Taskmaster

Five comedians, one Taskmaster, one little Alex Horne and a whole bunch of nonsense. That probably is enough to describe the format of one of the most fun British panel shows out there. Having had this blog for coming up on five years now, it’s a wonder that I never dedicated a post to this show. I’m a big fan of British panel shows. I started watching QI many years ago and from there I moved on to other similar shows like 8 out of 10 cats does countdown, Would I lie to you, Mock the Week and many more. Emerging in the midst of all these shows is Taskmaster. With the first episode airing in 2015, and the 20th series happening later this year, that is a pretty quick production schedule. But it’s warranted due to its popularity. But what is it about?

As mentioned above, five comedians take part in a show where they are filmed for several days completing different tasks. These tasks are often vaguely put into three categories. There’s tasks where you need to be creative, tasks where some bit of athleticism will help you and tasks where it’s all about thinking outside the box. All comedians will perform these tasks over the span of a few months and then at the end there will be a studio session where they record the comedians’ reaction to these tasks. But more importantly, Greg Davies, the person who takes on the role of Taskmaster, gets to see these videos for the first time and judge them. As the show is made by Alex Horne – who plays the assistant – Greg has very little involvement with the actual tasks which makes him the perfect unbiased and unfair judge. It’s never about being fair or about winning with these British panel shows, it’s always entertainment first. Greg then hands out points and each episode has a winner as well as each series.

The setup of the show is pretty similar throughout all the series they’ve recorded. First there is a prize task, in which the contestants bring in something that – vaguely – fits in the category they were given. Greg judges those and then we’re off to the regular recorded tasks. Most tasks are performed alone, but there are also a few tasks they perform in teams of 2 or 3. Then at the end of the episode, there will be a studio task in which the comedians head to the stage and compete in a task live at the studio. As is common for British panel shows, the majority of the actual studio show is scripted, with the reactions of course being genuine as well as the task at the end. But every episode has some banter between Greg and Alex which is written ahead of time. You’ll find many outtakes and bloopers on the Taskmaster youtube channel if you’re interested.

This brings me to the best part of this show. During the pandemic, the people at Taskmaster decided that a great way to boost their popularity was by posting full episodes on Youtube for the world to see. I personally think this was an absolutely incredible idea, as it’s gotten many more eyes on the series and risen in popularity tremendously. There are many adaptations in different countries, but there is something so incredibly charming about the roles that both Greg Davies and Alex Horne perform that is hard to copy by anyone else. I have watched some episodes from adaptations, but I find myself ever gravitating back to the original British series.

Before I leave you, let me show you two different things. If you’re not yet convinced to watch this – and again, you can find the first 19 series on Youtube, completely for free – please have a look at these two clips. One of them is a musical task performed during series 5. The other one is probably one of my favorite tasks of all time, all the way back in series 2. Both are a great watch. If you want to get into this series, I recommend just hopping on at the very first series. It’s not as polished as some of the later ones, but it’s still the same Taskmaster. My personal favorite series will always be series 12, since I deeply liked the personalities of all 5 guests. But I can’t say there’s a series yet that I didn’t enjoy, just some more than others. Thanks for reading!