Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 69. Greg Jenner - S6 Ep.2

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

Joining Ed on the podcast this week to talk through Episode 2 of Series 6 is historian, podcaster and Taskmaster super fan - Greg Jenner! Ed and Greg go back in time and reflect on the choices made by the contestants and of course the Taskmaster himself. They discuss darts, grapes, the first team task and an adventurous tin man. For info on Ed's tour visit edgamble.co.ukWatch all of Taskmaster on All 4www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmaster Visit 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:[e-mail] Taskmaster the Podcast is Produced by Daisy Knight for AvalonTelevision Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated

category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast. It's Ed Gamble here, your host of the Taskmaster podcast, where we discuss episodes of the hit show Taskmaster in detail. And we're doing them in order. We're going through our historic episodes at the moment, and we're doing them in order. We're going through our historic episodes at the moment and we're currently talking about Series 6 of course. A classic series they all are.

We talked to Tim Vine last week who is on Series 6. This week we're speaking to someone who was not on Series 6 but is a mega Taskmaster fan. Now and again We interview mega Taskmaster fans and today is Greg Jenner. Greg Jenner, you will know his work, I'm sure. He is a historian, very comedy adjacent, I would say. He is instrumental in the wonderful BAFTA winning Horrible Histories and also has a wonderful podcast himself called You're Dead to Me, which is a fun history podcast where they take a topic and then there's a historian with greg another historian and then a comedian who doesn't know anything about it i've been the thick comedian uh on a couple of occasions i would highly recommend you seek that podcast out

if you've not heard it before and obviously watch horrible histories and all that stuff but greg is on this show because he loves taskmaster and it's lovely to have people who are genuinely passionate about it. So this will be a great episode. We're talking series six, episode two with Greg Jenner. I hope the sound is all right here. I'm currently sat on my bedroom floor because I packed up all my microphone and stuff

to go on tour. I'm on tour, guys. I can't believe it came up organically. The show's called Electric. You can go on to edgamble.co.uk to get tickets. Never really plugged it on here before, but I thought, why not? Why not come along? So without further ado, this is Greg Jenner on the Taskmaster Podcast. Welcome, Greg Jenner, to the Taskmaster Podcast.

Thank you very much for having me and also thank you very much for putting up with my emails and DMs because let's be honest here Ed, hey there's been a campaign here hasn't there? It was a one-man campaign to get you on this podcast and in case anyone was in any doubt that campaign was entirely orchestrated and run by Greg Jenner. Look and it was I was very flattered, I love a campaign, it's nice to know there are people who want to want to come on the podcast and they listen to the podcast and this is what we need Greg we need people who are big fans of Taskmaster to come and talk about it and you are also a consummate podcaster yourself so this is this is a match made in heaven you're very kind and and

you're very uh you're very gracious in putting up with me saying please let me on your show please I love your show please let me on uh seriously though Please. I love your show. Please let me on. Seriously, though, I mean, I love Taskmaster. I think it's one of the great cultural works of the 21st century. Correct. And I'm not not kidding when I say it. I genuinely think it's a masterpiece of television and can talk about it for hours. So here we are. That's good. Let's go. This is going to be extra long. Yes. Well, we'll be talking specifically today about Series 6, Greg. But let's in general talk about your love of Taskmaster,

because as you say, you are a big fan of the show. Do you remember the first time you saw Taskmaster? Was it when it started or did you go back and watch old ones when you discovered it? So this is where I show my embarrassment and humiliation in that i famously declared series one of taskmaster didn't work wow so this podcast is almost an official apology right you've come crawling back this is this is me trying to atone for my sins and saying i was wrong mea culpa uh no i remember watching series one and thinking oh there's the seeds of

a great show here, but they haven't quite got it right. And I was just in a weird, I must have been in a weird headspace. That can happen, right? Because I've seen things before where I'm like, oh, no, I don't like this, actually. No, thank you. It's not for me.

And then everyone's like, it's really good. You should just go and watch it again. You watch it and you think, oh, God, I think I was stupid when I watched that the first time. This is absolutely incredible. Absolutely. I mean, when is series one? Is it 2015? Yes, I think it might be. I watched that the first time. This is absolutely incredible. Absolutely. I mean, when is series one? Is it 2015?

Yes, I think it might be. I think 2015 sounds about right. I should know, really, shouldn't I? So I was very tired in 2015, and I think maybe, and I'm a chronic insomniac, so I think maybe it was a bad week where I'd had not enough sleep, and I watched the show and went, well, this is fine, I guess, but, you know, I'd do it better.

And then go back and watch it again and go, no, this is genuinely a I guess, but, you know, I'd do it better. And then go back and watch it again and go, no, this is genuinely a brilliant television show and I am an idiot. So I apologise. I apologise for anyone who was in the vicinity of my statement in 2015. I was wrong. I'm sorry. So when did you go back and watch it? How long did it take for you to come crawling back with your tail between your legs? I think I stuck through series...

I stuck through, God's sake. You're doing it again, Greg. i endured series one and all of it's uh no i i think i watched all series one going yeah this is fine this is good it's enjoyable but it's you know it's it's uh there's things that change and then i think when series two came along i went oh no this is genuinely amazing television i've clearly ballsed up here and i went back and re-watched series one i went oh no no what you're doing greg you're absolutely wrong of course it's excellent what are you talking about and then i think progressively i've just sort of fallen more and more in love with the show and i'll be honest series six i think is the as the series a lot of people i've spoken to are like yeah it's not quite

our favorite it's not quite a favor and i i probably felt similar vibes and And then I rewatched it last night. It's really lovely. It's a really lovely series. Yeah. I love that you now have learned from your initial Taskmaster viewing and now you don't trust any of your opinions on it whatsoever. I cannot trust it. Originally I didn't, but I had to go back and watch it. And yes, it is really lovely.

No, it's a lovely, it's a really nice bunch of people. It's a different mood and tone from the previous series. And I think that's what's lovely about it. It lives or dies on who they have on it. And I think this is a really nice feeling series. I totally agree. And also, I think this is a series where they've started to be a bit bold with the casting, maybe. I mean, I don't know if this is me overthinking it, but I think Series 5, you've got five absolutely you know top of the game

established stand-up comedians and series six I think they're starting to go what if we got people who are like comedy adjacent who are like funny and creative and witty but they kind of they've got other stuff going on and so Alice I don't think I'd call the stand-up but she's funny and she'd done a huge hit podcast in My Dad Wrote a Porno. And Astyam was more of a writer-creator, more of a performer in scripted stuff. And so I guess there was a slight gear shift where this series introduces what later on becomes the Catherine Parkinson role. The kind of idea of the funny actor who we love off the telly and we get to see them for real I guess yeah totally and I think I think it was a

really important moment because if you just have comedians just stand-ups on it all the time stand-ups I feel like a lot more comfortable in just making an absolute tit out themselves and throwing themselves into stuff and being themselves on shows whereas it's always quite nice to see an actor who is comedy adjacent like you say a great phrase um just suddenly realize that they're being themselves and people are suddenly seeing them for the first time i quite like that sort of slight discomfort at the top of a series so yeah right this is the first time they did it and then they real really nailed it down as a format point they did and i think it's that dynamics then when you've got the kind of prestige of certain people in the room who are like prestigious, but maybe a little bit expect, they expect

to be treated with dignity. How dare they, how dare they come on the show and expect to be treated with dignity. So I, as a historian, obviously I'm always looking backwards at stuff. That's sort of how I understand the world anyway, in reverse. And so I love these. I mean, I love Taskmaster Podcast. I think it's a brilliant show because it actually really allows for exploration of like where the show has got to now. And then undoing it and going, oh yeah, this is where they introduced this idea or this is where they started to tweak things.

And it's been such a lovely thing to listen to you explore stuff week after week. And I'm very grateful for you putting up with me coming in now to ruin it. Oh, not at all. I think it's actually quite pivotal. I think it's interesting as well. You say that thing, when you first saw it, you weren't sure, and then you went back. And I think maybe as a historian, you need to go back and look at things, Greg. That's how you truly appreciate things yes I can't watch things in real time I'm like this come back to me 30 years and this will be lovely and dusty and I can enjoy it

as long as it's dusty you're on board we love series six that's why we're here to talk about Series 6. But from the entire history of Taskmaster so far, do you have any particular standout moments, first of all? Let's say anything that, if someone said, Greg, tell me what you most enjoy about Taskmaster. Give me a little moment that sticks out first. What jumps out?

There are so many. I mean, it's ludicrous how creative and i mean how many series are we into it now i mean you've seen new stuff that hasn't even been televised yet but we're there's such a bad catalogue of joy with this show that i keep forgetting stuff and going oh my god that's so funny um so they're obviously the classics they're absolute classics you know you've got bubbly fuck and you got your kind of all your niche material obviously yeah um i mean i adore katherine parkinson gradually coming around to the idea that maybe she's the spider it is yeah it's an amazing it's like watching a philosopher slowly you know just figure out is the world real am i the spider um

anything with sally phillips i i i'm basically just sort of, I have like a professional crush on Sally Phillips. I think she's an amazing person. Ludicrously brilliant and brainy, but also a little bit mad in the best way. I mean, Rod Gilbert spying on a sleeping Greg Davies is probably illegal, but definitely funny. Feels illegal. It feels pretty illegal, but you know, it's on TV now, so it doesn't count. Joe Thomas hiding from Alex in the railway yard, is it? When he's got to play hide and seek? Yeah, I mean, that whole task often comes up as people's favourite task, I think,

just because it was filmed so beautifully as well. And it just looks so stark the way they've done it. And then, obviously, it's so silly. They're just playing a massive game of hide and seek. It is a stunning task, that one. so beautifully as well uh and it just looks so stark the way they've done it and then obviously it's so silly they're just playing a massive game of hide and seek it is but that's that one that feels like a taskmaster day out that they should run there should there should be a taskmaster like a kind of events day where like you know management consultants from surbiton can go and you too can hide from alex on a bridge um i guess, I think people are doing that sort of thing the whole time.

I regularly get messages from people organising stuff for their family and friends and not necessarily as a corporate day out. I guess you have to make sure everyone's on board. I'm thinking of the gravy train. Come on, let's bring it in. Let's bring in that excellent review. I mean, there's so many highlights. I mean,

just Joe Wilkinson's potato throw. Of course. And the incredible emotional turnaround of his disqualification. And that's, I think, when the series first explores that kind of hubristic joy and failure, the kind of the incredible emotional range that you get from Greek tragedy and Taskmaster, where someone can exalt themselves. Just those two things, that's it. That's all you get. You get the exaltation of sublime genius immediately followed by the kind of pathetic collapse of horror and outrage and Joe begging, begging on his knees. Oh dear. Oh Joe. He's never bounced back from that, I don't think. No, devastating.

In terms of dignity. Yeah. Oh dear, oh Joe. He's never bounced back from that I don't think. No, devastating. So, I mean, so many. I mean, Moan putting helium in an egg. Richard Herring in a bush acting like a sex pervert. Jess Knappett falling off a stage. I mean, that's the most Jess Knappett thing in the world, isn't it? The Knappett stage, so named now. It has a little plaque on it. I mean, so many. Sorry, I sorry i can go forever but i love oh no that's great that's what we like quite often when i ask people their favorite moments they just say potato throw and then they run out so uh so it's it's good that you have all that ready to go the file effects of taskmaster moments um so do you have any standout contestants this is the difficult question isn't it any that you go yes that person is the consummate Taskmaster contestant. They brought many things.

Oh, that's a brilliant question. Because I think we've established over the sort of many years that there are types now, haven't we? We've got the kind of chaotic energy types. You've got the high functioning sort of creatives. There are the bumbling old people who stumble around having a nice time. Then you kind of got the Alan Davis's. It was just like having a, they're just sort of, I think Alice Levine's in the same category, just a smart, nice person having a good day out who approaches things without any drama, doesn't lose temper, just sort of grins when things go wrong. Very chill. I mean, I love the angry outbursts. So you're high on my list simply because

of your tension with David Baddiel that was joyous it's amazing how much that comes up in my day to day life as well that moment rather than just obviously angry outbursts come up every day I mean I had no idea that that because when you're doing

tasks you do think people are going to remember this. You know, my water feature, the Alex Mermaid thing, I'm like, that's what I'll be remembered for on Taskmaster. And then it turns out, no, that moment had yet to come. It was just me shouting at David Baddiel while he stood there baffled. Yeah, I guess the outbursts of, I mean, Daisy Mae Cooper terrifies me a little bit.

So there's something in that. I loved Charlotte Ritchie's sort of innocence and slight regret that she'd said yes to this show. But also just sort of very plucky British, sort of stiff upper lip going, well, I guess I'll just carry on then being belittled day after day. I really like Joe Thomas with his sort of, I thought it was a character act, the bewildered thing. But he is just bewildered, right? He is bewildered and befuddled all day. I've known Joe for years. Most of the things he'll say to you he'll have his eyes closed

because I think he feels like if he opens his eyes he'll just be confused by all the colours like he's just he's constantly worried there's so much stimulus he's like a toddler who's studied philosophy for a hundred years

yes incredibly wise and clever and yet at the same time bamboozled he can't cope with all the knowledge um but i do i'd love that i mean lou obviously is amazing and and yeah i was surprised at how good she was not surprised at how competitive i knew that side of her but i expected a bit more chaos and actually she's got her shit together yeah, yeah. She knows how to harness that chaos now, Lou. That's right, that's right.

She has trained. She's underground bunker somewhere, has been learning how to turn the kind of chaos energy into some sort of force of concerted power to overwhelm anyone in the way. The one contestant I expected to win who didn't, and I was surprised, was Desiree, because she is such an impressive person across the board and she's been on my podcast a few times

and she has that sort of perfect array of like competency memory articulation language skills she's creative she's funny she can also sort of just put up with Greg's shit. She's kind of got it all and I thought that would win it for her. But I didn't reckon on Morgana. You know, it came out of nowhere. No, the chaos again, the harnessed chaos. I'd say less harnessed than Lou actually. But yeah, that's what wins series. So let's get stuck into this episode, episode two, series six.

The prize task, the best hairy thing that isn't alive um this is also one of the series where they start shutting down caveats i've noticed where what they'll do is in tasks and in prize tasks they'll they'll sort of foresee what someone's going to do and then go we don't want that that's going to be a bit boring because everyone will try and do that so we're just going to shut down that avenue and i respect that yeah i think they're starting to figure out the psychology of what comedians do which i guess is why also maybe bringing in people who are not stand-ups means you get a different response perhaps people crumble more under pressure um but yeah i think this prize task is hard. I was trying to think what I would bring in and I was really racking my brain. Best hairy thing that isn't alive. And it's

like, well, what would I do with that? I guess I'd go with like a proper 18th century wig with like a ship in it, like a kind of Marie Antoinette mega wig, which would have like a garden in it, like orchards in it or a ship in it. And these would be huge, huge things. And I think that'd be quite fun. But I struggle to imagine where I go. And I think- I guess with Isn't Alive,

that's the only thing that made me think of maybe some sort of taxidermy situation. You go with like a horrific taxidermied cat or something like that, which Greg wouldn't like, but it would be a horrible thing to bring in. That is a good shout. There is a brilliant taxidermied lion in...

I think it was the King of... I'm going to say King of Sweden maybe was gifted a taxidermied lion and it's adorable because its tongue is lolling out and its eyes are sort of boggly and it looks it looks hilarious it looks like someone has done a sort of nft meme of what a lion should look like and it was from the 18th century i think is and you can find a picture online somewhere if you if you look at taxidermy lion king of sweden or norway and that

would be a fun thing to bring in because it's it's really really really stupid. But I got stuck on hair versus fur. I wasn't sure if fur is different. Oh, good point. Yeah. I mean, we'll come to Tim's. I've got some questions about Tim's. But let's start at the bottom of the table with Asim's prize, which is a life-size cutout of himself,

which isn't – it's not a good prize from Asim. I'm going to say that. He's not done well here. Because we need to see his hair to believe that he's hairy and then even if you believe he's hairy the cut out of himself is not hairy it is they're famously smooth photos famously yeah it's the technology famously not made of hair like when you take a photo it's not it's not like a sort of tiny beaver that gets shaved on the inside and then they sort of sellotape it to the image. One day, maybe.

One day, maybe we can have hairy photos. But for now, no, they're very smooth. And if it was a topless photo, maybe it would have got more points. I expected Greg to request a shirt removal from Asim. When Asim stood up and when he said, I'm a hairy man, I've got a hairy bag I want proof. Let's see. And Greg was like no if I believe you. I was like well come on Greg I expect better than that. I don't think he was holding the standards high enough in this episode actually. I

think he's we'll see going through the episode I think Greg is having too much of a nice time and I think he's letting them off the hook a bit. Yeah I think Greg needs to be in a slightly uncomfortable angry mood to really start laying into people. He needs to not be able to have his little nap before the recording. And that's when he's most officious with his points. But it was one point for us in which I think was deserved. Oh, yeah, it's dreadful. Absolutely terrible.

Russell Howard. Lovely man, but absolutely terrible. Great man, very funny. Love his body of work, funny love his body of work but is his body of work hairy we needed to see it is his body of work hairy is a great question

Russell brought in a life-size Chewbacca costume interesting I think it's the hairiest thing out of all the prizes yeah and it's not the best hairy Yeah, and it's not the best hairy thing.

It's not the best hairy thing. I mean, I guess you could gamble on Greg being a big Star Wars fan, which I can't imagine he is. I don't know, is he? No, I'm not sure. Not particularly. I don't think he's not really a sci-fi guy in general, I don't think. No. So I guess, I mean, there's a certain subset

of men of that age who you show them some Chebacca stuff and they will you know just ejaculate immediately into their own shoes so i don't think i don't think it was a bad gambit but um it's not the best thing is it it's just it's a costume you can get in a shop so it feels like it's gone like he russell's gone hairy chewbacca straight away and that's it done sorted he's not thought beyond that um but you know I'd love to put it on and run around I didn't I'd enjoy it I'd like to touch it so maybe it should have had a few more points um now I think Alice was a bit robbed here she brought in a hairball made out of her own hair uh well can I just go back to very quickly to the Chewbacca back of the head because actually Greg does point out that the Chewbacca costume looks like the back of a woman's

head with a mouth in it. Yes. And when he said that, I did then suddenly imagine Sarah Kendall with a mouth in the back of her head, because actually, the sort of beautiful curls, the sort of red hair, suddenly I could see it and I was like, oh, hang on. I'm like, maybe. So there was a moment where I was like, yes, if there was a, if Sarah Kendall was wearing the Chewbacca costume and then stepped out of it and then there was a mouth on the back of her head, then I would be on board for the five points.

Yeah, but unfortunately it was many series before that could have happened. So I think Russell throwing forward going, one day Sarah Kendall's going to be on this. Just imagine that. This is the problem of being, I'm a historian, Ed. Everything I do is in reverse. I'm so sorry. No, it's great. I love it.

It's like Benjamin Button logic. Sorry. But yeah, Alice's hairball. Yeah. You're keen. You think this is a bold move? It is a very, it's a bold move. I don't think you can deny it's a bold move.

I think it deserves more because there was commitment. She'd got it from multiple locations to form the hairball and she was not afraid to be disgusting in the moment i think that always deserves extra points where you bring something in that's personal and grosses people out and i think that's i think that deserves more points not less interesting would you apply the label best if if someone handed you their follicles that have been yanked out of a bathtub interesting no it's a bit creepy isn't it it's creepy it's weird but i i enjoyed the the brazenness of it and i enjoyed i enjoyed how bold it was but perhaps maybe it's not the best hairy thing i've ever seen no it can't i

mean it there will be men on the internet who'll pay good money for that sort of thing. So maybe it's best to them. Yeah. I was surprised episode two, how quickly out of the box she went with the weird, creepy thing. I felt like maybe she would have built up to that, but she just launched straight into it. Oh, here's my hair from a plug hole. It's really-

Well, here's the thing, Craig. You get given all the prize tasks to collect and you don't know what episode they're going to be in until you arrive at the studio. So I'd imagine she was praying that came episode eight or nine. I see. Yeah. I did not know that.

That's really interesting. So you don't know the order of them. So you can't build on things. What you can do is you can change things when you're in. You can, like, if you give them a bit of notice, you can be like, oh, well, I'm at the wrong tack here so i'm gonna have to change it yes because victoria reused the prize task so that's she did yes okay all right exactly but no she there was no way of alice knowing that her hairball made out of her own hair was going to be an odd tone for episode two

we've only just met you alice and already you're sort of catering to the fetish market it's very bold it's a big swing but i mean it's obviously it's won you over so maybe i'm being too uh too too prudish uh well no everyone was it was two points i mean you're in the majority there i think uh lisa brought in a collection of facetime wigs as if that was a concept that Greg enjoyed. She said it like it was the most normal thing in the world. She speaks to her mum on FaceTime and whenever the FaceTime cuts out or her mum steps away, she puts on a new wig. But I love it.

Yeah. And again, Morgana does the same thing. And I'm starting to see patterns here. Champions clearly have wigs just next. I mean, you're a champ. I'm assuming if I ask you to turn around and reach into that cupboard behind you, wigs? Wigs are actually all over the floor.

I can't see my floor because it's just wigs everywhere. Yeah, it's all about the wigs. No, I love this about it. I like prizes that are little insights into people's real lives. And sometimes people bring in prizes where I think you've made this up to bring in something funny that you think uh i did it i made up loads of prizes uh but you totally believe

that lisa uses those wigs when she talks to her mum on facetime yeah it's a beautiful moment it's a little bit of intimacy it's a bit of yes you can see the family dynamic you know her mum's holding her phone up to her face probably a little bit you know classic mum holding at the right angle only seeing the forehead and then suddenly lisa appears with a a share wig or something great another wig and as lisa pointed out her mum gets a bit annoyed by it because you would just be like just trying to have a conversation with you stop putting wigs on right let's talk let's talk about tim vines because look obviously it means a lot to tim he's a huge elvis fan and he's brought in a single hair that he believes is belonging to Elvis Presley. He believes, yeah.

He believes. Definitely not Elvis's hair. Here's something, Greg. It's a question that has rung throughout the ages. Is a hair hairy? Oh, that is a good question, isn't it a hair is a single hair a single hair is hair is it hairy because he didn't he didn't say i brought in this frame which is hairy because it's got a hair in it the hair itself was the prize a hair surely is quite smooth

you have flummoxed me there because a hair surely needs to be hairy for hairiness to be contingent upon the existence of hair within it. Yeah. So there needs to be hair for there to be hairy. But can a single hair be hairy because a single hair is not itself hairy? It's a hair. It's not hairy. Oh no. And can an angel dance on the head of a pin and on a single hair? These are the things that Aquinas wanted to know. I don't know how to answer your question, and I love that that's where we've got to,

but I feel cowardly in ducking this, but I'm going to say a single hair can be hairy, but it was a little bit disappointing that it's only one hair would be my takeaway yeah but i guess you know there's only so many hairs elvis could have had in his life and i'd imagine they're all owned by people uh all across the globe in frames such as this but when when do we how do we know that's true authentication wise there could he says there's loads of letters on the back but what those letters could be fake couldn't they i mean you you must have a little a little bit of uh insight into this as a historian because there must be loads of things like elvis's hair and then like jesus's fingers and all of that stuff yeah yeah well i've wrote a book on the history of celebrity so this is exactly my

wheelhouse and uh this this is very much a kind of fascinating element where the the corporeal body of the celebrity becomes almost like a saint-like relic so you're absolutely right with the kind of jesus finger thing and yeah people pay good money for like famous people's vomit you know it farts in a jar uh hairs um anything someone has touched you know people often pay good money to go and stand in a room that someone else stood in you know it's it's really fascinating thing that we get a bit like spooky and and and compelled by what is essentially detritus dust yeah vomit piss whatever it is or just simply the proximity of a person to a thing you know like oh dickens stood in this room once amazing um and that's a very interesting human response but in terms of the actual hair and

how you authenticate if it's a single elvis hair i don't know i mean i guess you could take it from his comb so if you knew a housekeeper but that's easy to fake isn't it you'd have to do a dna test yeah i mean i don't know did he wear wigs oh i just don't know maybe i'm yeah lisa probably probably got one of them yeah maybe lisa's wigs i suppose with all of these things does it really matter if they're real if they're real to the person that owns them because it obviously means a lot to tim yeah well you could say the same for money though and bitcoin and nfts like if are these things real or not are they fungible do they have any value well value is applied externally so if tim wants to pay for it and if people want to think it's elvis's hair great i mean i guess if you wanted to clone like a jurassic park of elvis's

have them sort of stumbling around going i'm caught in a trap i don't know if if you would... You'd do it with one hair. A single hair, yeah. If you could have Rich Lattenborough saying, Welcome to Elvis Park. That'd be fun. Thank you to Tim Vine for the creation. Well, look, it was five points anyway.

I think it went down very well, and it certainly stood out from the rest of them, I think. So it was one point for Asim, two points for Russell, two points for Alice, four points for Lisa, and five points for Tim's hairy hair. Yes, Tim, isn't it? It's actually a genuine hair from Elvis. Shut up.

It's in that little round bit at the bottom there. There it is. Please tell me that that hair was caught in a trap. That would be the most amazing thing. Task one, get the highest score in darts. You can either throw one dart from one metre away, three darts from 2.37 metres away, or 60 darts from 10 metres away.

When throwing, please stand behind whichever distance line you choose. You have a maximum of 10 minutes. Your time starts now. I love... This is one of my favorite tasks in the whole series i think it's a really easy task to describe to others but it's actually it's that lovely thing of do you do the simple thing of stand close and throw once do you do the sensible thing of you know stand a bit further away chuck three or do you embrace chaos and absolutely wang 60 darts aboard from far too far away which i think again is a sort of i keep i mean for me taskmaster feels like the sort of job interview that google probably do for incredibly brainy um computer

scientists and they sort of fill a room full of these nerds and say um how many marbles would fit in a postbox and and it's not the number that matters what they want to see is how you think how you get there yeah interesting yeah exactly so I feel like Taskmaster would be a very good recruitment process for brilliant software engineers and or you know prison wardens because there's a certain element of kind of power as well you're absolutely obsessed with retooling Taskmaster for the corporate world aren't you Greg? I'm gonna roll this out, I'm gonna make so much money putting it into every

possible industry and sector. We're gonna have Taskmaster in politics, Taskmaster in sport, it's gonna be great. We had Tim on the podcast last week and it's interesting what you say about the 60 Darts being embracing chaos. He seems to suggest that 60 darts is sort of the only choice, the only logical choice. Yeah, I love this about him. This is fascinating. Yeah, he was worried about the wind with the normal throwing three darts. One dart, you've only got one chance, right?

But with 60 darts, as long as you get four darts in or whatever, you could score the highest. So it's a really interesting way of doing it i totally agree and i loved that that insight into his brain because he was because he's a darts man he knows about darts he knew words about darts he knew he talked about wind speed he knew things yeah um whereas alice did not know what a dart sport was like she looked at it and went where where can you score by letting getting the number in the black bit no that's outside the dartboard so there's a real a real range of um of expertise in this task yes i and i completely see what he meant like if you throw only three but it's too windy that the first dart goes too far to the left

and the second dart goes too far to the right you may as well have thrown just one yeah or you throw the 60. but then russell proves that no throwing the 60 actually doesn't help even though you look like i loved it i loved russell throwing the 60 and i loved the way they edited it because the angle they had the camera i thought he's got a thousand points because it so many went in it was just thunk thunk thunk thunk and he was was like, yeah, I've got my eye in now. Bang, bang, bang, just going in. And no, he got three. It's amazing, isn't it? And I think what I love about Taskmaster so much

is the kind of expertise gap that should apply that often doesn't apply. Like you get people on the show who are trained musicians or you get people on who are like good at sport or people who are clearly excellent at a thing and you think well they're gonna ace this task and then they something intervenes destiny comes and sort of delivers them some hubris but like russell looked so olympic level cool hurling his javelin i mean he wasn't even dancing he was hurling like javelins yeah I mean, he wasn't even darts. He was hurling them like javelins. Yeah. And as you say, that kind of sound of the... It was just machine gun fire.

Yeah. And then the melon as well. Just perfectly around the outside. So good. Alice is the only one who went for the one dart from one metre away. And look, she got 13. It was pretty good.

But Alex made the point, you could have just lent in and just pushed it into wherever you wanted. And I'm so annoyed someone didn't think to do that. Literally just lean forward, stuck it in triple 20. Not that that would have made any difference to her. She didn't know what that was, I'd imagine. She probably would have put it through the zero of the 20

and gone, is that the winner? Yeah, precisely. Yeah. I mean, the lean thing is, I guess, is just, it's cheating of a sort, because you're not Menolino across the hockey, but I guess, yeah. But there's something, there's that thing, isn't there, that if you expand people's choices and you give them three choices, they'll often be sort of excited by the kind of outlier choice.

So if you give people a choice of up close or three metres away, they'll go, well, up close, probably. But if you of up close or three meters away they'll go up close probably yeah but if you say up close three meters away or 10 meters away and there's a sort of question mark could you should you do it also i think with taskmaster you're sort of you've always got to keep one eye on you do you are supposed to just do the tasks and try and do the best you can but also you've got to keep one eye vaguely on the most fun or entertaining thing to do. So I would have gone straight for the 60 darts because that's a laugh. When do you get to do that?

Right, when do you ever get to hurl 60 darts? But the three darts probably, I mean, a sensible choice. Asim goes for that and Lisa goes for that. And Lisa wins with 32 points. Asim, I mean, a bit of a disaster for three darts 16 points but tim's 60 darts every time that hit the pole it was just devastating it was ting ting ting incredible accuracy to keep hitting the same very narrow piece of metal surely the whole idea of tim's

brilliant the whole idea with darts is that if you hit a certain thing, you can then adjust the next time you know exactly how to do it again. But he hit that pole so many times and he cared about this so much. He's very laid back, Tim, in the whole of the rest of the series. Yeah. Because darts is his thing. And I'd imagine Alex knows that. Of course he does. That's why this task was included in this series,

because Tim loves darts so much. And then Tim's so let down. And he says, you let yourself down, Vine. And it's really sad. It's tragic when he says that. It is tragic. It's really devastating because that's his thing. And Russell gets a lot of opportunities in the series

to look cool doing football things. But this was Tim's big shot, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. This is his Las Vegas moment. But he does... I mean, I think he got a bit of wind as well. It looked like it was quite a windy day. It was buffeting.

It was buffeting a lot on Tim's day. But look, he's still got four points. He got 29 on the darts. So it's pretty impressive still, I think. And he was happy that he beat Russell. Yeah, I couldn't hit it from that distance. Also, I just want to note that Alice is doing an adorable

greeting to Alex thing. I don't know if you've clocked that on episode one. Yes, we've not mentioned this yet. She does her different nicknames every time. Yeah. Every single time she's got a new one. And I mean, this one's High Blossom. Lovely.

It's really lovely. High Blossom. Just really nice, wandering in. And then I think in the next episode is Baby Cakes. Yeah, Baby Cakes comes up. Yeah. There's a good variety. But I would have panicked if i'd

started doing that i'd be sat there every day i was filming i can't think of any more nicknames this is awful i'm calling him the c word because i've run out um wandering episode 10. all right bellend yeah um but i i really like but also this you know this is so early on into introducing alice and i just love how she sort of arrives fully formed like yeah we don't really i didn't but I really like but also this you know this is so early on into introducing Alice and I just love how she sort of arrives fully formed like

yeah we don't really I didn't know much about her when I first saw this series I hadn't yet listened to Dad Write Porno I hadn't heard her on Radio 1 much she was sort of

a bit of a mystery to me and I just really liked how kind of like together she is she's really chill and very chill

and very witty as well and sarcastic. Very funny, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that doesn't help her here. She only gets two points. Russell gets one point.

But she's shit at darts. But she's shit at darts. She doesn't understand darts. Three points for Asim. Four points for Tim. And five points for Lisa, which is a fairly regular occurrence. I'm going to go for 60 darts from this distance. You've got five and a half minutes.

Right. Come on, fine. Right, and this is something going wrong here. Hit the blooming button. It's physically not possible what I'm doing. It's a pole. I can't flip. Sake man. This looks like, just looks like a waste now.

Let yourself down, Vine. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly.

This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. and ACAS Creative. ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Task two, it is our first team task. Keep Alex dry. Dryest Alex wins. You may not touch Alex at any point. You may not be in the compass when the shower is on. The shower will be turned on for two minutes in two minutes from now. Now, this is the first team task, I think. I believe I'm right in saying. And you don't see the teams meet.

Normally, this is a highlight for me when the teams see each other and meet for the first time. And that does not happen in this series. No. And is that an outlier for this series only? Like, because I noticed that too. As far as I know, yes. And I wonder, because obviously to see the teams meet,

you have to establish which the first team task is going to be. Sure. I wonder if it's something to do with the fact they don't know each other as well, this series maybe. They're sort of like a bit of like wandering in just, oh, hello, nice to meet you sort of thing. But then that was the real joy of uh of the uh of series eight i think when joe and sean met they they'd never met before and it was the most awkward meeting of two people ever so i want to see that but this this is a great team

task is they obviously don't know each other as well but so they're thrown into this and they have to establish their roles very quickly. So it's lovely to see Alice and Russell already work together quite quickly. They're like throwing in ideas, ready to go. And they come up with a brilliant idea of turning the shower off. That's, they actually come up with the idea

of turning the shower away. Then they build on that, turn the shower off. Then the martini and then the hairdryer. It's brilliant. And they're both involved in that. And it's lovely to watch. lovely it's collaborative it's supportive uh you're watching them build it's like it's like a great improv show and uh and he's not just dry he's more dry than when he started alex is perfect it's brilliant excellent 10 points

legit yeah it's five points only was it four i can't remember it's four points this is back when greg used to sort of divide five points between the teams now he sort of gives different points so he would give five points to them now i think yeah that should have been a five pointer i'm i'm slightly outraged on that but you're right then asim liza and tim are sort of they're kind of three types of charming oddball aren't they i mean they're kind of quintessentially british but in quite different ways and it's quite nice watching them collaborate at speed with two minutes on the clock uh totally i mean obviously lisa's in charge straight away but in a very laid-back fun head mistressy way uh and um tim's sort of like a giddy school boy bouncing around really excited to get

involved and then acid it's the bowl on the head just when everyone else is doing things that are so useful and acid just goes oh put this on the head and it's obviously the only idea he's come up with so he's like yeah that the last if that bowl has got to go on that head um and i thought they did they did a good job for think they were thinking in a route one way like they were literally like cover him in stuff make sure the water can't go on him but for that that, I think they did a very good job. Yeah, I think they, you know, had the other team, had Team Funk, as they self-appointed themselves, and then Alice very quickly reversed away from them. Very quickly.

Well, you haven't agreed on the name. I think they did a sort of really sensible job. I mean, it was lovely to hear Lisa shout, we need bin bags of tarpeters. Whatever that is is but it sounded it's great um and they yeah they started applying layers and then obviously I think it was Tim who midway through improvised a sort of diversionary he leaned in uh and sort of diverted some more water away from Alex's legs was all quite good I think they did a pretty good job but I think they did it's just that next level of thinking, isn't it? So Tim thinking, oh, we can divert the water away.

Then the next level is you can divert the shower away. And then it's just all bets are off then. Just turn the shower off. Yeah, I mean, that's incredible. And then to give him a dry martini is an absolute chef's kiss. That's the thing. If you're dividing the five points, it just seems harsh to both of them because I think they deserve two or three points maybe. And you're dividing the five points, it just seems harsh to both of them because I think they deserve, you know,

two or three points maybe. And then obviously the full five for Team Funk. Yeah, I would have gone five and three, I think. I think, you know, Alex emerged. Did he call himself Damp Soggy? Damp, yeah, I think it was Damp. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a three point, isn't it?

Surely. And also it was raining on their day anyway, so he probably felt damper than he actually was. It was in the atmosphere. I mean, there was atmospheric mist. You can't be dry on a day like that. They had a lovely sunny day on Team Funk, you know. In fact, two points for them.

So it was one point for Asim, Lisa and Tim, and four points for Team Funk. I mean, sometimes on the show, you just have to put your hand up and go, they just absolutely knocked it out of the park. So the shower, the bit above him, was that on? Well, they turned it on, but it didn't work. Yeah, the shower was on, but it was disconnected

because Team Funk went and buzzed it. Can I just clarify, we haven't settled on Team Funk. Yeah, I know that. Task three. Take a picture of a group of people each holding an egg. Most people holding eggs in the picture wins. You must be in your picture. You have one week to text your picture

to the Taskmaster's assistant. Your time starts now. Now, this is a tricky one. I don't know what I would have done here, Greg, but I feel like, overall, I would have done here greg but i feel like overall i would have put in a lot more effort and thought than a lot of the contestants i have strong feelings about this task i feel uh i have i have semantic protests i have some i have some logic logic inquiries to make i feel greg let the side down and also i think they've all

phoned this in i think this is a really lazy task i think they're like yeah i just i don't know just sit with an egg for a second i mean um okay let's try to do logical rant first yes the verb in question is take a picture not make a picture so when you take a picture you have to use a camera right yeah i think lisa has been falsely rewarded here for acquiring a picture and then adding a photo of herself into it, but that's not taking a picture of all these people. I think that should be a disqualification. Straight off the bat.

I completely agree with you, Greg. Good. My only note here, next to Lisa's name, is she doesn't take the picture. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Even if she took the picture of that picture,

I'd be more inclined to give her points. But presenting that picture is not taking it. Or if she'd taken someone else's picture and literally taken it off them and then presented it as her own, so she stole a picture, you're still taking a picture. But I don't think she's taken one.

I think she has composited a picture. Yes. It's not the same. No, it's not the same at all. And no matter how... Look, at least, you know, she thought about it and she thought about at all um and no matter how look at least you know she thought about it and she thought about a crowd scene and how was she going to achieve that and she thought i'll do it i'll do it in a cheeky way like that but no it should be a disqualification quite frankly instant disqualification it's i think she's made a mockery of the english language

there and uh and i think greg has betrayed the trust of the the british people in in allowing her to get away with it. I think he's scared of her. I was going to say, she briefly defends herself and he goes, fine, it's just like an absolute climb down from him. No, I think you're quite right there, actually. And I think he's a little bit... It's very rare that there is a contestant who commands enough authority

to sort of make Greg cower. And I think Lisa's one of them. She's amazing. I mean, I love her. She's a phenomenal... She's so funny. She's so together and so in control. But she's also absolutely setting the agenda here.

I think Lisa says, did it say in the instruction you can't do that? And Greg says, nope. It's like a small boy just going, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for even mentioning it. And it's like, that's not your role as taskmaster. You're meant to be the kind of despotic Roman emperor who banishes people from on here.

I really feel like she's got the measure of him here very early in the series. Which is impressive to watch. But yeah, I think we both agree there. It should be nought points now yeah russell uh got a photo with the cricket team the mumbai blasters um love that name for a cricket team by the way uh with 23 people in it i felt because there's another prize task later on where russell is in india what when he has to do it i feel like russell

might be the busiest man in the world. And the notion of getting prize tasks together would probably be an extra stress he doesn't necessarily need. So I had to do it fairly ad hoc. Yes. I mean, he does an announcement from a balcony to no one apart from some cats, I think. And his mom's like, no one heard you. And he's like, I mean, it's not even phoning it in. He's literally doing it while making another television program. Yeah, that, yeah.

That's what happens when you get to Russell's level of fame, is that you have to prepare for some television shows whilst you're filming other television shows. It's great. It's a sort of Russian dole effect. You make a show within a show. But, yes, I felt that this was fine. This is him posing with, you know, everyone holding an egg.

Fair play. Nice picture. Nice picture. And, you know, as you say say the blaster is a great name for a for a team but um it did feel a little bit second second after thoughts again asim though asim had the whole internet to draw upon he's got like i mean this is the most pathetic thing i've ever seen and it's it's, though, that he's like put a thing out on social media. Because a montage is a great way to go. I think that's such a good idea.

I think that's clever. Look, he's not necessarily taking the picture, but he can put it all together. And then that would feel like taking the picture. So he could have got thousands of people holding an egg and made a massive poster of them. And it's 14 people sent him a picture of them holding an egg. And a massive poster of them and it's 14 people sent him a picture of them holding an egg and it's it's a really bad collage it's literally like he's done it in microsoft word it's just sort of shifted some images about and got the other i guess it's really poor and also i think it would fall foul of our logic trap

in that i think again he hasn't taken the photos but no even the effort level here is disappointing and I have to say in this episode Asim does not cover himself in any glory until late on until I mean he comes strong but um he's definitely having a bit of a tough time yeah it's not as strong as that poor old Asim and the eggs the eggs does nothing for that um alice took a photo with nine rate and this is again just very busy people took a photo with nine radio one work colleagues and they're all holding chocolate eggs yeah i mean that's literally just a lunch break that's not even you're not even trying now i mean i would ask my money back if i was tasked master i'd like well come on 10 off the fee because none of you have tried on this task. Really, really lazy.

All I've written here, genuinely written here, and I watched this yesterday, the lack of effort here in general is outstanding. It's a commitment to nothingness. But it is funny when everyone's not really put enough in. It is funny when that happens. Like the first prize task of Series 10 as well and everyone was rubbish and Greg was just like like this is awful what is going on here it is funny it is funny and there is a perhaps there's a sort of logistical question where the the task got say it got set late in

the day and people were like oh we haven't got time for this all right we'll just do the first thing comes to our head but the only one who really sort of does something imaginative is tim head but the only one who really sort of does something imaginative is tim yeah i mean he really underwhelms with it because he's only there's only eight tims in the photo or butchers as well i guess yeah like what's what is butcher doing in that i mean well this is the amazing thing i don't know did he receive the prize tasks when he was in the butcher and he had the idea straight away? Or did he specifically go to his butcher with the idea of taking that photo? I mean, you tell me, right?

What would you do in that instance? Because, I mean, is the butcher the renowned photographer of his local area? I don't get why you'd do it. Where did the mirror come from? The butcher sell eggs. Is that where we start this? Is that where Tim buys his eggs from? Oh, maybe, maybe, maybe.

That's a very good point. Because what I like about it is it feeds into Tim's love of his own community, right? Yes. He's a team man. In the next episode we've got coming up, we've got a day out in a diner he's planned in Cheam. All of this sort of stuff. So I do like that. It just makes Tim seem like a character from Fireman Sam and i i really like that he's got to his local butcher

it's lovely but it's not many tims but the idea is strong and i think he deserved more points because he's the only one who's put more thought into it yeah and he pitched it as an infinite number of tims with an infinite number of eggs, which I think is not really how light refraction works, but I love that he tried. But Greg was happy to sort of say no to that, but then accepted Lisa's bullshit logic. I think it tells you again of how good Greg is most of the time in playing that role. And I think in this episode he hasn't calibrated it quite right, or as you say, he's running scared. But there's just a moment in this episode where he should be pushing back and he's in this episode he hasn't calibrated it quite right or as you say he's running scared but there's just a moment in this episode where he should be pushing back and he's not and i don't know whether there's something in the room that's making him just having a lovely

time or he had a nap as you said or he's had a lovely lunch i don't know um but he does take it all out on tim there all that frustration is built up yeah maybe. Yeah, but I think one of the reasons, I mean, I can over-intellectualize Taskmaster till the cows come home, and I will, but the reason I love this show so much is the dynamics are so malleable. Yeah. So you get jokes from every direction, right? I mean, we watch game shows, we've been on telly, we make podcasts, we know that formats have limitations and you run out of ideas sometimes but Taskmaster has that incredible sort of hall of mirrors really where you can get different angles on things because you've got five people who are either competing or collaborating you know sometimes the guests the contestants sort of come together as a sort of trade union

to oppose Greg but then you've also got the dynamic with Alex who is a man with power except that he doesn't have power in the presence of Greg. And then Greg sometimes defers back to the guests and lets them pitch and then shoots them down. All these different permutations can happen, and you never know what you're going to get. And that's what makes it so amazing, is you've got that kind of Roman imperial system of having an emperor and a senate.

Alex is the senate. He's the measurer. He's the bureaucrat. He's sort of in charge of the rules and in charge of the measuring and the empirical and then you have your despot who wakes up one morning and says I'm gonna wear purple and we're all gonna call ourselves Marcus and there's nothing you can do about it and it's such a clever format that allows for this constant negotiation of who's the most powerful person in the room and it's really, really funny. Oh, that's great. Yeah, I mean, a hall of mirrors is a great way to describe it,

or indeed, one mirror in a butcher's shop. Give me some stats. Well, we haven't seen Tim yet, but we've got nine. Nine. And then we've got 11. Yes. And then we've got 85 and 23. Yeah, but they're 85 rogues.

Can it? And then we've got 85 and 23. Yeah, but they're 85 rogues. Can it? Task four, make this wind-up little man go on the most extraordinary journey. You have 30 minutes. Your time starts now. Obviously, the little man,

another great task in this series, the little man goes through a lot here, doesn't he? Oh, he suffers. He really suffers. I felt for him. The thing I remember most from this, and watching it back, the thing I was looking forward to the most

is obviously the way Lisa treats the little man, because for no reason at all, she decides right at the beginning, as soon as she sees the little man, that she hates the little man. Yeah, it's an instant dislike, isn't it? Like his little moustache, his handlebar moustache,

and she just immediately takes against him and yeah and is so annoyed when he doesn't get hit by a car the whole plan is to send him across that road and for him to be crushed by a car and when when he's not she stumps at him and alex is devastated oh alex is he's actually traumatized there's an actual moment of shock on his face. Yeah. Which turns out is because they've only got one little man. Sort of props team are sort of busily on eBay trying to buy more little men, I guess. I think that's what started. I think now they always buy multiples of everything.

Yeah. Because that's pretty much what started that. Although I think Alex said that that was also maybe started by Noel Fielding in Champion of Champions because Noel smashed up the briefcase to try and get the frozen peas out and they didn't have another suitcase. So now it's multiples for everything

because they know there's always going to be one contestant whose inclination is to smash something up. Yeah, embrace destruction and I mean Lisa it's so matter-of-fact the way she just she kills it under the cover of like a sort of euthanasia she sort of turns to Alex and says oh he suffered enough but there's no pity in her face this is this is murder you know protect pretending to be mercy it's it's brutal. he hasn't really really suffered that much i think he gets like clipped but he looks like he's fine and then bam dead gone head comes off yeah head

comes off it's a decapitation it's brutal um so that's a real that's quite an insight into lisa's mind isn't it i think this is where we haven't yet had the cake sitting we've not yet had the kind of well that closes out the series of course we've the sadism the streak of sadism that runs through her isn't quite on display but here we see a moment of pure malevolent evil yeah it's perfect um tim tries to do something nice by sending by sending the little man, Midian, I believe he calls him, to reach Fir Tree Summit. But essentially, as Alex points out, he hung Midian. He hung Midian by his neck.

He lynches Midian. Yeah, it's a really, really horrific. Really brutal. And then tries to get a garden rake to get him out and stuff as well. Yeah. That poor little man went through so much that day he really did um and then you've got russell who um i didn't quite understand what was happening in this one to be honest i think where did the sort of yellow bodysuit come from that's i don't know where the yellow bodysuit

came from um what i would say is I appreciate Russell thinking outside the box in terms of the journey. So he sent him on a physical journey, yes, but also wanted to send him on a spiritual journey. So I liked that a lot, but it was quite, it was how that was realised was utterly confusing. So it was Alex dressed in a yellow bodysuit, which made him look, there's a character called uh

gudetama who's a japanese character who is an egg who is an egg and alex looked like gudetama um but also there's a man who hangs out with gudetama who is like a man in a bodysuit and i don't i he looked a bit like that as well so it was baffling but i think russell said he was a buddha i don't know what it's just just one of them one of the sort of chain store buddhas you can get one of the buddhas just one off a shelf um and just yeah baffling but him cat even though it was baffling and i didn't know what was going on alex catching the little man made me cheer out loud yes but there was a kind of real dad watching his son play football shouting at the referee energy to it there was a sort of there's a kind of bit of a kind of macho uh slightly sort of i don't know russell was a little bit too aggressive i think

in some of the kind of do it better do it strongly like it wasn't well certainly too aggressive to be sort of spiritual oh yeah there was no there was very little buddhism happening here was there it was it was i think it was a sort of i think the was it geography teacher sort of shout i don't know what the description was but it felt felt a bit like a child being hectored by his disappointed dad yeah which i liked i actually like that element of it and i quite i think people should be more aggressively spiritual. Okay. Yes. Okay. All right.

Well, I'll do my best to ramp it up for the rest of the podcast. But it did feel, it did feel, just thinking back to Tim, actually, just for a second, I forgot that he also attached a cardboard tube to the end of his recovery rake. Which again, sort of added to the sort of hubristic face. He went on the journey, got him stuck in a tree, accidentally hanged him. And then also there was a sort of element of farce as well. It's very Tim Viatt. I suppose it is an extraordinary journey, I suppose.

If you got sent on that journey, if you survived, you would go, that was extraordinary. You would tell that story, wouldn't you? You'd absolutely, you'd serialize it in the daily mail um but yeah it was it's just there's a sort of faulty towers hubris to tim that i really like i think yeah he's a lovely man but there's a sort of there's a there's a little bit of sort of english reserve that sort of gets put to the test i think maybe i don't know bumbling immediately bumbling yeah yeah alice uh. Alice has a good idea of sending the little man to Australia. I have some issues with it because the journey is supposed to last 30 minutes.

So the journey, as far as I'm concerned, ends after that 30 minutes. How do you feel about that, Greg? Yeah, I think we've had this issue in other episodes of Taskmaster. There's often a kind of cut off time limit that doesn't seem to always apply universally and I guess that's to sort of embrace the bigger comedy ideas but it is a bit cheeky isn't it that she's gonna pop it down to the post office she had what 10 minutes to get to the post office yeah and then she did but it just it did not reach it did not reach the location the little man has gone I mean all these little men i was i'm imagining they're all from the same family they're all twin brothers

and they've all had it very rough although to be fair i'll get i'll get messages about this of course i will the task is make this wind up little man go on the most extraordinary journey you have 30 minutes so maybe the 30 minute time limit is sending him on the extraordinary journey it does not need to be the the entirety of the journey okay so uh yes so in a sort of phileas fog kind of way you can go on an 88 day journey but you've got half an hour to get the train i guess maybe that's the that's the logic that's fine i quite like the way alice thought aloud about i don't have to make him pedal because he's a little pedal man is he sort of got a little motion and she's like do i have to make him pedal the whole journey and alex was like no you're fine so actually she's sort of was going all right i'll send him on a journey rather than

yeah he he'll he'll go by his own um the idea is the idea is strong but it obviously does not it does not reach its destination and i think that's what would have got it the five points i was thinking something about you because if you think outside the box you want to send him on a physical journey and uh an emotional journey and a spiritual journey what about making a little raft for him strapping him onto the little raft setting fire to it and pushing out into the middle of the thames sort of viking style that's nice that's really nice yeah i think i mean a journey to valhalla ah that's exactly that. He dies, but he gets reborn in the afterlife

to go fight, to pedal more battles against other mustachioed men. I think that's lovely. I think that would definitely work. I do wonder if the Taskmaster team would have been okay with sending some burning plastic out into the middle of the Thames, but, you know, that would have been my idea.

There's definitely some rules on there about what you can put into the shipping lane. I don't know. I don't know of the Thames but you know that would have been my idea there's definitely some rules on there about what you can put into the shipping lane I don't know I don't know about the Thames but uh yeah that that might be a little tricky but I you can do it in a pond you can do it in a lovely little yeah it must be a little there must be a little kids pond around the corner somewhere surely knocking around yeah put it in the kids pond I think Alice goes to a leisure center at one point and borrows someone's hat. There must be a swimming pool you could use. Yeah, good point, actually. Good point. Asim makes a parachute out of a plastic bag, sends him down a drain,

and the Wind-Up Little Man battles fire and lizards underground before coming back. It was great. This is when Asim finishes strong, like you said earlier. This is Asim winning my heart. This is him... By by this point i was expecting another failure you know because he's a lovely man but he'd been struggling and then out of nowhere he produces a kind of heart-wrenching tale of heroism and courage

um you know he's cheering on the little man from the sidelines you know we've seen russell yelling abuse alex here we have a kind of supportive yelling we've got a man sort of cheering on and saying you can do it and the cinematography is brilliant the flames are real the monsters look scary up close and that oh it's really good it sort of felt classic spielberg 1980s adventure film yeah it was lovely and what i like the key thing about this journey is the little man returned unscathed. He did. He lived. He lived.

Having been murdered already. Yeah, the true extraordinary journey. And then he obviously had to be told that the rest of his brothers are all dead or lost. It's like saving Private Ryan. They've got to go and rescue the one brother who's still alive because all the other ones have been killed. They've been shot by various German Wehrmacht troops. but this one brother needs to be saved by tom hanks um yeah i i really love this film and also if you'll let me sort of briefly detour this is also a reminder of the genius of the technical team on taskmaster like the the level of talent that everyone on this team has and the commitment they they into these little bits is so brilliant. And I just love the production design of the show.

I love the cinematography. The editing's phenomenal. We've already talked about the really funny editing between Russell and Tim, where Tim is spending forever debating whether he'll throw a dart or not. Meanwhile, Russell's just wanging them into the dartboard from 10 metres away. The editing is so funny but the kind of the just the visual the aesthetic of it i mean i think you know when i when i was wrong about series one one of the things that i got right at least was that i realized that the studio stuff the aesthetic was really cleverly done like

they made it look like a theater you know that beautiful red backdrop with the gold thrones felt so different to every other game show which is all shiny floor very kind of neutral not very interesting and i really love that early decision and actually when you go back and look at taskmaster from day one they get so many creative choices spot on immediately which is so hard to do you know the tasks coming in a little little envelope with a wax seal, beautiful. The thrones of different heights, beautiful. The colors, beautiful. The music, the music of Taskmaster. You could do a whole podcast on how genius the music is, not just the theme tune, which is amazing, but also the incidental music by, is it Dream Masters, I think, who

is it? Yes, I think it is, yeah. Like so much variety, so many brilliant kind of little cues that you would not see on any other tv show that are playing with different musical traditions they're sort of off kilter they're out of tune sometimes they're a bit weird a bit kaleidoscopic even the theme tune by you know the horn section is on the one hand kind of roman imperial triumphal military march it's it's big horns it's blaring it's ascending on the one hand kind of roman imperial triumphal military march it's it's big horns it's blaring it's ascending on the other hand the bass line is chaotic and you know

really really fast and frenetic and then it descends as the horns go up so you've got that kind of but the bass is going at the same time two competing narratives happening simultaneously so it's a theme tune that tells you this is a show that's about competition and heroism, but also about chaos and frenetic energy and anything will happen. Amazing. So Taskmaster, every single department is just knocking it out the park. Sorry, I'll stop.

No, Greg, please. We love stuff like this. This is great. I say we love stuff like this. We've never had anyone talk so passionately about the music and have genuine insight into what that music's doing to you so look don't don't you worry about that we we love that we'll have you back on because you clearly got way more to say about this we need to get deeper sorry sorry so it was it look everyone

did okay on this it was three points for tim three points for Tim, three points for Russell, three points for Alice, and then four points for Lisa, and five points for Asim. A well-deserved five points for Asim, I think. Definitely. Did you feel the three points shared between three people was a little bit generous from Greg again? I got a vibe that he's just not making the hard choices. He's backing away from any difficult decisions.

He's not playing the mean dad. He's been really jolly in this episode. It's not playing the mean dad he's he's been really jolly in this episode it's weird he is he's a happy boy in this episode um but look i think it probably makes up for all the times he's been too harsh uh and i'm sure as we all know there's a lot of harsh stuff to come oh yeah i mean god yeah he's terrifying most of the time but in this episode he just seems to be like yeah you every point for everyone it's well done everyone yeah come on mate cycle cycle watch out watch out fire monsters fucking loads of dangerous shit come on

come on you can do it man i believe in you you made it so let's move on to the live task when, put your grape in either your hand or your mouth while staring at the Taskmaster. You must then answer the Taskmaster's question and fool the Taskmaster into thinking your grape is not where your grape is. You must not eat your grape. Your answer must contain at least five words.

If the Taskmaster correctly guesses where your grape is, you are eliminated. This is a great example of a studio task because it's one everyone can play at home. It's a party game. It's so good. It's so funny. And it's so simple. And it's an absolute choking hazard.

Don't play it with kids. But it is definitely... I've got a two-year-old and she loves grapes, but we have to cut them up first. Yeah, yeah. But it's a really, really lovely, perfect apotheosis of a Taskmaster at its core, which is a very silly simple idea executed beautifully um and i love how everyone approaches it differently and what i really love about it is that no one gets any points

yes again a show that no one else would make why you know why would you why would you spend all that money and take all that time investing into a game show that you then reward no one you just go no that was pointless it was a totally futile waste of 10 minutes but i love it it sums up taskmaster doesn't it it's it's a lot of effort and a lot of thought and a lot of um a lot of chaos and then in the end of course none of it really matters no one yeah meaning no one loses no although i get a sense that tim vine slowly his dignity has been erased a little bit and that and and and also i think over the series russell's get russell gets increasingly sort of frustrated i think at the show a bit uh whereas i don't know i think i think alice seems totally just like chill and lisa's

having the best time of her life. So it's kind of interesting. And Asim doesn't know what's going on, which is lovely. No, he doesn't. So the final scores in this episode, Alice and Asim on 13 points, Russell and Tim on 14 points, and Lisa winning with 19 points, putting her in front in the series, followed by Russell, then Alice, then Tim, then Asim. It's pretty much how things work out, Lisa. I was going to say, is that the final standings? in front in the series, followed by Russell, then Alice, then Tim, then Asim.

It's pretty much how things work out, Lisa. I was going to say, is that the final standings? I mean, I don't want to go into spoilers and whatever, but I think that, so within two episodes, we've already established a sort of aristocracy and a kind of peasant class. Yeah, it's easy victories for Lisa, I think. She's a consummate pro she's very very good at Taskmaster

Greg thank you so much for coming on the podcast like I say we'll definitely have you back on to talk about the intricacies of course because I think you have a lot more to say and I can't wait to hear it we of course always I think you have a lot more to say and I can't wait to hear it um we of course always ask our uh our guests to rate their experience on the podcast between one of five points Greg tell me tell me tell me tell me please is it five points I'm not desperate but is it five

points I mean I've been the desperate one desperate trying to get on this podcast for a long time so I would be remiss if I if I told you it was a three. It's got to be a five, hasn't it? But I'm hoping that if I give you a five, you'll have me back on. But I'm also, I've been told that negging works. And if I give you two, you'll want me back on. So you tell me how you feel self-esteem wise

and I'll play it that way. Look, you've been absolutely brilliant. We'll definitely have you back on. I will be the desperate one now, messaging you, trying to find out when you will come back on the show. Fabulous.

Five points. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Greg. Cheers. Well, there we are. Thank you very much to Greg for coming on. He is most welcome back anytime. He really knows his stuff, that guy.

Like I said at the beginning, check out You're Dead to Me, Greg's brilliant podcast it's well worth a listen you laugh you learn it's fascinating it's funny thank you very much we will see you again next week next week we will be interviewing russell howard about series 6 episode 3 russell was of course on the series we've already recorded it sadly so no questions for russell but future guests you can imagine who we might have get in contact taskmasterpodcast at gmail.com with all your questions come and see me on tour at gamble.co.uk for tickets i think that's about it for today bye Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing.

With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative.