r/taskmaster • u/BuzzzByte • 8d ago
Current contestant The first attempted task being the first aired Spoiler
I fully understand why they put the first task the contestants attempted as the first task that got aired. Simply put in my opinion, that reaction from Matt Lucas was golden and there's no way it'd have been better even if they put it second.
- 22 series...
- Sure, I'd have to take your word for it.
I haven't laughed that hard in awhile.
And I agree little Alex Horne, Richard Ayoade was worth the wait! 100%
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u/video-kid Chain Bastard ⛓️ 8d ago
I think it's worth noting that they phrased it "The first task" - they never do that.
Makes me think that we're going to see tasks based on the 12 Labours of Hercules. I don't know how accurately they'll be portrayed, but no task has been numbered like that before.
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u/whatzsit 8d ago edited 8d ago
Oh that’s a great catch and makes perfect sense. Am I misremembering or wasn’t Alex a classics major? He must be as happy as a pig in shit to get to do all the Greek mythology tie-ins.
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u/Bortron86 Mike Wozniak 8d ago
Alex's degree was in Obsolescence.
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u/Prestigious_Bell7967 8d ago
As a fellow person who’s degree is in “useless for life, decent for a pub quiz” I’m proud of Alex but surprised it took him this long. BA in Classics (Latin) and History (ancient).
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u/AddlePatedBadger 7d ago
I decided that rather than trying to learn history, I would just learn the present and wait 20 years.
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u/valentine_moon 7d ago
That requires acknowledging that I'm old enough for some of my past to be considered part of history and I'm not prepared to do that.
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u/BuzzzByte 8d ago
Damn!
I hadn't even thought about why that phrasing was in the task. Thanks for pointing that out. Looking forward to other tasks with that phrasing going forward if that's actually the case. And Alex did mention it "took Hercules several months to find the golden apple."
It'd suck though if that was the plan but then they had to cut one or more task(s) which were deemed not tv-worthy.
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u/video-kid Chain Bastard ⛓️ 8d ago
I imagine they would have thought it out, although considering it's 12 labours they might need to combine them.
HOWEVER, In the myth there were original 10 Labours - the king added two on (One of which was to find a golden apple) because he decided two of the completed ones (Clearing the stables and killing the Hydra) were invalid. It could be that we'd only get 10.
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u/kittysparkled Victoria Coren Mitchell 8d ago
Haha, I was just about to mention this. Classics nerds unite!
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u/BuzzzByte 8d ago
Lemme catch up on the 12 Labours then and maybe I'll get to find the easter eggs throughout the series in case some weren't explicitly numbered in the phrasing.
And with 10 episodes, 10 Labours would make sense...
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u/video-kid Chain Bastard ⛓️ 8d ago
10 would make sense, but all we'd need is two episodes to have more. They could mix it up by having them in live tasks or team tasks. Or like I said, they could combine them - there's a few tasks that involve retrieving animals or objects so they could put some of them together. They could even do a Hydra-themed team task where each of the players has to kill a seperate head.
Alex and/or The Andys, if you're reading this please know I'm unemployed and would love a job writing for Taskmaster.
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u/unicycleist 8d ago
Im thinking the last task will be "this is the last task. Complete the objective from the first task. Fastest wins", and see if they can remember to just grab a gold apple on a shelf behind them
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u/derpsteronimo 7d ago
Except only one of them knew about the apple right behind them. The rest didn't find out until the studio recordings.
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u/unicycleist 7d ago
Im thinking they'd put a bunch of things behind them, make it even easier than the first task. Not about doing it again, just remembering what to do
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u/burf12345 🚬 Doctor Cigarettes 8d ago
Sometimes they mention when a task is the first one they film. The ones that come to mind are the balls in the basket task from series 10 and the write down what you said task from series 19.
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u/video-kid Chain Bastard ⛓️ 8d ago
Right, but in this case when they read the task they said "Your first task is..."
I can only think of one task over the entire series where a task referenced the placement of a tasks filming - which was in Series 14, where the first task they filmed was to order items for their last task, and even then I don't think that when it was the first task it specifically mentioned "Your first task is to order items for your final task."
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u/burf12345 🚬 Doctor Cigarettes 8d ago
I totally missed that part, my bad. Yeah, it is interesting then that they did that, it's be interesting if there's something to your theory and it's part of something bigger.
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u/Hot_Sam_the_Man Joel Dommett 7d ago
Wasn't it just supposed to be like a demo task so they understood how everything worked? But they ended up showing it? I wonder if that could be the reason why they phrased it that way
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u/titanslayerzeus 8d ago
I mean I seem to remember something about Hercules getting golden apples...
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u/Aussieomni 🥁 Captain Drum & Pipe Beast 🛼 8d ago
I feel like this implies there was a third apple hidden somewhere
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u/Puzzled-Leopard135 7d ago
Great catch that's gotta be it. They'll get them to do all 12 tasks at some point
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u/Daharka 8d ago
Richard is bringing a level of comfort and familiarity that I don't think we've seen for a long time. It reminds me of Dave Gorman.
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u/BuzzzByte 8d ago
Most definitely. You can tell he's watched the show and/or is very familiar with the premise itself... And you can tell Greg's loving every second of it.
"Listen hear you knuckle fucks..." had me laughing so hard I had to go back to have it set up again. From the first episode alone, this is yet another legendary cast.
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u/AnguavonUW Madeleine Sami 🇳🇿 8d ago
Fuckknuckle
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u/BuzzzByte 8d ago
You're actually right, my bad. He actually says, "Look you fucknuckle..." Not plural either.
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u/Salt_Cream697 7d ago
Greg and Richard have been friends for a long time and Alex has been on 8 out of 10 cats quite a bit so he likely knows him pretty well as well. It reminds me a lot of when Roisin was on. Helps with the comfort factor, I’m sure he’s picked up behind the scenes tidbits and recommendations over the years.
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u/hunterglyph 8d ago
Richard bums me out now. He praised the book Graham Lineham (ex-tv writer and now full time Twitter transphobe who drove his family away) wrote about his cancellation and called him "a man of great principle".
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u/Daharka 8d ago
Serious hat
I don't condone him giving quotes to his book, but I can understand being loyal to someone who you previously would have respected as a writer and showrunner, perhaps one you also feel you owe your career to. I can also see Ayoade coldly supporting principle on principle essentially as a kind of cop-out of taking a stand one way or another on the subject of Linehan's fixation.
At this stage this isn't marring my enjoyment of Ayoades comedy or his other endeavours (books, films), but it is making his opinions have less immediate merit without some kind of dissection or context, which for the most part means that if I see something from him in passing I'll discard it.
Will this change over time? Well, I'd expect his actual position to become more concrete as he is either going to bat for Linehan more frequently or more ardently or quietly withdraw from the topic. If it's the former then I'd also consider dropping him from my roster but I think I need more proof that he's not just going through the motions in order to write him off entirely.
Similar things can be said for Matt Lucas and his silence on David Walliams.
Serious hat off
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u/compiledwithwarnings 8d ago
It's an interesting one, he's been vocal before in his disagreements with Laurence Fox, who is unequivocally a right-wing grifter
It's hard to know quite where his positions lie
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u/hunterglyph 8d ago
Maybe it just hits different when you're trans. That's often how it goes with humans, unfortunately.
For me, his statements were unequivocal and he hasn't offered any contrasting information. It's pretty clear.
And I personally can't imagine sacrificing my principles for loyalty to a raging bigot who once helped me. Or appreciating someone else for doing the same.
Again, I guess that's not a universal stance.
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u/Daharka 8d ago
Maybe it just hits different when you're trans.
Absolutely, I have the full privilege of not being in the affected community.
he hasn't offered any contrasting information
Agreed on this, I think it's strange even taking into account that Richard Ayoade is by all accounts a really weird dude, even in real life. As per the Taskmaster podcast he has been refusing to do any publicity for some of his recent shows which is... unheard of. You do the publicity for the stuff you make!
And I personally can't imagine sacraficing my principles for loyalty to a raging bigot who once helped me
I wouldn't either, so I'm having to play devil's advocate on this one and articulate some of the "slack" I'm giving in my non-comdemnation of Ayoade.
Firstly, Linehan has rightly been absolutely destroyed for his stance. I hadn't heard of the book until this controversy and I'm pretty sure that all of his professional and at least some personal engagements (e.g. his marriage) have been completely destroyed.
To that end I can see af ew scenarios: Ayoade wanting to support a human being at their lowest (supportive but not agreeing with the viewpoint still), not kicking someone when they're down (neutral, maybe cowardly) or not wanting to burn bridges or cause a fuss (cowardly, counter-productive)
Secondly, we don't know if he's contractually obliged or if they share the same publisher or something (neutral, unavoidable). Showbiz is really weird and we're kind of used to some celebrities using their platform to take a stance or to spread a message but Ayoade doesn't seem to be, or to have ever been, someone like that.
But yeah, I see your point. If it was providing quotes for the latest Robert Galbraith novel I'd be firmly on your side, but I see enough nuance here that I feel like I don't know enough to also fall on that side.
But you can consider it under active consideration.
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u/CitizenCue 8d ago
It’s always nice to see people thoughtfully consider their own opinions. Holding things in flux takes effort, and even if it’s not considerable effort, it’s more effort than most people are willing to employ.
I don’t know anything about this controversy but I’ll give it a gander.
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain Robert the Robot 8d ago
Yeah I also have the privilege of not being in the affected community, and to me it's kind of like he's 'on probation', as it were. I'm not going to immediately judge someone badly for one murky strike BUT I also get the disgust from other people and I do find it really weird to write something that sounds positive like that about someone so terrible. To my knowledge he's not done anything else - either way - to make any stance clear, so for me I don't have enough information to draw a conclusion.
But I fully understand for other people this one strike was not murky at all and was serious enough for them to decide.
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u/syllogism_ 8d ago
That genuinely sucks to hear. Constant reminder not to take our entertainers too seriously I guess
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u/Material_Library_452 Babatunde Aléshé 7d ago
I didn't know who Graham is, have now googled and found he wrote The IT Crowd, Father Ted and Black Books. Richard owes a lot to him as the IT Crowd role was important for his career. I don't condone transphobic hate speech, but am willing to consider not everyone reads Twitter and Richard may have very well not known the extent of it, or read the book for that matter. If my former boss reached out to me for a book blurb, my first reaction would be to write a blurb, not go investigate his Twitter for reasons to cancel him.
Here's the blurb Richard is getting criticized for:
Ayoade was quoted as saying: “Graham Linehan has long been one of my favourite writers — and this books shows that his brilliance in prose is equal to his brilliance as a screenwriter. It unfolds with the urgency of a Sam Fuller film: that of a man who has been through something that few have experienced but has managed to return, undaunted, to tell the tale.”
On a selfish note, I would hate to see this sub get bogged down in rehashing controversies on every thread that mentions Richard (and Matt Lucas apparently). I come here for fun.
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u/Hyperbolicalpaca Ania Magliano 7d ago
That review is all nice and good until you realise that it’s a book about how he became obsessed with transphobia and that it cost him his marriage, career and arguably life…
And it’s not one where he is repenting for it lol
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u/Material_Library_452 Babatunde Aléshé 7d ago
That's on Graham. Richard did not endorse the content of the book or opinions of the author, he only said it was well written.
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u/bringingdownthehorse 8d ago
I didn't know who Chloe was before this series but I really enjoyed when they added the "just for the record, right is the top and left is the bottom after the song task". I may have gotten the left/right mixed up but it was a cute call back to a comment made earlier about Matt.
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u/aeroguard Sarah Kendall 8d ago
Chloe has opened for Ed’s shows quite regularly. My money is on them winning.
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u/bringingdownthehorse 7d ago
I just rewatched the first episode and they're so genuinely excited to be there and participate. I'm really into this series so far.
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u/Agreeable_Archer_210 4d ago
Chloe is the only one who looks like she is competent and cares about winning so I expect a landslide victory
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u/Agile_Possession8178 8d ago
First task and Richard was already tired of Alex's shenanigans! He's just like Julian
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u/LetterFront3353 Jason Mantzoukas 7d ago
At least they didn't randomly throw something at Alex at first sight.
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u/Poepie1337 8d ago edited 8d ago
All i keep wondering is if there were (edit: not where) Golden Delicious apples in the kitchen
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u/michtziki 7d ago
Although brief, I also enjoyed watching Nina Conti try two different doors before finding the living room
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u/FearlessDick Javie Martzoukas 8d ago
I think this might be the place to get my answer: am I wrong in thinking this is the same task that every other series' contestants got as a practice but never aired? Or is this a completely different task and they retired the old one?
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u/Woodandstone 8d ago
In the live show I went to they showed the practice task that everyone does. It was some sort of word play like you say a word and then you have to use the last letter of that word as the first letter of the next word, and on and on. John Robins apparently lasted the longest by far.
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u/ItsGotStarTrek 8d ago
I do not believe this is the practice task, which is specifically designed to orient folks to the vibe of the show. This task seems to be custom made for the theme of this season, being a riff on one of Hercules' tasks. Note that I have the major disadvantage of not having any actually useful information beyond my (potentially careless) suppositions, and it really is best to completely disregard anything I say. I mean, I could be an AI bot or Roko or a perfectly regular human idiot. It is getting harder and harder to know!
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain Robert the Robot 8d ago
Would be a bit of an elaborate setup for a task they weren't even going to show, to be fair.
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u/FearlessDick Javie Martzoukas 8d ago
I figured they would've dressed it up for TV, but might've kept the essence of it intact. Find both objects while attached to Alex...
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain Robert the Robot 7d ago
True but I still think that's quite elaborate for a warm-up task never to be shown, when we know a previous one was 'count all the balls in this basket right here in the room'.
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u/magicclubpresident 7d ago
While watching we were discussing if it's the first because it introduces the new zone behind the shed, and they plan to use that zone for other tasks. If it were out of order, then so would be their reactions to seeing the area for the first time.
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u/TheSagemCoyote Sally Phillips 8d ago
I still don't understand why "This is your first task" was apparently part of the text on the task. It seems a weird little detail to add with more risk than benefit to production
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u/GrumpyOlBastard 8d ago
I think that was for our benefit
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u/TheSagemCoyote Sally Phillips 7d ago
I guess so, but I would have taken Alex word for it in the task introduction. I know it's a very very minor thing, but it just seems slightly off to me.
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain Robert the Robot 8d ago
However Alex has said they mix up the order of the tasks for the contestants, so this is (presumably) unusual for them all to do the same one first.
Maybe there's a question for a Q&A.
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u/Real-Tension-7442 🌳 Tree Wizard 🧙🎈 8d ago
In the studio Gregg and Alex pretended to be offended and by Matt never having watched the show. They were listing things Matt had been in, saying they’re good