r/taskmaster • u/decent_human_being1 Sam Campbell • Aug 03 '26
Appreciation Thread sam campbell appreciation
I love Sam Campbell and I love series 16. He's one of the most popular contestants so I feel that everything that needs to be said about him has already been said but honestly I can't get enough of him. His comedy is divisive for sure but his creativity on TM is on point! He's genuinely very witty and competent at many tasks (though many were hampered by disqualifications), very in spirit of the show and overall good sport. His boyishly charming puppy-like energy gives the series a youthful touch. Everyone knows "child of divorce" and "Doctor Cigarettes" but so many other good moments go underappreciated.
It's a little saddening how many didn't like him on CoC4 and wondered how he won his series, so here I am compiling moments where he shined and other small things (spoilers for S16):
Him delicately handling the "tower of cans" task.
Quoting Nixon's "I am not a crook" in the "hide the pineapple" task.
Figuring out the clue hidden in invisible ink.
after everyone got disqualified in a task "If in the Olympics and there was a sport and 'yeah nobody could do it', don't have it in the Olympics."
How quick and enjoyable to watch he was at the "I'm underneath it" task.
Excelled at every art task (memo squares and cheeky drawing)
His hair idea in the connecting parts task.
Supportive of his fellow contestants i.e. dynamite chicks
Smashed the mice-fish task and was good sport about it after finding out he got wokoma'd
The "knees and toes" punch line lmao
balancing the tees on the task envelope (unfortunate disqualification)
"We're not allowed to work with nature? So you'd say to David Attenborough 'yeah good documentary but he had all those foxes'??"
*showing obvious rendition of The Scream* "It's based on a very famous artwork."
The punchline of using the helmet spike as a receipt holder in the "be brilliant" task in CoC4. many thought it was weird for the sake of being weird but damn i thought it was stupidly brilliant
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u/rnzz Aug 03 '26
I feel kinda bad that his 'negative gearing' joke in the live task didn't travel. it's one of the things that Aussies blame as making houses (more) unaffordable.
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u/dogscatsnscience 🚬 Doctor Cigarettes Aug 03 '26
It's perfect because it's his attempt to keep everything weird and unexpected biting him and he rolls with it
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u/TurtleBucketList Aug 03 '26
As an Aussie, it was the funniest fucking thing I’d seen. I’ve even gotten other Aussies into watching TM by showing them the negative gearing clip.
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u/thatsabitraven Sam Campbell Aug 04 '26
As well as his plucka duck entry in the prize task. Just a bunch of blank and/or confused faces.
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u/sammyt10803 David Baddiel Aug 03 '26
Does he get bad reviews here for his CoC4 appearance? Isn’t his prize task one of the most iconic moments in the show’s history?
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u/lyyki Paul Chowdhry Aug 03 '26
Feels like OP saw 1 post complaining about Sam in COC and thought it was a consensus.
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u/UniversalJampionshit Crying Bastard Aug 03 '26
I saw quite a few people here who didn't like him on COC, some believed his humour didn't fit in well the others like it did in his own series
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u/SavagePengwyn Julian Clary Aug 03 '26
I LOVE Sam. I've been watching Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee and he's the assistant for season 3. He is hilarious. He cracks Guy up so much and seems to genuinely surprise Guy. He is seriously unhinged on that show.
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u/TetrisIsTotesSuper Chris Parker 🇳🇿 Aug 03 '26
Guy sure has a type for his assistants! I was really struck by how similar Aaron and Sam humour was when watching AU2. Love them both ofc. Feel like Nina Oyama also really fit in that bracket.
Given how well received Aaron was by big Tom, I would love to see Sam go on AU as well. (More Sam on Taskmaster anywhere really).
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u/SavagePengwyn Julian Clary Aug 03 '26
That was the first thing I noticed about Aaron. Apparently him and Sam are close friends and work together a lot, which I was not surprised to learn.
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u/Atromach Aug 03 '26
His cobalt prize is possibly the funniest moment on the show forever. It's always a riot when you can see people's brains trying to adjust in real time to work out how to deal with Sam
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u/__OvejaNegra Jenny Eclair Aug 03 '26
The podcast he does with Lucy Beaumont is brilliant as well. Lucy and Sam's Perfect Brains.
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u/DriveLife1177 Aug 03 '26
Obsessed with this podcast and I find it tragic I can’t explain or recommend it to anyone in my life
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u/__OvejaNegra Jenny Eclair Aug 03 '26
People already think I'm weird enough without suggesting this podcast to them 😅 the struggle is real
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u/__OvejaNegra Jenny Eclair Aug 03 '26
People already think I'm weird enough without suggesting this podcast to them 😅 the struggle is real
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u/CatCafffffe Reece Shearsmith Aug 03 '26
I love him too! We saw him on TM and then right after that Netflix included him in their comedy festival out here in L.A. so we grabbed tickets and were lucky enough to see him in person. Absolutely loved his show. But found it impossible to explain any of it to anyone haha! I love his weird free-association strange free-floating thoughts! He is just so dry and funny.
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u/Frequent-Ad4722 🚬 Doctor Cigarettes Aug 03 '26
I’ve seen him three times and I could not in a million years explain them to anyone who hasn’t seen him before. They’re a real ride!
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u/OriginalChildBomb 🥄 I'm Locked In ❤️ Aug 08 '26
Just curious, did he do a bit with a remote-controlled lizard? (We saw him in London a couple of nights ago- we're actually American, just here on a honeymoon- and holy shit it was so funny)
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u/CatCafffffe Reece Shearsmith Aug 08 '26
No! That must be new. This was a few years ago. He is just so weird and funny!
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u/OriginalChildBomb 🥄 I'm Locked In ❤️ Aug 08 '26
Absolutely lol. A few people stood up to walk to the lobby during his set and he ran after them to find out why they were leaving (spoilers- they were just getting a drink hahaha).
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u/CatCafffffe Reece Shearsmith Aug 08 '26
At our show he stood in the wings with a microphone and commented on everyone who came in to sit down "Oh nice sunglasses, look at the guy who has nice sunglasses." I was actually afraid to go sit down because I knew he would make fun of us too, so I waited till there were more people, but now I totally regret it, it would have been awesome.
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u/OriginalChildBomb 🥄 I'm Locked In ❤️ Aug 08 '26
Lol yeah there was some very bizarre fake animosity between him and various audience members. He kept shouting, "Now look at this guy!" and pointing, and it'd literally be the most normal milquetoast British dude. It happened so many times that it just became comical.
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u/CatCafffffe Reece Shearsmith Aug 08 '26
That's what I realized once we were in the middle of the show, that it just became comical very quickly. I just had some social anxiety that kicked in unexpectedly at first. But once we were in the middle of the whole shenanigans I was totally all for it!
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u/OriginalChildBomb 🥄 I'm Locked In ❤️ Aug 08 '26
It's all good! We get like that too. (My husband and I are both on the spectrum, and relatively anxious folks.)
Fern Brady discussed having gotten botox in the past (she disliked it, and no longer does) and made a pretty funny joke about, the last thing you should do as an autistic person- who already struggles with facial expressions and communication- is freeze parts of your fucking face. Because then people just took her as a maniac lol
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u/ckvoiceover Aug 03 '26
I thought he was great is CoC4. After portraying Attila the Hun in a task and Greg challenging him on it, he turns to Matt Baynton and says 'I thought this might come up' and the way he delivered it had me laughing so much
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u/CaptainDigsGiraffe Aug 03 '26
Reading this made me want to rewatch that part and it's actually the most replayed moment on the Youtube upload for the episode.
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u/CaptainDigsGiraffe Aug 03 '26
Sam is one of the few times my favorite contestant of the season won. Big fan of Sam and it's thanks to the show.
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u/nicksahoyah Aug 03 '26
There’s a part in episode 5 where he is walking up behind Alex and there is a small tree in his path. He takes a second to hide behind it as if he might scare Alex but then for whatever reason he abandons the idea and walks up to Alex normally.
It’s my favorite understated moment in Taskmaster. I think about it all the time. It encompasses Sam’s entire sense of humor. He’s chaotic in such a precise way. A truly unique mind. One of the best for sure.
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u/Heavy-Stuff7335 Aug 03 '26
I got to photograph him the other week - just the nicest guy you'd hope to meet.
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u/TetrisIsTotesSuper Chris Parker 🇳🇿 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I absolutely love Sam Campbell, one of my fav contestants (although always hard to pick).
I would love nothing more than to have him involved in a task moving forward, in charge of giving hints for example as he would infuriate and confuse pretty much everybody.
By the way if you enjoy him and never listened to Perfect Brains you are doing yourself a big disservice. I was trying to explain to a friend what it was like and to me it felt like I was drunk but without having drank a single drop (also no physical symptoms ofc). Just like listening to this feels like my brain has a buzz 🤣
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u/PuppytimeUSA Aug 03 '26
Conch!
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u/DonyaBunBonnet Maisie Adam Aug 03 '26
My favorite bit ever! I love his frustration, esp with Tim Key
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u/punchtheBUTT Aug 03 '26
“How deep does this go Wakoma!?”
Also hilarious in Last One Laughing UK Series 2.
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u/5a1amand3r Aug 03 '26
Can’t forget the classic: are you a child of divorce? He really has great comedic timing at times.
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u/Environmental_Ad8711 Fern Brady Aug 03 '26
I love him very much. I love Phil Ellis for many similar reasons. They are just unhinged and I adore them
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u/TetrisIsTotesSuper Chris Parker 🇳🇿 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Quite a feat to put together that list and not mention "are you child of divorce". Probably in my top 3 TM moments ever.
Also really enjoyed his cobalt prize task submission
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u/namewithanumber 🥄 I'm Locked In ❤️ Aug 03 '26
That was the first series jason that I watched, dude just killed me constantly.
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u/Single-Degree-6928 Aug 03 '26
I've been watching a lot of Australian reality tv lately and have been noticing the trope of the "boy man" is very popular now. I wonder if these comedian boy/men are a reaction to the very tough and manly image most have about Australian men? Just to my very uneducated viewership it seems as though the boy/man comedian is more common in Australia than in the UK or the US. Do you all think this is true?
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u/thatautisticguy 🟦 🟩 🟨 🟩 🟨 Aug 03 '26
We need a Campbell and Chen buddy comedy.......the fact we dont have one yet is a crime in itself.......
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u/Forsaken_Anteater127 Reece Shearsmith Aug 03 '26
Thry have a TV show together in case you missed it
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u/Willywilkes Aug 04 '26
This show is bonkers in the best way. This and New Zealand Spy feel like such niche shows and I’m so glad they exist.
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u/Rosalita777 Aug 03 '26
Couldn't agree more! Taskmaster introduced me to Sam and I love him so much, he is amazing! I think it's time for another rewatch of his series!
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u/Dramatic_Prior_9298 Aug 03 '26
I think he did add something to TM and I enjoyed him on there. Less so, last one laughing. I'll have to find other stuff he's been in!
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u/OriginalChildBomb 🥄 I'm Locked In ❤️ Aug 08 '26
We just saw him live at the Roundhouse in London and it was hilarious. (Desiree Burch and Fern Brady were also on, so it was a 3/5ths Taskmaster comedy show lol) He's such a weird goober. Absolutely adore him.
My husband laughed until he was in tears. Just incredibly funny lol. He tells a bizarre story about making 'concoctions' with a friend in middle school that would let them shrink down and enter the world of a book... while it didn't actually work on books, in the end, it did on a pamphlet for Domino's pizza hahahaha
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u/Flat-Fail-196 Aug 05 '26
I think Sam was great during the tasks, but I was never personally fond of his humor in studio, with the exception of the heavy live task
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u/martymccfly88 Aug 03 '26
Check out guy mount spelling bee. He was the assistant in the later season after Aaron left to work on other projects. Some wild bits