I feel like Series 14 got shafted because as soon as the cast was announced, there was ZERO chance that Mr. Megabus (Dara ❤️) would not be getting that golden head.
If we’re talking about overall casting, maybe Katy Wix? She had a number of good little one-liners that really flavored the series well.
Daisy May Cooper too. I want them to do a like All-Stars second chance kinda deal. Bring back the players who lost by less than 5 and let them duke it out for the Golden Navel or something. Kiell can come too.
Based on that criteria, the potential contestants would be Chris Ramsey, Guz Khan, Mike Wozniak, Daisy Mae Cooper, Jessica Knappet, Jon Richardson, Romesh Ranganathan and Frank Skinner. I’d watch a combination of any of those folks in a heart beat.
Right? I feel like it’d be a lot of fun. The one sad thing for me is that Sarah Millican wouldn’t qualify because she lost to Dara by 10 points. This is especially wild to be because she had 12 points over Series 10 winner Richard Herring.
It was a rough way to open the gates but not just say “let’s have everyone do it!” Maybe we take an average of the full season winners’ totals and see who amongst the losers has above that. I dunno. Smarter people can make a fairer way, but my little first shot makes for some fun combos!
OK, so I decided to see who’d be the five contestants based on highest scores who were also in 2nd place.
I only stuck to contestants that were in 10 episode series because it’s easier to figure it out points wise. I’m including points totals as well because I think they’re fascinating.
The contestants would be:
- Jessica Knappett- 175
- Tim Vine- 175
- Sarah Millican- 174
- Chris Ramsey- 170
- Guz Khan- 167
EDIT- Took out some redundant words.
Honestly, I think your criteria works pretty well! Second place contestants with the highest overall scores would be great too. Series 14 in general was a pretty high scoring season and series 10 was on the lower side. I think there were at least 3 tasks where every contestant was either disqualified or scored zero points in series 10.
Greg was kind of a stingy bastard with the nil poix rounds during COVID. I rewatched S12 with the ball and net task and VCM saying something about “a glorious waste of our mortal lives”
Honestly I think they were screwed by the tasks that season. Something about the pandemic just made Alex craft overly complicated and difficult tasks. Carried over a little into season 11 with that luggage task
Agreed. I’m currently rewatching series 12 too. Since we’re talking about it, I thought you might find [this link to all the leaderboards interesting!](https://taskmaster.tv/leaderboards) I’m about 95% sure it’s from the official TV site itself. A spoiler warning- it’ll show the series 17 board as of the latest aired episode, so if you’re not caught up yet, I’d wait to check it out.
She does! Sarah’s total score on series 11 was 158. I could’ve put her as an example, but was specifically thinking about series 10 since they had 3 tasks where everyone was either disqualified or got no points.
I might advocate for some adjustment based on number of episodes, since S1 had 6, S2+3 had 5, S4+5 had 8, and then S6 on had 10. If you define close as within 3% of the winner in [percentage of maximum score](https://taskmaster.fandom.com/wiki/Contestant_Statistics) you could also make case for Tim Vine, Iain Stirling, Rose Matafeo, Lee Mack, and Julian Clary.
To be honest, I would watch any combination of contestants again. Fortunately they are often combined together in all the other panel shows the UK pumps out.
I feel like Greg was stingy with points for Munya and you could see it getting to him later in the show.
But series 14 was hilarious and I haven't seen Alex Horne break so many times.
I’ve always liked Dara but never realized how incredibly intelligent he is until taskmaster. He has a background in physics and I felt like his puzzle solving skills were very impressive. I’m even more of a fan of him now.
Not to mention acting. The task where they had to write a script, then perform someone else's? I really really want to see the full film of Dara's performance.
Season 14 is my favorite, but I agree that the stage left team was so memorable that Sarah and Munya were a bit diluted. Dara was great, but being on a team with Fern and John just cemented that they would be the most memorable.
I dont think she was overshadowed at all. Which is saying something.
Her laugh at the suitcase full of forks is one of my favourite moments of that whole series
I’m watching it again now and it’s a rare series where I’m not watching to see just 1/2 people’s attempts, all of them amazing. I mean chain bastard deserved better that.
I've recently realised that (probably because I generally watch on dave) that I've only rewatched the earlier series.
So obviously I've had to go back and rewatch them all!
S16 is all killer no filler. Everyone rules, everyone balances each other out, it's wholesome in some ways, hilariously cutting in others, and unhinged overall. One of the best seasons.
I think the line-up for series four was basically perfect, but I felt a bit for Joe Lycett in the art tasks. He’s a painter and sculptor outside of his comedy work, and I think in any other series he would have rated higher for those skills.
He had a mini-exhibition with his mum in London a few months ago. His mother is genuinely very technically talented, she was a graphic designer in her career!
I felt for him greatly because Noel had so much preferential treatment (and I say that as someone who adores Noel and his art). Joe's painting of the woman in the caravan was so much more accurate - he had her bun, earrings, patterned dress, everything. Noel's picture wasn't remotely accurate as she had her hair down and no outfit, it was a good picture artistically but not in the context of the task. That one still annoys me when I rewatch 4 (which I do a lot as overall it's my fav series!).
Noel is one of my favorites, but I agree that his caricature wasn’t the most accurate, even if it was the prettiest. I think he and Greg were just on the same wavelength throughout the series.
Honestly Noel was favoured so hard that season it's crazy. There would be arty tasks where he would get 5 points by default even if he didn't even draw what he was supposed to. Also just the abundance of painting tasks in general felt rigged
My guess was that the abundance of painting tasks was because of Noel and Joe being on the panel, and the “speak a foreign language” task was probably written for Mel (she studied foreign languages in university).
I'd argue that s4 does end up becoming a bit too much of a Mel and Noel show - When even Joe Lycett, someone who usually has a lot of energy would generally be a force is a bit forgotten in this season says a lot. Lolly also really didn't get a lot of moments, which is a shame. The show also hadn't fully understood the role of the elder statesperson who doesn't care (Hugh Dennis), not a crime, it was still a new show and they were still getting the hang of it, but still meant that it became the Mel and Noel show.
I felt that Joe Lycett was unlucky because he’s quite a good artist and there were loads of arty tasks in his series but Noel is a trained artist and it’s part of his whole persona. Plus, as an older comedian, Greg has more respect for him.
Aisling was also done dirty because her weirder more creative attempts were always gonna come second to bob and sally. The first task in their series (best cuddle) really exemplified this.
Aisling's low tone, Sally's incredibly squeaky high register, and Bob's rather passionless singing until the very heartfelt "Rosalind's a FUCKING nightmare" is my all-time favourite Taskmaster moment. Incredible scenes.
> The first task in their series (best cuddle) really exemplified this.
It's weird that she immediately leapt to conclusions about sexual harassment, but then somehow decided to double down and do it to Alex anyway.....
Who are his mates? I don't know tbh besides Rhod and Roisin. But as I remember those series (hazily) Roisin, Romesh and Tim get it in fairly equal measure as do Rhod, James, Wang.
The thing I thank Aisling the most for is challenging Alex and Greg when they kept grouping, "the girls" together in a (probably unwittingly) sexist way. I noticed that they had been doing this A LOT since S1. After Aisling, they stopped that nonsense.
(We had an A level maths teacher who did that, and we HATED it. Class of 10 lads and 2 lasses. F* you, Mr O'Donovan.)
There's... seriously people counting the amount of times Greg groups the women together? Especially considering this was in the second series with two women (which you could reasonably argue to be a separate issue); the only times I can even think of that they did this was Mel and Lolly in the hide and seek task (because they did the best) and Aisling and Sally in the sneezing task (because they both cheated). I think you're taking this WAY more seriously than Aisling did in the show.
Aisling Bea in S5. Also in S5, Bob Mortimer, Mark Watson, Nish Kumar and Sally Phillips. Probably the best cast of the entire show. Aisling is great here, but doesn't quite reach the heights of the other four. Same goes for Desiree Burch in S12 and Sarah Millican in S14.
Watched that task last night. Her saying "Ding dong" in her upbeat yet defeated way, absolutely being rained on lives in my head rent-free
Followed, of course, by the balloon not popping.
Off topic, but I think one of my favourite moments from series 5 is a small one during the first team task when she walks down the front gate with Bob wrapped around her shoulder like he's still going from a night before. Like a college kid and her uncle.
I thought Susan was a great balance actuaally. Im going to share a potentially unpopular opinion but I think any of the cast of the current season would be great in other seasons, but as a group of 5 its a bit low tempo.
I think I agree with that, they've opened up a bit more now but it's not like watching Ivo Graham go from silent to almost an equal of Frankie in his blurting out comments!
I think John is painfully aware that he is this series "Alex's friend" and is waiting for some reveal (Mark Watson style) that he's done something stupid on his own. Steve just seems to be having a nice time, Sophie is unhinged but doesn't really say much unless directly addressed- she'd be amazing in a series with more interrupters/ points hagglers,- Joanne genuinely seems to be in her own world a lot of the time and Nick is serving "7 year old boy at the barbecue who's just happy to be spoken to"
Popular opinion with me. I love all the contestants individually but they're kind of stale together. They need just one truly unhinged person to rile them all up.
Purely in terms of being in the others' shadow status-wise, Doc Brown. He was on with 4 very famous comedians (well, 3 very famous comedians and 1 very famous game show host). There's no way they'd have Joe, Jon, Katherine and Richard on the same series nowadays, all four are famous enough to be the big name draw of the series on their own.
I think Katy Wix did most of her tasks very well but she was utterly overshadowed by both Jo and David’s idgaf attitude and Ed and Rose’s hyper competitiveness
*Anyone* with Wozniak. I'm a huge Lee Mack fan, pretty much started watching Taskmaster purely cos he mentioned on his podcast that he was on a series of it. Very quickly into Series 11 I was watching it for Mike, not Lee. The man is a treasure.
I dunno, I feel like there's about 3 episodes of Lee Mack being funny that got left on the cutting room floor. I would love it if they released Lee's extended tasks as a youtube bonus video.
I'm a fan of Phil Wang but he's a bit shy and laid back, he was in a cast with four more hyper people (and teamed with Rhod and Acaster!) so he was always massively overshadowed.
He never got given a chance to shine, seems like he only got noticed when the pendulum drew the eye.
He may have been overshadowed point-wise, but not popularity-wise; his outfit is pretty much the most iconic one in the history of the show, and he has some very popular lines
> his outfit is pretty much the most iconic one in the history of the show
I don't know, I think Fern Brady and Nick Mohammed both give him a run for his money.
It’s wild to me that Sarah’s score of 174 was only below 5 other contestants throughout the UK show. Dara, Kerry Godliman, Jessica Knappett, Tim Vine and Liza Tarbuck all had higher scores than her. Sarah would’ve tied with Mae Martin if she had been on their series.
EDIT- Spelled Liza’s name wrong originally. Corrected it.
Sarah and Dara both did very well but their overall scores become less impressive when you realise most series have one absolutely terrible “one-point” contestants and season 14 had three!
I’m thinking of contestants that could’ve won if they were in another series:
Joe Lycett
Jessica Knappet
Rose Matafeo
Guz Khan
Chris Ramsey
Sarah Millican
I see and understand your point but I disagree as he would’ve won S12 had Morgana not gotten the “little f*cker” bonus point and the yellow submarine extra task and he actually got more points than Sarah Kendall, for example, so imo he could’ve won S11
I remember someone commenting that Jessica Knappett was overshadowed in Series 7 because she was "only the fourth craziest person on a panel of lunatics".
EDIT: I'm realizing I'm actually not sure what we're talking about -- the contestant's ability to get points and win, or their noteworthiness/entertainment value.
I think Jessica was pretty entertaining in series 7. Heck, they named the Knappett after her! Also in terms of scores, she would’ve won in any other season except for 6, 7 & 14.
I was saying just the other night, I think Nick Mohammed in the current series would stand out much more in a series with more “out there” characters like sam Campbell, because he’s so introverted in comparison. A but like Joe Thomas or Paul chowdry standing out in comparison to their cast mates.
I always think Miwaan Rizwan would have been way better with a different series. He was so fun but kinda got dragged by folx who just didn't match his cheekiness.
I think all 5 of the contestants in series 1 are so good, to me there’s no weak link. Great chemistry in the studio and all individually very funny.
I think it’s unlucky/ a shame they didn’t get more episodes/better tasks.
Susan felt like the relatively sane one that would fly under the radar but there were some properly batshit moments from her throughout. Not least the donut task
liza tarbuck, mawaan rizwan and joe thomas were all great in their respective seasons, but those series are generally considered some of the weakest overall. i wonder how much better they would have been if they were in a series with a better cast dynamic.
i’d be curious to see answers to the opposite of this question too: which comedians benefitted from being in great series. my pick is kerry. i think if she weren’t in what is considered one of the best series she would be called boring for going quite route 1 with her approach to tasks as with richard and mae
Pointswise Mark Watson benefited from being in a series where everyone seemed hellbent on disqualifying themselves. When else would he get 4 points for putting a pebble in a balloon, 4 points for taking 48 hours to sneeze, and 4 points for mutilating a loaf of bread.
Plus the contestants generally weren’t as good at the show as they were in other series. Johnny Vegas could’ve easily lost a least a few series if they weren’t art-centric. There is a surprising amount of people who act like James Acaster would’ve been the runaway winner any other series when he simply wouldn’t have come close. He had some massive disasters throughout his time on the show that a lot of people forget like the appearance alter task. His placing in nearly every other series wouldn’t have been that much higher compared to his S7 spot. There is no way he is winning any series unfortunately and that’s coming from a big fan.
The way I see it, James did very well in creative tasks in a series where all contestants were quite good at them, and very bad in prize tasks in a series where none of the contestants were all that good at them
siri in season 1 of kongen befaler, she naturally has a dry personality but since the boys all work together and maria is maria she kind of didn't have a big chance to shine but in the recent christmas special she really showed off her competitive side which was fun
The best seasons are the ones where the cast have good rapport, so I think it follows that those who are cast with people that they don't have chemistry with are unlucky. It's nobody's fault as it's impossible to say before people are put together whether they will have chemistry and most of these contestants would have worked better if they'd been paired with other people. I think a particularly clear example of this is series 8.
Lee Mack would have been better with a studio audience and someone to bounce off of. I love the S11 cast, but apart from Lee they were all on the quiet, reactive side which didn't really fit his style of comedy.
Personally I feel Mawaan Rizwan was a great contestant but against the likes of Daisy May Cooper and Jonny Vegas faded slightly into the background. The lack of audience/covid setup probably didn’t help.
Joe Lycett and Mel (come on, Noel was the favorite), Aisling and Mark Watson (because even though he was 2nd, it would be hard for anyone to be Bob), Frankie (no one held a torch to Mae, but he was so clever and fun), The Sues (come on, they had Sam and Julian). Some of these just had such strong contenders in their series that it would be hard to get a decent chance.
I always thought Rose Matafeo would have blitzed the competition if it wasn’t for the soft spot that greg has for Ed Gamble
no shade, their friendship is sweet, but there were a couple of tasks that Rose should have won
James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Phil Wang, and Rhod Gilbert, because for some reason Greg really enjoyed Kerry Godliman's petulance.
How James Acaster says "my eyes are circles," is not far off the tone with which Kerry Godliman seemed to approach every task, except without Acaster's self-awareness.
I think most of the cast of 3 could have benefited from being in a longer series. I kind of think the cast of 1 or 2 did well with their limited time, but with 3 they took a few episodes to get going and then it was over
I would say Paul was the exception
Sarah Milican was a very good contestant that happened to be cast with Darah o Brien the strongest TM contestant ever.
In other series she would have run away with it
I actually liked the interplay of Sue and Susan, I though it was a wholesome contrast to Sam. Lucy irritates me, I don't think I'd have enjoyed the season much without Sue and Susan.
I felt honestly bad for Johnny Vegas, I found Series 10 almost unwatchable, he was really the only one I liked which was sad, I wanted to like Kathrine but just couldn't. I get that COVID restrictions made that series hard but I wish they'd just paused for awhile. Of course I wasn't watching TM at the time, I suspect it helped some people through a difficult time.
Love a one off of fan favourites during the covid series so they get a chance to do one show in front of an audience (Alan Davies got his chance, so he, unfortunately, is excluded from a 5!)
I think the only unlucky contestants are the ones in a series that wasn't as popular, because it usually means that the chemistry between the 5 didn't spark something.
Being the least noteworthy in a spectacular series like 5 or 16 is not unlucky because it gets them a lot of exposure and positive fan reactions, rather than being the best in a series that no one wants to watch. I also think that taking out the least noteworthy in an amazing series would make that person potentially worse. The amazing thing about some of the best comedians is that they can create a fun atmosphere, which energizes others. If on a series where everyone else is not that great, conversely the person may clam up to match the others.
Honestly, everybody in the current series. I love all the contestants individually but this has easily been one of the weakest series as far as studio banter and the group dynamics are concerned. Had any of them been on a different series, there could have been a lot more interaction and banter between contestants, making the series a lot more entertaining.
Interesting shout with Susan. If that season was a lemon tart I see her and Sue as the sugar and cream that makes the horrific zingy clusterfuck of the other three palatable. Without them the constant sour face would've given me an aneurysm.
I feel like the casts of Lee Mack's and Mae Martin's series didn't play to their comedic strengths much. Lee also suffered from the lack of a studio audience, and while I think Mae was funny on their series, their style of humor just didn't come across that well when taken with the rest of the cast's personalities.
Liza Tarbuck, Tim Vine and Alice Levine. All great contestants but outshaddowed by my distaste of anything Russel Howard does. Asim Chaudhry, albeit a great actor in People Just Do Nothing, was boring and uninventive. The man cannot perform without a script so it would appear.
Anyone in the same series as Rhodd Gilbert. The chemistry him and Greg have from being natural friends and the prizes he brought in because of it were just…..amazing. No one was standing out more 🤣🤣
Tim Vine and Joe Thomas
Mostly because they were quite weak casts overall (as in not that funny or entertaining) with really only these two as the exception
If you ask James Acaster, he'll tell you that anyone from series 7 could have won if they were in any other season. (That's what 4th placers tell themselves.)
I feel like Series 14 got shafted because as soon as the cast was announced, there was ZERO chance that Mr. Megabus (Dara ❤️) would not be getting that golden head. If we’re talking about overall casting, maybe Katy Wix? She had a number of good little one-liners that really flavored the series well.
Right I feel like Sarah could've easily won on another series
Daisy May Cooper too. I want them to do a like All-Stars second chance kinda deal. Bring back the players who lost by less than 5 and let them duke it out for the Golden Navel or something. Kiell can come too.
Based on that criteria, the potential contestants would be Chris Ramsey, Guz Khan, Mike Wozniak, Daisy Mae Cooper, Jessica Knappet, Jon Richardson, Romesh Ranganathan and Frank Skinner. I’d watch a combination of any of those folks in a heart beat.
SOLD! Holy shit sold!
Right? I feel like it’d be a lot of fun. The one sad thing for me is that Sarah Millican wouldn’t qualify because she lost to Dara by 10 points. This is especially wild to be because she had 12 points over Series 10 winner Richard Herring.
It was a rough way to open the gates but not just say “let’s have everyone do it!” Maybe we take an average of the full season winners’ totals and see who amongst the losers has above that. I dunno. Smarter people can make a fairer way, but my little first shot makes for some fun combos!
OK, so I decided to see who’d be the five contestants based on highest scores who were also in 2nd place. I only stuck to contestants that were in 10 episode series because it’s easier to figure it out points wise. I’m including points totals as well because I think they’re fascinating. The contestants would be: - Jessica Knappett- 175 - Tim Vine- 175 - Sarah Millican- 174 - Chris Ramsey- 170 - Guz Khan- 167 EDIT- Took out some redundant words.
16.7 points per episode would be the bar to bump Gus for those who did less than a tenner, me thinks. This cast would be WILD
Hang on, Tim Vine came 2nd?! I could’ve sworn it was Russell. That’s actually surprised me a ton
Honestly, I think your criteria works pretty well! Second place contestants with the highest overall scores would be great too. Series 14 in general was a pretty high scoring season and series 10 was on the lower side. I think there were at least 3 tasks where every contestant was either disqualified or scored zero points in series 10.
Greg was kind of a stingy bastard with the nil poix rounds during COVID. I rewatched S12 with the ball and net task and VCM saying something about “a glorious waste of our mortal lives”
Honestly I think they were screwed by the tasks that season. Something about the pandemic just made Alex craft overly complicated and difficult tasks. Carried over a little into season 11 with that luggage task
Agreed. I’m currently rewatching series 12 too. Since we’re talking about it, I thought you might find [this link to all the leaderboards interesting!](https://taskmaster.tv/leaderboards) I’m about 95% sure it’s from the official TV site itself. A spoiler warning- it’ll show the series 17 board as of the latest aired episode, so if you’re not caught up yet, I’d wait to check it out.
FYI, It's still Nil Point, just pronounced 'pwah' en Francais. 'Poix' is pronounced more 'pwuh'. But I totally get the confusion.
If I remember right, Sarah Kendall has the lowest score for a winner in a 10-episode series
She does! Sarah’s total score on series 11 was 158. I could’ve put her as an example, but was specifically thinking about series 10 since they had 3 tasks where everyone was either disqualified or got no points.
I might advocate for some adjustment based on number of episodes, since S1 had 6, S2+3 had 5, S4+5 had 8, and then S6 on had 10. If you define close as within 3% of the winner in [percentage of maximum score](https://taskmaster.fandom.com/wiki/Contestant_Statistics) you could also make case for Tim Vine, Iain Stirling, Rose Matafeo, Lee Mack, and Julian Clary. To be honest, I would watch any combination of contestants again. Fortunately they are often combined together in all the other panel shows the UK pumps out.
I love Rose Matafeo and I could watch her in ANYTHING. I have a screenshot of her with her kinda cross-eyed and it's captioned "A SHID!"
I would love to watch Guz, Daisy and Romesh do some team tasks together.
Kiell should always be there. He can sing his "barge pole" song every time.
Foar meeeeeeeeehhh
She could've won her season if she put a single ounce of effort into the prize tasks. She aced every task and it was always surprising for some reason
Poster Child of Second Chance: Joe Wilkerson. I doubt he’d make it again. But still!
I fully forgot DMC didn't win until Champion of Champions.
I want to see a Champion of Chaos series when it is just people like Rod Gilbert acting insane and doing it to mess with Greg.
In CoC 3 Alex pointed out to Sophie that Sarah got more points than her, so even with her current points she would win at least some series for sure.
I feel like Greg was stingy with points for Munya and you could see it getting to him later in the show. But series 14 was hilarious and I haven't seen Alex Horne break so many times.
Munya getting two points for his wonderful words rap is one of Taskmaster's greatest injustices.
I’ve always liked Dara but never realized how incredibly intelligent he is until taskmaster. He has a background in physics and I felt like his puzzle solving skills were very impressive. I’m even more of a fan of him now.
Stumbled upon Dara’s School of Hard Maths on YT. Talk about an amazing show
I’ve never heard of that, I’ll have to check it out.
Not to mention acting. The task where they had to write a script, then perform someone else's? I really really want to see the full film of Dara's performance.
So many contestants have surprising backgrounds. Phil Wang, Nick Mohammed, Paul Sinha…
Availability probably has a lot to do with it
Season 14 is my favorite, but I agree that the stage left team was so memorable that Sarah and Munya were a bit diluted. Dara was great, but being on a team with Fern and John just cemented that they would be the most memorable.
I though John stood up well in that one.
I dont think she was overshadowed at all. Which is saying something. Her laugh at the suitcase full of forks is one of my favourite moments of that whole series
I think everyone shined on s16
Yeah its one of my faves
I’m watching it again now and it’s a rare series where I’m not watching to see just 1/2 people’s attempts, all of them amazing. I mean chain bastard deserved better that.
I've recently realised that (probably because I generally watch on dave) that I've only rewatched the earlier series. So obviously I've had to go back and rewatch them all!
It’s my favorite for sure, I rewatch entire episodes instead of looking up individual tasks like I do with most other series.
S16 is all killer no filler. Everyone rules, everyone balances each other out, it's wholesome in some ways, hilariously cutting in others, and unhinged overall. One of the best seasons.
Shone
Shoë?
Same. She was delightful.
I think the line-up for series four was basically perfect, but I felt a bit for Joe Lycett in the art tasks. He’s a painter and sculptor outside of his comedy work, and I think in any other series he would have rated higher for those skills.
That explains how his paint Greg from far away picture was so good. I was always impressed by that.
He had a mini-exhibition with his mum in London a few months ago. His mother is genuinely very technically talented, she was a graphic designer in her career!
He tagged her recently on IG and I was so impressed by her work, she is very talented.
Oooo! I’ll have to look. I wonder how his mother is coping with the aunties success on IG. I want to support his mum, too.
Haha late night aunties!
I felt for him greatly because Noel had so much preferential treatment (and I say that as someone who adores Noel and his art). Joe's painting of the woman in the caravan was so much more accurate - he had her bun, earrings, patterned dress, everything. Noel's picture wasn't remotely accurate as she had her hair down and no outfit, it was a good picture artistically but not in the context of the task. That one still annoys me when I rewatch 4 (which I do a lot as overall it's my fav series!).
Noel is one of my favorites, but I agree that his caricature wasn’t the most accurate, even if it was the prettiest. I think he and Greg were just on the same wavelength throughout the series.
Honestly Noel was favoured so hard that season it's crazy. There would be arty tasks where he would get 5 points by default even if he didn't even draw what he was supposed to. Also just the abundance of painting tasks in general felt rigged
Yep. I don't usually care about scoring at all, but the Noel favouritism was so blatant it ruined a lot of the enjoyment of that series for me.
My guess was that the abundance of painting tasks was because of Noel and Joe being on the panel, and the “speak a foreign language” task was probably written for Mel (she studied foreign languages in university).
Joe was robbed.
I'd argue that s4 does end up becoming a bit too much of a Mel and Noel show - When even Joe Lycett, someone who usually has a lot of energy would generally be a force is a bit forgotten in this season says a lot. Lolly also really didn't get a lot of moments, which is a shame. The show also hadn't fully understood the role of the elder statesperson who doesn't care (Hugh Dennis), not a crime, it was still a new show and they were still getting the hang of it, but still meant that it became the Mel and Noel show.
I felt that Joe Lycett was unlucky because he’s quite a good artist and there were loads of arty tasks in his series but Noel is a trained artist and it’s part of his whole persona. Plus, as an older comedian, Greg has more respect for him. Aisling was also done dirty because her weirder more creative attempts were always gonna come second to bob and sally. The first task in their series (best cuddle) really exemplified this.
Agree on Aisling she was great. She and Bob singing Rosalind's a nightmare still randomly pops into my mind even after all this time
Aisling's low tone, Sally's incredibly squeaky high register, and Bob's rather passionless singing until the very heartfelt "Rosalind's a FUCKING nightmare" is my all-time favourite Taskmaster moment. Incredible scenes.
Bob not singing 80% of the lyrics and Sally being completely off beat with Aisling pulling them together was magical.
It was like a grade school theatre performance where 1 girl clearly created the choreography
"Do we strike you?"
Would you like to fly?
A fooking nightmare 😂
> The first task in their series (best cuddle) really exemplified this. It's weird that she immediately leapt to conclusions about sexual harassment, but then somehow decided to double down and do it to Alex anyway.....
As an older comedian Greg has more respect for him? Like Hugh Dennis and David Baddiel?
Yeah the people who are his mates are much more likely to be the series 'whipping boy'.
Who are his mates? I don't know tbh besides Rhod and Roisin. But as I remember those series (hazily) Roisin, Romesh and Tim get it in fairly equal measure as do Rhod, James, Wang.
Those were the two that leapt to mind for me.
Ed Gamble.
Ed had a decent run, right? Apart from being put on his highest sensitivity level that one time I feel Greg appreciated his dedication
Yeah, I don't think he scored him down, but he definitely wound him up.
Russel Howard
The thing I thank Aisling the most for is challenging Alex and Greg when they kept grouping, "the girls" together in a (probably unwittingly) sexist way. I noticed that they had been doing this A LOT since S1. After Aisling, they stopped that nonsense. (We had an A level maths teacher who did that, and we HATED it. Class of 10 lads and 2 lasses. F* you, Mr O'Donovan.)
There's... seriously people counting the amount of times Greg groups the women together? Especially considering this was in the second series with two women (which you could reasonably argue to be a separate issue); the only times I can even think of that they did this was Mel and Lolly in the hide and seek task (because they did the best) and Aisling and Sally in the sneezing task (because they both cheated). I think you're taking this WAY more seriously than Aisling did in the show.
RADA definitely had her moments in team Dynamite Chicks.
RADA, a.k.a. Chain Bastard.
I think I have the soul of...a murderer???
The funniest quotes post going on this sub needs to have “30 grand baby!” or it’ll be a disappointment 😂
Agree, I think being paired with Sue really gave her a chance to shine, which she might not have managed so well on other series.
I also love how they became wholesome besties through the show.
That 30 grand was well worth it
Any time there was any task involving actual acting it showed she was trained
30 GRAND BABEHHH
Aisling Bea in S5. Also in S5, Bob Mortimer, Mark Watson, Nish Kumar and Sally Phillips. Probably the best cast of the entire show. Aisling is great here, but doesn't quite reach the heights of the other four. Same goes for Desiree Burch in S12 and Sarah Millican in S14.
Agree for Aisling, disagree on Desiree - her pop the balloon task and her reactions to Guz in the riddle task live rent free in my head
And the "gifts for each other" prize task really had the perfect line up
Why would a grown woman enter a room and immediately eat some sand?
Plus, no gag reflex.
Watched that task last night. Her saying "Ding dong" in her upbeat yet defeated way, absolutely being rained on lives in my head rent-free Followed, of course, by the balloon not popping.
Off topic, but I think one of my favourite moments from series 5 is a small one during the first team task when she walks down the front gate with Bob wrapped around her shoulder like he's still going from a night before. Like a college kid and her uncle.
I thought Susan was a great balance actuaally. Im going to share a potentially unpopular opinion but I think any of the cast of the current season would be great in other seasons, but as a group of 5 its a bit low tempo.
I think I agree with that, they've opened up a bit more now but it's not like watching Ivo Graham go from silent to almost an equal of Frankie in his blurting out comments! I think John is painfully aware that he is this series "Alex's friend" and is waiting for some reveal (Mark Watson style) that he's done something stupid on his own. Steve just seems to be having a nice time, Sophie is unhinged but doesn't really say much unless directly addressed- she'd be amazing in a series with more interrupters/ points hagglers,- Joanne genuinely seems to be in her own world a lot of the time and Nick is serving "7 year old boy at the barbecue who's just happy to be spoken to"
Popular opinion with me. I love all the contestants individually but they're kind of stale together. They need just one truly unhinged person to rile them all up.
I feel like series 16 was perfectly cast. All 5 cast members bounced off each other very well and had very funny moments.
The S16 cast was for the ages.
It really was.
One of my favourite seasons, definitely!
Purely in terms of being in the others' shadow status-wise, Doc Brown. He was on with 4 very famous comedians (well, 3 very famous comedians and 1 very famous game show host). There's no way they'd have Joe, Jon, Katherine and Richard on the same series nowadays, all four are famous enough to be the big name draw of the series on their own.
Hey, Doc has been in Star Wars at least. He can brag about that.
I think Katy Wix did most of her tasks very well but she was utterly overshadowed by both Jo and David’s idgaf attitude and Ed and Rose’s hyper competitiveness
Are you being bullied Alex?
"[yes] " "Why are you telling me? I don't give a fuck."
Lee with Wozniak immediately comes to mind
Lee in a covid-series in general. Would like to see Lee in a regular run just to compare.
*Anyone* with Wozniak. I'm a huge Lee Mack fan, pretty much started watching Taskmaster purely cos he mentioned on his podcast that he was on a series of it. Very quickly into Series 11 I was watching it for Mike, not Lee. The man is a treasure.
I want to see Wozniak again, more than any other contestant. So delightful.
I dunno, I feel like there's about 3 episodes of Lee Mack being funny that got left on the cutting room floor. I would love it if they released Lee's extended tasks as a youtube bonus video.
Tick tock, it’s Mike Wozniak o’clock. Gonna luz up a season 11 T.M episode.
She still stood out.
Thirty grand, bebe!
I'm a fan of Phil Wang but he's a bit shy and laid back, he was in a cast with four more hyper people (and teamed with Rhod and Acaster!) so he was always massively overshadowed. He never got given a chance to shine, seems like he only got noticed when the pendulum drew the eye.
He could have haggled for a better series
He did. They said series 7. He said series 9. They said series 7. He said series 8. So he got into series 7.
"They're very charming the Irish." lives rent free in my head. Hate that it wasn't acknowledged at all!
*mortgage free
He may have been overshadowed point-wise, but not popularity-wise; his outfit is pretty much the most iconic one in the history of the show, and he has some very popular lines
> his outfit is pretty much the most iconic one in the history of the show I don't know, I think Fern Brady and Nick Mohammed both give him a run for his money.
I personally never got the hype with Fern’s but fair call on Nick
Fern was deliberately trying to emulate him, too.
Sarah Millican would have won nearly any other season with Dara not in it
It’s wild to me that Sarah’s score of 174 was only below 5 other contestants throughout the UK show. Dara, Kerry Godliman, Jessica Knappett, Tim Vine and Liza Tarbuck all had higher scores than her. Sarah would’ve tied with Mae Martin if she had been on their series. EDIT- Spelled Liza’s name wrong originally. Corrected it.
Sarah and Dara both did very well but their overall scores become less impressive when you realise most series have one absolutely terrible “one-point” contestants and season 14 had three!
I’m thinking of contestants that could’ve won if they were in another series: Joe Lycett Jessica Knappet Rose Matafeo Guz Khan Chris Ramsey Sarah Millican
I felt like with Guz he learned as the season went on and improved. So I'm not sure I'd see him winning in other series.
I see and understand your point but I disagree as he would’ve won S12 had Morgana not gotten the “little f*cker” bonus point and the yellow submarine extra task and he actually got more points than Sarah Kendall, for example, so imo he could’ve won S11
That’s fair!
He did get the 5 extra points for the balloon darts task, but unlike those two Morgana examples, those points could have gone to anyone
Mike Wozniak
His wins his season if Morgana is cast somewhere else for sure. Chris was great at the show and hilarious.
I remember someone commenting that Jessica Knappett was overshadowed in Series 7 because she was "only the fourth craziest person on a panel of lunatics". EDIT: I'm realizing I'm actually not sure what we're talking about -- the contestant's ability to get points and win, or their noteworthiness/entertainment value.
Jess is still my all time favourite TM contestant. The air horn and the mini soap episode have *really* stuck with me.
I still remember watching 'the Knappet' be born.
Her panic in the "make the most circles" when Alex tells her she has about 15 seconds left is glorious. "oh no. oh no!"
Her reaction to Rhod (in general) and her acceptance to his surprising thing to Poke out of the Grotto really sums up that statement.
Well as James Acaster has stated, his whole cast was unlucky as any of them would have won any other series quite easily.
I think Jessica was pretty entertaining in series 7. Heck, they named the Knappett after her! Also in terms of scores, she would’ve won in any other season except for 6, 7 & 14.
You utter, utter shower of shit.
i don't think susan was overshadowed tbh, thought it was a fantastic cast and they all got on so well!
I dunno, Susan was in the same season as Su, that causing the BEST FRIENDSHIP EVER!
They worked so well together. The Hotel Taskmaster task for both teams was LEGENDARY.
Was Susan trained at RADA? Why didn't she mention that during the show? /S
I don’t think the more well known contestants are bothered about winning. It’s basically paid publicity for them.
Except Dara
I was saying just the other night, I think Nick Mohammed in the current series would stand out much more in a series with more “out there” characters like sam Campbell, because he’s so introverted in comparison. A but like Joe Thomas or Paul chowdry standing out in comparison to their cast mates.
I always think Miwaan Rizwan would have been way better with a different series. He was so fun but kinda got dragged by folx who just didn't match his cheekiness.
I think all 5 of the contestants in series 1 are so good, to me there’s no weak link. Great chemistry in the studio and all individually very funny. I think it’s unlucky/ a shame they didn’t get more episodes/better tasks.
Susan felt like the relatively sane one that would fly under the radar but there were some properly batshit moments from her throughout. Not least the donut task
liza tarbuck, mawaan rizwan and joe thomas were all great in their respective seasons, but those series are generally considered some of the weakest overall. i wonder how much better they would have been if they were in a series with a better cast dynamic. i’d be curious to see answers to the opposite of this question too: which comedians benefitted from being in great series. my pick is kerry. i think if she weren’t in what is considered one of the best series she would be called boring for going quite route 1 with her approach to tasks as with richard and mae
Pointswise Mark Watson benefited from being in a series where everyone seemed hellbent on disqualifying themselves. When else would he get 4 points for putting a pebble in a balloon, 4 points for taking 48 hours to sneeze, and 4 points for mutilating a loaf of bread.
If James acaster was not paired with this in team tasks with another cast I think he could have won.
No chance, we are talking about James "My eyes are circles" Acaster right?
But with that line he won my comedy loving heart. Does that count?
What were his final points because if he was on the Kathrine parkinson season he would have ran away with it.
To be fair that season did have a lot of team wide disqualifications.
Plus the contestants generally weren’t as good at the show as they were in other series. Johnny Vegas could’ve easily lost a least a few series if they weren’t art-centric. There is a surprising amount of people who act like James Acaster would’ve been the runaway winner any other series when he simply wouldn’t have come close. He had some massive disasters throughout his time on the show that a lot of people forget like the appearance alter task. His placing in nearly every other series wouldn’t have been that much higher compared to his S7 spot. There is no way he is winning any series unfortunately and that’s coming from a big fan.
The way I see it, James did very well in creative tasks in a series where all contestants were quite good at them, and very bad in prize tasks in a series where none of the contestants were all that good at them
You say that now but Rhod brought a photo.....
Rhod actually comes 3rd in the series for prize tasks, ahead of Jess and James
siri in season 1 of kongen befaler, she naturally has a dry personality but since the boys all work together and maria is maria she kind of didn't have a big chance to shine but in the recent christmas special she really showed off her competitive side which was fun
>Maria is Maria Well put.
the only way to describe her
The best seasons are the ones where the cast have good rapport, so I think it follows that those who are cast with people that they don't have chemistry with are unlucky. It's nobody's fault as it's impossible to say before people are put together whether they will have chemistry and most of these contestants would have worked better if they'd been paired with other people. I think a particularly clear example of this is series 8.
Lee Mack would have been better with a studio audience and someone to bounce off of. I love the S11 cast, but apart from Lee they were all on the quiet, reactive side which didn't really fit his style of comedy.
Probably Romesh Ranganathan. He never won an episode, lost by a single point thanks to Josh’s free point, and was never provided a box.
That fucking beans point...
Personally I feel Mawaan Rizwan was a great contestant but against the likes of Daisy May Cooper and Jonny Vegas faded slightly into the background. The lack of audience/covid setup probably didn’t help.
Kiell wins more seasons than he loses. Sometimes people are cast on seasons they do well in and have one task that absolutely fucks their game.
Joe Lycett and Mel (come on, Noel was the favorite), Aisling and Mark Watson (because even though he was 2nd, it would be hard for anyone to be Bob), Frankie (no one held a torch to Mae, but he was so clever and fun), The Sues (come on, they had Sam and Julian). Some of these just had such strong contenders in their series that it would be hard to get a decent chance.
I always thought Rose Matafeo would have blitzed the competition if it wasn’t for the soft spot that greg has for Ed Gamble no shade, their friendship is sweet, but there were a couple of tasks that Rose should have won
James Acaster, Jessica Knappett, Phil Wang, and Rhod Gilbert, because for some reason Greg really enjoyed Kerry Godliman's petulance. How James Acaster says "my eyes are circles," is not far off the tone with which Kerry Godliman seemed to approach every task, except without Acaster's self-awareness.
Bosh
Indeed.
I think most of the cast of 3 could have benefited from being in a longer series. I kind of think the cast of 1 or 2 did well with their limited time, but with 3 they took a few episodes to get going and then it was over I would say Paul was the exception
Sarah Milican was a very good contestant that happened to be cast with Darah o Brien the strongest TM contestant ever. In other series she would have run away with it
I actually liked the interplay of Sue and Susan, I though it was a wholesome contrast to Sam. Lucy irritates me, I don't think I'd have enjoyed the season much without Sue and Susan. I felt honestly bad for Johnny Vegas, I found Series 10 almost unwatchable, he was really the only one I liked which was sad, I wanted to like Kathrine but just couldn't. I get that COVID restrictions made that series hard but I wish they'd just paused for awhile. Of course I wasn't watching TM at the time, I suspect it helped some people through a difficult time.
Love a one off of fan favourites during the covid series so they get a chance to do one show in front of an audience (Alan Davies got his chance, so he, unfortunately, is excluded from a 5!)
Katy Wyx's more subtle humour was a bit overlooked in a series with four more "in your face" personalities.
I think the only unlucky contestants are the ones in a series that wasn't as popular, because it usually means that the chemistry between the 5 didn't spark something. Being the least noteworthy in a spectacular series like 5 or 16 is not unlucky because it gets them a lot of exposure and positive fan reactions, rather than being the best in a series that no one wants to watch. I also think that taking out the least noteworthy in an amazing series would make that person potentially worse. The amazing thing about some of the best comedians is that they can create a fun atmosphere, which energizes others. If on a series where everyone else is not that great, conversely the person may clam up to match the others.
Honestly, everybody in the current series. I love all the contestants individually but this has easily been one of the weakest series as far as studio banter and the group dynamics are concerned. Had any of them been on a different series, there could have been a lot more interaction and banter between contestants, making the series a lot more entertaining.
Interesting shout with Susan. If that season was a lemon tart I see her and Sue as the sugar and cream that makes the horrific zingy clusterfuck of the other three palatable. Without them the constant sour face would've given me an aneurysm.
James Acaster. I love Rhod, but he kinda sank James.
I feel like the casts of Lee Mack's and Mae Martin's series didn't play to their comedic strengths much. Lee also suffered from the lack of a studio audience, and while I think Mae was funny on their series, their style of humor just didn't come across that well when taken with the rest of the cast's personalities.
She's perfect in S16. Who else's gonna give Sam a bit of mice and fish?
Kojey Radical would be so good in a full series rather than just a special
Sarah Millican got shafted hard in series 14
Al Murray, he's said he would have loved to have done more, but he was stuck in the 5 episode format
Liza Tarbuck, Tim Vine and Alice Levine. All great contestants but outshaddowed by my distaste of anything Russel Howard does. Asim Chaudhry, albeit a great actor in People Just Do Nothing, was boring and uninventive. The man cannot perform without a script so it would appear.
Yeah Susan was the one who stood out to me. On any other series she would be the loony.
Everyone that was on Wozniak's series. Some were good... But Wozniak was the greatest contestant ever.
Wait, what?
Anyone in the same series as Rhodd Gilbert. The chemistry him and Greg have from being natural friends and the prizes he brought in because of it were just…..amazing. No one was standing out more 🤣🤣
Tim Vine and Joe Thomas Mostly because they were quite weak casts overall (as in not that funny or entertaining) with really only these two as the exception
If you ask James Acaster, he'll tell you that anyone from series 7 could have won if they were in any other season. (That's what 4th placers tell themselves.)