Grim up North Heath

Tag: taskmaster

  • If that was love…

    If that was love…

    .. turns out I’ve not been in love before.

    This design pulls together three icons of art and humour: Taskmaster, Monty Python and Andy Warhol.

    The ‘Sit on a cake’ design on a t-shirt!
    Sit on a cake designs
    Heath Way Prints shop

    He was a different man

    I’ve written about Taskmaster before. It’s my favourite programme at the moment, the last two series (19 and 20) rank among the best. It’s got astonishing longevity; Alex Horne has hit upon a winning formula and he carefully selects groups of comedians who make a concerted effort to make the whole thing as much fun as possible.

    Back in the distant past of Series 6 (broadcast in 2018), the final task of the series asked the contestants:

    Tell the Taskmaster you love him in the most meaningful way.

    As is typical, the contestants found wildly different ways to do complete the task. Tim Vine dressed as Greg’s mum and told Greg that he is her favourite child. Russell Howard didn’t have sex with Greg’s mum. Alice Levine got a toy aeroplane to fly a meaningful message for Greg. Asim Choudhry performed a rap declaring that he wanted to have Greg’s babies.

    Three of the five attempt at the ‘show your love’ task. Alice sent a heavily caveated declaration of love, Asim said he wanted to have Greg’s babies and Tim dressed as Greg’s mum. Not shown: Russell not having sex with Mrs Davies (not very interesting) and Lisa’s go, because that’s what this section is going on to talk about.

    Lisa Tarbuck, the series champion, hit the ball out of the park with her demonstration. She asked for a large cake topped with confectioner’s custard. Then she said to Alex:

    Take yourself somewhere private and put your bare arse into it.

    And so it was that Alex took himself to the shed, pulled down his pants and, with carefully positioned cameras recording the event, sat bare-arsed on a cake.

    His expression of horror/ delight has stayed with me for years. He had an experience unlike anything he had known before and changed him. “He was a different man1,” Lisa declared.

    Alex Horne’s life changes forever. He now knows what love is and also managed to absorb a profiterole. Don’t ask how.

    An equal part of the joy of this was Lisa’s reaction. She ran away, giggling when Alex came out of the shed, dripping cake from under a strategically placed towel.

    Andy Warhol’s Shot Marilyns

    With such an image in my head, I had to do something with it. One iconic image deserves another, and there are few more iconic faces than that of Marilyn Monroe.

    Andy Warhol certainly thought so. The silkscreen collection Shot Marilyns is one of his best-known works. This isn’t the name he gave the works – he called them Marilyns and made five in total. Each had a different background colour and slightly different colouring to the face. The “Shot” addition came about when the performance artist Dorothy Podber fired a single shot through a stack of four of the paintings. Her actions – a piece of performance art that Warhol did not appreciate – earned her a lifetime ban from The Factory.

    Four of the five Marilyn paintings that Andy Warhol made in 1964.

    Whether you’re a fan of pop art and the world of Andy Warhol, the colourful images of one of the greatest film starts of the 1950s, you can’t deny the paintings are memorable.

    I tribute to this, I found a way to make images in a similar manner to the Marilyns. Using this method, I made my own set of images of Little Alex Horne’s face.

    A triptych of Little Alex Horne – “Shocked Alex” – as he experiences love for the first time.

    I quite like the triptych as it is. For the final design that uses the ‘four images’ presentation that is often used for these paintings, I wanted some words to go with the image.

    Monty Python’s very rude song

    In one of my first blog posts2 I talked about what makes me laugh. Monty Python is firmly in that camp, especially when they get silly.

    The title of this section is a bit misleading. Python did a number of rude songs – the Not Noël Coward song from Meaning of Life springs to mind – but Sit on my Face is probably the rudest of all.

    If you’re easily offended, don’t go looking for it.

    However, the sentiment from the Python’s song and the sentiment from Lisa Tarbuck’s demonstration of love can find middle ground. A middle ground that, with a little tweaking, can enhance the four images of shocked Alex.

    The ‘Sit on a cake’ design on a t-shirt!
    1. This was also the episode title. ↩︎
    2. There’s an updated version with a few examples of stuff I think is funny. ↩︎

  • Taskmaster scoring

    Taskmaster scoring

    How important is it, really?

    Taskmaster scoreboard from Season 13, Episode 1.
    Taskmaster scoreboard from Season 13, Episode 1. Chris Ramsey – the person who enjoyed the experience the most of any contestant – set an early lead.

    A recent publication by David Silver1 discusses the scoring in Taskmaster and how this impacts on the enjoyment of the series. It also looks at other metrics, such as the use of Large Language Model (LLM, a sort-of primitive AI) to analyse the script and detect sarcasm, among other things2.

    The Abstract was enough for me to be sceptical about the study. Of all the metrics that were applied, the one that Little Alex Horne thinks is the most important was missed (from the abstract). It is the mix of people that’s the crucial element. I’ll come onto Silver’s treatment of that later.

    What struck me was that if you wanted to know why we enjoy the show, a survey would do the trick. From what I’ve seen on the Taskmaster subreddit, most people see the scores as one of the many parts of the show. If anyone wants to win too much, it can be bad – John Robins strayed close to the ‘too needy’ zone. If they don’t care and do well (Jo Brand, Sarah Millican3, Sam Campbell4) that’s even better.

    Sometimes you get the joy of a contestant such as Julian Clarey, who clearly didn’t care until towards the end. There was more sitting forward in his seat as scores were given out in the later episodes. He lost by a few points, sacrificing the win for a gloriously calm meltdown in the road-sweeper task.

    The main attraction for winning is likely to be the chance to do it all again in Champion of Champions.

    Dara O Briain, delighted to win the third Taskmaster Champion of Champions.
    Dara O Briain, the winner of the third Champion of Champions with the Little Alex Horne puppet and his very convincing wig.

    Whose win is it anyway?

    Contestants are comedians (or comedy-adjacent) and they have different ideas about what winning is. Getting a laugh is the win and it’s this instant, honest feedback that many of them crave. That, and being paid on time.

    Desiree Burch epitomises this attitude. There was a balloon-popping task in Series 12. She knew that the ‘correct’ way to do the task was to get the scissors, cut the string and release the portcullis. But she also knew the funny thing was to throw pebbles, rubber ducks, a bucket-load of forks and eventually the bucket itself at the balloon until finally taking the scissors.

    Desiree Burch explaining why winning isn't everything.
    Desiree Burch cementing herself as a contestant who understood the brief.

    Who? Who?

    So we come back to what I think is the most important of the many factors in Taskmaster – the cast and the cast mix.

    I’ve usually known a couple of the contestants, but then I’m a fan of comedy5. These tend to be well-established figures from stand-up (Dara Ó Briain, Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins) or related areas (Charlotte Ritchie, Steve Pemberton, Lisa Tarbuck). Add in some that I am not familiar with (Fern Brady6, Rose Matafeo), some I might have seen a couple of times on other things (Rosie Jones, John Kearns, Katie Wix) plus unknowns and we have a cast.

    Eventually I get to know them all and their interaction is a major factor in the enjoyment. Seeing how the different minds complete the set-up that LAH has written is the principal draw, that is the meat of the sandwich.

    In Silver’s paper he assigns five ‘types’ to the contestants based on how well they do points-wise, and then tries to fit each contestant in each season into these types. He tries to force his five types into every cast, like Cinderella’s sisters trying to force their feet into the glass slipper.

    Assigning character types may be a better approach, but it gets very complex and I’m not a fan of assigning personality types7. There may be ten (or a different number) character traits that are needed in a cast, where each panellist has two or more components. Jack Dee is surly and competent. Julian Clary is sarcastic and insouciant. Kerry Godliman and Lisa Tarbuck were both straightforward ‘Bosh!’ merchants, but Godliman was competitive and Turbuck was laid back.

    A moment of unalloyed joy for Kerry and Greg.

    It’s a parody, innit?

    The main reason for the points is that the show is a parody of competition. In his book ‘Be Funny or Die’, Joel Morris points out that a good parody has to look and feel like the thing it’s parodying. Spinal Tap only works because the music is professional quality and it looks like a documentary8. Airplane! works so well because there is a real aeroplane disaster plot thrumming away in the background and the cast play this straight. We follow the events of Galaxy Quest because the Thermians are facing extinction at the hands of the genocidal Sarris and their only hope is a bunch of shop-soiled actors.

    There are points scored, so the show behaves like a panel show, the rhythms and beats are there to hang the chaos on. How the panellist behave is another matter and this is where the joy truly lies.

    1. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.02886
       ↩︎
    2. Artificial intelligence is really good at detecting sarcasm. ↩︎
    3. Who would have walked away with the win in any other series (except maybe John Robins’), all the while not really caring. ↩︎
    4. Sam won the most heart-warming series, with the two Sues forming an eternal friendship over a packet of NikNaks. ↩︎
    5. That term suggests that there are people who don’t like comedy. I think the phrase in this case means people who go out of their way to find out about comedy and comedians, and go so far as to occasionally blog about comedy. ↩︎
    6. Me Fern Brady! Me Fern Brady! I’m the rightful queen! ↩︎
    7. Maybe there are people who are fans and I should be designing Myers-Briggs t-shirts for my shop. ↩︎
    8. The, if you will, ‘rockumentary’. ↩︎
  • Taskmaster

    Taskmaster

    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.

    Final scores for series 7, clearly showing that James, finishing on 165, was fourth behind Rhod (167), Jess (175) and Kerry (176).

    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?

    Summary of the seventh series of Taskmaster using House of Games points scoring. The leader after each episode is highlighted.

    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.

    Look me in the eyes and tell me I’m not a champion.
    1. 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. ↩︎

  • Silliness above all in humour

    What makes you laugh?

    Mostly I laugh at what has no agenda and is mainly silly. Always punching up, heavy on the puns and wordplay with a side order of deserved frustration.

    This will be why I love Taskmaster, Morecambe & Wise, Bob Mortimer, Airplane!, Ghosts, Eddie Izzard, Monty Python and Stewart Lee.

    Silly songs, too!

    You could include Terry Pratchett, though the elevated level of silly hides sharp commentary and anger.

    An inherited sense of humour

    I think my sense of humour has remained unchanged since I was a teenager. My dad had a wicked sense of humour, one that four of the five of us1 have inherited. One of my fondest memories is when four of us were sitting at the dining room table with our parents. Someone said something (wish I could remember what) which set dad and three of us off in fits of laughter. My oldest sister had to leave the room. Mum and other child were left bemused.

    To get some flavour of his sense of humour, his favourite joke was the Headstone joke.

    Does time change a sense of humour?

    Things I enjoyed in the 80s are still funny. Red Dwarf, the film Clue, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the Morecambe & Wise Andrew Preview sketch…

    The other day I went down a bit of a rabbithole about George Formby. This triggered the memory of the revelation that Formby – not Bob Dylan – is the original author of Subterranean Homesick Blues. This is from The Day Today, broadcast in 1994, where we also saw Alan Partridge for the first time.

    A lot of this is skewed towards older stuff, but that’s not to say there’s nothing new I like. We saw Bill Bailey last year2 and Mrs S was in pain laughing at the ‘cappuccino in Amsterdam’ story.

    To finish, here’s an extended dose of silly from Andrew O’Neill in 2023.

    If you need the Baker Street joke explained, leave a comment.

    1. I’m the third of five children. ↩︎
    2. We’ve seen him at least four times, first time in 1991, as part of the double act The Rubber Bishops. ↩︎
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