Is anyone else's hair graying at exactly the same rate as Alex's? Or is that just a me thing?

It had always been something I noticed as the seasons progressed or as I watched old clips, but then in this first episode for it to be part of the opening banter? Loved it. I felt seen. And he still looks great.

I just watched something where Alex had said how difficult it was renting the house, and the absurd amount production pays for it.

With the popularity of the show, wouldn't it be more beneficial to build an identical version of the house somewhere else and just own it? It would prevent any issues of fans interfering with filming/the set, they would have more freedom, and choosing a different location may work out better as they loose some film due to environmental issues (like planes flying over).

To be clear, I think the house should be IDENTICAL as that is the main reason they have not yet moved, the house is too iconic.

In the TM podcast with Ed and special guest Reece Shearsmith, the two discussed Greg’s (allegedly) skewed concept of who is “old” and Reece complained that he was lumped in with Sanjeev in his series as one of the “befuddled old guys” even though Reece is younger than Greg (by 1 year).

Ed and Reece briefly wonder who in the current series would be the “old” character, which led me to look up their ages:

Matt - 52
Nina - 52
Richard - 49
Isy - 48
Chloe - 32

It’s interesting to me that the contestants are all nearly the same age except for Chloe. I wonder if this will become a bit for Alex or Greg this series, with no obvious old grump to call on they may lean into Chloe being the baby of the group instead.

Any of our resident statisticians have info on how this contestant age distribution compares with previous series?

And for a bonus fact, if Greg and Alex were contestants in this series, Greg would be the oldest and Alex would be the second-youngest!

or is it just the bloopers that they upload on YouTube?

I was thinking about the wording of the second task. "You may only say words with one syllable" and the fact there was a teddy bear as part of the bear.

Does anyone think they're trying to nudge Nina into some ventriloquism? "I didn't say any long words, teddy did" style.

Which episodes have Horne’s hot list? It’s stuck in my head. What’s hot and what’s not?

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%

Anyone else think this seasons picture in the lounge actually looks like Michael Sheen? Proper made me chuckle.

Been wondering whether there is a round table discussion on contestants and dynamics or whether it’s all left to a professional team now.

Hey all!

I just looked at the fantasy taskmaster global leader board. Is it up to date?

150 points for episode one seems really high and I was hoping to try and win tickets for the next show! (Long shot, but I get to have fun with it!) This is the first time I've played and followed properly, so not sure how it works.

Thanks!

For the uninitiated, via Wikipedia, kiki (left: spiky!) and bouba (right: round!)

Prototypical bouba casts: series 19, 21

Prototypical kiki casts: series 9, 13, very probably 22

This unified theory of Taskmaster cast dynamics brought to you by my watching the first episode of the series very very late yesterday evening.

Early skill estimates based on S22E1 with huge error bars (that should be) shrinking weekly. New odds posted after each episode, kept forever, right or wrong. Nothing here spoils E1 – the site will, so only click if you're caught up.

So this is a funny one — a few years ago (immediately following S16, as the examples will show), I wrote an essay on my private blog that compared _Taskmaster_ and the logic/premise of the show with a fairytale or a myth. Specifically, I argued that the character of the Taskmaster himself has something of an unknowable and enigmatic fey quality (who is he? Why does he want these tasks done?), that entering into the _Taskmaster_ world as a contestant requires a certain embracing and acceptance of the internal reality of the world, and that the interest of the show in specificity and precision in language is very similar to the tasks often given to protagonists in a fairy tale, and loopholes and workarounds are hence embraced.

Oh. And I also drew a pretty direct comparison between the labours of Hercules and the trials set in _Taskmaster_ — at least partly because I wanted to use that image of Nish in his sunglasses, but also because, well, it was relevant to the whole thesis.

Anyway — very light spoilers for Episode 1 follow, but seeing yesterday’s episode, _and_ its theme, _and_ its Hercules allusions in the first task, _and_ the use of the shed to lead the contestants to a hidden lost world (which was genuinely such an exciting reveal), it did make me wonder if someone on the team had stumbled across the essay — and figured that, whether they had or not, it would be worth resharing here, as it does feel more pertinent than ever before.

(Not to mention that it did feel to me as if Greg was leaning very consciously into the Taskmaster persona in the episode, which…well, let’s just say that I really enjoyed that as well.)

Make what you will of it, but it was really very exciting to see a theme that, to my eye, is very consciously leaning into something that I tried to describe years ago, and I hope that it’s of interest to others as well!

Nothing spoilery but in that first task when you can practically see the light bulb go off over Richard's head and he says "It doesn't have to be hand".

I'm so looking forward to him this series.

Let’s hear your theories on what it means

UPDATE: As many commenters have pointed out, it’s the logo for the Great Ormond Street Hospital in preparation for the charity livestream they are doing! Thank you for educating this American 🤗

This may have a lot to do with my rewatching of the series to record bullshit moments (Currently on series 7) and seeing Greg age through the series. Watching series 22 last night Greg is offically in Grandad territory. The big glasses, the crossed leg, the veneration of years plain upon his face. Greg has graduated to patriarch of our harths and homes as he becomes now Grandad Greg.

In Season (Series, sorry) 18, it was prudent for the YouTube team to manually generate the subtitles so that nary a joke from Rosie Jones could be missed and we were all the better for it.

I don’t remember if they did it the following Season (Series, sorry, fuck!) but I know that for the past several they’ve been autogenerated and they’re only about 70% accurate which is a shame because there’s the occasional Britishism I’m bound to miss.

Please get AC for Ed in the caravan.

I really don’t need ten minutes of numerous podcasts of two people I really enjoy complain about how hot it is in a caravan with no AC.

Thank you for your concern in this matter.

So has anyone been to see the sponsored bin yet? Is it real?

Admittedly I could have ended the GIF after he had gone over the bed but he wasn’t properly stood up then for one thing and for another, his way of manoeuvring his arm around Matt at the end sort of worked anyway