LJ housekeeping and the rest of Taskmaster
It's so sad -- my LJ friendspage at this point is mostly RSS feeds and people posted about leaving Livejournal. And I think for the first time I got more people commenting on a personal (as opposed to fannish) post over on DW than on LJ, although with the ongoing threads, my post about Ukraine on LJ still has quite a few more comments than the DW one (72 on LJ vs 50 on DW)
I'm not deleting my LJ, and I will probably cross-post manually as long as the thing will let me -- I just have too much history here, and too many people who are still using this as their primary online home vs DW. But because I'm worried LJ comments will vanish into the ether at some point, as LJ longevity is kind of concerning at the moment, I would ask that if you're reading both your LJ and DW flists, at this point I'd prefer comments on the DW post (which is the opposite of how I felt before). But if you have a preference for commenting on LJ, that's fine too.
I hadn't been able to get anything useful to import to DW in weeks of intermittent trying, but after a couple of false starts, I did manage to back up the last year of my LJ on BlogBooker (the free version goes back a year). I'm not thrilled with the way it handles comments -- maybe it's that I'm using the old format, but the backup stripped out all the line-breaks. But it keeps links as footnotes, and a (low quality, on the free account) copies of pictures, and at least the content and threading of the comments are preserved. I do have most of them in email, but not along with the post, and not all together.
And then I read on my flist that a couple of folks had been able to import comments to DW and redoubled my efforts, trying every couple of hours, basically. For the first couple of days I could import minor things, and then it inevitably choked on entries, but Tuesday evening it actually worked!! It took like 3 hours to import entries (even though there were not that many, only about two months worth), and then another several hours to import comments, but it worked!
People who are leaving LJ are posting about how they're doing it after almost 20 years on the site. I'm just a little over 18, which is still a very long time. And I got my Permanent Account on Dec 16, 2008. So, 13 years and change, and it's definitely paid for itself -- it was $175 at the time, and I've certainly been using my full set of icons the entire time since then, so it's probably paid for itself twice. But when I bought it, I was definitely thinking in terms of staying around for the long haul, and I guess 13 years is pretty long haul by internet standards, but I wasn't expecting any of this to turn out the way it has...
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I have finished watching the entirety of Taskmaster (which it looks like took me a month and a half XD). I do still have a bunch of the podcast left, and I guess series 13 will be happening some time this spring, so there's that to look forward to. Meanwhile, thoughts on the last two seasons I watched and the various odds and ends:
I had left series 9 almost to the end because I couldn't find it on YouTube, but between a source through other fans and Amazon Prime for the couple episodes that were missing at said source, I was able to watch the whole thing, and it was great fun! Like, I can't think of any individual moments that I would list as great highlights the way I would for some top favorite series, but the whole thing just felt like a continuous note of joyful chaos, and I think collectively this is one of my favorite contestant casts, even though even my favorite (Ed Gamble) would not be among my top 5 favorite contestants ever -- just the way the whole thing comes together has a very fun vibe, with the whole truly greater than the sum of its parts, tasks, moments, or individuals. Part of which I think is a particularly fun rapport with Alex and Greg, I think mainly courtesy of Ed. spoilers!
Like I said, Ed was my favorite, and not just because I already knew him from the podcast at this point -- in fact, he felt quite different as a contestant on the show than the calm, wry person I'd gotten to see through the podcast XD It was adorable the way Ed got excited by every little variation on how the tasks were presented or just the hint that something unusual was about to happen, and then of course there was all the arguing about points with Greg in the studio (which it sounds from the podcast like there was a lot more of, that didn't make the final cut XD) and sometimes other contestants as well -- it was very funny, and a definitely highlight of the series for me. Rose was adorable and I loved her little frustrated/triumphant noises; I liked Katy's contrasting calm and subtler humour, and David just generally being a failboat, but my second favorite contestant was Jo Brand. Like, back in the very first series I watched, s6, I said that one of the reasons I liked Liza Tarbuck as much as I did is that she had no fucks to give, but Jo is a masterclass in fucks deficit, and it was very funny, especially contrasted with Ed taking the whole thing ULTRA SERIOUSLY.
When I watch these typically, I just keep a running list of funny bits/quotes/things I want to remark on. In this case, because I was watching episodes scattered among several different sources, I wrote down notes on an episode by episode basis, so I could keep track of which I still needed to find, so I'm going to do my write-up that way as well.
The first two episodes of the series were lower key for me. In e1, I enjoyed David and the aubergines,Jo Brand as Henry VIII and Rose as a hedge, and I liked Katy's cult, but other than that, the only thing I wrote down is that NZ apparently uses Roy G. Biv for the rainbow as well (like the US does), and that this is not a thing known in Britain, or at least Greg was puzzled by it. In e2, I liked the "find Alex in these bins" task, just the way it was set up, and it was the first time Ed and Alex interacted on the show, and I found their interaction really cute. Also fun was the difference between the two teams taking on the demeaning treasure hunt, but really the part of that I found most adorable was how excited Ed, Rose, and Katy got when they saw they were going to be on a team together. It was like preschool kids seeing their best friends after summer break XD They were probably also the most consistently functional team of 3 on the show.
Episode 3 was where this series really took off for me, with a wonderful lineup of prize, recorded, and studio tasks. It featured my favorite prize task possibly ever -- best weird wooden thing -- and I enjoyed everything that the contestants brought in, from Jo's thing that her daughter made many years earlier in wood shop (and the Greg and Jo banter about age that resulted), David's brother's stick ornament, Ed's horrifying demon thing with real human hair and teeth, Katy's phallus thing that she got from her dad's friend who also offered to buy her a motorbike XD, and even Rose's Colorado carving, which was the least interesting, was fairly neat. Of the recorded tasks, the great one was the one where they were exposed to a bunch of stuff hanging from the ceiling and then had to remember what all of it was (David explaining that he was trying to do a memory palace "but I couldn't remember how to do it" was a highlight XD). And then the studio task with everyone getting a bandolier with test tubes of liquids that they had to use to fill a glass with water was also fantastic -- one of my favorite studio tasks, because it's simple but neat and apparently quite difficult.
S9E4 was another really fun episode. I liked Ed's confetti canon party pants idea (Katy: "How sensitive is it? Does it go off very easily?"), and as befits a prize task around "best way to celebrate on stage", the celebration at the end of the episode by Rose was definitely my favorite TM episode winner celebration, with her cutting the red ribbon, popping the cracker in the most suggestive manner possible, and swanning off in the scooter-bus -- amazing XD The other highlight of the prize task was Greg doing the meerkat pose while making fun of Rose's pronunciation of "mayor"; I don't find Rose's accent all that funny, but Greg doing the meerkat post is HILARIOUS. This was the episode with two of the most memorable tasks in the series -- the recreated board game and the water feature. The team board game takes were not as transcendent as the video game ones in series 7, but I liked both Jo and David's Operation (with real kidney) and the team of 3's Buckaroo (which I'm not familiar with as a game, but Katy and Rose loading up Ed the donkey to "howdy pardner" patter was FUN), and I was glad they got equal points. The best part of this task, though, was Ed arguing with Greg and Alex about points in the studio: after Alex cited some stats about the spring sensitivity levels of the original game and Ed burst out with, "I've got three sensitivity levels, and I'll be honest, I'm on my top fucking one right now!" after Greg was complaining that his donkey did not buck randomly enough. For the water feature, I had seen Ed's mermaid in the Taskmaster vids without context, but it was fun to see the full task; Greg called it "one of the most triumphant things I've seen", but my favorite bit was actually Alex's alarmed little "Ed!" when Ed walks off at the end of the task and leaves him there, mermaidified XD I didn't think David's take deserved 4 points; the water feature aspect of it was just a hose, and the rest had been completely upstaged by Ed's take on a similar idea, but I did find Greg teasing him about the homoeroticism of the scene with Alex really funny (Greg: "Oh no, looks like my top has fallen off as well. Whatever will our wives think...") Finally, I was both amazed and amused that Alex had anticipated Ed's smart-alec response to say a letter of the alphabet ("a letter of the alphabet") in response to the alphabetical tray task, and had a second task envelope to give him to make him properly pick a letter.
My favorite thing about episode 5 was Ed losing his shit in the studio, HAHA, including the following bits: When Jo said the team of three had had an unfair advantage in the truth-lie-brag task because the truths, lies, and brags always fell on the same person, and Ed shouted, "That's not why you didn't have a system! You didn't have a system because you walked in, didn't give a fuck, and then left again!" -- which was an extremely just summary XD And then, after the studio task, when Ed was still very worked up, he had the following exchange with Kerry Godliman, who was subbing for Katy Wix: Ed: "I've had a very rough episode." Kerry: "You've had a full-blown tantrum." Ed: "You're not even IN this show!" It's a good thing it turnes out that I find watching Ed deliver outraged tirades about Taskmaster results VERY entertaining XD
Episode 6 had another one of my favorite tasks in the series, the "serenade yourself" one, the highlights of which for me were Rose's rose puns, and also DAMN Ed Gamble can belt! and I was also suitably surprised by Jo's youthspeak rap. The bar sliding studio task was also really fun, and I thought it was nice that Katherine Ryan, subbing for Katy, won the studio task on her behalf.
Episode 7 may be one of my favorites in this series just for general chaos and madness. The prize task was conducive to that, because it was best stolen thing, and I particularly enjoyed the TM-connected ones, i.e. Ed stealing a bunch of shit from Greg's house while Greg was in his hot tub (inflatable hot tub, keeping it real XD), and even better, Katy's stolen TM trophy from Kerry Godliman's garage (smuggled out in a cat carrier XD) -- I guess good thing this was AFTER Kerry's appearance on the show as a sub. Then there was the throwing-egg-for-points task and the quibbling about whether the egg is just the thing inside or also the shell (Greg to David, "I put it to you that the shell is part of the egg, and you are not an egg liberator. The egg is not living inside its evil shell prison." -- but then David cracking the egg while sitting in the chair and then going to release it did end up getting counted, so I guess that hack worked). Another mad highlight was the getting rings on a pole one, specifically Alex's face when Katy and Jo were getting the ring off his finger with their mouths. And then of course the glorious conclusion that was the horse-or-laminator studio task and Jo managing to get 13 series points by guessing horse or laminator correctly 13 times in a row. (It came up when Jo was a guest on the podcast and she cited the odds of that happening that someone had calculated, which were impressively minuscule, obviously.)
S9E8: I was amused that Greg continued to give Jo nonconsensual higher points with the prize task XD -- it's an interesting dynamic there. Also, a great quote from Greg: "For these physical challenges we've given you a tricky thing to do, and then for you personally we set the additional challenge of being David Baddiel." This was a very sound-oriented episode, and I really enjoyed both of the sound-oriented tasks, writing and performing lyrics for the Tasmkaster tune (Rose's yee-haw song absolutely deserved to win, but I also giggled at Katy's lyrics and got earwormed by Ed-as-a-baby going "wa-wa-wa") and sound mixing for the silent short (the team of three was great, especially Ed's horn noise and quacking, but I also appreciated David's score -- nicely divergent takes on the task, and I enjoyed both).
Episode 9 was another really fun one. The spy communication task shook things up a bit,because David and Jo excelled at it, while Ed and Rose don't really do subtle and managed to get fewer points than Katy in her hi-vis vest XD Another fun moment for me was actually studio interaction -- in the balloon popping task, when it turned out that Jo had missed one and the audience let out a sympathetic "ooh", and Jo went: "Fuck off! Sorry. I mean thanks." My favorite part of the episode, however, was the studio task, which had me weeping with laughter. It's a pretty good task, with team members having to draw on each other's backs to "pass on" a picture in a sort of visual telephone, but 99% of the hilarity was due to Ed being paired with David (since the team of three had the harder task of two passes), and getting the most amazing expressions and shouting out of it. And, wow, rough episode for Ed all around, what with him also offering as the "smooth desirable thing" prize task the privileges of waxing his chest on stage (which David, who won this episode, took him up on), and he'd also shaved his knees for the joints-as-a-famous-couple task, with predictably bloody results.
I actually don't have anything specific to say about the last episode, except that I'm glad Ed won -- I was definitely rooting for him, and not just because he so clearly cared more about winning than, well, probably any other contestant ever, or at least more obviously so.
Then it was down to the final series, Series 12. I wasn't sure at first how I would feel about this bunch -- nobody in the first episode really grabbed me as much as in some of my favorite series, but as the season wore on, I found myself really enjoying this cohort! spoilers!
I did have a strong favorite emerge -- I had a LOT of fun watching Victoria being eloquent and authoritarian to the same degree whether she was absolutely vanquishing the tasks because they played to her strength or being awful at them -- I just appreciated how, as Desiree put it and Greg agreed, she brought an "unflappable authority" to everything. My favorite Victoria moments included her being amazing and amazingly poised during the "gross things in doggy bags" task (especially as contrasted with Desiree); Victoria learning to ride a bike for a task and asking to keep going once the task was completely, because she'd started finding it fun; Victoria being the only person to actually pop the balloon without resorting to the scissors; Victoria saying, "As you can see from that, I don't fear death. In fact, the longer this series goes on, the more I yearn for it." and "I was starting to find your [Greg and Alex's] relationship quite erotic" (but Alex cracking his finger ruined it). I was also just generally amused by Victoria's air of presenting all her quirks so matter-of-factly that, as Greg pointed out, everyone else was starting to feel like they were the weird ones for not carrying flapjacks in their purse or whatever. I could basically watch Victoria doing anything for hours and hours. I also was all awww about Victoria forgetting her glasses for many tasks where she really could've used having better vision; like I believe she genuinely couldn't tell the chair was a chair from the tower, so it wasn't quite a "am I the spider?" moment, but close. I'm glad Greg allowed the circle to be a chair. Speaking of "am I the spider", I kept reflecting on how, while there was some surface similarity in how Katherine (on s11) and Victoria (here) were both poised, elegant women who both ended up trailing the other contestants very badly, I did not find Katherine particularly entertaining to watch -- I felt sorry for her more than anything -- but I loved watching Victoria and never felt sorry for her, just because her air continued to be, "Perhaps the rest of you idiots can't see it, but I'm obviously right", which is MUCH more entertaining.
My next favorite was Desiree, who was just hugely charming. I liked both her take on the tasks -- I liked a lot of her performances and thought Greg should've scored a number of her entries higher -- and just her general demeanor, like the way she couldn't get over how silly some of the tasks were, and kept saying things like "You guys are dumb" and "You guys are so stupid" after reading her tasks. She was an early favorite of mine after her showing in the balloon popping task, when she at last resorted to throwing a shower of forks and then the scissors at the balloon and it STILL didn't work until later (in general that was an interesting task, where it was clearly the optimal strategy to just take the penalty of the scissors without trying anything else first). My other favorite Desiree performances were her crab sticks jingle, which was genuinely amazing; her proposal to Alex (that was a great task overall, and I'll talk about it some more later, but hers was actually my favorite and I thought she should've scored higher); and her command performance in the talking on the phone task.
I had thought that Guz was going to be one of those contestants I wasn't going to like much -- a big guy who is sort of rough, like Jamali on s11 or Asim back in series 6, but actually by the end of the show he might've been my third favorite overall, because he proved to be oddly sweet and quirky in a different way than I had expected, like a sweet really supportive guy, and also I was amused by his worry about ghost nuns and completely giving up on the seemingly-impossible studio drawing task ("I'm just writing messages to my friends now"). He's definitely the one who grew on me the most from beginning to end, since both Desiree and Victoria I liked quite a lot from near the start.
I felt like Morgana sometimes got higher scores than I would've given her, and so I'm kind of surprised by her win (though it was SUCH a close series! it really could've been anyone winning except Victoria), but I did find her fun, especially when she was clapping her hands and going "Again! again! again!" toddler fashion after the forks-in-buckets studio task. And she just seemed to be really delighted by the proceedings, and to be having a great time, which was lovely to see.
Finally, Alan was kind of quieter/lower key than Victoria and the kiddies, but he seemed really sweet, and I very much enjoyed his team dynamic with Victoria, who I'm assuming is not actually an easy team partner XD Even in the task that Victoria was aces at, the code-breaking, where she clearly did not expect Alan to have anything useful to contribute, but he bore that with good graces and contributed anyway. (After she solved the task essentially on her own, which Alex said he didn't think it was possible, Victoria's "It was very much a task drawn from the world of the customized inhaler" made me smile a lot.) And their preparation for the multisport team task was way funnier than the resulting commentary itself, with Victoria saying to Alan, "You watch sports, can you distill what's interesting about watching it", which he then proceeds meekly to do XD -- Greg's point that "sometimes you sound like a robot who's learning to be a human" was 100% aligned with my own thoughts on that, and it was delightful. In fact, where is my "android!Victoria & patient human!Alan" fic at?
When I did my write-up of series 5 and mentioned how uch I enjoyed the less competitive, fluffier, gang-of-friends feeling of that cast, qwentoozla said series 12 was kind of like that, too, and now that I've seen it, I completely agree! Actually, I think s12 might be the most like that of any series -- they were such a sweet bunch! They were always backing each other up in studio tasks, like Guz encouraging Morgana to keep going in balloon darts roulette and Victoria telling Guz to "think it through" when he was going to throw another dart (and, sure, that could be someone trying to sabotage a competitor, but it really didn't feel like that). Because also there was Guz advising Victoria on how to make paper airplanes in a studio taks, and them standing up for each other against Greg, like when Morgana admitted she could see a little bit past the blindfold ("if you saddled the horse wrong, don't blame the horse") and Greg joked that she's disqualified, Victoria jumps in with a strident "No!" before Greg has a chance to explain he was kidding. And they got really excited at each other's prize submissions, like Morgana gasping in delight when Desiree's air dancer was unveiled (for "most agnifiscent floppy thing"), and Guz whooped to cheer when it got awarded 5 points. But of course the clearest example of this was in the "gift for another contestant task", with Desiree's AMAZING gift, commissioning a portrait of Guz's dream dog wearing a puffy coat in his signature style. Guz: "That is incredible! Just give her the five points now." Greg or Alex point out that Guz only has a one in five chance of taking it home, which prompts the following heartwarming exchange:
Morgana: "If I win it, I'll give it to you."
Guz: "Would you?"
M: "Of course!"
Greg: "Stop being nice!"
Alan: "Me too, Guz."
Guz: "We have defeated the format of your show."
So, yeah, a super sweet bunch!
The tasks that stood out for me, among the recorded tasks, was the "propose to Alex" one. I LOVED Desiree's song ("If you got mad and killed a guy/I would be your alibi/Would you marry me, Alex/'Cos I don't have a gag reflex" to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), was duly amused by Guz's "offer you can't refuse" proposal, smiled at Alan's cow dowry and Morgana's mermaid, and was both aww at Victoria feeling weird about proposing to someone because she is so besotted with her actual husband and was amused at her insisting Alex would have to take her surname (but only the Coren part) -- really fun task all around! (Her immediately calling the canopy a chuppah made me look her up on Wikipedia and I guess her father is Jewish, which probably explains that.) And speaking of recorded tasks: OK, was the "sit on a cake" task inspired by Liza Tarbuck? XD I thought this group was, collectively, really good at prize tasks, and also got some nice categories to work with, like "most ridiculous thin thing" (I think Desiree's dissolving trunks deserved to win, but I was impressed how Victoria railroaded Greg into giving her 5 points on most ridiculous thin thing by submitting the same thing she'd made for "elegant thing beginning with g", which Greg had ridiculed). And the studio tasks were also a lot of fun with this bunch. The final studio task with the noises, the monster part was funny enough that I laughed until I cried, especially at Greg's "No disrespect... Desiree" guess after Morgana's awful monster noise.
So, yeah, a very enjoyable final series!
I then went back and watched the two episodes of the Champion of Champions, and discovered that I'd actualy seen two of the tasks before, in highlight reels/full task clips before I started watching the show properly -- the "blowing things off the table" task and the "open this briefcase" task, I just didn't realize they were from the CoC because at that point I hadn't watched any series and so did not realize the five people appearing together weren't just a lineup from some regular series. Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect from the CoC, because a big part of the show's fun for me is how the different personalities of the five contestants contrast through the tasks, and usually the most entertaining ones are not the ones who go on to win (although there have been a few exceptions, like Liza Tarbuck and Ed Gamble and I would say Josh as well, from this actual group of series). Anyway, so I wasn't sure how interesting it would be to watch a cohort of champions, who presumably would be all competent.
Fortunately, spoilers! Bob Mortimer seemed entirely uninterested in competing, and just did weird zany stuff (like the ping-pong ball on his face and flaming head, which I'd been wondering how I'd missed that when I saw it in some of the Taskmaster vids, because I keep forgetting Bob was part of the CoC) and creating a huge mess and then walking off for the "create a mess and clean it up" task, so that injected some variety, as did Noel being Noel (i.e. archly artsy and prettily draped on things, while also demonstrating a surprising degree of sportiness), which was also different from the three people who seemed to actually be competing to win. (I keep having to remind myself that both Bob and Noel are champions, because I remember, well, most people, actually, as stronger competitors from series 4, and series 5 was just a very weird cohort where Nish and Mark failed/flailed entertainingly, Bob and Sally were clearly just having a good time which only occasionally aligned with the aims of the tasks at hand, and Aisling -- huh, I guess she never won an episode, but I don't remember her being universally bad at things like Nish, so she must've been inconsistent). Anyway, of the five CoC contestants, the only one who was actually a favorite, or even one of the top 3 favorites on their own series for me was Josh (I liked Katherine, but I liked Jon, Doc, and Richard more; I liked Noel, but I liked Joe Lycett, Hugh, and Mel more; I liked Bob, but I liked Mark, Nish, and Sally more; and Rob I straight up had not liked on series 3, though I'd be hard-pressed to pick a top 3 for that series at all, having only liked Sara and occasionally Dave Gorman on that one). Anyway, long story short, I was happy to see Josh again, doing his old "put-upon Hobbit" thing, which I do find adorable, and I was glad that he won. I did know up front that he'd won, because the vids had included a clip of him jamming his one-off karate trophy onto the giant golden body of Greg Davies, so it wasn't that I was in suspense, but I was happy for Josh. And I hadn't realized how close it had been, with only one point separating Josh from runner-up Rob; definitely happy it wasn't Rob that won, since he was my least favorite of the five by a large margin. (Note to self, order was Josh, Rob, Katherine, Noel, Bob.)
My favorite tasks in this were the edible mask making one, especially Alex nibbling on Josh's mask (while Josh was wearing it) of Alex's own face, while Josh wriggled uncomfortably, but everyone's masks were amazing; and the "make and tidy up a mess" one. I enjoyed watching Noel and Josh tidying up very nicely, and Noel saying that he likes tidying up and Greg saying to Josh, "I fantasized about you coming to live with me" (Josh: "During which part?" "Both"), Bob just making a mess and walking off, and Katherine's more metaphorical take and Josh's reactions to the lies she was telling her family, as well as the fact that her father was like, pull the other one, and apparently her sister just lied right back to her.
Finally, I watched the last bit of Taskmaster yet left to me: New Year Treat Two/2022 (spoilers) -- the one-off format is definitely a lot less satisfying to me, 'cos I do feel like it's just not enough time to get to know these people, and since I don't know any of them up front, I don't get the "serious celebrity doing very silly things" return on investment out of it. But it was still a reasonably fun time. I enjoyed the "drink all the vinegar" task especially, people drinking elderflower flavored things even when they knew it wasn't vinegar (I mean, why wouldn't you), Adrian managing to sniff it out, and especially Jonnie trying pH and then finding the number 85 which led him straight to the correct shot -- but spilling the shot and losing time to have to fetch a straw to then slurp it up off the table -- a lot of dramatic tension! And also Sayeeda's hilarious studio response: "I've watched a fascinating documentary about vinegars" and questioning the legal definition of vinegar and vowing to challenge the ruling. It was a very decisive win for Adrian, who did seem to be putting himself on the line adequately, what with crawling to the egg cup on his knees on concrete with an egg in his mouth while not wearing any trousers, so I couldn't begrudge him the win, but he was such a low-key contestant, I was also not cheering for him. My favorite, even though we saw the least of him because he had to be repped by a substitute in the studio (Alan Davis, whom I was pleased to see again) was Jonnie Peacock, who completely won me over with the amazing drama and physicality of the egg task, even though he was disqualified for breaking the egg (I feel like he should've gotten a bonus point for that! the drama was off the scale compared to all the others). Like I said, I didn't know who any of these people were before, and when I looked up Jonnie (after watching the egg task), I was surprised to learn he was a Paralympian -- I had no idea from watching him run around in the credits or during the task that he was an amputee. Anyway, I really liked his sense of style, and would've loved to see more tasks with him, and wish he'd been at the studio for additional screentime. Even with the limited screentime, I think he was my favorite of this lot, followed by Sayeeda (but with her, a lot of the fun was the contrast between the silliness and knowing she was a member of the House of Lords and like a serious person in general).
Now that I'm done with the whole show, I feel like I should try to rank the series, or at least list my favorite series and contestants.
series 7, series 11 -- top favorite series, which included an all-time-favorite contestant and 2 or more other contestants I liked a lot (Rhod + James + Phil (+ Kerry), Mike + Lee + Sarah (+ Charlotte))
series 12, series 9, series 4, series 2, series 5 -- series that included either a really fun cohort taken as a whole and/or two or more contestants I liked a lot (Victoria + overall cohort dynamic; Ed + overall dynamic (+ Jo), Joe + Hugh (+ Mel), Jon + Doc (+ Richard), Nish + Mark + cohort)
series 6 -- included one of my all-time favorite contestants (Liza)
series 1 -- included one contestant I liked a fair bit and was invested in (Josh)
series 8 -- included one contestant I was invested in and found entertaining (Iain) and some fun dynamics
series 10 -- included one contestant I found really entertaining (Mawan)
series 3 -- included one contestant I mildly liked (Sara)
Favorite contestants (not ranked past the first two, just in the order they occurred to me): Mike Wozniak, Rhod Gilbert, Nish Kumar, James Acaster, Liza Tarbuck, Joe Lycett, Ed Gamble, Victoria Coren Mitchell -- this ended up being "people I would watch doing nonsense for an hour if there was nobody else on the show"
Other contestants I liked quite a lot: Phil Wang, Lee Mack, Sarah Kendall, Jo Brand, Hug Dennis, Mel Giedroyc, Jon Richardson, Doc Brown, Richard Osman, Mark Watson, Josh Widdicombe, Iain Stirling, Mawan Rizwan
(of course, these may shift as I get more distance from the series I most recently watched, or revisit the series I watched less recently via the podcast. Because:
I've also continued to listen to the podcast -- at this point I've listened to the first 33 episodes (series 10, 11, the first New Year Treat, and series 1 and 2 retrospectives) and have now been listening to series 12 while it's fresh in my brain, though I haven't made it very far yet.
This means I finished up the podcast-as-it-aired series 11 episodes, which were a great opportunity to hear more from the people I had really enjoyed, the contestants theselves. The episode for s11e5, the special guest was Sarah Kendall, and it was really nice to hang out with her for an hour. Predictably, there were some great quotes from her, like Sarah talking about the sorting-objects-with-face task, where she shared that she kept licking things past the point where she'd identified them, and that the task was a metaphor for the futility of life, "like a Philip Larkin poem". And when Ed pointed to her 19 point lead after episode 5, her response was, "I think the thing we can take away from this is that if you take everything with a joyless seriousness..." And then of course she was back for another episode as the series winner (with the lowest points of any 10-episode-series Taskmaster champion, as Ed unfortunately pointed out to her XD).
The s11e6 episode of the podcast was even more exciting for me, because Mike Wozniak was the special guest, for the episode where his hemorrhoid thing was revealed. Mike was every bit as delightful in conversation with Ed as he was on the show, and this was a lovely bonus addition to the series for me. I giggled several times, including when Mike countered Ed's argument that he should've gotten more than one bonus point for the hemorrhoid with, "Don't encourage me, or before you know it, I'll have a whole anus-based show on Channel 4" (which Ed proceeded to "yes and" with a title suggestion). I was also very amused that the first listener email said the same thing I'd thought in my write-up, that Mike was basically MADE for this show format. (I was also happy to see Mike back on the podcast for the first episode of series 12. More Mike! More Mike!)
I don't have nearly as much to say about the Charlotte episode, except that she continued to come across as an adorable person. Lee's episode was also fun, talking about his kids the superfans and how Taskmaster is therefore dominating his life. Apparently the kid who came up with the "draw a monster from Greg's sequential description" that was a studio task in a past series (8, I think?) He was pretty funny in the chat with Ed, but my favorite bit was him disclosing that he's no longer really a vegan and quipping that it's because he discovered he missed the taste of eggs and wallets.
I then went back to the beginning of the podcast and listened to the series 10 as-it-aired episodes. The reason I had held off till then was that several of the special guests are Ed's fellow series 9 alums, and I knew they were going to talk about their experiences on the show, so I only listened to this series of podcasts after I'd already watched all the Jo Brand, Rose Matafeo, and Katy Wix content -- and it was nice to get to know them in this format, too. Jo continued to be hilarious, very similar to how she was on the show, and Rose and Ed's friendly banter were very cute. A highlight of the series 10 episodes was the one where James Acaster was the special guest and his and Ed's oneupmanship about their respective series, and the adorable news that James still has his hula hoop from the show and was using it for exercise during lockdown. I posted the previous time about how fun it was to listen to the episode with Nish; I also enjoyed getting to the other Richard Osman episode, and the Jessica Knappett was fun, too (I mean, that whole series was really fun, so I think any alums from it are going to make fun guests; three of them have been in episodes I've listened to, and I'm looking forward to getting to Phil Wang (during series 4 episodes), and I hope he gets Rhod on as well at some point, maybe when they get to series 7 in the retrospective). I had not been looking forward to the Paul Chowdhry episode, and I still don't actually find his humour funny, but I did discover that I quite like his impressions, which featured on the podcast a bunch. The only series 10 person to appear on the series 10 podcast was Richard Herring, for episode 10, and eh, I guess I enjoyed the stuff about the "S&M overtones" in his relationship with Greg, but I still don't find him all that interesting. Now the special bonus episode with Greg I really enjoyed! Especially Greg's response to people who complain about his scoring: "you fucking try it", and his answer when Ed asked him about fanfic (he found two on Reddit (???) and read them and was traumatized by them, and marveled at the fact that it isn't just sex between him and Alex that people depict, it's a whole emotional, romantic relationship.
Oh, and somewhere in there there was an Alex bonus fact about what the most disgusting things he's had to eat on the show were, and these were his top 5:
5. Bob Mortimer's face (I assume in CoC, which I hadn't watched at the time)
4. whole key lime pie
3. dog food pasta
2. Ed Gamble's spit (I sincerely doubt it)
1. Lou's burnt porn dust
I'm not deleting my LJ, and I will probably cross-post manually as long as the thing will let me -- I just have too much history here, and too many people who are still using this as their primary online home vs DW. But because I'm worried LJ comments will vanish into the ether at some point, as LJ longevity is kind of concerning at the moment, I would ask that if you're reading both your LJ and DW flists, at this point I'd prefer comments on the DW post (which is the opposite of how I felt before). But if you have a preference for commenting on LJ, that's fine too.
I hadn't been able to get anything useful to import to DW in weeks of intermittent trying, but after a couple of false starts, I did manage to back up the last year of my LJ on BlogBooker (the free version goes back a year). I'm not thrilled with the way it handles comments -- maybe it's that I'm using the old format, but the backup stripped out all the line-breaks. But it keeps links as footnotes, and a (low quality, on the free account) copies of pictures, and at least the content and threading of the comments are preserved. I do have most of them in email, but not along with the post, and not all together.
And then I read on my flist that a couple of folks had been able to import comments to DW and redoubled my efforts, trying every couple of hours, basically. For the first couple of days I could import minor things, and then it inevitably choked on entries, but Tuesday evening it actually worked!! It took like 3 hours to import entries (even though there were not that many, only about two months worth), and then another several hours to import comments, but it worked!
People who are leaving LJ are posting about how they're doing it after almost 20 years on the site. I'm just a little over 18, which is still a very long time. And I got my Permanent Account on Dec 16, 2008. So, 13 years and change, and it's definitely paid for itself -- it was $175 at the time, and I've certainly been using my full set of icons the entire time since then, so it's probably paid for itself twice. But when I bought it, I was definitely thinking in terms of staying around for the long haul, and I guess 13 years is pretty long haul by internet standards, but I wasn't expecting any of this to turn out the way it has...
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I have finished watching the entirety of Taskmaster (which it looks like took me a month and a half XD). I do still have a bunch of the podcast left, and I guess series 13 will be happening some time this spring, so there's that to look forward to. Meanwhile, thoughts on the last two seasons I watched and the various odds and ends:
I had left series 9 almost to the end because I couldn't find it on YouTube, but between a source through other fans and Amazon Prime for the couple episodes that were missing at said source, I was able to watch the whole thing, and it was great fun! Like, I can't think of any individual moments that I would list as great highlights the way I would for some top favorite series, but the whole thing just felt like a continuous note of joyful chaos, and I think collectively this is one of my favorite contestant casts, even though even my favorite (Ed Gamble) would not be among my top 5 favorite contestants ever -- just the way the whole thing comes together has a very fun vibe, with the whole truly greater than the sum of its parts, tasks, moments, or individuals. Part of which I think is a particularly fun rapport with Alex and Greg, I think mainly courtesy of Ed. spoilers!
Like I said, Ed was my favorite, and not just because I already knew him from the podcast at this point -- in fact, he felt quite different as a contestant on the show than the calm, wry person I'd gotten to see through the podcast XD It was adorable the way Ed got excited by every little variation on how the tasks were presented or just the hint that something unusual was about to happen, and then of course there was all the arguing about points with Greg in the studio (which it sounds from the podcast like there was a lot more of, that didn't make the final cut XD) and sometimes other contestants as well -- it was very funny, and a definitely highlight of the series for me. Rose was adorable and I loved her little frustrated/triumphant noises; I liked Katy's contrasting calm and subtler humour, and David just generally being a failboat, but my second favorite contestant was Jo Brand. Like, back in the very first series I watched, s6, I said that one of the reasons I liked Liza Tarbuck as much as I did is that she had no fucks to give, but Jo is a masterclass in fucks deficit, and it was very funny, especially contrasted with Ed taking the whole thing ULTRA SERIOUSLY.
When I watch these typically, I just keep a running list of funny bits/quotes/things I want to remark on. In this case, because I was watching episodes scattered among several different sources, I wrote down notes on an episode by episode basis, so I could keep track of which I still needed to find, so I'm going to do my write-up that way as well.
The first two episodes of the series were lower key for me. In e1, I enjoyed David and the aubergines,Jo Brand as Henry VIII and Rose as a hedge, and I liked Katy's cult, but other than that, the only thing I wrote down is that NZ apparently uses Roy G. Biv for the rainbow as well (like the US does), and that this is not a thing known in Britain, or at least Greg was puzzled by it. In e2, I liked the "find Alex in these bins" task, just the way it was set up, and it was the first time Ed and Alex interacted on the show, and I found their interaction really cute. Also fun was the difference between the two teams taking on the demeaning treasure hunt, but really the part of that I found most adorable was how excited Ed, Rose, and Katy got when they saw they were going to be on a team together. It was like preschool kids seeing their best friends after summer break XD They were probably also the most consistently functional team of 3 on the show.
Episode 3 was where this series really took off for me, with a wonderful lineup of prize, recorded, and studio tasks. It featured my favorite prize task possibly ever -- best weird wooden thing -- and I enjoyed everything that the contestants brought in, from Jo's thing that her daughter made many years earlier in wood shop (and the Greg and Jo banter about age that resulted), David's brother's stick ornament, Ed's horrifying demon thing with real human hair and teeth, Katy's phallus thing that she got from her dad's friend who also offered to buy her a motorbike XD, and even Rose's Colorado carving, which was the least interesting, was fairly neat. Of the recorded tasks, the great one was the one where they were exposed to a bunch of stuff hanging from the ceiling and then had to remember what all of it was (David explaining that he was trying to do a memory palace "but I couldn't remember how to do it" was a highlight XD). And then the studio task with everyone getting a bandolier with test tubes of liquids that they had to use to fill a glass with water was also fantastic -- one of my favorite studio tasks, because it's simple but neat and apparently quite difficult.
S9E4 was another really fun episode. I liked Ed's confetti canon party pants idea (Katy: "How sensitive is it? Does it go off very easily?"), and as befits a prize task around "best way to celebrate on stage", the celebration at the end of the episode by Rose was definitely my favorite TM episode winner celebration, with her cutting the red ribbon, popping the cracker in the most suggestive manner possible, and swanning off in the scooter-bus -- amazing XD The other highlight of the prize task was Greg doing the meerkat pose while making fun of Rose's pronunciation of "mayor"; I don't find Rose's accent all that funny, but Greg doing the meerkat post is HILARIOUS. This was the episode with two of the most memorable tasks in the series -- the recreated board game and the water feature. The team board game takes were not as transcendent as the video game ones in series 7, but I liked both Jo and David's Operation (with real kidney) and the team of 3's Buckaroo (which I'm not familiar with as a game, but Katy and Rose loading up Ed the donkey to "howdy pardner" patter was FUN), and I was glad they got equal points. The best part of this task, though, was Ed arguing with Greg and Alex about points in the studio: after Alex cited some stats about the spring sensitivity levels of the original game and Ed burst out with, "I've got three sensitivity levels, and I'll be honest, I'm on my top fucking one right now!" after Greg was complaining that his donkey did not buck randomly enough. For the water feature, I had seen Ed's mermaid in the Taskmaster vids without context, but it was fun to see the full task; Greg called it "one of the most triumphant things I've seen", but my favorite bit was actually Alex's alarmed little "Ed!" when Ed walks off at the end of the task and leaves him there, mermaidified XD I didn't think David's take deserved 4 points; the water feature aspect of it was just a hose, and the rest had been completely upstaged by Ed's take on a similar idea, but I did find Greg teasing him about the homoeroticism of the scene with Alex really funny (Greg: "Oh no, looks like my top has fallen off as well. Whatever will our wives think...") Finally, I was both amazed and amused that Alex had anticipated Ed's smart-alec response to say a letter of the alphabet ("a letter of the alphabet") in response to the alphabetical tray task, and had a second task envelope to give him to make him properly pick a letter.
My favorite thing about episode 5 was Ed losing his shit in the studio, HAHA, including the following bits: When Jo said the team of three had had an unfair advantage in the truth-lie-brag task because the truths, lies, and brags always fell on the same person, and Ed shouted, "That's not why you didn't have a system! You didn't have a system because you walked in, didn't give a fuck, and then left again!" -- which was an extremely just summary XD And then, after the studio task, when Ed was still very worked up, he had the following exchange with Kerry Godliman, who was subbing for Katy Wix: Ed: "I've had a very rough episode." Kerry: "You've had a full-blown tantrum." Ed: "You're not even IN this show!" It's a good thing it turnes out that I find watching Ed deliver outraged tirades about Taskmaster results VERY entertaining XD
Episode 6 had another one of my favorite tasks in the series, the "serenade yourself" one, the highlights of which for me were Rose's rose puns, and also DAMN Ed Gamble can belt! and I was also suitably surprised by Jo's youthspeak rap. The bar sliding studio task was also really fun, and I thought it was nice that Katherine Ryan, subbing for Katy, won the studio task on her behalf.
Episode 7 may be one of my favorites in this series just for general chaos and madness. The prize task was conducive to that, because it was best stolen thing, and I particularly enjoyed the TM-connected ones, i.e. Ed stealing a bunch of shit from Greg's house while Greg was in his hot tub (inflatable hot tub, keeping it real XD), and even better, Katy's stolen TM trophy from Kerry Godliman's garage (smuggled out in a cat carrier XD) -- I guess good thing this was AFTER Kerry's appearance on the show as a sub. Then there was the throwing-egg-for-points task and the quibbling about whether the egg is just the thing inside or also the shell (Greg to David, "I put it to you that the shell is part of the egg, and you are not an egg liberator. The egg is not living inside its evil shell prison." -- but then David cracking the egg while sitting in the chair and then going to release it did end up getting counted, so I guess that hack worked). Another mad highlight was the getting rings on a pole one, specifically Alex's face when Katy and Jo were getting the ring off his finger with their mouths. And then of course the glorious conclusion that was the horse-or-laminator studio task and Jo managing to get 13 series points by guessing horse or laminator correctly 13 times in a row. (It came up when Jo was a guest on the podcast and she cited the odds of that happening that someone had calculated, which were impressively minuscule, obviously.)
S9E8: I was amused that Greg continued to give Jo nonconsensual higher points with the prize task XD -- it's an interesting dynamic there. Also, a great quote from Greg: "For these physical challenges we've given you a tricky thing to do, and then for you personally we set the additional challenge of being David Baddiel." This was a very sound-oriented episode, and I really enjoyed both of the sound-oriented tasks, writing and performing lyrics for the Tasmkaster tune (Rose's yee-haw song absolutely deserved to win, but I also giggled at Katy's lyrics and got earwormed by Ed-as-a-baby going "wa-wa-wa") and sound mixing for the silent short (the team of three was great, especially Ed's horn noise and quacking, but I also appreciated David's score -- nicely divergent takes on the task, and I enjoyed both).
Episode 9 was another really fun one. The spy communication task shook things up a bit,because David and Jo excelled at it, while Ed and Rose don't really do subtle and managed to get fewer points than Katy in her hi-vis vest XD Another fun moment for me was actually studio interaction -- in the balloon popping task, when it turned out that Jo had missed one and the audience let out a sympathetic "ooh", and Jo went: "Fuck off! Sorry. I mean thanks." My favorite part of the episode, however, was the studio task, which had me weeping with laughter. It's a pretty good task, with team members having to draw on each other's backs to "pass on" a picture in a sort of visual telephone, but 99% of the hilarity was due to Ed being paired with David (since the team of three had the harder task of two passes), and getting the most amazing expressions and shouting out of it. And, wow, rough episode for Ed all around, what with him also offering as the "smooth desirable thing" prize task the privileges of waxing his chest on stage (which David, who won this episode, took him up on), and he'd also shaved his knees for the joints-as-a-famous-couple task, with predictably bloody results.
I actually don't have anything specific to say about the last episode, except that I'm glad Ed won -- I was definitely rooting for him, and not just because he so clearly cared more about winning than, well, probably any other contestant ever, or at least more obviously so.
Then it was down to the final series, Series 12. I wasn't sure at first how I would feel about this bunch -- nobody in the first episode really grabbed me as much as in some of my favorite series, but as the season wore on, I found myself really enjoying this cohort! spoilers!
I did have a strong favorite emerge -- I had a LOT of fun watching Victoria being eloquent and authoritarian to the same degree whether she was absolutely vanquishing the tasks because they played to her strength or being awful at them -- I just appreciated how, as Desiree put it and Greg agreed, she brought an "unflappable authority" to everything. My favorite Victoria moments included her being amazing and amazingly poised during the "gross things in doggy bags" task (especially as contrasted with Desiree); Victoria learning to ride a bike for a task and asking to keep going once the task was completely, because she'd started finding it fun; Victoria being the only person to actually pop the balloon without resorting to the scissors; Victoria saying, "As you can see from that, I don't fear death. In fact, the longer this series goes on, the more I yearn for it." and "I was starting to find your [Greg and Alex's] relationship quite erotic" (but Alex cracking his finger ruined it). I was also just generally amused by Victoria's air of presenting all her quirks so matter-of-factly that, as Greg pointed out, everyone else was starting to feel like they were the weird ones for not carrying flapjacks in their purse or whatever. I could basically watch Victoria doing anything for hours and hours. I also was all awww about Victoria forgetting her glasses for many tasks where she really could've used having better vision; like I believe she genuinely couldn't tell the chair was a chair from the tower, so it wasn't quite a "am I the spider?" moment, but close. I'm glad Greg allowed the circle to be a chair. Speaking of "am I the spider", I kept reflecting on how, while there was some surface similarity in how Katherine (on s11) and Victoria (here) were both poised, elegant women who both ended up trailing the other contestants very badly, I did not find Katherine particularly entertaining to watch -- I felt sorry for her more than anything -- but I loved watching Victoria and never felt sorry for her, just because her air continued to be, "Perhaps the rest of you idiots can't see it, but I'm obviously right", which is MUCH more entertaining.
My next favorite was Desiree, who was just hugely charming. I liked both her take on the tasks -- I liked a lot of her performances and thought Greg should've scored a number of her entries higher -- and just her general demeanor, like the way she couldn't get over how silly some of the tasks were, and kept saying things like "You guys are dumb" and "You guys are so stupid" after reading her tasks. She was an early favorite of mine after her showing in the balloon popping task, when she at last resorted to throwing a shower of forks and then the scissors at the balloon and it STILL didn't work until later (in general that was an interesting task, where it was clearly the optimal strategy to just take the penalty of the scissors without trying anything else first). My other favorite Desiree performances were her crab sticks jingle, which was genuinely amazing; her proposal to Alex (that was a great task overall, and I'll talk about it some more later, but hers was actually my favorite and I thought she should've scored higher); and her command performance in the talking on the phone task.
I had thought that Guz was going to be one of those contestants I wasn't going to like much -- a big guy who is sort of rough, like Jamali on s11 or Asim back in series 6, but actually by the end of the show he might've been my third favorite overall, because he proved to be oddly sweet and quirky in a different way than I had expected, like a sweet really supportive guy, and also I was amused by his worry about ghost nuns and completely giving up on the seemingly-impossible studio drawing task ("I'm just writing messages to my friends now"). He's definitely the one who grew on me the most from beginning to end, since both Desiree and Victoria I liked quite a lot from near the start.
I felt like Morgana sometimes got higher scores than I would've given her, and so I'm kind of surprised by her win (though it was SUCH a close series! it really could've been anyone winning except Victoria), but I did find her fun, especially when she was clapping her hands and going "Again! again! again!" toddler fashion after the forks-in-buckets studio task. And she just seemed to be really delighted by the proceedings, and to be having a great time, which was lovely to see.
Finally, Alan was kind of quieter/lower key than Victoria and the kiddies, but he seemed really sweet, and I very much enjoyed his team dynamic with Victoria, who I'm assuming is not actually an easy team partner XD Even in the task that Victoria was aces at, the code-breaking, where she clearly did not expect Alan to have anything useful to contribute, but he bore that with good graces and contributed anyway. (After she solved the task essentially on her own, which Alex said he didn't think it was possible, Victoria's "It was very much a task drawn from the world of the customized inhaler" made me smile a lot.) And their preparation for the multisport team task was way funnier than the resulting commentary itself, with Victoria saying to Alan, "You watch sports, can you distill what's interesting about watching it", which he then proceeds meekly to do XD -- Greg's point that "sometimes you sound like a robot who's learning to be a human" was 100% aligned with my own thoughts on that, and it was delightful. In fact, where is my "android!Victoria & patient human!Alan" fic at?
When I did my write-up of series 5 and mentioned how uch I enjoyed the less competitive, fluffier, gang-of-friends feeling of that cast, qwentoozla said series 12 was kind of like that, too, and now that I've seen it, I completely agree! Actually, I think s12 might be the most like that of any series -- they were such a sweet bunch! They were always backing each other up in studio tasks, like Guz encouraging Morgana to keep going in balloon darts roulette and Victoria telling Guz to "think it through" when he was going to throw another dart (and, sure, that could be someone trying to sabotage a competitor, but it really didn't feel like that). Because also there was Guz advising Victoria on how to make paper airplanes in a studio taks, and them standing up for each other against Greg, like when Morgana admitted she could see a little bit past the blindfold ("if you saddled the horse wrong, don't blame the horse") and Greg joked that she's disqualified, Victoria jumps in with a strident "No!" before Greg has a chance to explain he was kidding. And they got really excited at each other's prize submissions, like Morgana gasping in delight when Desiree's air dancer was unveiled (for "most agnifiscent floppy thing"), and Guz whooped to cheer when it got awarded 5 points. But of course the clearest example of this was in the "gift for another contestant task", with Desiree's AMAZING gift, commissioning a portrait of Guz's dream dog wearing a puffy coat in his signature style. Guz: "That is incredible! Just give her the five points now." Greg or Alex point out that Guz only has a one in five chance of taking it home, which prompts the following heartwarming exchange:
Morgana: "If I win it, I'll give it to you."
Guz: "Would you?"
M: "Of course!"
Greg: "Stop being nice!"
Alan: "Me too, Guz."
Guz: "We have defeated the format of your show."
So, yeah, a super sweet bunch!
The tasks that stood out for me, among the recorded tasks, was the "propose to Alex" one. I LOVED Desiree's song ("If you got mad and killed a guy/I would be your alibi/Would you marry me, Alex/'Cos I don't have a gag reflex" to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), was duly amused by Guz's "offer you can't refuse" proposal, smiled at Alan's cow dowry and Morgana's mermaid, and was both aww at Victoria feeling weird about proposing to someone because she is so besotted with her actual husband and was amused at her insisting Alex would have to take her surname (but only the Coren part) -- really fun task all around! (Her immediately calling the canopy a chuppah made me look her up on Wikipedia and I guess her father is Jewish, which probably explains that.) And speaking of recorded tasks: OK, was the "sit on a cake" task inspired by Liza Tarbuck? XD I thought this group was, collectively, really good at prize tasks, and also got some nice categories to work with, like "most ridiculous thin thing" (I think Desiree's dissolving trunks deserved to win, but I was impressed how Victoria railroaded Greg into giving her 5 points on most ridiculous thin thing by submitting the same thing she'd made for "elegant thing beginning with g", which Greg had ridiculed). And the studio tasks were also a lot of fun with this bunch. The final studio task with the noises, the monster part was funny enough that I laughed until I cried, especially at Greg's "No disrespect... Desiree" guess after Morgana's awful monster noise.
So, yeah, a very enjoyable final series!
I then went back and watched the two episodes of the Champion of Champions, and discovered that I'd actualy seen two of the tasks before, in highlight reels/full task clips before I started watching the show properly -- the "blowing things off the table" task and the "open this briefcase" task, I just didn't realize they were from the CoC because at that point I hadn't watched any series and so did not realize the five people appearing together weren't just a lineup from some regular series. Anyway, I wasn't sure what to expect from the CoC, because a big part of the show's fun for me is how the different personalities of the five contestants contrast through the tasks, and usually the most entertaining ones are not the ones who go on to win (although there have been a few exceptions, like Liza Tarbuck and Ed Gamble and I would say Josh as well, from this actual group of series). Anyway, so I wasn't sure how interesting it would be to watch a cohort of champions, who presumably would be all competent.
Fortunately, spoilers! Bob Mortimer seemed entirely uninterested in competing, and just did weird zany stuff (like the ping-pong ball on his face and flaming head, which I'd been wondering how I'd missed that when I saw it in some of the Taskmaster vids, because I keep forgetting Bob was part of the CoC) and creating a huge mess and then walking off for the "create a mess and clean it up" task, so that injected some variety, as did Noel being Noel (i.e. archly artsy and prettily draped on things, while also demonstrating a surprising degree of sportiness), which was also different from the three people who seemed to actually be competing to win. (I keep having to remind myself that both Bob and Noel are champions, because I remember, well, most people, actually, as stronger competitors from series 4, and series 5 was just a very weird cohort where Nish and Mark failed/flailed entertainingly, Bob and Sally were clearly just having a good time which only occasionally aligned with the aims of the tasks at hand, and Aisling -- huh, I guess she never won an episode, but I don't remember her being universally bad at things like Nish, so she must've been inconsistent). Anyway, of the five CoC contestants, the only one who was actually a favorite, or even one of the top 3 favorites on their own series for me was Josh (I liked Katherine, but I liked Jon, Doc, and Richard more; I liked Noel, but I liked Joe Lycett, Hugh, and Mel more; I liked Bob, but I liked Mark, Nish, and Sally more; and Rob I straight up had not liked on series 3, though I'd be hard-pressed to pick a top 3 for that series at all, having only liked Sara and occasionally Dave Gorman on that one). Anyway, long story short, I was happy to see Josh again, doing his old "put-upon Hobbit" thing, which I do find adorable, and I was glad that he won. I did know up front that he'd won, because the vids had included a clip of him jamming his one-off karate trophy onto the giant golden body of Greg Davies, so it wasn't that I was in suspense, but I was happy for Josh. And I hadn't realized how close it had been, with only one point separating Josh from runner-up Rob; definitely happy it wasn't Rob that won, since he was my least favorite of the five by a large margin. (Note to self, order was Josh, Rob, Katherine, Noel, Bob.)
My favorite tasks in this were the edible mask making one, especially Alex nibbling on Josh's mask (while Josh was wearing it) of Alex's own face, while Josh wriggled uncomfortably, but everyone's masks were amazing; and the "make and tidy up a mess" one. I enjoyed watching Noel and Josh tidying up very nicely, and Noel saying that he likes tidying up and Greg saying to Josh, "I fantasized about you coming to live with me" (Josh: "During which part?" "Both"), Bob just making a mess and walking off, and Katherine's more metaphorical take and Josh's reactions to the lies she was telling her family, as well as the fact that her father was like, pull the other one, and apparently her sister just lied right back to her.
Finally, I watched the last bit of Taskmaster yet left to me: New Year Treat Two/2022 (spoilers) -- the one-off format is definitely a lot less satisfying to me, 'cos I do feel like it's just not enough time to get to know these people, and since I don't know any of them up front, I don't get the "serious celebrity doing very silly things" return on investment out of it. But it was still a reasonably fun time. I enjoyed the "drink all the vinegar" task especially, people drinking elderflower flavored things even when they knew it wasn't vinegar (I mean, why wouldn't you), Adrian managing to sniff it out, and especially Jonnie trying pH and then finding the number 85 which led him straight to the correct shot -- but spilling the shot and losing time to have to fetch a straw to then slurp it up off the table -- a lot of dramatic tension! And also Sayeeda's hilarious studio response: "I've watched a fascinating documentary about vinegars" and questioning the legal definition of vinegar and vowing to challenge the ruling. It was a very decisive win for Adrian, who did seem to be putting himself on the line adequately, what with crawling to the egg cup on his knees on concrete with an egg in his mouth while not wearing any trousers, so I couldn't begrudge him the win, but he was such a low-key contestant, I was also not cheering for him. My favorite, even though we saw the least of him because he had to be repped by a substitute in the studio (Alan Davis, whom I was pleased to see again) was Jonnie Peacock, who completely won me over with the amazing drama and physicality of the egg task, even though he was disqualified for breaking the egg (I feel like he should've gotten a bonus point for that! the drama was off the scale compared to all the others). Like I said, I didn't know who any of these people were before, and when I looked up Jonnie (after watching the egg task), I was surprised to learn he was a Paralympian -- I had no idea from watching him run around in the credits or during the task that he was an amputee. Anyway, I really liked his sense of style, and would've loved to see more tasks with him, and wish he'd been at the studio for additional screentime. Even with the limited screentime, I think he was my favorite of this lot, followed by Sayeeda (but with her, a lot of the fun was the contrast between the silliness and knowing she was a member of the House of Lords and like a serious person in general).
Now that I'm done with the whole show, I feel like I should try to rank the series, or at least list my favorite series and contestants.
series 7, series 11 -- top favorite series, which included an all-time-favorite contestant and 2 or more other contestants I liked a lot (Rhod + James + Phil (+ Kerry), Mike + Lee + Sarah (+ Charlotte))
series 12, series 9, series 4, series 2, series 5 -- series that included either a really fun cohort taken as a whole and/or two or more contestants I liked a lot (Victoria + overall cohort dynamic; Ed + overall dynamic (+ Jo), Joe + Hugh (+ Mel), Jon + Doc (+ Richard), Nish + Mark + cohort)
series 6 -- included one of my all-time favorite contestants (Liza)
series 1 -- included one contestant I liked a fair bit and was invested in (Josh)
series 8 -- included one contestant I was invested in and found entertaining (Iain) and some fun dynamics
series 10 -- included one contestant I found really entertaining (Mawan)
series 3 -- included one contestant I mildly liked (Sara)
Favorite contestants (not ranked past the first two, just in the order they occurred to me): Mike Wozniak, Rhod Gilbert, Nish Kumar, James Acaster, Liza Tarbuck, Joe Lycett, Ed Gamble, Victoria Coren Mitchell -- this ended up being "people I would watch doing nonsense for an hour if there was nobody else on the show"
Other contestants I liked quite a lot: Phil Wang, Lee Mack, Sarah Kendall, Jo Brand, Hug Dennis, Mel Giedroyc, Jon Richardson, Doc Brown, Richard Osman, Mark Watson, Josh Widdicombe, Iain Stirling, Mawan Rizwan
(of course, these may shift as I get more distance from the series I most recently watched, or revisit the series I watched less recently via the podcast. Because:
I've also continued to listen to the podcast -- at this point I've listened to the first 33 episodes (series 10, 11, the first New Year Treat, and series 1 and 2 retrospectives) and have now been listening to series 12 while it's fresh in my brain, though I haven't made it very far yet.
This means I finished up the podcast-as-it-aired series 11 episodes, which were a great opportunity to hear more from the people I had really enjoyed, the contestants theselves. The episode for s11e5, the special guest was Sarah Kendall, and it was really nice to hang out with her for an hour. Predictably, there were some great quotes from her, like Sarah talking about the sorting-objects-with-face task, where she shared that she kept licking things past the point where she'd identified them, and that the task was a metaphor for the futility of life, "like a Philip Larkin poem". And when Ed pointed to her 19 point lead after episode 5, her response was, "I think the thing we can take away from this is that if you take everything with a joyless seriousness..." And then of course she was back for another episode as the series winner (with the lowest points of any 10-episode-series Taskmaster champion, as Ed unfortunately pointed out to her XD).
The s11e6 episode of the podcast was even more exciting for me, because Mike Wozniak was the special guest, for the episode where his hemorrhoid thing was revealed. Mike was every bit as delightful in conversation with Ed as he was on the show, and this was a lovely bonus addition to the series for me. I giggled several times, including when Mike countered Ed's argument that he should've gotten more than one bonus point for the hemorrhoid with, "Don't encourage me, or before you know it, I'll have a whole anus-based show on Channel 4" (which Ed proceeded to "yes and" with a title suggestion). I was also very amused that the first listener email said the same thing I'd thought in my write-up, that Mike was basically MADE for this show format. (I was also happy to see Mike back on the podcast for the first episode of series 12. More Mike! More Mike!)
I don't have nearly as much to say about the Charlotte episode, except that she continued to come across as an adorable person. Lee's episode was also fun, talking about his kids the superfans and how Taskmaster is therefore dominating his life. Apparently the kid who came up with the "draw a monster from Greg's sequential description" that was a studio task in a past series (8, I think?) He was pretty funny in the chat with Ed, but my favorite bit was him disclosing that he's no longer really a vegan and quipping that it's because he discovered he missed the taste of eggs and wallets.
I then went back to the beginning of the podcast and listened to the series 10 as-it-aired episodes. The reason I had held off till then was that several of the special guests are Ed's fellow series 9 alums, and I knew they were going to talk about their experiences on the show, so I only listened to this series of podcasts after I'd already watched all the Jo Brand, Rose Matafeo, and Katy Wix content -- and it was nice to get to know them in this format, too. Jo continued to be hilarious, very similar to how she was on the show, and Rose and Ed's friendly banter were very cute. A highlight of the series 10 episodes was the one where James Acaster was the special guest and his and Ed's oneupmanship about their respective series, and the adorable news that James still has his hula hoop from the show and was using it for exercise during lockdown. I posted the previous time about how fun it was to listen to the episode with Nish; I also enjoyed getting to the other Richard Osman episode, and the Jessica Knappett was fun, too (I mean, that whole series was really fun, so I think any alums from it are going to make fun guests; three of them have been in episodes I've listened to, and I'm looking forward to getting to Phil Wang (during series 4 episodes), and I hope he gets Rhod on as well at some point, maybe when they get to series 7 in the retrospective). I had not been looking forward to the Paul Chowdhry episode, and I still don't actually find his humour funny, but I did discover that I quite like his impressions, which featured on the podcast a bunch. The only series 10 person to appear on the series 10 podcast was Richard Herring, for episode 10, and eh, I guess I enjoyed the stuff about the "S&M overtones" in his relationship with Greg, but I still don't find him all that interesting. Now the special bonus episode with Greg I really enjoyed! Especially Greg's response to people who complain about his scoring: "you fucking try it", and his answer when Ed asked him about fanfic (he found two on Reddit (???) and read them and was traumatized by them, and marveled at the fact that it isn't just sex between him and Alex that people depict, it's a whole emotional, romantic relationship.
Oh, and somewhere in there there was an Alex bonus fact about what the most disgusting things he's had to eat on the show were, and these were his top 5:
5. Bob Mortimer's face (I assume in CoC, which I hadn't watched at the time)
4. whole key lime pie
3. dog food pasta
2. Ed Gamble's spit (I sincerely doubt it)
1. Lou's burnt porn dust