The best panel show ever. I bloody love it.
It’s based in silliness, which I have come to realise is where my humour lies. If I think of all my favourite sketches and stand-ups, there is a strong thread of the silly about them. Morecambe & Wise with Andrew Preview. “Who’s That Girl” from Harry Enfield. Ray Alan and Lord Charles, with Lord Charles demonstrating the art of ventrickolism. Monty Python, The Goons. Etc.
I’m not sure when I started watching it, I think I saw season 4 (Hugh ‘Desky’ Dennis and Mel Giedroyc were the two main draws) first.
I’m pretty sure Season 7 (2018) was the first I watched as it came out. This is up there with the best of the seasons, absolute chaos all the way through.
The strength of Taskmaster is the cast. With Season 7, they hit it right. In particular, we got Greg more involved due to his long-standing friendship with Rhod Gilbert. Oddly enough, I didn’t click with Jess Knappett to begin with. She was this vague, slightly annoying presence. That was until ‘Cul de Sac’.
This seemed to transform her into a 3 dimensional person worthy of having a piece of the stage named after her, and from then on, I loved them all.
There is an ongoing controversy about this series, centring on James Acaster’s performance. He maintains that he was the moral winner of his series, despite coming fourth.
However, I wouldn’t be a proper fan if I didn’t get a bit obsessive about the show. Is there any substance to James’ claim? Let’s have a think about another, inferior1, panel show hosted by someone who is far too tall – House of Games.
House of Games runs for five nights with the same cast of four. At the end of each episode the contestants are awarded points depending on where they finish – winner gets four points, second three, etc. So winning by ten points doesn’t translate to a certain win. What if we apply this to Taskmaster and see how James would have done?
We can see that James had a shocking start to the series, coming last in the first two episodes. Even Phil was ahead of him!
So using House of Games rules, Kerry and James would have been tied, Jessica Knappett would have been third with Rhod in fourth. Again. And then there’s Phil.
However. On House of Games the last episode (broadcast on Friday) is worth double points. So, because James won the last episode his points total rises to 40 and he, therefore, is the champion, just edging out Kerry and leaving Jess in fourth place.
- Inferior, but still a lot of fun. I particularly like the song intro round, where they play the intro to a song, fade it out and you have to guess when the singing starts. ↩︎
