Taskmaster (Greg Davies sets some comedians daft challenges!)

Berserker

Another great episode last tonight. David was excellent last night, once again. Really liked Katy's egg timer.

Penn

Berserker wrote: »

Another great episode last tonight. David was excellent last night, once again. Really liked Katy's egg timer.

Great to have Kerry BOSH! Godliman back too, even if it's just for one episode. Another great episode and David Baddiel has to be one of the best ever contestants on it.

Exclamation Marc

Penn wrote: »

Great to have Kerry BOSH! Godliman back too, even if it's just for one episode. Another great episode and David Baddiel has to be one of the best ever contestants on it.

ANOTHER SPOON!

skipper_G

Really enjoyed tonight's episode, David Baddiel is utterly hopeless at most of the tasks and it's hilarious. The live task had me in tears laughing

siblers

Probably my favourite season of the lot. There's brilliant chemistry between them and all and a lot more of the tasks are a lot better than previous seasons.

David Baddiel must be the most hopeless contestant ever but also one of the funniest

Berserker

My favourite season of the show so far also. Never thought they'd better season seven but they have. The banter between the contestants and Greg/Alex is great. You could just see Greg's eyes light up last night when Rose started talking about her 'shid'. David Baddiel has been consistently brilliant, hopeless but brilliant.

Penn

Berserker wrote: »

My favourite season of the show so far also. Never thought they'd better season seven but they have. The banter between the contestants and Greg/Alex is great. You could just see Greg's eyes light up last night when Rose started talking about her 'shid'. David Baddiel has been consistently brilliant, hopeless but brilliant.

I still think series seven is the best, but this is definitely close. Been fantastic throughout.

dulpit

Katie Wix baffles me a little. But the other 4 contestants are amazing this year. Ed Gamble has been growing on me week on week.

Exclamation Marc

dulpit wrote: »

Katie Wix baffles me a little. But the other 4 contestants are amazing this year. Ed Gamble has been growing on me week on week.

Katie Wix for me is this seasons irrelevant person. There's always one who just fades into the scenery and it was confirmed for me when Katherine Ryan and Kerry sat in for her an I enjoyed them way more. She's just a bit too low energy. Jo Brand ironically has more energy and she's barely arsed half the time (which is one of the things that makes her brilliant).

Also, Greg last night said it was episode 8 and I was shocked. Its absolutely flown by. I really hope the series keeps getting renewed well into the future as its just so brilliant.

Penn

I actually like Katie. She's definitely the weakest of the bunch and is a lot more reserved, but she does come out with the odd good line or idea and she hasn't been generally annoying either, like some of the other duds have in the past (Sara Pascoe, Lolly Adefope, Asim Chowdry, Richard Osman).

Basq

Penn wrote: »

I actually like Katie. She's definitely the weakest of the bunch and is a lot more reserved, but she does come out with the odd good line or idea and she hasn't been generally annoying either, like some of the other duds have in the past (Sara Pascoe, Lolly Adefope, Asim Chowdry, Richard Osman).

I'll give you Lolly, but the rest were solid!

Penn

Basq wrote: »

I'll give you Lolly, but the rest were solid!

Well Richard Osman just annoys me in general so that might be my own bias. Sara Pascoe had some good bits, but some bits she was just so f*cking stupid and weird, but not funny (her domino rally thing where it was a Take That concert with about 5 dominos especially irked me). Asim Chowdry was just really boring to me. He was just really out of his depth imo.

I think they were all the weak links in their series.

Exclamation Marc

You can't mention duds without mentioning Al Murray.

Dreadful dreadful guest who's modus operandi was 'spend money on it'. Z Z Z Z Z Z

Penn

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

You can't mention duds without mentioning Al Murray.

Dreadful dreadful guest who's modus operandi was 'spend money on it'. Z Z Z Z Z Z

Ah Al had some cracking moments too even unrelated to money. His surprise for Alex coming out of the shed, p*ssing in the saucepan because he said it's the same as sweat, working out how to gather all the balloons together before bursting them (but then two of them flying away before he could pop them), and his snowman attempt was only overshadowed by what Paul Chowdry did. There was just a lot of cheating throughout that whole series though.

I'd definitely rank Sara Pascoe lower than Al Murray.

Hurrache

Penn wrote: »

like some of the other duds have in the past (Sara Pascoe, Lolly Adefope, Asim Chowdry, Richard Osman).

Chowdry was great.

Berserker

Exclamation Marc wrote: »

Katie Wix for me is this seasons irrelevant person.

On the subject of Katy, with is the deal with the high viz vest and hard hat?

Zaph

Penn wrote: »

I'd definitely rank Sara Pascoe lower than Al Murray.

I really can't stand Sara Pascoe, but I actually thought she was OK on Taskmaster. The one I'd add to the list of duds would be Tim Vine, but even he had the occasional entertaining moment. I think the biggest disappointments have been people who you'd think might possibly be a bit more intelligent than the others and so maybe would expect something a bit more creative from them. However the likes of Dave Gorman, Richard Osman and David Baddiel have all struggled with the tasks. The difference though is that Baddiel's bemusement is genuinely hilarious and has been a highlight of this series.

skipper_G

Hurrache wrote: »

Chowdry was great.

Probably my favourite contestant of all time was Paul. Deadpan delivery and completely insane

Exclamation Marc

Berserker wrote: »

On the subject of Katy, with is the deal with the high viz vest and hard hat?

It's just her outfit for the tasks she chose, much like Aisling Bea's green tuxedo tracksuit.

siblers

Least favourite contestant easily was Alice Lavine, found her very smug and had this constant feminist agenda going on. Dave Gorman wasn't great either, was kinda dull.

Paul Chowdry was great, loved his humour

Penn

Oh Paul Chowdry was legendary from the first episode he was in. If anything it's disappointing there was only 5 or 6 episodes in his series. Its Asim Chowdry in the series with Liza Tarbuk and Tim Vine that I didn't like. I just found him completely bland throughout.

siblers

Penn wrote: »

Oh Paul Chowdry was legendary from the first episode he was in. If anything it's disappointing there was only 5 or 6 episodes in his series. Its Asim Chowdry in the series with Liza Tarbuk and Tim Vine that I didn't like. I just found him completely bland throughout.

Asim was trying too hard to be liked. Seemed to be using the show as a way to promote his own material. That particular series was probably the worst

Degag

The two that stand out in my memory as being really good are Joe Wilkinson and Tim Key.

Honourable mentions to Josh Widdecombe, Jon Richardson, Joe Lycett, Iain Stirling, James Acaster and Rob Beckett

Exclamation Marc

Rhod Gilbert was simply wonderful.

I remember nearly being in tears with his task where he did in Greg's wardrobe or with the fountain from the well.

krissovo

I must be in the minority where I think season 9 is not quite up to the standard of others, its still brilliant but missing some X factor from the other series’s.

Katie does not not quite fit the culture, Ed Gamble is a gobshoite and Jo and David on the same show with their similar traits makes it a little predictable.

Season 5 is my goto for a repeat laugh out loud experience, the amount of piss in Scotland and Galloway or Rosalind is fecking nightmare must be up there as classics. Sally Phillips being horny most the series helps too.

Penn

krissovo wrote: »

I must be in the minority where I think season 9 is not quite up to the standard of others, its still brilliant but missing some X factor from the other series’s.

Katie does not not quite fit the culture, Ed Gamble is a gobshoite and Jo and David on the same show with their similar traits makes it a little predictable.

Season 5 is my goto for a repeat laugh out loud experience, the amount of piss in Scotland and Galloway or Rosalind is fecking nightmare must be up there as classics. Sally Phillips being horny most the series helps too.

Sally Phillips was terrific. She was so unassuming most of the time, yet could absolutely out-crazy Bob Mortimer with some of the stuff she came up with, and it takes a lot to out-crazy Bob Mortimer.

Skid X

Story here (unconfirmed) that Taskmaster is to be poached by Channel 4 from Dave

That would be a shame, Dave has a nice little portfolio of original comedy shows and this would be a big loss to them


https://tbivision.com/2019/11/01/exclusive-avalon-pulls-taskmaster-from-uktv-as-channel-4-circles/

Exclamation Marc

Skid X wrote: »

Story here (unconfirmed) that Taskmaster is to be poached by Channel 4 from Dave

That would be a shame, Dave has a nice little portfolio of original comedy shows and this would be a big loss to them


https://tbivision.com/2019/11/01/exclusive-avalon-pulls-taskmaster-from-uktv-as-channel-4-circles/

Adam Hills mentioned Taskmaster tonight on The Last Leg on C4 as a punchline to a comment he made, which I found really odd and out of place given both the station it was on and the likely obscurity of referring to it.

Will be a shame if Dave lose it. The show gets so big after the network stuck with them all the way. They back comedy so well and deserve to reap the rewards.

siblers

Wonder if C4 will end up messing with the format. Hopefully it'll stay exactly the same

Penn

siblers wrote: »

Wonder if C4 will end up messing with the format. Hopefully it'll stay exactly the same

I was thinking this could happen considering they renewed it for 4 series last time, I think possibly even before series 5 was finished, yet we hadn't heard anything about it being renewed by Dave even though it should be a no-brainer.

My worry isn't so much that they'll change the format, but that we'll end up with loads of "specials" or limited themed runs (eg. sports stars doing just 2-3 episodes). Even the Champion of Champions Taskmaster worked because we already knew the challengers on it so a 2-episode run still worked perfectly. Not to mention that while Ch4 money means we're more likely to get some bigger name guests on it, we're also more likely to end up with Made In Chelsea d*ckheads or whoever else is in some Channel 4 shows and needs their profile raised.

Part of what's great about Taskmaster isn't just the big-names they get, but also some smaller comedians or lesser-known names who end up being brilliant on it. The likes of Paul Chowdry, Phil Wang, Lou Sanders, and even Ed Gamble and Rose Matafeo this series have been brilliant. My other worry is that so much of the comedy on Channel 4 panel shows is so scripted and planned and I wouldn't want any of that seeping into Taskmaster.

I didn't much mind when Ch4 bought Great British Bake Off (barely watched it before that anyway). But now there's Bake Off, Bake Off the Professionals, Xmas Specials of Bake Off, Celebrity Stand Up To Cancer Bake Off, and now Junior Bake Off presented by Harry Hill of all f*cking people. Plus Channel 4 have a knack for randomly moving shows around schedules, or barely announcing when they're on.

More Taskmaster can only be a good thing, but it works because of what it is. I only hope they keep it what it is.