Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 117. Alex Horne - S8 Ep.8
Episode Date: February 9, 2023This week's guest is non other than Little Alex Horne!! Alex casts his mind back to 2019 and digs deep in to Series 8 of Taskmaster. There's a lot to discuss - a team task, a task inspired by a former... contestant and the first episode win for Paul Sinha. All of this plus some technical difficulties that gets Alex in a flap. Enjoy!Watch all of Taskmaster on All 4www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmasterVisit the Taskmaster Store for all your TM goodies!taskmasterstore.com Visit the Taskmaster YouTube Channelyoutube.com/taskmaster Get in touch with Ed and future guests:taskmasterpodcast@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast.
It's me, Ed Gamble, the host of the Taskmaster podcast, and today we are talking about Taskmaster, of course, Series 8, of course, and Episode 8,
of course. Very, very strong episode. Very excited to chat about this with the wonderful Alex Horne.
Little Alex Horne, the Taskmaster's assistant, creator of Taskmaster. He doesn't really need an introduction, does he? If you don't know who Alex Horne is, why are you listening to this
podcast?
Very excited to chat to Alex.
Maybe we'll get some hot goss about the upcoming Series 15.
And maybe his thoughts on 13 and 14 as well, because we haven't spoken to him since before then.
Without further ado, let's just crack on with this.
It's the brilliant Alex Horne talking about Taskmaster Series 8, Episode 8. Welcome back, Alex Horne, to the Taskmaster Series 8, Episode 8.
Welcome back. Alex Horne to the Taskmaster Podcast.
Thanks, Ed. It's so great to be back.
Oh, it's all changed around here.
It's been a long time since you've been on the podcast.
Has it?
It's been a year. It's been a whole year.
That's exactly the right amount of time, isn't it?
Do you think? yeah oh yes yeah
i think it is you've had all sorts of different people on since i've been on and i think although
i can add an angle i like hearing from other people yes the other people have been great as
well but we've had two whole series since you've been on we've had series 13 and series 14 alex
which were both absolutely brilliant i thought i don't know if you thought well i thought but i was with Andy Devonshire today and I told him that I've been on every series of this podcast
but that turns out I was lying no that's not true yeah not true at all you're not being you didn't
talk about series 13 or 14 um this is going to be a hard question now uh can you give me one
highlight from both series 13 and 14 actually you can give me a highlight from each series,
if you can remember,
because I think you're currently filming series 38.
Series 13, the highlight was actually the interview
with Bridget Christie.
Yes.
Which was not on the main show,
but it's on the YouTube channel,
where we had to walk around
and she had to stop me when
we'd done a certain amount of steps and I was asking
her questions. And for me, that was one of the funniest things
I've been involved. When I watched that
VT back, it made me laugh an awful
lot. Yes. That's the highlight.
An unexpected highlight.
And series 14,
I will go...
There are... There's many to choose from but i guess it will
be something with fern yes but i don't know what but i think i think just maybe the very final task
of the series when she was talking about the potatoes as little people for some reason that
tickled me it's always a little moment moments, but yeah, I think her...
I think I've met these potatoes before.
That's the one. That'll be my highlight.
We had a little break there, Alex, because there was...
Listeners will be able to hear that there was a little scratchy sound,
wasn't there, when you were giving your highlights of series 13 and
14 and we worked out it's because your
headphones were scratching against your
little beard. Yes.
Also, the good news is that during that sentence
it came up with
the fact that my internet is unstable.
Yes, there was a little gap.
There was a little gap.
Yeah, yeah. So I've got an
itchy, scratchy beard and fucking Yimshir
broadband on the internet.
Yes, good. So this is going to be a great episode, a solid gold classic.
Yes.
Look, we're here to talk about Series 8, Episode 8, of course. Now, this must feel like a long
time ago to you.
I watched the episode because I'm a good boy and I prepped for this, and it did feel like
I was never involved in it. I can't remember anything about it and I really enjoyed watching it which was a relief but I did
watch it on the tube today and somebody saw me watching Taskmaster and knew I was in it and I
was laughing so that was a bad moment he was called Stefan oh what you met you met the person
yes yes yes he came and talked to me did you explain why you were watching it? No, no, thank you.
I love it.
I sort of shut down the browser as if I was watching porn.
Yeah, yeah.
I think it's better to be caught watching porn on the tube than it is watching your own TV show on the tube.
Yeah, so that's what I tuned into next.
And I was still laughing, still laughing.
Shuckling away.
Is that what you're meant to do when you're watching it?
Yeah, you have a good old laugh don't you um i i've got to say before we even talk about the the main body of the episode
i think this might rank as one of my favorite um uh episode skits that you do at the top
i was pleased with it watching it back i was bingo yeah one number bingo yeah yeah i really want to know if
anyone you know took part at all if i'm watching that program i probably will automatically think
of a number so i'd love it if somebody had but no one got in touch to say they've done it oh my
phone ringing this is perfect hasn't rung this year before here we go off we go to the landline
but i can't get there because I'm all tangled up. Yeah.
He's gone.
Gone to answer his landline.
What does that...
No, no.
Ah!
Ow!
OK, so it turns out I've got an automatic answering machine on that.
I didn't realise.
But I cut that off by pressing the off button yes so we better hope that's not important well it's by me now so i'll be able to answer yeah sorry it's lovely to see you all in a flap
alex because i don't think taskmaster viewers ever really get to see you in a total flap you're
normally quite composed even when you're having now the done to you. Now the internet's gone off.
Oh, the internet's gone off, has it?
Yeah, he can't hear me because the internet's gone off.
Oh dear. Can you hear me, Alex?
Alex is frozen.
Oh, brilliant.
I absolutely love everything that's happened so far.
Are we recording again?
Yeah, of course.
We've been recording the whole time.
Yeah.
You were saying I was in a flap and then my internet went down.
I think my flap is over now because it's... I mean, I don't think anything else can go wrong.
Well, there you go.
You've said it now.
Immediately cut to.
How's blowing up?
It was actually Stefan on the landline.
Yeah.
I gave him a number in the tube.
Yeah, that's what you do when you get embarrassed, isn't it?
Yeah, I gave him a landline and £40.
Yes, well done you.
Well, thank you for liking the one number bingo.
I also thought watching it greg's introduction to
me was very tame and i wondered if they've got more extreme in the last sort of five series
i think especially in the last series i don't think they've got harsher but greg's introductions
as a whole i feel like uh greg's got weirder with his his introductions to the show and the links at
the top of the show they get more and more. And he sometimes takes on a different character.
I love,
I love watching them.
It just feels like he's gone mad in his dressing room.
Yeah.
He sends them in on the day.
Yes.
He sends an idea in and they are,
they are often long.
Yeah.
They are.
They're just a stream of consciousness and we have to sub them down,
but he then subs them up again.
And then in the edit,
we struggle. Yeah. He's a wonder to work with that man yes um truly is
um i was just thinking about the little the little skits that you do at the top this is another
tricky question for you do you have a favorite of all time in taskmaster for the little either
your introductory bits or the banter with Greg. Yes, I do.
There is a YouTube video on the Taskmaster channel of all of my introductions,
I think up to series 10 or something,
which is a really odd thing for anyone to watch,
but even more odd for me to watch,
because it's just me.
And you realise they're unrelentingly awkward.
Yeah.
Sort of deliberately don't...
I don't know if it's deliberately don't make them as funny as they could,
but they deliberately hang in the air a bit yeah um but easily my favorite was when i offered
him a drink out of my a little tube that was up one sleeve but it turned out to be concentrated
orange squash and he had to dilute it with the other one another tube coming out of my other
sleeve and it was yeah greg genuinely laughed a lot at that which is always my aim every single
time is to make him laugh, it's so hard
I believe that was
this series as well, that was
series 8 as well I think, oh was it?
on a good streak
on a run of form, I think
I'm sure listeners will correct me if I'm wrong
that the fake arm might have been this series
as well which was another good one
oh I think that might have been much
more recent than, well I don't know but anyway this the one number bingo the one number bingo didn't scratch
his funny bone in the slightest nothing right no he didn't one of the news in the slightest
like genuinely or fictionally just nothing from greg yeah it didn't reference it at all
those are my favorites when you when you get absolutely nothing and then you just have to
sit there holding a ball with a number on it.
Perfect.
Neither of us are pretending in that bit.
I'm trying to make him laugh.
He's prepared to laugh, but never does.
Yeah, very different men.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Socially, it wouldn't work, would it?
Well, we're different generations.
That's the main thing.
Yes.
But I get on very well with Greg.
Well, you're a different generation from me
yeah maybe that's that's the thing maybe he only gets on with people two generation generations
away from him every other generation yeah um that's one of the first things greg said to me
when i was supporting him on tour we um we went to the airport to fly to inverness and there was
a free sample of uh um eau de toilette and he sprayed both of us with it and he said,
two lads, different generations,
both smell the same.
Oh, he'd love a duty-free area,
Greg, I imagine,
strutting down that.
You know those floors
where you've got
twinkly coloured stones
in the tiles?
That's what his flats like.
Yeah. tiles. That's what his flats like.
Let's talk about the prize task. Nicest thing
to hold.
It's a lovely
category, I thought. It is, but it's not a category
designed to make you laugh
some of them are sort of
get a chuckle
when I announce them
this was sort of
okay
nice open playing field
but let's see what they've got
they had to do a bit of work here
I think
they had to use their brains
they did
and I think they actually
did quite well in this episode
I'd say
I don't think this is unfair
that broadly across this series
there's a few episodes
where none of them
bring in anything good
yes not unfair not unfair at all mainly it's mainly Joe Thomas broadly across this series, there's a few episodes where none of them bring in anything good. Yes. Not unfair?
Not unfair at all.
It's mainly Joe Thomas leading the charge
there, but he does do
slightly better with this one. Let's talk about Joe's.
He
suggested a note is a nice thing to
hold, specifically
the Vincero note from
Nessun Dorma, Pavarotti.
Yes. In the final cut
that we watch, there's not really any discussion
of it. It's just, yes, lateral thinking,
let's move on.
I imagine that's because during the series
when Joe talked, he talked very slowly.
And didn't really make,
you know, it took a while to get to any points.
But it did speak for itself.
It's a nice reading of something to hold.
Rubbish prize, obviously, to win a recording of that.
And Greg didn't seem to try to work out whether it is a nice note to hold.
I think it's probably a very difficult note to hold.
Yeah.
And is that Joe on the tape, by the way?
It's not Pavarotti.
And I don't think it's explained in that initial thing.
I think it's mentioned later on that it's Joe holding the note.
Well, there were problems with what we could clear.
There's always problems with copyright in our show.
And so we had to only have a certain amount of the song,
which was literally that one sound.
And I think we couldn't even,
we couldn't use anyone else holding that.
It had to be Joe.
But I think that maybe we could only talk about it for that length of time.
Something like that.
There were problems.
So that's why that ended up being like that.
But Joe did well scoring.
I don't know if we're allowed to talk about scoring yet.
Yes, we are.
Four points he got for that.
Four points.
Yeah, purely because of the lateral thinking, I think.
Yeah, but I don't think Greg normally enjoys lateral thinking.
I think sometimes he thinks people are trying to be a bit clever clever
and he marks that down.
But on this occasion, he seemed to enjoy it.
Yes, I would say I didn't agree with any of the scoring
in this particular prize round.
Okay.
What would you have given Joe?
I don't think it's a nice thing to hold.
One point.
Yeah, fair enough. I mean mean i was surprised greg enjoyed it i don't i think
i i think i wanted to see a straightforward uh interpretation of this prize task i wanted to
see this being played with a straight bat as joe has done on every other prize test this is the
first time he's ever thought outside the box everything else has been best see-through thing
window yes things like that well also i would say um some of the tasks the price tasks are designed
with the prize giving in mind so at the end we were hoping there'd be five things there to be
held yeah and it would look lovely holding them whereas that tape you couldn't really you know
in the end you're just winning a cassette player which is no good um so yes
jody did well to get four points something else that's not necessarily nice to be held in the uh
in the closing ceremony if i can call it that um was lou's voucher for a trip to possibly see some
dolphins plus hope because you're hoping to see some dolphins this to me is a classic example of
someone overthinking a prize yeah it's it's really Pete Lou as well.
Yeah.
It's an excellent example of Lou
because I think she meant it with the hope.
I think she was trying to give hope.
Yes.
And she didn't want to do badly.
Do badly.
I think there's an adjective.
There's a little word linking what I'm missing here,
but she didn't want to do badly to the environment.
Yes. But in the end, yeah, it's a bit
of a cop-out. There's been a few vouchers
across the years, and I think
ideally we would see in the future the winner
of this episode. I don't want to give that away yet, even though the viewers,
the listeners might have known. Yeah, they know.
Oh, well, it would have been nice to see Paul Sinner swimming
with dolphins. It would have been lovely. As a little
postscript.
I can't say for sure whether he has taken her up on that voucher,
but I don't think he has.
No, I'm not sure.
It's also peak Lou,
because Lou seems to be constantly battling her own instincts
and then worrying that she's doing harm to the environment
or being nasty.
So every time I see Lou, she goes,
oh, my new thing is I'm nice to people or i don't speak badly about people or i'm good for the
environment and then well for example so in this prize task it's unethical to harm dolphins so they
might not be there and then the next task she said what what contestant should we draw probably
someone with a recognizable face like a fat one so it's it's constantly constantly tearing her own personality away away from the way she projects herself she's quite
complicated i think she's so aware of what's really funny and not yeah but also wants to do
the right thing yes and her humor tells her to go one way and her conscience tells her to go the
other it's brilliant yes it's really fun very fun It's very fun to watch. Very fun to watch. And of course, this leads to, I think,
one of the best Greg riffs of Taskmaster history,
the dolphin hammering away at him like an aquatic sewing machine.
Yeah, that was what I was laughing at most on the tube.
Yeah.
I think it's when that's Greg at his best.
People sometimes say he has it easy on this show,
just comes in and makes his judgments and goes home again.
But he really does. That leaves him free to just be himself and be funny and that was that
was him just riffing as you say and yeah he got to aquatic sewing machines so easily in his brain
yeah it's incredible um let's talk about ian sterling's uh 200 pound cash held and held in a
money clip solid i think solid think. Solid. Very solid.
I think, you know, we've had other cash-based prizes.
We've talked about other cash-based prizes on the podcast.
Lolly, I think, was maybe one of the first people
to bring in a load of cash, I think.
But she actually had it with her.
She was sat on it.
So she could just whip it out and sort of flash it around.
Yeah.
The funny thing, I always see Greg's little eyes light up when there's cash.
He does love it.
He loves cash.
Yeah.
And he sort of deflected it by enjoying the cash clip more,
but I think it was just.
Just having the cash knocking around.
Yeah.
How many points did he get?
He got three points.
He got three points.
Yes.
So I did have a slight problem again with Greg scoring.
Cause he put two people in third place.
You don't like,
you don't like it when he gives people the same amount of points. I don't mind if he gives people the same amount, but if you've put two people in third place. You don't like it when he gives people the same amount of points.
I don't mind if he gives people the same amount but
if you've got two people in third place you shouldn't have anyone
in fourth place.
I mean everyone is in agreement
with me.
The system
doesn't work if you... anyway.
It's so funny watching you get
a bit flummoxed by that sort of
thing because you always do.
Whenever he goes and going up to four points and you go,
oh, really?
Oh, yep.
Okay.
Really?
Okay.
And then you look at your iPad. It should be five, four, three, two, one.
The numbers of points should add up to 15 every time.
It's just maths.
It's just how the numbers should work.
But they very rarely do now.
But you've given him free reign.
Yeah, I have.
I've given him too much leash.
Too much leash.
Sian also gets three points, of course,
for a life-size pillow version of herself.
Yeah.
Which I loved.
I don't know what you thought.
I thought this was slightly underscored.
I thought this was a great prize.
I also think underscored.
I wondered if Greg was going to... Watching watching it back I'd forgotten what happened I wondered if he was gonna hug Sian at some point yeah normally when there is a little person like
Sian we see them side by side with Greg at a certain point to really you know hammer that
point home so I think a hug would have been nice she might have disappeared within the folds
Greg it fully enveloped um I think we have seen the been nice. She might have disappeared within the folds, Greg. It fully enveloped.
I think we have seen the side-by-side already this series,
so maybe Greg didn't, maybe he was thinking,
I don't want to hammer this point home.
Right. Yes, that may well have been it.
But yeah, I thought the pillows were nice.
And yeah, it could have been a four-pointer,
could have been a five-pointer, because she is nice to hold.
Yes.
Yes.
And the pillow, you you know a body pillow people
are into body pillows aren't they yeah not everyone but a lot of people enough some people
some people are into them um and also greg said it looked like her secret sister wasn't allowed
out which made me laugh a lot um paul sinner now sometimes alex i think there's some conspiracy
theories going around that that you as a production decide that someone has to win an episode.
Yeah, I can imagine that.
But if we did have that as our policy, we wouldn't have had the instances of people not winning episodes like Romesh.
And also, you wouldn't get episodes as exciting as this one where it comes down to the wire.
So I love it when everyone wins an episode.
I really do. I wish everyone love it when everyone wins an episode i really i
really do i wish everyone had the chance to win an episode but some people are simply so bad that
they don't um no sometimes stars align we we don't we never arrange the tasks with points in mind ever
because that would be a much worse way of doing it well also as you say greg's got so much leash
you're not ever going to be able to tell him how to score things
or give him a nudge.
No, there have been times before the show I've said to him,
look, I would love it if this person did well on this task.
Yeah.
And there's no point in me saying that.
He will either deliberately do it wrong to annoy me,
or he'll remember it slightly wrong and do it the other way.
Yeah, that's more likely.
Or he just
gets flustered because i've told him to do something so so no it's never those conspiracy
theories can um focus on another theory for a bit yes um well paul brings in his school chess trophy
that he won for three years in a row uh and then told his dad that he was allowed to keep it but
he'd actually stolen it i mean it's this is all about the story isn't it it was a great example of a prize story because we tell everyone to keep it concise because we do
need to move on and a long shaggy joke story doesn't work he told it really well we had the
punch line which was a true bit you can relate to paul's life we all now want to hold that trophy i
think that was a that was the only worthy victory i think that's yeah five points to him should have been four to Sean yeah it was cut cut and dried victory for Paul Sinner there and um I love Paul's little
face when he finally wins stuff several times in this episode I love Paul's little face yes there's
a lot of lovely poor little face and I prefer poor little face when he's happy to poor little
face crouch down in a phone box even though that's a lot funnier.
Which is just... I want to get a tattoo of that. Yeah, I remember
that happening. The cameraman
just showing us
what he got on the camera.
Oh dear, it was like
when they found the Chilean miners.
Was that...
That was a happy ending, wasn't it?
Yeah, it was. They all got out.
Yeah, it was. They all got out. Yeah, OK.
I don't know if I want to hold a dolphin.
They're quite sexually aggressive, is my understanding.
Exactly!
Like a lot of people's, like, bucket list.
Yeah, when they're about to die.
We're all going to die, let's face it. But that's where the hope comes from. What I don't want is to die at the, I was going to say
hands, at the flippers of the relentless penis of a male dolphin. Hammering away at me like some aquatic sewing machine.
You're so arrogant that you think the dolphin's going to fancy you.
Shut up.
I'm coming along.
I'm coming along. He's going to be clicking all over me.
Let's talk about task one.
Make the best picture in the sand of a former Taskmaster contestant
using one of these implements.
You must roll the dice to choose your implement.
Nothing but air may touch the sand at any point.
You have 10 minutes.
Your time starts as soon as you roll the dice.
Look, tricky.
It's an art task, but tricky.
Is this the only time that you've used the
do a picture of another Taskmaster contestant
as opposed to do a picture of the Taskmaster?
I reckon maybe.
We do try to mix it up.
I mean, Greg's a go-to
because it's nice to sometimes have five things
that are meant to be of the same thing.
Yeah.
Because when they all go up at the end,
that's a funny, instantly funny comparison.
But yeah, maybe it is.
It's maybe the first time we've delved back.
It feels like we might have done it one other time.
I don't know.
But yeah, maybe you're right.
Maybe you're right. And we'll definitely have people with us saying dice all the time i
think we probably made that instead of die we made the decision just not to worry for the
pedants are there apologies if you were upset by that but um yeah and also we doing the task it
became clear it was really really hard this yeah and i'm amazed how well Paul Sinner did. But it's partly whatever equipment you picked,
you were stymied by most of them.
Yeah, I think so.
The panpipes were not a natural sand art,
paintbrush, sandbrush.
No.
And only Lou seemed to work out the hack
of rolling the dice as many times as she wanted
to get exactly what she wanted,
although it didn't help in any
way I think Lou went first in that task when we were doing it and and she decided to roll the
dice again and again and often when that happens I panic a bit and think oh this could scupper the
task but it worked I think that was a really good way it's nice when somebody says no this is
impossible yeah I'm gonna do a different way but yeah so if everyone had then rolled the dice as many times
as possible would that have been a scuppered task and you maybe maybe yeah maybe uh hard to say but
yeah and but actually she saved it because if you've got five really awful pictures that might
have scuppered the task yeah but actually her writing phil and drawing picture of a penis was
really good yeah um it was nothing to you know the task to do the best caricature which she didn't do at all
no um so yeah she did a good job there she did a good job and i mean there's a few occasions in
this series where lou looks genuinely angry when when it's scored and this is one of them she is
devastated by this well i think because think because I made Greg try to identify
who the person was, I think in her mind that
became the task. It was most
easily identifiable person rather than
best caricature. I think, yeah, Greg
actually scored her correctly. So well done, Greg.
Well,
he gave her more than Sian
who tried to do Ramesh with
pan pipes.
And that was just, I mean, that was a total mess.
I mean, pan pipe wise,
I probably would have snapped one of the pan pipes off, right?
So you're always still watching these thinking,
well, this is how I would do it and I would do it better.
Yeah, you're probably right.
Yeah, snap the pan pipes.
I think we were hoping there'd be little noises as she did hers.
But that's not how pan pipes work, of course.
They're more like flute.
Yeah.
Also, there's often little noises when Sian does tasks anyway,
coming from her.
Little squeals and stuff.
I really enjoy watching Sian again.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think her one looked like Barry Castagnolo,
if people want to look him up.
Yeah.
Greg Davis's support act on his tours.
Yes, and co-writer of The Cleaner.
Co-writer of The Cleaner. Co-writer of The Cleaner.
So there you go.
And also a great person who I really like.
Yes.
Yeah, no, hers was awful.
But Paul, yeah, Paul really did capture
the rectangular nature of Romesh's face.
It was great because I was trying to work out
whether I would have got it
if we hadn't just seen Sian's Romesh
with one big tooth and a burglar's mask.
But I think I would have done.
I think Paul really nailed it.
He got all of the sort of key features of Ramesh.
In series one, they had to do a GPS picture
when they were running around a football pitch
and trying to paint a picture.
And somebody did Ramesh's face in that.
Yeah.
And his face looked very similar to this face that Paul Zinhard did. So, yeah, maybe it's just an easy face in that. And his face looked very similar to this face that
Paul Zinhard did. So yeah, maybe it's just
an easy face to draw, but yeah, well done Paul on that.
Yeah, well done Paul. And that was definitely the
best implement, was the barbecue blower, I think.
It was. I still don't know what a barbecue blower is.
We didn't explain it.
It's when you
light the coals
and you want to speed up the process.
I'm going to take my headphones out.
If you blow air onto it, it increases the oxygen.
You just flagged me when you finished.
Yeah, it increases the oxygen flow to the coals,
so it speeds up the heating process.
Back in?
Yeah, back in.
There you go.
Cheers, mate.
No worries.
Ian's Sally Phillips with bellows.
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Really nice picture. It reminded me of something sort of was it like the simpsons style of drawing maybe it was like the simpsons or it reminded me
a bit of a a sort of a bit like wendeline from um from wallace and gromit as well yeah i had a
vibe of that yeah i think he found his medium really. Yeah, very calming.
How do you feel about the fact he started
doing Nish Kumar
and then halfway through switched it to
Sally Phillips? Does that
feel right to you? Yes.
I think that's how a lot of
paintings happen. I think the Mona Lisa
started off being a
little baby.
Sorry, it started off being Nish and became the Mona Lisa.
Most people start with Nish and then see what happens
I think
I cannot believe that Joe
got two points
for his Jessica Knappet
well, his was arguably
the only caricature, I think
you know, it was
because a caricature shouldn't look just like
a normal face.
It was sort of features that he'd
exaggerated.
But they're not features that Jessica Knapp
has. Oh no, I know.
I know that.
So you think he should have got more points
to you? No, less points. I thought it was awful.
You were.
I think it was
very bad. I think it was haunting and i think if jess nappet
has seen that i think she'd be upset by it well yes and she will also be upset by what i'm about
to say because i thought it was awful until you put her picture next to it and then i thought well
it's if you really really go to town on her, maybe you'll end up with that. And also some caricature artists,
they are awful.
You know, the ones that you get in London.
Rachel, my wife, had one done when she was a kid
and it looks nothing like her,
but it's a caricature.
So I, yeah, I strongly disagree with you, Ed.
I suppose if you lined up all of the pictures
of all of the Taskmaster contestants ever
and I had to narrow it down to maybe three people
that I thought it was supposed to be of, I might pick Jess Knappert. Yeah, well of all of the taskmaster contestants ever and i had to narrow it down to maybe three people that i thought it was supposed to be of i might pick jess nappett
yeah when that is that was the task yeah yeah but in that case you just you should just do any face
you can manage and then just try and work it out after right who it's supposed to be um i suppose
so yeah it's pretty you should pick a face that is distinctive. Who would you do? Who would I do?
You know who I thought it was?
I thought his was Noel Fielding.
I thought,
and actually I think Noel is a good one
because you've got the sharp cheekbones
and the distinctive hair.
Yeah.
And I think you could just do a few lines
and get Fielding across.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's very true actually.
It was five points for Ian Sally Phillips with bellows,
four points for Paul's Romesh Ranganathan
with a barbecue blower two points uh for Jessica Knappert with the longhorn and then one point for
Romesh with the pan pipes it feels like uh some tasks I know are created so you could say things
like Sally Phillips with bellows he did Sally Phillips with bellows because you think that
sort of thing's really funny and it harks back to david seachell and broadbean yes which is no feeling um uh i yeah yeah but i
would also say andy cartwright really enjoys those terms of phrase he's the producer of the show and
writes a lot of the um the business in the studio and uh it's always fun i think what i what struck
me watching that back was how instantly seriously everyone takes it
yeah and you sort of forget when because i take it really seriously as well and you forget how
ludicrous everything about it is um but that's the show that's the whole show right that's that's
that's the beauty of it is people take it so seriously and it's the silliest thing ever
i know but sometimes i hear people who don't know the show talk about it and just dismiss it quite
quickly as being that's just so stupid and I think you have to get into it yeah totally and what but
once you're in it that's yeah that it is a serious world and also I was watching football the weekend
and I did think I saw Harry Kane score the his record-breaking goal and I just thought it's so
stupid thank you I've been saying this for ages. Taskmaster is my favourite sport because it's the same as other sports.
Yeah.
And there was 70,000 people going mad
because that man had kicked the ball into the goal
and the other men hadn't.
Yeah.
And I really like football,
but I did have this real eye-opening moment of,
wow, unbelievable.
But equally, you're right,
there's a million people watching Taskmaster
getting as excited.
Yeah.
It's a sport. We're just stupid, aren't we? Yeah. people watching Taskmaster getting as excited. Yeah, it's a sport.
We're just stupid, aren't we?
But in Taskmaster, people think outside the box.
I've never seen Harry Kane try and move the goal line closer to his goal line.
No, but occasionally they do do clever little things in football.
And, you know, they do sneaky free kicks.
And it is rightly applauded.
Oh, God, this is going to be hard, I can tell.
Make the best picture in the sand of a former Taskmaster... Taskmaster... What's his show called?
Taskmaster.
Taskmaster contestant using one of these implements.
Up here on the table.
There they are. Up they are. There they are.
You must roll the dice to choose your implement.
Nothing but air may touch the sand at any point.
What? Nothing but air? Oh, OK.
You have ten minutes.
Your time starts as soon as you have rolled the dice.
OK, so we want to get someone who's a good caricature.
Funny old face.
Funny old face or a big fat one or something.
Can you say that these days?
They're all sort of mixed blessing, aren't they, really?
It's like a sort of metaphor for just life and the future, isn't it?
It could be different, but all shit.
Four.
Oh!
Hmm.
Oh, my thing must start.
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Let's talk about task two, a team task. Catch all the red balls in things from the shed. Catch all
the yellow balls in clothing. Don't let the green balls touch anything other than grass. Catch the
blue ball in something from the kitchen. Reds are worth one point. Yellows are two points. Blue balls
five points. You are two points blue balls
five points you lose two points for every group ball that touches anything other than grass you
may not touch the ball machines any non-green ball which touches the ground at any point will not
count highest score wins the balls will start firing in two minutes from now long one well
maybe one of the longest when you say like that yeah but actually as soon as it happens you don't
really care about any of that you just know there's they've got to catch some balls and uh i i dislike the really
long ones some sometimes we have to put all the information on the task obviously but the pithy
ones are better for me but on this case i think it justified it and also even there's loads of
maths at the end no one really minded but it was one of the funniest team tasks i think i i really
like this one it's so funny it's totally worth all that build up to it because when the balls
start firing i think they're they're firing way harder and faster than anyone expects so it just
goes chaotic straight away yeah i have to say it's not how we imagined it we wanted them to be up in
the end to give them half a chance of catching a load it just didn't matter and that's sort of the
one of the beauties of taskmaster i suppose it's because we don't have time to fine-tune everything and we do a task once and
then we bin it um we just have to make do yeah and the balls fired much quicker than we thought
and the people you operating them couldn't see what was going on they were behind hedges and
yeah so it was what it was it was brilliant, yeah, I wouldn't have changed anything there
because it's just so sudden and they just go so quickly.
I mean, obviously, the highlight of the whole episode
is Paul repeatedly getting hit in the bollocks.
Well, I disagree.
I think it was the moment after that when he accidentally caught two balls.
Oh, my goodness, yeah.
Having been hit in the bollocks, you know, with the bollock hit just before that.
He looked so happy.
I think sometimes when you're with your mates and you do,
like you have a, you invent a little game,
like whether you're in a pub or at Christmas with your family,
you invent a little game and something magical happens,
but the moment's gone, but you all laugh.
What I really love on Taskmaster is that we film everything.
And so we can show it back in slow motion.
So you get that, that, that moment, you get to see it again.
And you see Ian Sterling magically catching that blue ball.
Yeah.
And it really means something.
So yeah, yeah.
There were lovely little moments
in this one.
Yeah, it's the...
Paul catching one
and then he just looks off
somewhere else
and another one just lands in there
and makes no noise almost.
It just goes...
It was a miracle.
Yeah.
And how it stayed in
is plastic shallow tray
that he chose
thinking that's the best thing to catch things in.
Yeah, oh it's fantastic.
And Lou does very well, Ian gets
the blue ball, you know
Paul does very well to get those
red balls but obviously is just a
magnet for the green so he is
just being pelted. It's one of those tasks
where you realise the best thing to have done
would be just to leave the area
and not do anything and you would have got a score
of zero and you would have won.
Oh yeah. I hadn't thought of that.
No, no one did.
And I don't think we had either.
But there was only one I was watching Matt thinking, yeah,
you've just got to avoid the greens.
Just get out of there. That's the game. But you always don't know what the other team,
you're presuming the other team have done something really clever.
I think
putting loads of stuff out from the shed to catch things in
may have been good.
But again, they would have been hit by the green balls.
Yeah, hit by the green balls or, you know,
you can't guarantee what's going to land in them.
So, yeah.
Maybe clear Paul out of the area.
But that's a harsh...
Ian was already worried at this stage of the series
that he's too bossy and too alpha.
So I don't think that's a good look if you're saying,
right, Ian, move.
Lou, get out of here.
I'm doing this.
There is a wonderful moment before the balls even start firing
where Ian sends Paul to the shed to get something.
He says, I'll go to the kitchen.
Lou goes, fine, well, I'm going to go get something from the shed
and walks into the caravan.
It's amazing the number of people over the years
who think the caravan's a shed.
Yeah, quite precious about that caravan.
So that's a real insult to me.
Yeah, also, that's not the word for it.
It's a caravan, isn't it?
It's a caravan.
Joe's very good at these tasks.
I think he's sort of quietly very athletic, Joe.
And I don't think enough people give him credit for that.
We've got to talk about Sian cheating here
because it takes everyone by surprise.
It took me by surprise watching it back. I'd completely forgotten.
And I'm really glad. I love it when people do that.
I hadn't noticed during the task
the camera people had and told me
afterwards, but I love it because I don't think she was
trying to be funny. She was genuinely trying
to... She has got a competitive streak,
but she hadn't told Joe she'd done it.
So, yeah, it was lovely stuff. I love that
when people think they can get away with it despite the fact there's
a million cameras on it. I mean i think she might be my favorite
cheater in taskmaster history because you really don't expect it from her and she is genuinely
trying to cheat so you know with with your gormans they're uh they're doing it quite brazenly and i
think i think dave knew on a couple of occasions when he cheated that he was going to be picked up
on it and he was looking forward to the argument.
But with Sian, she was really trying to conceal it.
And same with Munya with kicking the exercise ball.
Of course he knew that was captured.
Yeah, that was him knowing he hadn't done this task well.
Here's the way of doing it.
That will also be entertaining.
What I want to know is, in Taskmaster history,
has anyone ever cheated and got away with it?
Yeah.
That would be a great thing if somebody
comes out at some point and says
actually, especially if it was a Widdicombe
who won by a point.
Would you retrospectively
dock points and change the records?
It would be like the Man City situation
at the moment. We would go to an appeal
and they would get lawyers involved.
I don't know. I think once it's done, it's done.
But it would be lovely to go back and take the trophy back and hand it to somebody else yeah but equally
we have a lot of eagle-eyed viewers editors directors etc so we think we're on it i i was
watching a an old youtube clip recently of i do watch other programs but of um the wilkinson
potato moment obviously that comes up every now and again. And there's a big
clamour on the internet
saying that his foot wasn't over
the line, wasn't touching it.
It was the shape of the shoe. There was a thing
in the, there was a goal recently in football where
the ball wasn't touching the line, but
from above it looked like it was over the line.
Anyway,
retrospectively, there's an argument that
Wilkinson shouldn't have been disqualified
okay so it is Joe aware of this because I think he does still care about it yeah I don't know but
I'm you know there's always talks of doing some extra shows where we look back and you never know
that might happen at some point so I think that's a good one to examine justice being served and
you know is it too late it's not too late late, we can do what we want Yeah, I mean
you can do what you want and also I would like
to see at least an hour special sort of a true
crime type thing examining
the Joe Wilkinson potato throw
Yeah, yeah, it was
a big moment in all of our lives
It was nought points of
course for Joe and Sian
because of Sian's disgusting cheating
which meant that
Ian, Lou and Paul
got five points, even though
Paul's individual score
was minus 26.
Something we haven't got into previously in the series,
but something Battlecry you've used
throughout is mummy.
Do you use mummy?
A lot.
I think I'm going to stop now I've seen it.
Dressing gown technique worked well?
It did work well.
Lou was a productive member of the team.
She caught six yellows, which means plus 12.
She touched four green, but she adds four points to the team total.
What a lovely... Lovely.
Ian caught the blue ball for five points.
The blue ball and the celebration entirely valid.
Yeah.
I think about seven green balls hit me as I was celebrating getting five points.
Did the blue ball pay dividends?
Well, he also caught four yellows correctly,
touched nine greens, so minus five for Ian.
So the team are now on minus one.
Right.
Remember, they've got minus eight to beat.
Eight to beat.
So it's Paul's contribution that's going to matter. Come on, Paul. He did Remember, they've got minus eight to beat. Eight to beat. So it's Paul's contribution
that's going to matter. Come on, Paul.
He did touch a lot of greens.
They did strike him repeatedly
on his leg. Then balls. Then thigh,
belly, foot, tray, foot, foot, back.
19 balls altogether. With his catches, he scored
minus 26.
Task three.
Make this beach ball cross the finishing line.
Only water may touch the beach ball.
Fastest winds, your time starts now.
This is one to me where when I first saw it,
I thought, well, surely everyone's just going to do the same thing.
It's going to be a fairly simple play.
And then it's brilliant.
Everyone seems to just do something completely different.
Yes, I've got some insights for you.
Thank you.
First, before I forget, Lisa Tarbuck inspired this task.
She had been, I think, watering her garden and there was a ball on her lawn
and she had a lot of fun moving the ball around the lawn and texting me and said,
I've got a new task for you.
So that was the inspiration for this task and that does sometimes happen which is lovely
second watching it back i was slightly disappointed with the variety of tasks in the episode
in that the first one was do something without touching the sand this is do something without
anything but water touching the ball and the middle one was catching balls there's a let's
call it let's say there was a link between all three,
but I think there was a lack of variety.
It was a themed episode based on the elements.
It was, you could only, air could only touch the sand
and water could only touch the ball.
That's what it was.
Yeah, it was a themed episode.
I was also surprised that we hadn't banned them
from using a hose.
You know, often what we would do in this situation
is just say, we haven't got a hose,
and that would make it a lot harder.
But maybe, I think we hadn't expected it to work quite so well when the first person sprayed it with
a hose and it went backwards yeah or didn't do anything so funny just the shot of somebody
watering a water watering a watermelon but i think i'm glad you didn't say you can't keep the hose
because it's not like people got the hose and then it was just brilliant straight away because some people didn't seem to realize for ages that you could change the setting on
hoses yeah also a few times across the years i've been sprayed by a hose or somebody's been
sprayed by a hose because it's uh had a life of its own in your hand and that's always funny yeah
it is yeah absolutely yeah um because ian obviously ian is the textbook
the textbook task performer in this he works out how to get the strong setting on the hose
he realizes you don't need the you don't need the course and then just curtails all of it and
he's straight over the finish line i imagine you were watching that thinking that's well yeah that's
what i'd have done no because i'm i'm a i'm a rule follower and i do read rules where there aren't rules a lot of
the time so i think i would have stuck to the course right i think well you've knocked the
wall down with your feet i was amazed that nobody just yeah i would have i would have done that
because it didn't say you can touch the touch the wall with with your feet so i would have
definitely kicked the wall down i think right but you wouldn't have gone outside of the lines
strange yeah um i think ian almost looked annoyed with outside of the lines no I wouldn't have gone outside of the lines I think Ian almost looked
annoyed with himself in the studio
that he hadn't
annoyed with his competitive character
that he hadn't thought of doing something unusual
because it's a funny show and when you do something really well
actually
it's not funny
no
but we want people to try their hardest we don't want people to
try to be funny because that's that's the the whole thing is that you just try your hardest
every time and chances are sometimes that'll work sometimes it'll go really badly and sometimes it'll
be really funny right so yeah everyone gets a go at it yeah yeah yeah i don't mind if four people
do it well or four people do it badly that's fine as long as you've got the contrast with the other person yes um and lou does it pretty well um but
manages to do it well but also in quite a funny way by screaming mummy at the top of her voice
throughout very lou yeah very low perfect stuff um sean uh sean tries to stick to the course
which is which is a major issue as well.
She finally gets the hose and starts using it.
But I love watching Sian do anything.
I think Sian should be the focus
of a new Truman Show-style experiment.
Yeah, when I've seen her in other things,
this is no disrespect to her acting,
I sort of realised, yeah,
she's a fully-blown character at of realised, yeah, she's a fully blown character
at all times.
Yeah, she's absolutely brilliant.
I mean, so who should we talk about first, Joe or Paul?
I enjoy both of them so much.
I think we should do it in the order
that we saw them in the show.
Because Joe, it must have crossed some people's minds,
is he doing this on, is he putting this on? Yeah. First of all, him saying, crossed some people's minds. Is he doing this? Is he putting this on?
Yeah.
First of all, him saying, just look up.
Yeah.
When he thought the finish line was the wall.
We found during the show, Joe very rarely looks up.
He shuts his eyes all the time when he's talking to you.
He looks down.
So I'm hoping he learned his lesson in life.
Well, he didn't because you've seen him recently
and he still has his eyes shut when he's talking to you,'t he yeah and then yeah i know when you know when i've got
kids who are at school and they teach them things like making eye contact and and so on otherwise
he won't be a success in life but joe really doesn't do any of the things that mean you should
be a success but he's a hugely successful person he is is. Yeah. I mean, it was fantastic to watch. Hearing the tap go every time you filled up a pot
and then him just throwing it at the ball
and then getting to the...
When he gets to the bricks and throws the pot in the air
as like a victorious, like, yeah, I've done it.
But also thinking that would be a halfway decent task
to make the ball go that distant.
Yeah, people are really odd.
I mean, he wasn't putting any of that on.
That was him genuinely trying to do it.
The ice, and I think the ice was a really, really good idea.
Brilliant idea, but it came 16 minutes in.
If it had come straight away,
there might have been an argument about whether ice is water or not.
Because I think ice isn't water.
What? Of course it is.
No, it's not.
It is.
Water is H2O and ice is h2o and steam
is do you think steam is water yeah i think if you could have worked out a way of firing steam
at the ball do you think the definition of water is a liquid made of h2o let's do it shall we
i mean i don't know if my internet can cope with this but I'm just finding out the definition of water
it's a colourless transparent odourless liquid
I don't think ice is water
but isn't it just cold liquid
no of course it's not
you can't say ice is a liquid
you can't use the word liquid with ice
but if you leave ice and don't do anything to it then it becomes water You can't say ice is a liquid. You can't use the word liquid with ice.
But if you leave ice and don't do anything to it... Then it becomes water.
No, no, no.
Are you saying it's potential water?
It's potential water, yeah, and it's previous water.
Yeah, Tim Key always calls a banana a potential banana skin.
Well, there you go.
But a banana isn't a banana skin, and ice isn't water.
I hate to side with Key and things. It's never going to work out. Well, there you go. But a banana isn't a banana skin. And ice isn't water.
I hate to side with Key and things.
It's never going to work out.
It was clever, though.
And I think, yeah, OK, maybe that argument would have been had.
But I think Greg would have been taken aback by how clever that was.
If you like the lateral thinking of Joe's prize,
then he might have liked the ice as well. Maybe the very edge of ice is water.
The very edge of ice?
You know, the outside of ice is wet.
Maybe that bit is water.
So maybe that does count.
Yeah, that's the bit that's touching.
Yeah, I think, you know, you think these things...
That's how I'd argue it.
Yeah.
But also, this is a task that you don't need those clever things for.
No, although both of them are really clever.
If you'd gotten the ice straight away, you might have and if and if you did what paul did straight away if you just
grab the finish line and move it down in a sort of osman way you know this has been done over the
years yeah with the finishing line or move the start line or whatever but it took it took him
so long i mean it's the fact that he lifted it above his head and then it all collapsed
and very close to killing himself that was one of those moments because we didn't know you know
the health and safety checks
wouldn't have seen that coming.
Oh, it was a really heavy plank of wood
and that would have clonked him.
It's defeat from the jaws of victory
is what that is, isn't it?
It really is.
He grabbed it.
I thought, brilliant, Paul.
Because I think now,
this was series eight,
I think now you're adding to the task.
You can't move the finish line, right?
Yeah, I think you'd have to.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And he put it behind it.
And he put it a metre and a half away
instead of like a centimetre away from it.
It was all odd little decisions.
And then a real, I think Greg called it a charity cheer
in the studio.
But I don't know it was i think it was
we were really really happy like it felt like a triumph you know when people help somebody over
the finish line because they've they've injured themselves in the marathon yeah but it was really
heartwarming but i think it wasn't heartwarming in a patronizing way no not at all no just he'd
climbed his own mountain. Yeah, exactly.
I mean, even though he did move the finish line
and then put the hose on the ball
and it still didn't move for quite a while.
Yeah.
It was one point for Joe, two points for Paul,
three points to Sian, four points to Lou,
and five points to Ian,
who, let's not forget,
bashed his head on the start line.
Oh, I mean, there's lots we haven't mentioned about Joe going back through the finish line every time
when he was chucking the water at it.
Yeah.
And then one of them trying to find water from a tap,
even though they've just been spraying it with a hose.
There's all sorts of idiocy on show,
which we didn't have time to delve into, which is great.
And I'd imagine that you weren't even expecting.
I'd imagine you were expecting quite a straightforward task here.
Yeah, straightforward slapstick race is what we were expecting.
You're getting style points.
Oh, my life.
I genuinely thought I'd done quite well on that.
Really, it's as though I'd never heard of a hosepipe.
I didn't even... Or a finishing line.
You thought it was a finishing wall.
You thought, normally in the sprinting,
there's a finishing line, immediately a wall.
Yeah.
The ice, though, genius. If only the ice had come first.
Yeah, the ice, actually, I could have actually had a bit of a go at it
with the ice straightaway.
Yeah. If you hadn't thrown 27 plant pots full of water
against the ball first...
There were eight trips to the kitchen to get water.
And you also got trapped by the garage with the ball for four minutes.
No way out.
I think this could be up to an hour.
You'll be surprised. The egg that he's boiling is now a stone.
But it was only 16 minutes and 21.
Wow.
It felt like that.
Live task.
Let's talk about the live task.
Completely five-syllable words started by the taskmaster.
Honk your horn if you think you know the word
the taskmaster is going to say.
If you guess it correctly after one syllable, you get five points.
If you guess it correctly after two syllables, you get four points three syllables for three three points and four
syllables for two points if you guess incorrectly you lose all your points you may only guess once
per word high score after 10 words wins winner takes all this is perfectly set up to be the
tensest possible live task with everything hanging in balance for paul to win an episode
yes so when we occasionally
do it's winner takes all we need to really stress to everyone this is pre-ordained and we're not
doing it because we want to make somebody else win but it so we do it we do it every now and again
and there's always controversy from the the rabbits in the hats and series two yes um when
the when the scoring changes but it's nice to have it all in the balance.
And for this one, it felt like it was the right thing to do
because we wanted people...
We just wanted more jeopardy, I suppose, in Teletalk.
And also, it's quite a pedestrian task in that it's just words.
But we have one of them probably every series,
just a sort of verbal task.
And they're nearly always some of the funniest ones.
And it teaches us we don't always need elaborate props. We need the contrast. But we have one of them probably every series, just a sort of verbal task. And they're nearly always some of the funniest ones. Yeah.
And it teaches us we don't always need elaborate props.
We need the contrast.
But yeah, this one worked out, I think, quite funny,
but really tense.
Very, very tense.
It was very tense.
And I found myself watching it back,
and as I'm sure I felt the first time I watched it,
any time anyone else answered, I was screaming at them going what are you what are you doing
just let paul just let paul get this right even at the end when it's the last question
lou chimes in with something and obviously gets it wrong she was terrible at this
and then throws her horn down she's like no well lou you know nothing against lou but she does
you could tell she wanted to get involved. She couldn't believe that everyone
else was jumping in and getting it right. So in the
end, she just said, what was it?
Anal prolapse, I think, came
up. Yeah. I did write
down her other word,
anatapanana.
So funny. But it
felt like it was, as soon as the task's announced,
you feel like this is surely
Paul's game. It's not who can put on this costume in this tent quicker quickest it's not yeah you know throw
this thing into this thing you think this is one paul can win yeah and actually even if it hadn't
been five points to the winner and none to everyone else he would have come joint first in the episode
i suppose um was he one point behind going in? He was two points, I think.
Well, anyway, yes, he did
win, but it was, yeah, I can see why
the theorists might think we
put the odds in his favour, but no, it just fell
nicely. Perfect, it fell perfectly.
And I would also say that Ian was still
desperate to win. Yeah, oh
yeah, you can tell. He was not giving him anything.
Ian, very good at the word game,
I thought,
for someone who said clisps
earlier on in the series.
Yeah, he was good.
I like little moments,
and I always like this in Taskmaster,
which is that you have to put
your horns on your head
if you've got it wrong.
Yeah.
And just again,
everyone goes,
horns on your head,
and they do it.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, of course,
it's horns on the head.
That's the game, isn't it? It's the
syllable game. We've put arms on our head.
Lou almost
said, she says, anal prolapse and the horn goes on
her head before you even need to ask her.
And then Paul picked her up
for the lack of syllables. Yeah.
Prolapse.
You idiot.
So it was nought points for everyone, apart
from Paul, meaning that he finally wins an episode
three points ahead of ian a decisive victory yes and a really nice feeling in the room you've got
to remember when you're watching it that the audience don't that the audience hasn't seen
the previous episodes because obviously it hasn't been out in telly yet so they don't know
that paul is the underdog and he's done badly so far but they get the idea so quick and we do we do the series scores quite often and we did mention them in that episode
but yeah it's always funny that we have to do a bit of a recap to the live audience but he was
definitely we have a lot of people's favorites in the show and i think he was one of them
yes definitely uh definitely because he he doesn't do well overall points wise but does and does
He doesn't do well overall, points-wise,
and does chaotically badly in some tasks,
but does it with such grace as well in the studio.
He's just like, oh, I've done badly again.
Yeah, and there's a lovely celebration when he realised he'd won and he stood up.
That wasn't put on.
Some people are quite reluctant to win
because it's a bit embarrassing
because you've got to then be a winner
and go up on stage
and suddenly you're not part of the team.
Paul felt no embarrassment.
He felt only pride and he was so happy to win.
And I imagine it was like when he won that chess trophy
when he was at school.
He really, really wanted to be the victor and he was.
And I love that he's kept that trophy.
Yes, absolutely.
Series scores wise, we're now, I mean,
it was getting close between Lou and Joe.
This is not a great episode for Joe, though.
He only got seven points this episode uh meaning he's fallen behind again lose lose 10 points ahead it does start to get a little bit dicier in this in this part of the series
though which is good because the first few episodes it's really it's it's all about Lou
in the in the scores isn't it yeah we have a slight change of personality in Lou I think
going forwards because she doesn't want want it taken away from her.
And this happens a lot.
It happened in Melfield in Series 4.
It's difficult.
I guess for you, I don't know how you found it. When you're in with a chance of winning it,
you've then got lots of things at play for Episode 10.
You still want to be funny.
But actually, winning, you know, a trophy is a trophy.
Yeah, correct.
I mean, I don't think my personality changed,
because I think my personality was that throughout the series, really,
because I was always in the thick of it.
It was always me, Rose, and Katie always sort of vying for it anyway.
So Lou was very comfortable for a while there.
Yeah, true.
And then it started to get a bit heated.
But you're right, though.
Your personality was always competitive, wanting to win.
Lou hasn't been competitive yet.
She just happened to have
been winning so yes yeah it's good I love it when it's close I you know I want it to be close
Alex thank you so much for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast now obviously series 15
starting soon ish yes I mean I can't believe people haven't seen this
this series yet because we completed it some time ago and started it many many months ago
it's fun it's fun it's a varied bunch and i say this every time but it's it's a series like
number four in terms of the dynamics which is which is good and can you give us a little is there any little teases you can give us little teases no okay lovely thank you very much alex uh now we always get our guests to rate their experience
on the taskmaster podcast between one and five points in the style of the taskmaster
please alex horn have you enjoyed yourself and please give us a point score well look this is
no reflection on you i'm going to give it three points
because of the flapping
that I've been experiencing.
So it's my end. I'm sort of giving myself
I'll give myself two
and you four and that rounds
down to three.
Okay, all right. Or six if you add them up.
Why would I add them up, Ed?
You get very serious about points the team points really annoy me
it's five points
to be split, once you get three and one two
or one four one one or five and zero
often it's five and four
there's not nine points to be
thank you very much, Alex.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
There we go.
Thank you so much, Alex,
for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast.
And thank you so much for Taskmaster.
Keep listening.
Next week, we'll be talking about Series 8, Episode 9
with the brilliant Rebecca Lucy Taylor aka self-esteem
wonderful musician and also wonderful contestant on the most recent Taskmaster New Year's treat
can't wait to speak to her tune in next week we'll be speaking to Rebecca all about series
8 episode 9 to get her thoughts and also catch up with her about everything that she did on the New Year's treat as well.
Thank you very much.
We'll see you next week.
Bye.
Bye.
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