I've Removed It From Society.
'Riona, how's your resolution not to read Taskmaster fanfiction going?'
We don't need to talk about that. Let's just talk about Taskmaster instead.
To be honest, I physically can't read most Taskmaster fic because it tends to be very smutty, and I can't handle any degree of Taskmaster smut. Alex, although I hugely enjoy him on the show, is an absolute sexual void for me. Greg is undeniably sexy, but, the moment I try to read anything remotely explicit, my mind starts going 'hey, he looks a little like your cousin, right?'
So my resolution not to read Taskmaster fanfiction is actually going fairly well, but it's more because of a specific personal curse than because of any degree of actual willpower.
I have to wonder, though: has anyone written the fic where Alex and Greg bang at Greg's place, unaware of the fact that Rhod is agog in the wardrobe?
ANYWAY, MOVING ON.
I sort of wish they'd given James Acaster one of those pointless individual tasks; he would have exploded.
There's a series seven outtake where Alex unties the contestants who've tied themselves up! I find his interactions with Jess very endearing here.
Riona: I was a little sorry that it didn't include Rhod untying Alex.
RD: It was too erotic.
Riona: I dread to imagine what would be too erotic for Taskmaster.
Lou bursting a water balloon over Alex's head and then saying, 'I'm so sorry... I've done something to your car' absolutely obliterated me. I've never been less prepared for anything in my life.
All three of us genuinely gasped at Lou's unlikely Pan Hoop victory. We get so tense during some of the silly final tasks. I have to wonder: is this sport? Is this the appeal of sport? I never really grasped it until I found myself holding my breath while watching someone throw a frying pan into a hula hoop across a stage.
Iain's interesting. His behaviour in the team tasks is pretty awful, but he's so genuinely embarrassed and remorseful after watching them back that it's hard for me to dislike him.
I tried to make my parents watch Taskmaster, but, alas, they did not take to it. We got through the prize task and one pre-filmed task before my mum rebelled and my dad put on Antiques Road Trip instead.
I'm still really struggling with the question of what to do with all this fannish energy. I really love this show! I keep having the 'you're in love with a thing, you should be putting that energy into writing fic!' impulse, but I genuinely don't think I'm capable of writing fanfiction for Taskmaster; I can't envision it at all.
Riona: I'm enjoying Joe Thomas, but I'm worried about him. I think I'm programmed to like him because he looks a little like my brother and has the same name.
RD: he seems like he needs a hug but also he could murder someone at any moment.
Alex looks so startled and delighted when Greg calls him 'big boy'.
I was puzzled and alarmed by Alex apparently eating dust out of a dustpan in thingswithwings' fanvid 'my body is your body', and then I hit the 'make the most delicious dust' task and went 'ohhhh, of course, it's not actually dust', and then Lou forced him to eat ACTUAL ASHES.
Alex is truly dedicated to his craft. He doesn't go 'that's not delicious, it's ash, I don't need to eat it to know that'. He's going to eat it, because what if it turns out that ash actually is delicious? What if someone else tries to feed him something even worse later on, and he needs to be able to compare?
Of course Lou made out with the trophy over the credits.
Hiding the aubergines is an INCREDIBLE start to series nine.
There's something terrifying about the tasks where Alex ends up coming after you, whether it's to find you or to untie you or to score a goal or to locate aubergines. He seems so unstoppable, somehow. (Rhod Gilbert did slightly impair this impression by stopping him.)
We're two episodes into series nine, and it's making me laugh more than series eight did, but that's not an indictment of series eight, which still made me laugh a lot! There's so much debate over which series of Taskmaster are better than others, but it feels like a pointless distinction to make when they range from 'I'm laughing enough to give myself a headache' at the high end of the scale to 'I'm merely having a great time' at the low end.
We don't need to talk about that. Let's just talk about Taskmaster instead.
To be honest, I physically can't read most Taskmaster fic because it tends to be very smutty, and I can't handle any degree of Taskmaster smut. Alex, although I hugely enjoy him on the show, is an absolute sexual void for me. Greg is undeniably sexy, but, the moment I try to read anything remotely explicit, my mind starts going 'hey, he looks a little like your cousin, right?'
So my resolution not to read Taskmaster fanfiction is actually going fairly well, but it's more because of a specific personal curse than because of any degree of actual willpower.
I have to wonder, though: has anyone written the fic where Alex and Greg bang at Greg's place, unaware of the fact that Rhod is agog in the wardrobe?
ANYWAY, MOVING ON.
I sort of wish they'd given James Acaster one of those pointless individual tasks; he would have exploded.
There's a series seven outtake where Alex unties the contestants who've tied themselves up! I find his interactions with Jess very endearing here.
Riona: I was a little sorry that it didn't include Rhod untying Alex.
RD: It was too erotic.
Riona: I dread to imagine what would be too erotic for Taskmaster.
Lou bursting a water balloon over Alex's head and then saying, 'I'm so sorry... I've done something to your car' absolutely obliterated me. I've never been less prepared for anything in my life.
All three of us genuinely gasped at Lou's unlikely Pan Hoop victory. We get so tense during some of the silly final tasks. I have to wonder: is this sport? Is this the appeal of sport? I never really grasped it until I found myself holding my breath while watching someone throw a frying pan into a hula hoop across a stage.
Iain's interesting. His behaviour in the team tasks is pretty awful, but he's so genuinely embarrassed and remorseful after watching them back that it's hard for me to dislike him.
I tried to make my parents watch Taskmaster, but, alas, they did not take to it. We got through the prize task and one pre-filmed task before my mum rebelled and my dad put on Antiques Road Trip instead.
I'm still really struggling with the question of what to do with all this fannish energy. I really love this show! I keep having the 'you're in love with a thing, you should be putting that energy into writing fic!' impulse, but I genuinely don't think I'm capable of writing fanfiction for Taskmaster; I can't envision it at all.
Riona: I'm enjoying Joe Thomas, but I'm worried about him. I think I'm programmed to like him because he looks a little like my brother and has the same name.
RD: he seems like he needs a hug but also he could murder someone at any moment.
Alex looks so startled and delighted when Greg calls him 'big boy'.
I was puzzled and alarmed by Alex apparently eating dust out of a dustpan in thingswithwings' fanvid 'my body is your body', and then I hit the 'make the most delicious dust' task and went 'ohhhh, of course, it's not actually dust', and then Lou forced him to eat ACTUAL ASHES.
Alex is truly dedicated to his craft. He doesn't go 'that's not delicious, it's ash, I don't need to eat it to know that'. He's going to eat it, because what if it turns out that ash actually is delicious? What if someone else tries to feed him something even worse later on, and he needs to be able to compare?
Of course Lou made out with the trophy over the credits.
Hiding the aubergines is an INCREDIBLE start to series nine.
There's something terrifying about the tasks where Alex ends up coming after you, whether it's to find you or to untie you or to score a goal or to locate aubergines. He seems so unstoppable, somehow. (Rhod Gilbert did slightly impair this impression by stopping him.)
We're two episodes into series nine, and it's making me laugh more than series eight did, but that's not an indictment of series eight, which still made me laugh a lot! There's so much debate over which series of Taskmaster are better than others, but it feels like a pointless distinction to make when they range from 'I'm laughing enough to give myself a headache' at the high end of the scale to 'I'm merely having a great time' at the low end.