of contestants. There's a mix of character traits that seems to bring out the best in the show (e.g. clever, dim, cheerful, bolshie, sly, utterly mad) but you can't necessarily expect each contestant to embody each trait exactly, nor really base expectations on their stage persona. Then, on top of that, there's all the haggling over booking them.

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on May 20, 2022, 12:06:03 PMTo think that Ramsay was considered the bland one at the start of the series and then he comes up with something like that.

Indeed. On the first page of this thread I said that Ramsey would be bad news. He's been great fun. Though I hated that clip of him in the meeting task that they kept replaying. Reminded me of Gervais doing Derek.

olliebean

Even with the ho-hum meeting task, which was far from the worst they've ever done, that was my favourite episode so far of this series. Had me laughing more than usual right from Bridget's impression of Ardal in the prize task.

The meeting task would have been better (and more dramatic) if there'd only been two of them in each meeting.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I made a video of me interviewing myself a few years ago and that was more than complex enough. The logistics of an eight-sided scene (even if half of the characters are just random cutaways) are so confusing that it seems like a small miracle they managed to make anything.

Small Man Big Horse

I'm with everyone on the meeting task, four would have been a much easier option, but I was still very fond of it and both Bridget and Ardal's efforts made me laugh a fair amount.

Gotta say I'm struggling a bit with Judi Love, I haven't found many of her efforts that funny, and in the studio she irritates me, even if her arrogance is meant to tongue in cheek.

amateur

Also agree with everyone on the meeting task, was just a bit too much going on for it to be funny.

Alex is clearly very keen to use the technology that allows multiple versions of people to appear (see also the setup to the high five task last week) so he might just be getting carried away with that.

The difference between Chris Ramsey and other "scratch the back of your head in your promo shot" male comedians is that he's clearly happy to fail, and be silly. The cement mixer task made great TV first and foremost, he had no idea whether he'd be able to win at it. Brilliant contestant.

bigfatheart

Re: the meeting task, I've long had a theory that the tasks shot at the special location they use each series are more likely to be duffers, as presumably they feel obliged to include something that took up time and space for the people they hired it off. Something like the meeting task they might have cut had it been shot at the house, but perhaps it's harder to make that decision when outside people have been gracious enough to help out.

See also: chickens on remote control cars, luggage through security, etc.

Virgo76

They took a surprisingly long time to get from realising his name began with "Q" to working out his name was "Quentin"

greencalx

I think that was deliberate. (I guessed it was Quentin fairly early on).

We were all on the floor during the sausage spinner task.

AsparagusTrevor

Another good laugh from Chris was when Judy said something like "can't believe I was beaten by Bridget recording a number" and Chris said "no, you were beaten by everyone".

BritishHobo

I wasn't sure about this series at first but it's massively won me over. The meeting task didn't really work but otherwise I think the last two episodes have been top tier.

greencalx

And as noted it wasn't a fundamentally bad task idea (compared to say the security one), just too much complexity for the available time.

beanheadmcginty

'other "scratch the back of your head in your promo shot" male comedians'

Perfectly encapsulates a certain type of comedian to me. Spot on. Thank you for that (I can't work out the quote function to give you credit but I really enjoyed that)

holyzombiejesus

Thought it was the worst episode i can remember and am rapidly getting bored of the show. BC is really getting on my nerves.

superthunderstingcar

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on May 21, 2022, 06:26:23 PMThought it was the worst episode i can remember and am rapidly getting bored of the show. BC is really getting on my nerves.
Has this post slipped in from a parallel universe where Graham Linehan is on the show?

holyzombiejesus

No! And my wife agrees with me too, so it must be true.

I think she's usually funny but she comes across as trying too hard and unnatural on this, last episode at least.

amateur

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on May 21, 2022, 02:50:31 PM'other "scratch the back of your head in your promo shot" male comedians'

Perfectly encapsulates a certain type of comedian to me. Spot on. Thank you for that (I can't work out the quote function to give you credit but I really enjoyed that)

Pleasure, something really clicked when I twigged that was what they were all doing.

Ja'moke

Good news for Taskmaster NZ fans. It's coming back for a third season, as revealed on the NZ Government Funding website, which lists "Taskmaster NZ 3, 10 x 44 mins, Kevin & Co for TVNZ 2, up to $886,574."

https://www.nzonair.govt.nz/news/april-2022-funding-decisions/?fbclid=IwAR3Q5OGdMqAl6nrn6aKq2y3cxVIfMqu6gRWFsRTvWBAivrupEY-9EYWYu78#scripted

Quote from: Ja'moke on May 23, 2022, 11:44:38 PMGood news for Taskmaster NZ fans. It's coming back for a third season, as revealed on the NZ Government Funding website, which lists "Taskmaster NZ 3, 10 x 44 mins, Kevin & Co for TVNZ 2, up to $886,574."

https://www.nzonair.govt.nz/news/april-2022-funding-decisions/?fbclid=IwAR3Q5OGdMqAl6nrn6aKq2y3cxVIfMqu6gRWFsRTvWBAivrupEY-9EYWYu78#scripted

There's a separate thread for that this way: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=83903.0

Ja'moke

Sophie's a champ for eating that chunk of butter... and sticking her face in that bowl of custard at the end.

It made me think she'd be good on a UK Documental.

Sophie was the star of that one. I like her a lot but she's been a bit quieter than the other contestants, so I'm pleased she was pretty much given a full episode to showcase her weirdness. She was great in the live task too.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Is our smart telly being stupid, or is the latest episode not up on All 4 yet? Also, why does it say "19 days left" for all the old episodes?

The Lurker

Hasn't that live task been done on the NZ version as well?

dead-ced-dead

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on May 27, 2022, 12:09:11 AMIs our smart telly being stupid, or is the latest episode not up on All 4 yet? Also, why does it say "19 days left" for all the old episodes?

Not just you. It was late, but it's up now.

Utter Shit

On a related note, does anyone know why UK Play has every Taskmaster series up to 9, except for series 4?

With regard to last night's episode, Judi's emotional plea of "but how am I supposed to kill you with your own shoe?" made me laugh so much.

I thought last night's TM was the best show in quite some time.  It's been a great series so far.

Twilkes

Quote from: Utter Shit on May 27, 2022, 10:26:26 AMWith regard to last night's episode, Judi's emotional plea of "but how am I supposed to kill you with your own shoe?" made me laugh so much.

Aye, I'm surprised the audience didn't pick up on it, maybe it was too quiet in the studio. I know some people struggle with Judi, but if you take that line and extrapolate it out to a lot of the other stuff she's doing it's fairly clear she's acting up a lot, maybe the most out of any contestant along with Paul Chowdhry and Joe Wilkinson (and probably James Acaster although he seems to get a bye because people think he's actually like that in real life).

Judi is also generally awful at tasks though. :)

There's a certain type of live task that seems to engender tension and drama involving skill and strategy and downtime for a bit of planning; the 'sliding drinks along the bar' was another one, and they tend to be much more successful than the some of the 'do xyz in 100 seconds'.