It's Critter Time!

S19 just finished, so this is absolutely the worst time to be making a thread about it, but Taskmaster is one of the funniest shows that has ever been created.

What is Taskmaster? What if you got five comedians together and told them to do a bunch of stupid bullshit for points. In many cases I can describe the task writing as "weaponized autism."

This idea actually has legs so strong that they outgrew the UK like basically immediately and have spun off like a dozen international versions, a few of them have been abject failures (US and Spain come to mind) but most of them are just plain good.

Taskmaster UK is the original, they started in 2015 and have been doing two seasons a year, so the 20th season is going to air this fall. This means alot of people have gone through this show and as a result I've gotten way into british comedy panel shows despite being american. The Taskmaster is Greg Davies, he used to be a teacher and carries some of that energy with him into his role dishing out points and grilling contestants on their baffling decisions. The TM's Assistant is Little Alex Horne, creator of the format, who hangs around with an iPad or a clipboard and says condescending things about how badly the contestants are doing and just tries his best to irritate them.

Archaeologically, this is how I group the seasons in my brain:
1-3: Ancient Taskmaster. The bones are there but they're still refining it a little.
4-9: Dave's Stride. Who's Dave? A channel on TV in the UK I think! This is where TM really broke out and became a smash hit.
10-12: Covid. The vibes for these seasons are a little strange, since there's no studio audience, but they have their charms. 10 seems to have suffered for it the most. 10 is also where they moved from Dave to Channel 4.
13-19: Modern Taskmaster. They've gotten back to it, and are continually crushing it.

BUT WAIT, there's also all that international taskmaster. There's a ton of european versions like Bast I Test (Sweden) and Suurmestari (Finland), there's a dedicated fansubbing community for the international versions, except for the one season I tried to watch of Bast I Test, where I got halfway through season 9 and then the subtitles dried up. There's even additional english versions of TM, such as...


Taskmaster US:
We don't talk about this one. One of the first international versions they ever did. It's so bad that in the final episode they gave away some of the props from the house because they knew they wouldn't get renewed. Comedy Central's executive meddling 100% ruined it. I made a big long Cohost post about it that I later ported to my blog if you wanna hear me break down why it's such a trainwreck.

Taskmaster NZ:
The first successful english language sister series. The first season is recorded during Covid so the vibes suffer a little like the UK seasons of that era do, however, the New Zealand Comedians are by and large much more chaotic. NZ2 might be my favorite season of all of them, whoever put David Correos and Guy Montgomery on the same lineup is a genius. Paul Williams, the TM Assistant for this version, has what was described to me as "insane sadboy energy." Jeremy Wells, who is the TM and dishes out the points, is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Trying to understand his scoring decision are an exercise in frustration. Best to not think about it and just let the laughs happen.

Taskmaster AU:
Australia is new, but they're (I think) attempting to do two seasons a year too. So they're catching up to New Zealand quick. Some of my favorite contestants have been on this version. The TM is Tom Gleeson and the TM's Assistant is Tom Cashman (aka Lesser Tom). Tom Gleeson loves to ridicule and Tom Cashman loves to irritate.

The UK also did Junior Taskmaster, which is contestants that are regular kids. Former contestants Rose Matafeo (9) and Mike Wozniak (11) are the TM and Assistant in this one. This version is okay but I don't know if it really has the juice... they don't want to be mean to the kids when they fuck up, and I get it, but sometimes the best thing you can do on Taskmaster is have your attempt become a trainwreck. I'm not the target audience for this anyway.

But also, I think one of the best things about this, is that they have gone out of their way to post full episodes to youtube. They're not caught up on NZ and AU on the youtube yet but UK episodes go up one day after they air on TV.

If you're looking for a taste, here's some tasks from my favorite seasons:

UK 5 - Create a watercooler moment
UK 6 - Find the link, then do it 100 times
UK 7 - Throw something over the fence and into the bin
UK 11 - Get this toilet paper as far from here as possible
UK 13 - High-five Alex third
AU 2 - Duck Duck Goose
NZ 2 - The Grape Escape which the UK then adapted in Season 14... the UK lifts alot of tasks from NZ but usually NZ does them better.

I love Taskmaster! The show has introduced me to loads of awesome comedians that I never would have been exposed to otherwise. I'm in the middle of reading Fern Brady's memoir and I'm finding it really compelling and funny to hear her frank account of life.

Victoria Coren-Mitchell was another favorite of mine. I already knew her from Only Connect and, believe it or not, being one of the all-time best poker players in the European tournament. Any task having to do with logic and puzzles, she cut right through without flinching. Everything else was like watching a space alien try to fit in among humans, in the most delightful way.

Huge Taskmaster fan here, even went to see an episode being recorded (Spoony Neeson, S5). S19 was an absolute smash for me, one of the best of recent years. Stevie Martin has gone from complete unknown to one of my favourite comedians, much the same way the legend of Mike Wozniak did. Love it all so much. ^^

Taskmaster is indeed excellent, I've been watching it since it was still a couple of series old on Dave (which is indeed a British comedy-centric television channel).

A nice thing they do is that they try to get one or two big comedy names per series, but fill out the rest with relative unknowns, to help elevate people still early in their comedy careers. It's a nice touch.

One thing missing from the OP, which might be because it doesn't get widely circulated(?) is Taskmaster's New Years Treat, which are 'one-off' specials they do with celebrity casts, often people who don't have a background in comedy (sports people, presenters, even a politician once). They can often take it more seriously than the comedians1

beeps wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 9:05 am One thing missing from the OP, which might be because it doesn't get widely circulated(?) is Taskmaster's New Years Treat, which are 'one-off' specials they do with celebrity casts, often people who don't have a background in comedy (sports people, presenters, even a politician once). They can often take it more seriously than the comedians1

honestly yeah I did forget about new years treat, usually because I'm only getting one episode I don't feel like I get a good feel for the cast, and therefore have trouble remembering it.

Just started watching season 19 like a week ago and I love how devious (this is like 3 or 4 eps in at most) is as an addition.

TBQH 19's an all timer. Jason's a maniac, and I knew Fathia's deal because I watched through David Mitchell's Outsiders (which is what if Taskmaster was about camping and also David Mitchell was there) and she was teamed up with Phil Wang.

Rosie I know who she is because she did a celebrity bake-off episode I watched with Chris Ramsay who is her husband. Matt and Stevie are brand new to me but they're both pretty funny.

Maybe one day I'll get around to watching Ghosts (UK), which is probably now the show with the most taskmaster alumni per actor capita

my wife is a huge Greg Davies fan girl (she once called him "how men are supposed to be" which is when I knew she had a crush on him lol) so we got on this in the first season. it's been wonderful seeing other americans catch on to this absolutely terrific show. the funniest thing on TV by a mile in my estimation.

I want to run my own taskmaster with friends at some point but have been too lazy to organize. I think I have Alex energy in some ways, I just need to find a Greg...

Stevie Martin is like, gender goals for me some days. she's amazing.

Micolithe wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 4:22 pm TBQH 19's an all timer. Jason's a maniac

Most folks on the show have been total strangers to me save Sue Perkins, but back in my retail details when I'd listen to podcasts during closing, I'd sometimes listen to How Did This Get Made so I was very excited for how wild Jason would inevitably be.

S19 was incredible. I love Jason Mantzoukas and I never expected to see him on UK television, but somehow roping him in is one of the most inspired choices the show has ever had. Absolutely beautiful manic energy. Generally a stellar cast (though I think the season winner was probably my least favourite of them all).

I've given the first couple of seasons of the Finnish season a watch (as a Finn) and it's been... intriguing. I think the Taskmaster type of comedy doesn't naturally translate to Finnish culture and behaviour (in lack of a better word) and so it can be a little awkward and stilted at times - but, I've seen some of the later episodes out of context while I've visited the country and it feels like the show's grown onto its own as the seasons have progressed. One thing I don't get is the odd choice to replace the cast of five per season with a cast of four per season + 1 new guest every episode. It breaks a part of the chemistry between the contestants and obviously makes both the episode and season wins a bit weirder, when the winner an episode might never show their face again in the show and the season is fought between the four others. A weird decision! Don't know if any of the other international versions are operating on a similar manner or if it's just some strange quirk of the Finnish variant.

Flint wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 3:57 pm S19 was incredible. I love Jason Mantzoukas and I never expected to see him on UK television, but somehow roping him in is one of the most inspired choices the show has ever had. Absolutely beautiful manic energy. Generally a stellar cast (though I think the season winner was probably my least favourite of them all).

I quite liked Mat Baynton. Granted, that might be because he had an awkward "kinda just making things up as I go along but trying my damned hardest nonetheless" energy that I relate to a lot.

beeps wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 5:07 pm

Flint wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 3:57 pm S19 was incredible. I love Jason Mantzoukas and I never expected to see him on UK television, but somehow roping him in is one of the most inspired choices the show has ever had. Absolutely beautiful manic energy. Generally a stellar cast (though I think the season winner was probably my least favourite of them all).

I quite liked Mat Baynton. Granted, that might be because he had an awkward "kinda just making things up as I go along but trying my damned hardest nonetheless" energy that I relate to a lot.

Oh yeah I liked Mat, don't get me wrong. But out of the five contestants, he was the one whose task completions I anticipated the least because the somewhat more unpredictable energy of the other four left me continuously surprised (and laughing out loud) more. He was, relatively speaking, the straight man of the lot and maybe as a result didn't stand out to me as much as the others.

Flint wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 3:57 pm One thing I don't get is the odd choice to replace the cast of five per season with a cast of four per season + 1 new guest every episode. It breaks a part of the chemistry between the contestants and obviously makes both the episode and season wins a bit weirder, when the winner an episode might never show their face again in the show and the season is fought between the four others. A weird decision! Don't know if any of the other international versions are operating on a similar manner or if it's just some strange quirk of the Finnish variant.

Bast i Test is doing this as well, and yeah, it does feel weird. Bast i Test's studio segments sort of feel like a late night talk show, especially visually, and to me at least Babben Larsson exudes sort of a talk show host kind of energy. So maybe that's why they do it there? I haven't jumped into Suurmestari yet to see how it compares.

EDIT: apparently after Season 7 Bast i Test abandoned the rotating guest concept.

Micolithe wrote: Tue Jul 22, 2025 12:57 am Bast i Test is doing this as well, and yeah, it does feel weird. Bast i Test's studio segments sort of feel like a late night talk show, especially visually, and to me at least Babben Larsson exudes sort of a talk show host kind of energy. So maybe that's why they do it there? I haven't jumped into Suurmestari yet to see how it compares.

Ah yes, the classic "if the Swedes are doing it then so are we" Finn media behaviour. Explains everything.

Taskmaster NZ Season 6 cast announced:

Jack Ansett & Pax Assadi are on 7 Days all the time
Alice Snedden is on the Taskmaster Podcast frequently. Used to be on 7 Days quite a bit before I started watching it.
Jackie Van Beek plays the Guillermo equivalent in the What We Do in the Shadows movie

Micolithe wrote: Sat Aug 02, 2025 11:19 pm Taskmaster NZ Season 6 cast announced:

Jack Ansett & Pax Assadi are on 7 Days all the time
Alice Snedden is on the Taskmaster Podcast frequently. Used to be on 7 Days quite a bit before I started watching it.
Jackie Van Beek plays the Guillermo equivalent in the What We Do in the Shadows movie

Delighted with Jack Ansett, he was hilarious on Guy Mont Spelling Bee. Can't wait for this, NZ never lets me down.