Taskmaster, a British gameshow - Now free for everyone to watch on YouTube

So the line-up for Season 17 has been announced.

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Preparing to fight tooth and nail, impress the almighty Taskmaster, and bag the highest points are: comedian, writer, and presenter Joanne McNally (My Therapist Ghosted Me), Edinburgh Comedy Award winning comedian and radio presenter John Robins (BBC Radio 5 Live), award winning actor and comedian Nick Mohammed (Ted Lasso), BAFTA winning comedian, writer, and actor Sophie Willan (Alma’s Not Normal), award winning writer, actor and comedian Steve Pemberton (Inside No. 9). Who will emerge victorious, raise the trophy above their head, and call themselves a Taskmaster champion?
 
Pemberton should be interesting. Although I wonder if he will be a bit slow and subtle foe the format. Mr. Swallow I imagine will be great, he usually is. Wierd, smart, and willing is a good combination for the show.

Don't really know the rest of them, but they squeezed a lot of funny even out of the duds of last season, so I'm fairly excited, honestly. Also the preview almost seems like they're going for a darker tone (or maybe it's just Pemberton) which could be very, very interesting.
 
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I find him to be painfully unfunny.
I can see that. To be fair, I've only ever seen him on Cats does Countdown, where they keep him in small <2 minute doses. But it IS just a character, Nick Mohammed isn't just that, which is kind of what makes it funny to me.

Then again I think Lucy Beamont is terrible, but she was by far the best part of her series (granted, that was a low bar to hurdle). Well, second best part, the best part was Alex laughing at Julian Clary - he wasn't funny for the audience, but at least he cracked up Alex.
 
Champion of Champions 3 was quite entertaining, and I'm quite happy that stupid nigger Sophie Duker didn't win.

Every COC has been won by a straight, white male which pleases me immensely because it very likely pisses off the higher ups at the BBC.

I only know Pemberton from the next cast, so I'll be curious to see what the rest of them are like.
 
Champion of Champions 3 was quite entertaining, and I'm quite happy that stupid nigger Sophie Duker didn't win.

Every COC has been won by a straight, white male which pleases me immensely because it very likely pisses off the higher ups at the BBC.

I only know Pemberton from the next cast, so I'll be curious to see what the rest of them are like.
I was glad she chose to have Alex degrade her for her task. Everything he said was just the truth, and it seemed too easy for him to say all that. I loved the signs that were made.
 
So Episode 1 of Series 17 is out. I haven't watched it yet. I hope its good.

Has anyone seen it?
 
So Episode 1 of Series 17 is out. I haven't watched it yet. I hope its good.

Has anyone seen it?
Nick Mohammed is tolerable, despite his stupid and distracting outfit. Everyone else (I didn't know any of them prior to this episode) is good in their own way, but nothing special so far.
The team task was overcomplicated for no good reason. Kind of like when Alex took simple and perfect "Hold the milk bottles above the microwaves" from TM NZ and added some extra shit on top of it, which resulted in Dara's "wait, what" being more entertaining than any of the attempts.
 
Yeah, a fairly tepid start so far (although the prize task had some pretty good laughs in it). I think the problem this season is everyone is a bit too samey, personality wise - everyone is pretty game, and wants to enjoy things, to win a bit, but not too much; no one is a complete blockhead a la Lucy Beaumont (don't get me wrong, she wound up being the stand-out of last season for me), but also no one is extremely clever or just a complete weirdo like Bridget Christie or Mike Wozniak. No one's annoying, which is great, but also no one is just a standout who you look forward to seeing what insane/retarded way they do things. Still, it's miles better than anything else on, and I did crack up several times.

I'm also really enjoying the TM Australia series. So far it's the only one that kind of still has the chemistry of the original. The two Toms (the TM and assistant) have their own spin on Greg and Alex, without just aping them, and the contestants are extremely varied in their personalities and how they approach everything. I'm probably looking too deep, but basically it's the only non-original one that even approaches the original in overall enjoyability. I think NZ has OK hosts, but they just pick the least funny, most annoying contestants, and the non-English speaking ones I can't really get into (which is odd since I mostly watch non-English TV (not anime)).
 
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Series 17 has been growing on my, although I think its the only season where there has been a clear frontrunner who is smashing it.
 
Series 17 has been growing on my, although I think its the only season where there has been a clear frontrunner who is smashing it.
It sure feels like John is smashing it but Joanne is only 8 points behind.
I like Joanne and Sophie, John brings in "here to win, not to entertain" competitively-boring Ed Gamble vibe.
 
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I feel like I have been monkey pawed with the new lineup...

I've always wanted to see Jack Dee on the show but now I have to listen to Rosie Jones dribble out 2 minutes of mediocre material for 5 minutes in every other piece of mid task banter.
 
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Season 18 episode 1 is up on youtube. Pretty good crop this year.

Jack Dee is always great, the jewfro guy, I'd never heard of was actually pretty funny too. No one is obnoxiously annoying, which is refreshing.

I guess Rosie Jones is the litmus test. I, for one, love her because she is batshit crazy AND no one can say no to her. A combination which leads to my kind of hilarious chaos. On the other hand, I can understand if people can't stand her, so ymmv.

In any case good tasks so far (whith the exception of the live task which Rosie ruined), and Greg and Alex seem more lively and into it than they have in a while (owing a lot, I think to Dee's presence).
 
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I like Jack Dee, but I don't know if I can watch a whole series with Rosie. I'll give her a chance, but I don't know if I can make it
 
She has cerebral palsey. So she's not retarded, but her body is.

You can tell she's not retarded because of the sadistic gleam in her eye when she says something or makes someone do something that she knows she'd never get away with if she was normal.
 
She has cerebral palsey. So she's not retarded, but her body is.

You can tell she's not retarded because of the sadistic gleam in her eye when she says something or makes someone do something that she knows she'd never get away with if she was normal.
After watching episode 2, it's clear to me that she's playing it up, intentionally gurning for the camera at every opportunity and pulling her Eliza Doolittle shtick, even when it isn't funny (which is most of the time) and it makes her all the more insufferable for it. Easily my least favorite contestant since Bridget Christie. And for similar reason. (I think Bridget might actually be retarded though.)

I feel bad for Jack Dee getting stuck with her.

I like the rest of the cast so far.
 
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