Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 72. Margaret Cabourn-Smith - S6 Ep.5

Episode Date: March 17, 2022

On this week's podcast Ed is joined by a returning TM Pod favourite - Margaret Cabourn-Smith. The pair discuss the ins and outs of S6 Ep.5 which included the infamous hop task a trick shot that got tempers soaring and a small plastic Saint Bernard! Enjoy. Watch 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.

We can wait for clean water solutions, or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge indigenous cultures, or we can learn from indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth, or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast. It's me, Ed Gamble, the host of that podcast, what you are listening to now. We chat about Taskmaster episode by episode and go through it task by task with a fine tooth comb. I always have a special guest and today's special guest

to discuss series six, episode five is Margaret Caborn-Smith, a returning podcast guest. Margaret has not been on Taskmaster, but she is absolutely wonderful a brilliant actor and writer comedian and she's absolutely obsessed with the show so it's always a good chat uh you'll very much enjoy this episode uh it's a momentous episode of series six features one of the most memorable uh task results uh in series six uh so you're in for a real treat. Taskmaster things, you can of course now subscribe to Taskmaster Supermax Plus which is the official specific Taskmaster streaming service. It's going to have all the series on there.

You can sign up for a free trial. It's ad free of course. You can watch it without ads and you can just start watching Taskmaster, keep watching it and then start all over again. It's painting the fourth bridge you need to keep doing it for the rest of your life go to taskmastersupermaxplus.vhx.tv for more information don't forget you can also come and see me on tour I'm doing my show electric up and down the country. I've done loads of dates already but plenty more to come. Do go on to edgamble.co.uk for more information on that. But now here discussing series six episode five is Margaret Caborn-Smith.

Welcome back to the Taskmaster podcast Margaret. I nearly said podcast wrong. Can you imagine that? Welcome back to the Taskmaster podcast, Margaret. I nearly said podcast wrong. Can you imagine that? You sort of did. You said pod podcast. Pod podcast. Well, look, this is such a great podcast these days.

It's done so well. We've added another pod to the name pod podcast. So good you said it twice. How are you doing? I'm very well, thank you. Very exciting to have you back. Very popular appearances in the past. And now we're chatting about series six,

of course. A fan of series six? Yeah, of course. I mean, it'd be amazing if I was like, nah. No, I take it or leave it. First time I've ever seen it. Don't like it. So I only watched

the first five minutes. Is that all right? You would be surprised by the amount of people who log on and haven't even watched the first five minutes. So don't worry about that.

Yeah, no, absolutely love it. Lise is probably, I mean, she's up there with the all-time greats. Yeah, I mean, I would totally agree with that. And there is obviously the moment in this episode that not only marks her out as one of the all-time Taskmaster greats, but as one of the great people. Yeah, yeah, I would say that that's true. There's a one of the all-time Taskmaster greats, but as one of the great people. Yeah. Yeah, I would say that that's true.

There's a few of those, but yeah. We will come to that. We will come to that. Should be taught in school. Yes, it genuinely should be. Obviously, Lisa wins the series. Did you realise that going in? Did you think when you first saw it,

did you think Lisa's definitely going to win it? Or did you have your eye on someone else? No, do you know what? I didn't have my eye on someone else, but I had a worry in the beginning. My feeling about Lisa in the beginning was, oh no, I don't know if she's enjoying this. I felt like maybe she might just throw the whole thing.

I felt maybe like she had the capacity to win it very, very clearly. But you know how sometimes she just goes, oh, I was just in a mood that day. Yeah.

And she does that a few times to the point that you think, well, if she could really throw this away. But actually,

I don't think Greg would have let her throw it away. I think Greg would see her star quality. Totally. And I think,

I think Greg appreciates that, that energy. The, I was just in a bad mood that day energy. So, fuck it, fuck it, I'll do what I want energy. I was just in a bad mood that day energy, so fuck it, fuck it, I'll do what I want energy. Yeah, the lack of neediness is something Greg absolutely loves.

Totally, and he does tend to reward that. I mean, certainly with Lisa, and there's been various other people throughout the series who've had that same energy, and he does tend to like them. So obviously I would have thought going in, I would have had my eye on russell to oh yeah to take the to take the head home russell howards alpha chimp yes exactly and so sporty and so exactly because he's one of those annoying annoying people in comedy who are

sporty as well which just shouldn't be allowed but everyone in comedy should have one talent and that should be comedy. You're not allowed to have other stuff. No hand-eye coordination. Yeah, exactly. You should be dropping the microphone as soon as you walk on. Yeah, exactly. That's the side of a comedian.

Yeah, I didn't really know much about Asim going in, but I mean, I think from episode one, it was fairly clear that he was not destined for the top spot. No, him and Alice vying. Same with Alice, definitely. I mean, there's a couple of moments in this episode specifically where you think, oh, Alice can't really be bothered either.

She's just going to be very sardonic and sort of muddle her way through. She strikes me as someone who just likes to live on the periphery of things. Yes. You know, she doesn't want to get fully involved. I mean, I think she's got an amazing creative mind yes totally very very sparkly like i was thinking about her bringing blood on as the best yeah and what a ballsy move there's a darkness there there's a darkness there to alice yeah no i think i i think i think people sort of uh uh sort of underestimate her in this series

because she's quite quiet, but then you can occasionally see she sneaks things in that she just sort of lets pass by that if I did them, I'd be like, look at what I did. Yes. Yeah, yeah. She doesn't fight in the right sort of way, I think. Probably if she was a bit more fighty,

she'd have done better. And I hate to throw forward again, but there is a perfect moment to describe that coming up in the string task I mean this is I like the way we're sort of uh coming up in the podcast yeah it's like we're on radio first five minutes please and Tim is just chaos uh for for a man who can write such good jokes and clearly is so focused in his career, he's just a Wally, isn't he? And I love it.

Yeah, full Wally. I just listened to his episode of this and he was like, oh, it was just nice not having to remember anything. I was like, okay, that's the attitude. It's just rolling around, basically. Yeah, completely. I guess, yeah, him having to remember all his jokes is the only thing that keeps him sort of focused on the attitude. It's just rolling around, basically. Yeah, completely. I guess, yeah, him having to remember all his jokes

is the only thing that keeps him sort of focused on the stage. Yes. If he was riffing, he'd just fall off straight away, trip over his shoelaces. Yeah, definitely. Do you have any standout memories from Series 6 that aren't necessarily in this episode? From this episode?

Well, obviously, there's the thing we're going to talk about in a minute but I was thinking well do you know what my favorite thing is um was the episode where Russell essentially gets his manager to get him a cab that's episode one I think as well yeah well Lisa doing a call back to that at the end of the episode where she goes oh god bring your manager I think is my favorite end of the episode where she goes, oh God, ring your manager. I think is my favourite moment of the whole series. Although destroying that little man is also amazing. Yes, the little man. Yeah, that is incredible and I love

how much Russell laughs at it as well. He's like, oh, you've got me. Russell, one of the great riffers, one of the great improvisers on stage and can really handle an audience. He knows when he's being bested. Yeah, he's totally, yeah, slave to her, basically. So let's crack on and talk about the prize task,

which is the sturdiest thing. Yes. Now, I think this is a great category. Yeah. But here's my issue with this go on they then go on to employ a system to demonstrate the sturdiest thing which is unfair one mind on this because that is not what sturdy is about no no terminal velocity the terminal velocity of greg davies being of a 20 stone man yeah that's not fair you need to if you want to

do that the price test should be bring in the thing that can stand up to Greg Davies falling onto it from 15 feet that's what it should be yeah great a great price I mean oh god I mean if they haven't written that down for a later series they're idiots so everyone brought in stirred you know the things that they considered to be sturdy but the whole point of the price test is there it's people's angles on it right they bring on what they think is sturdy and it's open to interpretation so i think some people got screwed over here definitely do you have anything that sprung into your mind that you'd think i'd bring that in as a sturdy well i think sturdy i mean so yeah i've written down some things that i think when i hear sturdy a rosy-cheeked milkmaid,

a 10-year-old boy who's just won a Gymkhana, and a three-legged Susan Boyle. Those are the things that I probably can't bring any of those in. Do you think you could have convinced Susan Boyle to come to the studio and sort of strapped an extra leg to her? Maybe just her back when she was leaving the room. Yeah. Stuck it on her. I mean, she's the sort of person that she might be up for that.

She might be up for that, yeah, totally. She's a maverick. Yeah, and sturdy as well, for sure. The milkmaid I love as an idea. Yeah, they have to be so sturdy, right? They have to be really sturdy. And they're sort of sturdy emotionally, getting up early every morning to milk the cows.

There's multiple stirreds. So much stirred. So much stirred. Emotionally sturdy and more than being emotionally sturdy. Because this is where you can reinterpret the task sometimes, the prize task, and say, I brought in an emotionally sturdy thing or redefine it. Greg doesn't necessarily like that,

but you couldn't do it under this new system of Greg being dropped onto it at 15 feet because Susan Boyle would be dead. How about if you emotionally dropped it onto her? Yeah, you emotionally dropped Greg onto her. Oh, an emotional Greg David. The emotion of Greg David being dropped on you. I mean, I'm obsessed with the idea of him absorbing that small...

Oh, yeah. You can just imagine it, can't you? And then 15 years later. It makes me think, what has he absorbed into his skin? Well, one day he's going to get a little pain and have to go to the doctor. And they're going to x-ray it. And there's going to be a little St. Bernard in there or something. Yeah, because I like to think that after the episodes they do then do the thing right so they do

they did drop Greg onto that donkey they did tell me they did I'm sure they did I mean the donkey was a mess it shouldn't have been a five point I mean look either way you look at it regardless of whether you're dropping Greg onto it whether we're just talking about Sturdy in general

Asim's was definitely the worst I mean what was he thinking? I think he'd heard somewhere a fact about an egg. Yeah, like something like it's the strongest material relatively or something. I think there is stuff about like you put something on the tip of an egg, you could stand on the tip of an egg or something like that. Yeah, the pressure, the top and the bottom. Like you can't squash an egg or something like that yeah yeah like relatively if you you know it has for its size it is the

sturdiest thing but he didn't know any of that no he didn't know he's not done the research all he said was if you drop it out if you drop it out a tree it won't crack is what he said yeah yeah so he did not i saw the idea behind it but it was terrible it did deserve one point but it's it's worth mentioning as another throw forward he he did announce that he's vegan yeah which comes into play in the next episode so yeah spoilers for the next episode but i was i was remembering what i was thinking when I first saw it so when I didn't know that there was a payoff to that I think I felt a bit scared of him I was like what what's wrong with you because I think Greg says later I thought you lost your mind I think that's how I

felt I think I was watching it going why does that happen and then and then especially because then there's so many eggs in the rest of the episode that he doesn't seem to give a shit about. So it's like for somebody who's come out as vegan so strongly. And he's brought an egg with him. Yeah, he's brought an egg with him. You know, he's whipping them later. He's chucking them at things.

Considering, like thinking about Ramesh and how traumatised he was by all of those eggs he destroyed. I was really, really thrown by this. I was very thrown as well. My main thought was, why have they left this in the edit? He's clearly tried to do something there, but it's not quite worked. He's just received

baffled audience reaction. Starting his own applause, which isn't ever a good thing to watch either. Again, you sort of of think are you having a breakdown yeah but really i mean when it's worth the payoff it's worth that openness for the payoff yeah love it absolutely love it so it was it was one point for us in uh sadly uh tim tim vine brought in a small plastic st bernard that this was glossed over oh the fact that he goes outside and throws it onto the patio when he's angry.

No one really dug into that. No, everyone's like, no, yeah. Like we all have that. Yeah. Oh, you all have a thing that you throw when you're angry. I think it's just because Tim's the nicest. Well, exactly. So I guess he's the nicest man ever.

So when he does suddenly have a small piece of anger, he has to go out there and he has to do something to get get it out of system and he throws a tiny not very breakable thing in an outdoor area where it can safely rebound no one can see him apart from his neighbors who probably think he's insane um maybe the uh the small plastic st bernard Bernard is the only thing that stops Tim being like a murderer. Maybe if he lost the St Bernard, suddenly there's a slew of killings in his area. Yes! But maybe the rest of us should invest in each plastic St Bernard

and it would make all of us as nice as Tim Vine. Oh, wow. That's possible. I think this deserved way more because it is very sturdy and it's sturdy because it's small as well. Yeah, it was clever. So you could probably stand on it and it'd be alright because

I know that sort of material that that is. It's like that hard plastic or hard rubber and it's very difficult to do anything with. Yeah, you'd have to melt it? I think you'd have to melt it, which that feels wrong when you're talking about sturdiness. Sturdy, no, you're right, you're right. Yeah.

They didn't say a fiery Greg Davis will lend a hand on it. Greg's not on fire when he's throwing himself onto it. That is an extra exciting element. The St Bernard dog itself is sturdy. It represents a sturdy breed. Yes, a really helpful, emotionally sturdy. Emotionally sturdy. It stands up to cold temperatures, wears the little brandy around its neck.

Look, all of this meant that I feel like it deserved way more than two points. Potentially more than Russell Howard's brother's calves. Yeah. Well, yeah, absolutely. Because they're attached to someone i mean we didn't get to see the rest of him maybe the rest of him's very weedy and bonus well i i must say i've met i've met russell's brother on a number of occasions and he is he is a sturdy man he's i think the calves he's a stirred the calves uh were in keeping with the rest of his bod

okay he's definitely a sturdy guy I think yeah I think I think that was quite a good that was quite a good yeah it was a good call I mean I really enjoyed Greg calling them disgusting just love the disembodied calves as a prize like well yeah I do think we have to maintain some sort of um some sort of rule in the prize task that you should be able to take them home. Yes, specifically, not attached to everything else. Not attached to whoever is the guest, which is obviously an awful, that would be an awful operation for Russell's brother to go through.

No one wants to watch that. No, no one wants to see that. But I think Russell offered people use of his brother's calves by a piggyback, which I suppose is okay. Under Greg's system of sturdiness, this is probably the correct score, I think. I think three points for this feels about right. Yeah, that is right.

Yeah. Alice brought in her mother's polytunnel. I thought this was really good. Oh, so good. Proper effort. Because she says it's been it's been tested yeah under wind conditions so that's why it's sturdy but then we need to talk about greg flopping onto it um do you think he couldn't spread his load i think that's i don't think he could spread his

load i think he was being very generous there by saying that the polytunnel would he would be generous to himself to say that the polytunnel would support him if he jumps on that polytunnel the whole thing would come down. The whole thing's going and all the plants inside. All the plants had gone. Absolutely awful. Or it depends what speed he's going he might go straight through it and just leave a Greg shaped hole.

Into the core of the earth. Straight through to the core of the earth and then he'd be on fire and then he could jump on the St Bernard. It all fits. It all fits together. So I feel like if Greg's using his system, there should have been less than four points. But broadly, under the Sturdiest Thing system that we've employed here,

I feel like four points is fair. Yeah, I think you're right. Lisa brought in a donkey. And I think in any category ever, if you bring in a donkey, you should get five points. Yeah.

Points straight away. It was a real life, lovely donkey. It was a really nice donkey as well, wasn't it? It was such a nice donkey. It was a real, like,

I mean, the end montage of this is the best, is the all time best. I think you can see Russell Howard's brother with the donkey. Yeah. I'm not sure now you'd be able Howard's brother with the donkey. Yeah. I'm not sure now you'd be able to bring in a live donkey. I don't know why I've decided that people would be upset about that. But this stands like a real moment in time.

Nowadays, you probably wouldn't be able to bring Russell Howard's brother in. Well, no. No, it's all lateral flow tests. You could bring in Russell Howard's it's all lateral flow tests. You could bring in Russell Howard Brothers negative lateral flow test. That would be the price. But the donkey, yeah, the donkey, beautiful donkey. I think Greg's system doesn't work here. I think if Greg landed on a donkey from 15 feet.

Well, I was worried about it. He'd cleave that donkey in half, yeah. Yeah, nobody wants that but sturdy it didn't also it didn't it was a lovely donkey but it didn't look particularly sturdy it was quite no look very yeah gentle and uh very nice yeah i mean the three-legged susan boyle was a better bet i think yeah i think so look that goes without saying that's the five points for me straight away yes but personally I do I would have gone with Tim for four or five points yeah these are down a couple of places and maybe Alice for the win or that or stay at five points but yeah deserved way more yeah I agree I agree but I think he didn't argue it enough did he no he didn't and that that's actually a bit of absorbed into greg's fat feet there's there's

actually that happens in this series a lot with with various people they simply don't argue in the studio um because the tasks are brilliant they're all brilliant they do amazing things in the task but in the studio you need to be like i know this is insane here's here's why yeah here are my killer arguments but there was no killer argument for the egg which is fair well no but as you say he just clearly hadn't even thought about you know he hadn't even looked up the thing he'd half remembered and also in his head I think he was

focusing on the vegan announcement yeah so once he'd done that he was probably relieved it was one point for Asim two points for Tim three points for Russell and his brother's calves Alice got four points and it was three points for Russell and his brothers' calves. Alice got four points, and it was five points for Lisa and Thomas the donkey.

Asim, what's your sturdy item? Well, before we do that, I just want to say that from today, I am now officially a vegan. Come on. Come on. So, my sturdiest thing is... LAUGHTER My most sturdiest thing is, I'm flipping it a little bit, something you wouldn't think is sturdy, but I'm actually going for an egg.

Ah. I'm back in the game. LAUGHTER You are. But did you know... Just the old cross-eyed beast stuff. Did you know that you could drop an egg from a tree and it won't break? Yeah. And what if you dropped a 20-stone man from 15-foot terminal velocity onto it? Scramble!

Yeah, scramble egg, yeah. Not great news for the... I won't be able to eat it as well, cos I'm vegan now, so... Oh, man. Well, that is definitely last place. Task one. Without leaving the caravan, work out how long this piece of string is. You have five minutes.

Most accurate answer wins. Your time starts now. Enter Tim Vine, the absolute clown. Even before he's got to the task, he is messing around. And it's brilliant. Yeah, and he really didn't understand that that wasn't the task.

He's just following the string through the tunnel so obedient such an obedient little clown it's obedient and also he just knows why he's funny and he knows what what value he can get out of stuff and he knows that climbing through that little child's tunnel and trying to pull his shorts up at the same time i mean yeah you can gif that can't you yeah just fantastic what would you have done in this situation margaret because um because i i would have been tempted i mean ask him ask him literally going 500 foot i would have been so tempted at that point depending on when it was in the day to just go how tired you go yeah all right 500 foot yeah exactly so sort of guess what they sell those string yeah that's good what you know yeah that probably is i don't know 100 meters is that too much um i think i would have done the thing where i tried to pull the string into the caravan. Yeah. And I would almost certainly have not achieved that. Like, did they break?

A few people, they just broke, didn't they? Lisa's broke. I mean, I was surprised that Lisa even tried to pull the string into the caravan because, as she admitted, she was just cross that morning. Cross that day. I really enjoyed her half-heartedly trying to weigh the string in her hand. Alex sort of going, can you have a bit of a go? But it didn't take her long before the string broke.

And then she could have tried to think of something else. She absolutely didn't. And then just went, I can't help you. I can't help you. And I really love the idea that she feels she's been brought in to taskmaster to sort of have to make things better like she's not a contestant she's somehow the overlord yeah oh bless you Alex they've gone can you come and help us we've got we've got into a tangle here we don't know how long this string is there's only one person for the job yeah

call Lisa Tarbuck I mean I'm sure I'm sure she's a troubleshooter for everyone I'm sure yeah for sure I mean I love her as a friend because I just feel like anything any trouble I got into

I'd be like she's got to be she's emotionally sturdy so emotionally sturdy should have brought herself in yes yeah

I mean it was a fantastic thing to watch but an awful I mean she just couldn't be bothered when she said four miles, which I love. Just love it.

Four miles. Four miles, brilliant. They definitely don't sell string in four mile quantities. No, I think... And you know what? I think she knew that. I think she just let that one slide. Now, Alice does something that I think,

when I was watching it for the first time, I thought I'd give this a go. But this is a classic example of Alice coming up with a really good idea and then not arguing it at all in the studio. So she cut her own bit of string and said, I'm going to guess that this is five foot seven. Because it says, work out how long this piece of string is.

You could cut a bit and then just throw the rest away and say, put that there and go, well, this piece of string is. Yeah. You could cut a bit and then just throw the rest away and say, put that there and go, well, this piece of string. It's arguable. Yeah, exactly. Because this is what I was thinking. As soon as that string is broken, then you're no longer measuring the full length of it. Surely it's this piece of string.

Yeah. No, I thought it was kind of brilliant. But then I, but yeah, her arguing technique is always slightly mardy teenager yeah i don't think it's what greg responds to it's just like what what it's brilliant yeah and that's it and i think it's brilliant she goes into it with her sort of shoulders dropped like oh god i'm gonna be absolutely torn apart for this and she does it later the trick the trick shot as well where's like, she knows it's bad.

But I think if you go into these things confident and try, Greg likes a bullshitter. Oh, if Lou Sanders had done that. Yeah. She'd been all over it. And then at least if Lou had done it and Greg said no, she would have smashed the whole studio up or something. Yeah, come on, Alice.

Where's your studio smashing attitude? But I thought it was a good attempt. She just needed to be behind it a little bit more. Yeah, I completely agree. Russell tries to look for a tape measure, sort of undoes the knot a bit. He tries more than Lisa, let's give him credit. I loved watching him sort of playing with the string on his lap.

I was like, oh, because Russell strikes me as someone who's so successful he doesn't have to do little things. I mean, not that anyone... You think he's got a string, man? He's got stuff. Yeah, he's got string stuff. He called his agent again to come and measure some string for me, please. Yeah.

He's sort of untangling it it was really sweet like the intent concentration but then yeah he did abandon it didn't he he did abandon it but a good guess he's very competent yeah what was his guess 102 feet which

is you know it's more accurate than four miles for example yeah because of course the correct answer was 318 feet. So he's a way off. But all the way over the other side of him was Asim, who guessed 500 feet, as we said, just literally just said 200 feet and then changed it to 500 feet.

And I relate to that. I relate to that. You know when you make a guess and someone just repeats it back to you and you're like immediately, oh, no,, oh no, that's probably not right. But you don't know which way to go. I'll just add 300 to that. Have you done House of Games? No, I haven't.

I haven't. Well, A, you should do House of Games. No, I have been hassling Richard about it. Yeah, keep hassling Richard about it. Well, it's the only way. He loves it as well, comedians hassling Richard about it. Yeah, keep hassling Richard about it. Well, it's the only way. He loves it as well, comedians hassling him. All of you, any comedians listening now, go and hassle Richard Osmond.

Hassle Richard. DM the hell out of him. He loves it. Because there's occasionally guessing games like this where you have to just estimate something. Oh, God. And then you turn around your screen. Oh, God.

And then you realise what everyone else oh god and then then you realize what everyone else has done you're like oh my god i'm so far off we i was on with kate thornton and we had to guess the world's tallest sandcastle and she guessed five miles she said it was five miles high it was in space that's so good what did you guess i mean that must have made you feel mine was closer i think i guessed in meters for a start i thought i thought why not start with meters five miles but it was just when everyone was presenting their guess and you could just see her mortified five miles high how are you getting it?

What size is your bucket? Oh my God, that's brilliant. But it's just when you realise people have no concept of distances. No. But yeah. It's like Lisa guessing four miles for the string. Yeah. Let's talk about Tim's attempt

because this was like watching a deleted scene from an obscure 70s sitcom. Well, I was thinking I'd be happy to watch this on Britain's Got Talent. Yeah, a man wrapping string around a lobster. Pulling a polytunnel to him. It's the collecting everything up. It's so funny.

It's so funny. So funny. And the fact it's in the safari suit as well and just really going for it in quite a performative way and then about after he's done it a hundred times you can see it be like oh god whatever committed to this then the flower comes up in the poly tunnel it's just so great yeah it's lovely and he smashes it. Yeah. I mean, there you go. Throwing yourself into something. Yeah. It pays off.

It's just off in the way, isn't it? It pays off. And I can't believe this is the fifth episode and this is the first task he's won apart from a prize game. It's incredible. Yeah. And he's so lovely. If I had got to episode five and not won a task,

I would be sat there raging at the beginning. Yeah, fuming. And Tim's so happy. Such a lovely, happy man. Well, look, I was so happy that Tim got... Well, this is because he's been throwing his St. Bernard's. He must have gone home every night after filming Taskmaster and thrown his St. Bernard on the floor.

I'm glad he got it back so he doesn't turn into Tim Vine, the murderer. Five points for Tim, 4 points for Asim 3 points for Russell 2 points for Alice and 1 point for Lisa a rare 1 point for Lisa well that goes to show when you're in a mood

yeah exactly I thought you were supposed to follow the string evidently I thought I didn supposed to follow the string. Evidently. I thought I didn't want to get disqualified for, oh, well, you didn't go through the tunnel, did you? I thought I'd be the only one who didn't. Not the only one who did.

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Toss two. Pull this tablecloth off this table. Most eggs left unbroken on the table wins. You have one attempt and may not tamper with the table, tablecloth or eggs. Your time starts now. Well, I guess we don't need to talk about this one for too long. So, well, can I ask you, Ed?

What would your tactic have been? I think I would have just had to have done it. Would you do the whipping, though? Oh, God, yeah. Because I would have done had to have done it. Would you do the whipping though? Oh God, yeah. Because I would have done what Alice did, which is to do it really, really slowly and carefully. Well, here's my interesting take on this. You had one attempt.

I think Alice has about six attempts. Oh, do you think? Well, because Alex's specific was with asim to say it's one whip you've got to go with one whip alice teases i i would suggest it doesn't say whip does it no but i would suggest each little tease is a little attempt because it's it's seeing how it's seeing how much you'll need to do in future attempts i I think it's test attempts. And then that's how I feel about it. But you know what? It was given.

So you would have got the points. You would have got the points if you'd done that. Who cares? I would have. You know what? I think I would have whips. And I think they would have all ended up on the floor. I think I would have been the only person.

They clearly wanted that to happen. I mean, they must have been gutted that every egg was fine yeah like what and russell must have been gutted because he was the first one to be shown yeah it's such a big show of it and in the studio he was grinning ear to ear and then everyone else did it anyway yeah alpha chimp alpha chimp was sad alpha chimp especially knowing about him dropping to his knees yeah outside the room he does do it in the coolest way though yeah he does and Asim just says eggs when he walks in eggs eggs yes Asim um no I loved it I don't think that's happened on Taskmaster before they wouldn't have shown it

if that had happened no I was surprised they they they showed it. Except, I mean, I think, is that about the Russell Howard hubris? Yes, yeah, maybe. Yeah. It was nice, though. I like it. They all got five points. Pointless to show it, really. Yeah, I loved all of the little, you know, the celebrations and all of that.

And I loved Greg having a go at Alex for doing it at all oh by the way i think um greg at the beginning of this episode uh making alex say that he supported apartheid put him in a good mood for the entire thing i mean i think he's an on over the moon for the entire episode because he's just delighted yeah i mean it was very funny hello i'm Horne, and I support apartheid. You could... Shall we... Crack on, shall we? Hey, it was going to come out eventually, mate.

Task three, team task. This is the one. This is the one, everybody. Find the link and then do it exactly 100 times. Fastest wins, your time starts now. Now, obviously, it's in the lab. There's all these sort of interesting little signs around and string and it's like a detective.

Murder room sort of detective-y thing um and you've got to find you've got to find the link now margaret i just did an escape room last night so i was in there i was in the right frame of mind to watch this i was all fired up um and i would have i would have loved this i would have absolutely loved it and it is easier than it it's a lot easier than it seems to be when you first see it. I mean, I really enjoyed Russell saying, I want to burn all of this because I get that instinct. Like if you're not into escape rooms, if you don't do it as a thing and you, you know,

you find cryptic things annoying or difficult. It's interesting because he was genuinely perfectly good at it. You know, once he was doing it, he was fine. But just that instinct to go, go ah there's no balls here i want to throw a thing in a thing please let me throw a thing in a thing um yeah they were pretty they were they were pretty good uh him and alice yep team fun yeah yeah team funk were pretty good uh they did the job they worked it out together they listened to each other they both had input into it they worked it out it was a team effort and they they did the job and they even shared the hopping with their little bunny hands so nice exactly that that can be

taught in schools as well yeah exactly we should be doing okay that's how how synchronized they were um i mean let's let's just talk let's talk about this is just incredible i mean i remember when this went out bringing my daughter in to show her just the clip afterwards to explain how the world worked it's women it's women in the workplace and part of it is because uh asmintim are both so lovely yes so lovely and you know this is not about people being you know belittling women or whatever it's just they just can't hear her no they're just so focused and it's lisa the most assertive person on the whole lineup as well they can't even hear lisa who literally goes

yeah it's it's hops we've got it we've got a hop we've got a hop and they're going oh piss is it the point where asim says it oh it could be the alphabet oh my god because there are some letters but the same letters he said hop so many times over and over and then says it could be the alphabet i mean my seven-year-old was really really laughing at that yeah that's how weak that was i to be honest that's me in an escape room just saying saying whatever saying everything out loud get it all out someone else will analyze it and then and then i realize i'm not helping with the tasks in hand at all so i'm the guy going can we just make sure all the clues are on the central table please all the clues everyone collect the clues here let's just

catch up with what we've been doing i want to just get across this ridiculous not helpful at all i've only ever done one escape room with some people who are really, really accomplished escape room people. And Lou Sanders, who was, you know, a whirlwind. I've also done an escape room with Lou Sanders. She does not like escape rooms. No, she's a more of destructive force. Yes. But I remember, the thing I remember about it was that I had a very complicated underwear situation that I had to sort out.

And I remember kind of backing away from them. No, it really wasn't. Backing away from my friends who were doing the work of it, bent over some, you know, wooden puzzle or whatever. And I remember I took quite a long time to sort my tights out. I mean, I, And then, only then realised that that's exactly where the camera was. And I just... And I was there for so long,

it must just have looked like I was an exhibitionist because I was like, of course there's a camera. They have to be able to look in to see how we're doing. But at the time I was like, I'm just going to shuffle into this corner and, you know, show my arse. I was so... I couldn't let the guy in.

I had a imagine he couldn't look you in the face either. No. I haven't show my ass. I, I, I was so, I couldn't let the guy in. I'd imagine he couldn't look you in the face. No. I haven't seen my face. I only recognise my ass. Well, I feel like you should go, you should go do some more escape rooms.

Yeah. No, I did love it. And there were elements of it that I was good at for sure. But yeah, well, don't take Asim. No,

no. Or Tim, because like like you said they're both lovely but just so in this situation they they looked so thick because they just carried on talking yeah yeah and and when lisa started hopping tim just started jumping up and down i don't know i don't know if this is helping all he saw was the house of Pain jump around so he was acting on that, on jump around. Right. But Lisa knew exactly what she was doing. She was hopping a hundred times and then said, I've hopped a hundred times

and Alex blew the whistle. I mean, Alex's face, while I recommend going back and watching it when Lisa's doing the hopping, he's so delighted. There's a little secret grin and he must have been so pleased. Blow that whistle and watch those men's faces they were totally baffled totally baffled and I love the detail afterwards that they were furious afterwards didn't even say well done to her again this is women in the world yeah like you've made me look like an idiot Greg's gonna

demolish me it's fantastic and she knew exactly what was happening after a bit so she told them it was hops enough times and then she was like right well I'm not gonna tell them again I'm just gonna do it and I know exactly what they're gonna look like after I've done this yeah because she was amazing you know because I if it was me or if it was Lou or Kerry Godleman the fury the fury it would, it would have been like, the volume would have been so high. And Lisa just, that second time she just goes, it's,

it's hot. It's hot. It's hopping. She's just, she's so calm. She's so just like, this is, this is what life is like sometimes.

Absolutely brilliant. Achieves. The coolest person ever. So cool. They got the five points, Asim, Lisa and Tim. I don't,

you can't do it, but I feel like Lisa deserved five and Asim and Tim deserved three as well. That's the problem with the team thing, isn't it? Yeah. Like they were actively hindering her. They should have got noughts. Noughts. They should have got noughts and Lisa should have got 15 points.

But it was five and then three points each for Team Funk. But it was five, and then three points each for Team Funk. Have we ever had a clearer metaphor for the plight of women through the ages? What I love is just this weary, trying to get them to hear Hopps and then in the end just going, OK, I'm just going to stop. Ten on each foot hold the girls down. They came into the other room furious. No, well done.

It was furious and Tim's gone, Greg's going to bloody demolish me for that. Task four, pull off the most elaborate trick shot. You have 20 minutes. Your time starts now. Some controversy in this one, I feel. Because I saw how genuinely angry Russell is in this. Oh, it's the best.

Because I would have been that way. The best, yeah. Because I... So let's talk about Lisa straight away. So much effort. Special effect. She gets the team to edit all the balls going in. because I so let's talk about Lisa straight away so much effort special effect she uses she gets the team to edit

all the balls going in yeah I I've I believe I planted this flag in the ground before I hate the use of special effects in Taskmaster

when they're not when when it's not explicitly in the in the task so I don't like this I didn't like it when Noel Fielding

shrunk himself down to the size of a banana and hit him in the fruit bowl I don't think that I don't think that's right I don't like it when noel fielding shrunk himself down to the size of banana and hitting the fruit bowl i don't think that i don't think that's right i don't think it should have been allowed it's funny though it is funny this so this is the point this is where my breath i i am geared towards doing the funniest thing possible in every single situation in my career until it comes to taskmaster at which point everything all of that shuts down and it just needs

to be correct you need to stick to the rules and Lisa using special effects is not the rules but Russell's reaction is very funny

so it's probably worth it in the end this is it this is it and again so I was watching it with my seven year old and he was

I mean that's the most he's laughed like that her special effects thing he was just delighted you know it's properly

surprising and you know yeah it is it is i'm watching russell get so so angry yeah and by the way that stays anger stays angry right through to the very end oh he's still angry in the egg which lisa which lisa wins so funny and i love it he says i respect you I think you're extraordinary but that those were words that just could have come from my mouth yeah um because he puts in so much effort yeah totally he puts in so much effort but also I've got to say his deserved even less points oh terrible than he got because oh the shot Because the shot's not a trick shot.

No. He just took ages to get to the trick shot and faffing around. I know, and he was so in love with it. Oh, it's just so great to chip a ball into a caravan. And Greg just says, He's such a boy. You were asked to do a snooker trick shot.

He's such a, like, I had so many mates like Russell growing up where just like so obsessed with sports and doing things, setting themselves challenges. So the challenge was the trick shot and Russell going, well, I've got to get it in the bath and then had to keep trying to get it in the bath. Yeah, get it in the bath. And to do a hula hoop, which he couldn't do,

but he set himself that confidence. It's extraordinary going, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do this. And it felt like when he was saying that, I was i was thinking oh because he can do all of those things no no he can't but he's getting so frustrated with the basketball in the bath and the football in the caravan and stuff and he's to the point that i think he's forgotten that that isn't the task yeah he doesn't have to do any of those things he's done that himself yeah he's like an only child playing on it you know and just i've got i've got to do any of those things. He's done that himself. Yeah, he's like an only child playing on it, you know,

and just sort of, I've got to do this. Well, I can come in for tea when I've got this in my hand. Yeah, exactly. I can only have my dinner once I've done that. And the snooker bit is almost completely overlooked. Oh, it's very, yeah, the snooker, yeah, it wasn't a trick shot. It was just a lot of stuff. He set himself up for a lot of stuff.

Yeah. Very funny to watch. So good. Now, Asim drops the ball down of shoot sure I was quite impressed with this I think it was undermarked I mean yeah like I understand the it's just a big tube yeah thing but I don't I think that that still takes some ingenuity and skill yes I think so and it looked good i think when you see all the balls like bumping into each other and then one goes in i think it's the one thing i'd say about it is it's probably not a trick shot it's not a snooker trick shot because he doesn't use

the cue he just drops it into the tube right okay yeah but i still preferred it to uh to russell's and lisa's because he didn't use any special. Yeah, so I still preferred it, but no, perhaps it wasn't a trick shot as such. Well, what did you think of Alice's then? I think this is one of the laziest things that's ever happened on Taskmaster. Listen, she had to lift that up, you know. Her arms look quite little.

It was probably quite heavy to lift that up and move it around. And what's funny about it is it was more effort. It was more effort than she realised it was going to be as well. She just had to keep lifting it. The song, I loved the song. Yeah. The trick shot song. I really liked that.

But she couldn't have given a shit. She was like, right, all right, well, I'm not going to be able to do this. I'll just tip this up and get the ball I thought it was extremely lazy yeah and I loved Greg giving Alex the opportunity to say that and then yeah taking it away again going no no you're going to be kind to her to get it um Tim's though was not Tim Tim really made an effort shooting the ball up the pipe and then having to move something so it came back down. But then the ball was blocked by a squeaky little giraffe. I wonder if that's part of his menagerie.

Yeah, it's so in keeping with his look and stuff, right? Yeah, maybe that's just what he had in his pocket. Well, did he have to give the St Bernard to the team before to be a prize task? And then he had to replace it with a giraffe in case he got angry. Yes. Yeah. Is that one of his throwing animals?

This is what we're, yeah, this is what we've invented for him. His whole, his whole room. He doesn't have a family, you know, he just has a plastic menagerie. Just surrounded going, I've got a specific sort of anger today. I think it's time for a giraffe. Is it the squeaky one or is it the hard patio one? So, I mean, no ball went in, which is interesting, but it was still an interesting trick shot.

He introduced the giraffe. There was a pun. It's what you want from Tim Vine. Letter-potted giraffe. Yeah. I think it deserved a five. For me, it was the most interesting. No, no, no, definitely.

Yeah. And fit the category. The others, you're right, you can argue about. Yeah, totally. Well, it was five points interesting. No, no, no, definitely. Yeah. And fit the category. The others, you're right, you can argue about. Yeah, totally. Well, it was five points for Tim, four points for Lisa, three points for Russell, two points for Asim, and one point for Alice. Lisa got a team of people to run around after her.

You ran around on your own, I can imagine. On your own rules. And Lisa went, OK, I'm not going to lift a finger here. I'm going to get these clowns to do it. Yeah, fuck that. The live task. Throw as many eggs onto the shelf as possible. You must lie flat on your bed at all times.

Most eggs on the shelf wins. You have 100 seconds. I would have hated this. Yeah. So how many eggs did they have each? Was it just limitless? I guess, yeah, I think sort of limitless eggs, really. They each had a chicken that was just constantly laying eggs.

They should have put that on the, you know, that would have been an amazing thing to watch. Yeah. Constantly laying chicken. A chicken on the shelf laying eggs down towards them and they had to throw the eggs back onto the shelf. Yeah. Sure.

Yeah, sort that out, Alex, if you're listening. But look, I think I would have think the idea of lying on my back and then trying to throw something up, I think would have been... I'm not very good at stuff like that. No, I think you would have taken me sort of 10 goes to work out where it was going to land.

Yeah, that thing about trajectory. A lot like Alice. Alice gets two eggs. Asim got three. Five eggs for Russell and Tim and Lisa. Really enjoyed Russell getting annoyed and taking his mask off. Like still angry.

Still absolutely livid. Shouting about health and safety like a 60 year old man. Calmly Lisa just getting six eggs. I wouldn't have had Lisa down as being good at throwing eggs onto a shelf lying on her back to be honest. Well she says herself, who eggs. Yeah. I wouldn't have had Lisa Downers being good at throwing eggs onto a shelf line on her back to be honest. Who knew?

Well she says herself who knew? Yeah. And I really enjoyed I don't know if you noticed Alice said you're a renaissance woman at the end

and it's so funny the idea in the renaissance that was one of the strings to people's bows. Yeah. String measuring egg chucking snooker.

So it was five points for Lisa, four points for Russell and Tim, two points for Asim and one point for Alice again, meaning she comes at the bottom of the episode, which I think has happened before and will continue to happen. Asim on 19 points, second bottom, then Russell on 21 points, Lisa on 25 points and it's an episode victory for Tim Vine it's incredible

because he's only won one film task and he wins an episode yeah that's bizarre isn't it it's pretty impressive how is that possible well the team task obviously that

oh yeah well so it's really Lisa's victory this episode yeah she's assisted him thank god she took home that took home the series. Margaret, thank you so much for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast.

Oh, it's been a pleasure. I'm going to keep talking about it once you've hung up on me. There's no one here, but I'm going to keep talking about it once you've hung up on me there's no one here but i'm going to keep talking i'll keep recording it i'll send you my thoughts later yeah do please please any any footnotes um you're of course welcome welcome back anytime we love having you on the podcast we will of course now ask you to rate your experience on the podcast between one and five points in the style of the taskmaster well i'm not gonna suddenly piss all over your work it's a five am i gonna listen back to this and find out you said everything i was about to say before me and i completely ignored you i feel like that yeah if you can edit it to make it sound like that yeah that'd be great just me ignoring

everything thank you so much margaret thank you bye there we are thanks very much to margaret for coming on again and we will have you on again that sounds like a threat but it's always wonderful uh to chat to margaret uh thanks very much for listening don't forget to check out taskmaster supermax plus at taskmaster supermax plus dot vhx dot tv and don't forget to buy tickets for me on tour edgamble.co.uk for more information on that thanks very much for listening we'll be back again next week to discuss series six episode six uh because we do it in a linear fashion i'll see you then. Bye-bye. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly,

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