Taskmaster The People's Podcast - Sudoku for a Poodle

Oh, I can't hear it.

I can't hear it.

I can't hear it.

Oh, no!

To be honest, I've heard the theme tune a lot, so I think I'm okay.

Well, can I just sort of say that I'm a 65-year-old woman, I've heard it a lot, but I can't remember it.

So, anyway, we shall move on.

There we go, there we go.

To me, you know, I'm so unmusical, that could be the theme tune to Blue Peter for all I've done.

Oh, God, I'm so gullible and stupid.

Honestly,

right, we are Jack and Jenny.

We never introduce ourselves, do we?

No, we don't.

They don't know the real Jack and Jenny.

They don't want to either.

No, that's fine.

If there are new listeners, you're very, very welcome.

I'm Jenny Eclair, and my friend here is Jack Bernhardt.

Yes, hello, hello.

Hello, hello.

We don't know quite how to do this, so we shall move on.

Today we are discussing Taskmaster the People's podcast,

and it is

episode six of series 12 entitled A Chair in a Suite.

A chair in a Suite.

We haven't done much Series 12.

I always say this, have we done much Series 12?

I don't think we've done much Series 12.

I love Series 12.

Series 12 has its own strain of madness.

It does.

It's the final COVID series.

And I also think it's the, I think at the time it was the oldest,

the contestants were the oldest contestants who have been on the show.

So I do think there's a level of everyone's a little bit like everyone's on the same wavelength, but it's also a banana's wavelength constantly.

And I think there's a kind of like everyone's sort of pulling together, which I think

it's very jolly.

It's a very jolly series, I think, this one.

Yeah,

and this is a particularly jolly episode.

And it drives, in fact, the prize task drives Greg mad

because

it sort of gives them license to be nice to each other.

The prize task is the most desirable thing for the person below you in the alphabet.

Now, when you do taskmaster, you sit alphabetically, do you not?

I'm trying, you do.

You do, yes, you do.

You do sit alphabetically.

So it does make sense.

And also, you kind of, you have to, I suppose, and the idea is that, you know, you have to turn to the person, you're saying, this is a gift I've got, got for you.

Yeah.

And there's the fun in that.

Of course, I do wonder what the intention was a little bit in front, because I'm always...

I'm always wondering with prize tasks, like, you know, what Alex's goal is.

Like, is he trying to start a fight?

Is he trying to, like, there are times where it's, is he just, you know, trying to come up with like a silly thing?

This one, I can't work out whether he was like, This is a nice one to do, this is an opportunity for them to be nice to each other, or was it like, we'll get some nice passive-aggressive gifts for each other, which I think I suppose it's a combination of the two, isn't it?

Really?

Yeah, in the end, there is

mostly nice, but then there's a very funny one, which I don't think scores quite highly enough.

But

we'll start with Alan, Alan Davis.

Um, you know, one of the mature contestants.

Alan Alan has spoken about the fact, I think he spoken about it like in interviews either afterwards or during it, where he felt a great strain to make sure he wasn't the uh the old contestant.

And he feels like he was he's a bit pigeonholed, I think, from the get-go as being like the what the the

I think he mentioned like some of the old man music they play over the over him sometimes.

Sort of like Senny Hill music, yeah, sort of like that's old codger music.

I think David Bedeal described it as Last of the Summer Wine.

They're kind of like the bold, but

you're the comedian going, What's in this then?

Because I mean, obviously, you were the oldest contestant in your series, but I think you had a

childlike joy.

Yeah, well, I think Alan's got quite a lot of that.

I think he's a kid in him because his kids are quite young.

I agree.

And I think, actually, what's interesting watching this, I think for your series, you had Frankie, who kind of occupied that grumpy old man role, which kind of in a way it freed the editors up to make you a bit more fun, if that makes sense.

As in, they got to to sort of, not that they had to make you a bit more fun, but you know what I mean.

Just in the edit, guys.

I was just going to say,

you are fun.

You are great fun.

I suppose that the idea of the grumpy old man character crashing a barge and shouting, Brace, Brace, and getting delighted over

Potato's going into the hat, it doesn't quite work.

Whereas with Frankie, because they have Frankie there, who is like your go-to grumpy old man character.

Yeah.

Like, I think, whereas so, I think in some ways, if Alan had been on a series with Frankie or had been on a series with Jack D, let's say, I think maybe they could have, like, some of the, I feel like some of his attempts are actually quite joyful, but they kind of, they kind of push him a little bit into like the ah, you're the old guy doing the old guy things.

Also, there are only two blokes in this series.

So,

Alan has to occupy that role.

And Guz is, Guz is definitely the sort of the fun young

contestant, as it were.

Although

he's one of the oldest young contestants, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I think that because Guz is big, Guz is manly, Guz to me looks like an adult.

He doesn't, he's no Ivo Graham.

He's not

like, yeah, there's not a sort of like a

M.S.

Like a boy child or a

young contestant, like a young contestant.

Guzz is like, Guzz has lived a life, and I think

you can tell.

But there's also a kind of energy to him, which I think they were trying to sort of...

I think, basically, I think Alan is more joyful than maybe the show gives him credit for.

But I do think this is a particularly, it's this prize task that he goes for,

the prize he gives in, which is a book of etiquette for English ladies, is

really funny.

And also, it's a little bit passo-aggressive.

It's a bit like, you're American, enjoy this, which, yeah, for Desiree.

Yeah, study this.

Study this.

Yeah, it was, it was the content of the book, which was bonkers as well.

But I think Desiree enjoyed it.

No, lovely, yeah.

But she really triumphed with her

prize tasks.

Desiree bought Guzz a bully kuta.

Now, what does bully kuta mean?

I think they said it was, uh, I think it's kuta means dog in, I think it was in a Pakistani language.

And then bully is just a bully.

So it's basically, it's your ex, it's like an XL bully or like a sort of a bully.

Terrible dogs, absolutely awful dogs.

I don't know why anybody would want an XL bully dog.

They're terrified.

If handled correctly.

Apparently so.

But I do, like, you know, dogs are as good as their owners and all that.

But yes, I do.

In fairness,

the picture that was given and

the fact that he was in a big, a lovely big coat, I was like, oh, that's a cute dog.

Oh, I love that dog.

Oh, no, I thought it was absolutely hideous, but I thought it was very, very well painted by Idil.

I think it's Idil Soukan, isn't it?

Yes.

Idil Soukan, yeah.

She's great.

She does great photos.

I didn't know she was a painter as well.

She's sort of always been on the fringes of comedy, hasn't she?

Yes.

So she's done quite a lot of design work for like posters in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh and always knew, yeah.

If you were an up-and-coming comedian and you got Idel Sukin to do your

poster, it was like, oh,

that's versus going places.

Idel Sukin, you say, oh, yeah.

Yeah, because they're styled so beautifully as well.

She's a very, very,

she's very clever, I think, anyway.

So we're just giving her a little bit of a a

little bit of a plug.

So it was a great painting, and Guz immediately says to Greg, give her the five points now.

And I do think that was the thing where Greg was like, oh, no, this is the beginning of him being like, oh, no, which I do,

this is one of my favourite prize stars because the way it falls apart for Greg is just wonderful.

And like, he does get progressively more angry.

Because then, of course, Guz gives Morgana or brings in

a long coat.

One of his long coats, one of his sort of guy forks, long coats.

The Manlike Mabine coats, those ones, they're beautiful, big coats.

Big coats.

And, you know, the sort of coat that Morgana as well can carry off.

Morgana can carry off.

She's a beauty.

And she's tall.

And she can really rock a Guz Khan.

coat.

What I did like about this, and this is actually something that happened in the in Desiree's one, is that as Guz said, oh, God, I'd love that prize.

Alex kind of sort of like, I think in an attempt to keep things spicy, he was like, Well, you know, you've only got a one in five chance of getting it, you have to win the episode now together.

And the fact that everyone was just like, Oh, yeah, Guz, you can have it.

Don't worry if I win the episode, you're having it.

It was a wonderful moment as well to be like, And you could just see Greg's hackles rise at the niceness.

I think he was like panicking slightly, thinking, Oh god, what am I going to do with this bunch of people being nice to each other?

Just remind me, Jack, and I think we've discussed this before.

when it's a COVID

series, there's no audience, is there?

No, there's no audience, it was all being, and I've, and I actually always need to check this, and I always forget to.

I can't remember whether it is uh filmed long, as in filmed like a normal filming, but you have COVID, um,

you have people watching in COVID safe in a cinema somewhere, so it's all being streamed live, or if they, um, if they cut the whole thing and then like play it to an audience like a 40-minute episode.

Because I do think the vibes change based on that, if that makes sense.

In some ways, though,

because

the contestants can't hear the reaction, it is just, you know, everything they do is kind of like...

you know, you're telling jokes and telling you that.

It's for each other, really.

It's for each other.

And I do think that's also the big difference between this series and the previous two is I think because this group is such a gang and such like they I can't work out exactly why it is but they all seem to be like there's a lot of glue i suppose i think it's possibly i mean i think desires is a very desires a brilliant comedian but she's also a really good like i've i've done like i think i've ages ago i either was on a bill with her or like a friend was on a bill and like she's just such a bubbly like and like

a person who brings people together.

Yes, but I think if you're a woman of a certain age,

that is your role.

That is your role in, and I've found myself doing it on certain occasions, charity gigs where people don't really know each other.

It's kind of your job to play hostess in the background.

You just have to make everybody.

Do you know him?

Do you know her?

Have you worked with him?

Dreadful people, aren't they?

You know, you just do all that

nonsense and just get everyone going.

And then you leave the room and they will slag you off.

And that's fine.

That's perfect.

That you've fulfilled your role.

You've sort of given yourself over to it.

I mean, I do think there's, I think it's just,

it is just a particularly well-worked series in the sense where even I can't think of many other series where, I don't know, actually, whether another series would work under COVID circumstances quite so well.

Because I do think this, this just group, it's, it may just be because we're, you know, towards the end of COVID, so people know how like a COVID show works now.

But it just, for some reason, it really like gels.

But I think also the casting was clever in so much that everybody's pretty experienced.

Yeah.

And, you know, there's no newbies that would are going to get freaked out by anything.

Yes.

and this is definitely a freak out zone, if that makes sense, because it's so weird.

Right, we're now going to move on to Morgana and what she brought for Victoria, which is a personalized velvet vintage smoking jacket with some matching slippers.

I love this.

Monogrammed with her initials.

VCM.

And she does a little impression of Victoria as well, saying, imagine you wearing that, nothing underneath.

Six of clubs, have some of that.

I love Morgana's impression of Victoria.

It's just, I think also you can tell there Victoria is like,

I know that everyone wants the gifts that are given to them, but like, she is like, oh, I, I absolutely like, she has a sort of look in her eyes.

I'm like, that's perfect.

That's exactly what I like.

I think she was genuinely quite touched.

You know, when a friend buys you a present, that's absolutely spot on.

Yeah.

And you, you know, for once, you're not going to put it in your gift drawer.

Yeah, you'll have to recycle.

Yes, I'll have that.

But of course, the one that I thought was the funniest was Victoria.

I mean, I know nothing about football, but I know enough to know that you don't do this.

She bought

Alan a voucher.

At first, it was suggested she bought him a season ticket to Manchester United,

which is obviously quite a meaty prize, but it turned out that it was a voucher towards a season ticket to Manchester, and his team is apparently Arsenal.

Yeah,

one of the most hated rivals of Manchester United, Arsenal Football Club.

As Alex points out, Alan would be in the crowd with the Manchester United fans.

So he not only has to watch a team that he hates, he has to watch it with people he hates because they're the wrong team.

And also, they know very well that Alan is a big Arsenal fan.

So

he'd be getting

pelters constantly.

What Alan calls it, and I'll find it here.

It was

the most passive-aggressive, calculated personal attack that I've ever experienced.

I think it is one of my favorite prize tasks ever.

I still can't quite work out

to what extent

Victoria means to do it, if that makes sense.

I don't know.

Because I think for anyone else, I'll be like, well, that's clearly a joke.

But from her, it just comes across as like a tiny bit, like, maybe, maybe she does think this is a good price.

Yeah, I mean, Victoria is occasionally baffling because we know she's clever.

We know, you know, we know her background.

We know she's an Oxbridge girl.

But now and again,

you just go, oh, God, your brain really works in a peculiar way.

Yeah.

It seems to work anti-clockwise.

Yes, this is the, and it's the slight, it's the type of thing where, like, you know, it's revealed that she doesn't know how to ride a bike, so she learns in the show.

And, like, it's just stuff where it's just a little bit like, what's just slightly odd?

It's slightly odd to the point where I'm not entirely sure, like,

with a joke like this, whether it would be a joke.

It's just, it's very strange.

And obviously, there's a, you know, the episode itself is called A Chair and a Suite, and that is because of something that Victoria says.

And I think, again, it's the type of thing where I'm like, again, how much is that a joke?

How much is that?

And how much do you actually mean that?

Right, so the points for this,

Victoria, one point, but I think she deserved five to be a joke.

I think she deserved five.

I do think it's interesting because I think Greg was doing kind of like comedy grumpy or comedy-like, but the one that was the best was Victoria's.

It was the best.

But obviously,

as a gift, it's terrible.

It's a hard thing.

It's a hard thing to know how to judge.

I think ultimately, it probably makes sense to give her one, but it also makes sense to give her five.

So I don't know.

Nothing in between.

Absolutely.

Um,

Alan got two points for the Etiquette book, uh, Guerz got three points for his big coat, Morgana four points for her smoking jacket for Victoria, and Desiree five points for the extraordinary um portrait of a terrifying dog.

Uh, but obviously, not terrifying if you know how to look after them properly.

We'll get letters,

Right, we're going, we're moving on now to task one.

Um,

again, very there's some quite simple tasks, very funny.

Um, this is yeah, land the iron on the ironing board from the furthest distance.

The ironing board must be standing at its maximum height when the iron lands on it, uh, and the iron must remain on the ironing board for the attempt to count.

You have 20 minutes.

Um, I mean, this is an interesting one because I, that there are some tactics that uh people come up with that I'm surprised

right now.

I'm surprised Guz got away with it in some ways.

Or I'm surprised that Guz that he wasn't sort of called up on the fact that it's not on the

ironing board.

It's in a bathtub.

You could say the same for

the laundry basket because the iron is actually in the laundry basket.

I had a bigger problem

with Morgana and Victoria.

I wouldn't have given them any points because they didn't throw the the iron.

Well, it says, this is the interesting thing.

The phrasing is land the iron and the iron.

Land the iron.

But you are right.

I suppose there's a question of like, what does land mean?

I think I do like the vague use of the word as opposed to throw, because I do think

you gave them license to do it.

That was me not reading the task properly.

In your series, obviously, there was the throw the ball controversy with the bouncy ball, and May threw their ball, and it

instead of throwing it, they put it on a bit of

they cheated.

They cheated.

I think they cheated as well.

And yet, Greg and inexplicably, many people on the internet think it's fine.

But I think that one you could say, well, the word throw doesn't mean tied to a bit of to a string and then thunk about.

Here, land is slightly more ambiguous.

You do get to, I mean, so there's actually a there's a similar task.

Well, there are lots of similar tasks to this, but there's one in Taskmaster New Zealand.

Oh, gosh, I think it's series one, where they have to, it's basically brush

Paul's teeth

from the furthest distance.

Yeah.

It's a great

task.

And I think someone comes up with the idea of like getting someone else to do it.

And they just cycle away, which I'm surprised they get away with.

But you kind of get, you know, it's just get his teeth brushed.

So you could say, you know, if you had found someone who was particularly

suggestible, if you just said, can you put this on the landing?

I'm going going to run away

out of the house.

Could you please

put this on the board?

But you could.

You could argue that would be fine.

Obviously, I don't think

Alex doesn't like that, and he will not help in that sense because it's just getting someone else to do it.

I think it's an ugly precedent as well to set because once you've done that, the floodgates open.

Yeah, I think everybody would end up getting a crew member to do something.

I think it's also the type of thing where you would need to do something for the crew member, like either pay them lots of money,

like an Al Murray, or you couldn't just sort of use your like, you know, clout to just say, do this for me.

Yeah, you could maybe do sexual favours rather than that.

Yes,

and you could be very explicit about that and say,

yeah, this is what I'm doing.

I'll just give you three blow jobs.

For this,

that's what I, that's what I do.

I'll give you vouchers for three blow jobs.

One of the most calculated personal attacks.

I,

Well, actually, there's another task in series 16 where Sue Perkins pulls a balloon, like pops a balloon from a big distance, and she's able to sort of do a like a, it's like, I think it's floss almost, or like some kind of wire that she wraps around and then does it from quite far away.

You could have done it.

That's effectively what Morgana and Victoria did here, but obviously the mechanism to do that is actually much harder.

It's harder to do that.

Yeah, I thought Morgana's mechanism was a thing of beauty.

It really Morgana is a very, is a strangely practical person, given, like, I feel like in this

Taskmaster sort of brings that out of her, where she's like, oh, she just can get stuff done.

I mean, it doesn't quite work out for her here, but like, she does, like, in a lot of other tasks, she's really able to get things done in a way that you wouldn't expect.

And obviously, she wins the whole series.

Yeah, I mean,

oh, God.

It is interesting.

So, like, we should talk about everyone, I suppose, but Desiree is the one who.

I mean, Desiree does the worst.

and she sort of feels like it feels like

she doesn't really ever get going in this one, which is interesting.

It's an it's a it's an interesting thing to see from her.

Often she will like

she'll take a while to get to understand how it works.

This one, you feel like she's on the cusp of a better idea, and she never really gets there.

She says, you know, there must be a better way, but she doesn't come up with it.

Um, because there isn't really anything that she does, I suppose, that like she does one toss that's fine and then doesn't go further with that.

Um, yeah, yeah, she'll be she would have been kicking herself afterwards, having seen what other people did.

But you know, we're all allowed one task where it all goes a bit a bit average.

Um, and she just got the one point.

Morgana did this wonderful kind of Heath Robinson-esque thing, yes, um, and it was a more beautiful contraption than Victoria's, but it wasn't as far away as Victoria's.

So, Morgana, two points, Victoria, three points.

Um, what Guz, what did he do?

I've just Guz.

So, Guz chucked it a few times.

Uh, he he he mentioned Neville South Hall, the former Wales goalkeeper, um, and then it didn't really work, and then uh, put it, put a bathtub.

Oh, that's of course he put a bathtub on it.

He put a bathtub on it, and then mentioned Shaka Hislop, uh, another goalkeeper from the 90s, and chucked it, uh, and it went into the bath.

I think it's probably shattered, to be honest, because it really it sounded like quite a lot.

Um, the

the interesting thing, there was a series, uh, gosh, in fact, this is a similar task as well.

In series one, they did

like throw a tea bag into a teacup from the furthest distance.

And I think

it's Josh Whitticomb.

It isn't a bath, it's a wheelbarrow.

And he claims that it's a wheelbarrow.

He claims the wheelbarrow is

a teacup because he puts a teacup handle on the side of it.

Like he sort of creates a teacup.

He doesn't get away with it.

That one, he lost, you know, I think.

That's stretching it, isn't it?

That's the interesting thing here.

Is what is the like what's I would argue, I think you could argue that Guz gets away with it here because I think it needs to be on the actual ironing board, especially with the phrase land.

I would say land the iron board.

Well, then Alan didn't do it because he was in the laundry basket.

I think you could say Alan.

So Alan did get a couple in the laundry basket, but he also did get, he did a clever thing, which was using the fence as a backboard.

And I think he got a couple.

Maybe not the biggest one.

He got a couple by bonking it off

the fence and onto the thing.

So he would have at at least scored.

I don't know.

Technical sporting term there, bonking it off the yeah.

Bonking off the backboard.

Episode title.

That's fine.

Desiree, one point, Morgana, two points, Victoria, three points, Guz four points.

And Alan's quite sporty, isn't he?

He is sporty.

Again, this is what I mean.

This is about the old man thing.

They push him into that bracket, but actually, he is quite sporty.

He's a sporty guy.

This always surprises me because I've said this many times, and I'll say it to love.

I'm blue in the face.

I don't think comics should be sporty.

They shouldn't.

They shouldn't.

The next task task to make a cute toy for a cute dog.

The dog will have five minutes with your cute toy.

Most engaged dog wins.

You have 20 minutes.

Your time starts now.

You have a dog, don't you, Jack?

I do have a dog.

And let me tell you, if anything here that was chicken or like meat based she would be in love with forever like she she is very much like food motivated at the moment and like she

is she an XL bully dog she is an excel bully dog no I'm not I'm not the kind of person who who could who could possibly go my dog bullies me and she's a very small cocker spaniel she will go to my uh she wakes me up at two in the morning now my kids don't wake me up at two in the morning she wakes me up at two in the morning and will come to my bed and well first of all she'll bark downstairs and then she'll come to my bed and just go

until i let her out she does a lap of the the bedroom the garden comes back in and is like okay bye now and that's it that's all she does and i can't

get up for that i do it's so annoying sorry that's end end of

i won't i will never rant about my children i will rant about my dog but she's lovely and i do

just have a big dog flap and can they not just come and go no no she would be confused and scared she's like mog she's very much like mog i would say yeah Mog is a cat for those who don't know.

Those who don't have under fives might be a cat.

I'm a Mog household.

Anyway, yes.

So you don't have a dog, do you?

No?

No.

No, all right.

No, I've never owned a dog.

I'm a very selfish and very lazy person.

I also don't like their poo.

Yeah, I have a real problem.

I think that I could only have a dog that did like rabbit droppings.

In fact, I think I should just have a rabbit.

Just get a rabbit, I think.

Set a rabbit and put doggers on.

Yeah, I couldn't deal with a dog.

You know, sometimes in the park, and people are picking up their dogs poo.

Yeah.

And there are some dogs and they do massive shit, so you need a bin liner.

And you just think, I can't know.

I'd have to have a really small-scale pooing dog.

So some of the contestants have got dogs.

Yes.

I mean, that's actually going to be another good stats question at some point.

Having dogs and whether they're not.

Pet owners and

people, dog people,

no pet people.

Me.

victoria i i thought for a second she says nothing can beat a ball and for one minute i thought that she just got a tennis ball out of the magic box of um bits and bobs and i thought she was just going to leave it there i thought that was going to be her thing i thought that as well and i think maybe there's a level of it it is annoying because i do think that as you're doing stuff for dogs There is much like when you're buying presents for babies, you are like, they're just going to enjoy the box.

So I could just get them the box.

But like from a taskmaster taskmaster perspective, you're like, we've got to, you got to, you got to create more.

So I'm glad that she went further.

But I do also think that maybe someone, someone lazy, could have just been like, a bull, have that, and go for it and like inject it with some chicken and just like smear it in chicken.

You're golden, really.

She didn't do food, did she?

But she did consider weeing on it.

She thought that the dog might be interested in the scent of her urine.

I mean, again, not

so, so she's obviously mad, and that is a mad thing to say on TV.

I do know where she's coming from, though.

Oh, really?

They are, they are interested in odd smells.

And the point that she made, which was obviously, ideally, I'd have like you know, dog wee, but where am I going to get dog wee at a short notice?

I've got human wee.

We've all got human wee at short notice.

I could just do that.

It makes sense.

She's mad, but it does make sense.

Yeah.

I think the I think she could have gone into another room, bought a saucer of it back, and just you know, dipped some felt into it.

I think if she does that, she's not hosting OnlyConnect.

I think that's it.

See, I don't have a proper job like that.

Exactly.

This is what you're doing.

Put at risk.

Yeah.

In a way,

you've got nothing to lose.

It's great.

Yeah, I can pee all over the place.

It doesn't really bother me.

Nobody's going to sack me because I haven't got a job.

Morgana, very clever, goes and cooks a chicken thigh.

I do think I wouldn't have thought of this.

I do, like, I think, because again, if you are thinking a dog toy, it is hard to think of, like, as they say, that dog toy is going to smell awful.

And I have done a couple of those dog toys where you put food inside of it and you forget about it and then come back like days later and it's grim.

So like, I think

it was a chicken, it was chicken thigh cracker, really.

Oh, it was.

Yeah, that was how they described it, wasn't it?

Yeah, chicken thigh cracker.

Disgusting, but like, wood does work.

Like, it is a good idea.

I mean, nice, fresh three days later, appalling.

Appalling, but the dog would still go for it, I think.

Let's be honest.

Disgustingly, the dog would still go for it, unless they are just that way inclined.

You know, I think I wouldn't have thought of it, but I do think that Morgana understands the brief, and I think that that's to her credit.

I don't know if she does have a dog.

Does she have a dog?

I can't remember if they said, Oh, she does.

She does.

Yeah, she does.

She calls him stink.

Yeah, stinks because Brett is.

He stinks, yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I like that.

It is worth saying,

this task in general is a similar task in series eight when the contestants have to make a cute toy for a cute child, I suppose it would be, which was Andy Cartwright's three-year-old,

at the time, three-year-old, Nell.

Yeah.

So this is sort of a like mirror version of that task, which I do, I like it when they do that, when there are little things where you're like, this is a similar one to the one that we did previously.

It's cute.

It's a cute thing.

And this is a cute toy and a cute dog.

Guzz has a dog, doesn't he?

No one at Guz wants a dog.

Guz wants a

bully coota, yeah.

He wants his bullicuta.

He seemed very obsessed with the idea of the dog having to be female or having to be like

he has to make a female-looking dog so that the male dog will have it on with the female.

That was an odd thing,

but it worked.

Yeah, there was a lot of string involved.

He made a sort of doll with rope hair.

He called her Priscilla.

Yeah.

And Marco, what sort of dog was marco marco was the the sort of what i think it's a jack jack russell i think it was a long-haired jack ross russell you know an awful lot about dogs for someone who doesn't like dogs i do not i don't i like i like um datsunts that's my dog yeah

you know i like a non-walking dog i think actually honestly you would have to you would have to know a bit more about marco before designing the toy for him that's what i would say i would want to know more about marco i'd want to know about what kind of dog he is because you would, you know, your cocker spaniels are going to react differently to your poodles.

Poodles are smart.

You want something clever for a poodle.

You want like a cryptic crossword.

Yeah, or a Sudoku for a poodle.

Yeah, yeah.

Get that dog doing Sudoku.

Perfect.

Or

a Rubik's Cube.

Yeah.

A Rubik's Cube is smeared in chicken.

Disgusting.

Yeah, Gus didn't put any food in Priscilla.

She was just an amorphous mass of hair and tongue and quite odd.

Yeah, but

toilet roll was the key.

Toilet roll was the key.

Dog fucking loved it.

I know.

This was a little bit of a message.

But he's one of Priscilla's legs off chasing around.

You're sort of at the mercy, much like the Nell task, you're sort of at the mercy of whatever this child or dog wants to do.

And I think he clearly, this is a dog who loves to chew cardboard toilet roll.

It makes it quite, like, it's a very funny task, but it does, it, like, there's a level of it being like, we can't really, like, there's nothing nothing to be done here.

You can't really like decide you're going to

dogs are dogs and it's hard to work out what a dog likes.

Um, yeah, because I feel bad, I really feel bad for Desiree because I know some dogs who would love chonky.

Chonky was brilliant.

Like there's it was a big toy, it was a big toy, but the dog just was not interested in chonky.

Big, but like like lots of different things going on.

I think sometimes like dogs, like much like kids, if these if they see like a big toy that has lots of things going on, they're a bit intimidated by it and they're like, I'm not really.

Do you you remember when the kids are little and you get those activity centers and you sort of uh and they had all things to push and pull and and that sort of thing, and and and you put your child in front of them when about nine months old and expect them to do something clever and they'd sit there dumbly looking at them?

Yeah, I'm like, why aren't you playing green slides?

What's just going on?

There's a lot of that, and they'll be like, oh, and but then when they start doing it, my friend had a really good description for it.

Um, my friend Toby, if he's listening, uh, had uh, where he like his kid would sometimes start doing it, but would start doing it in quite a monotonous way.

And he'd be like, oh, God, back to the day job.

Then he's like, he's

pulling these levers.

I loved it.

But yes,

so I do think Chonky deserved more, but

I don't know.

Again, you're sort of at the mercy of the dog.

So nothing to be done, really.

Greg described Chonky's failure really well.

He invested heavily in Chonky.

I enjoyed that line a lot that he was like, that he was like, Chonky didn't do very well, but I have invested in him as well.

Yeah, Greg was absolutely convinced that Chonky was going to do really well and Chonky didn't.

Alan was bounced up in the middle with Pipey,

but he did put dog food in, but he was a bit sneaky with his dog food.

We didn't see him putting the dog food in.

That was revealed.

I wonder if a different, if no one else had, well, this is like one of those things where you're like conspiracy theories of Taskmaster or like just different ways of playing it.

If

Alan had won this task and no one else had done dog food, I wonder if they'd have done the whole thing,

like reveal and showed how well

Alan's prize went down or how well Alan's toy went down and then gone, I do have to show you one thing and showed Alan putting in the dog food.

And then they would have to have a bigger conversation about whether a toy is a toy if it doesn't have food in it, whether that's a food toy.

But I think because

Magana had already put a chicken thigh in it, it's kind of like, well, you know, there's not really,

it seems to be fine no matter what.

And it wasn't as if it was in the

you know, you know, that there might have, there would have been possibly a chicken thigh in the fridge.

Yes, to sort of tempt you.

And then, so I think they're always, they're always thinking about these things, aren't they?

They're always thinking about it.

Do you think there is a can of dog food around, or do you think Alan said, can someone just run to the corner shop and get me a tin of dog food?

There probably was a tin of dog food.

I think they, I think much like when they, the task where they're like, put the rocket in the pocket and they, you know, they have a bag of rocket in

the fridge.

I think they're always looking for things that could create a little bit.

Yeah, it was like when we talked to the some of the crew and they said, you know, there's a kind of warehouse of stuff and they think around it and they sort of offer things up that might get might get used.

Anyway, Desiree, one point, Victoria two points, Alan three points, Morgana four points, Guz five points.

Yeah.

Dog was cute enough, you know.

I loved loved Marco the dog.

Very sweet.

Very sweet, Marco the dog.

I think, I think, I've also asked Alex where Marco the dog came from.

I think he is a professional dog.

Unlike previous, you know, whenever there's a kid or something involved, often they're like, this is, you know, Andy, Andy Cartwright's son or daughter.

This one was very much like, no, it has to be, it has to be a professional dog.

It has to be a dog who's prepared to be on TV because.

Yeah, yeah, it has to be a dog that doesn't come into the room doing massive shit on the carpet.

You are obsessed with dogs doing shit.

Well, that's basically, you know, what they seem to do.

Anyway,

I'm sure all your dogs are lovely.

Task three, sit on the red chair in the secret tower.

Where was this outside location?

Do you know?

It's the one from Series 12.

It's a big, it's a beautiful big house because they do it in another, like there are several other bits that are set in this secret location.

It's the same.

I think we've done the task before where Desiree Birch can't stop.

She tries to get the drawbridge to come down.

Oh, yes.

So it's the inside of that place.

It's a historical house.

It's a

beautiful historical house.

It's one of the most beautiful ones, I'd say,

in the show.

No, the last series had the most beautiful ones.

The last series felt like an upgrade on this, although I do think the...

There's something quite creepy about this place.

It reminds me,

it's sort of like an abandoned school.

I think that's that's what's quite,

there's an extra level of

weirdness.

I agree with that slight feeling of abandoned.

Yeah, you're sort of a bit freaked out by it.

Although, interestingly, having just thought about it, there is also in this series,

there's another secret, another extra location, which is the big desecrated,

not desecrated.

Deconsecrated.

Deconsecrature.

Deconsecrated.

Deconsecrated church,

which

in

one of the episodes, Guz Khan is afraid there are a bunch of ghosts called Ethel who are going to be haunting him because he's in a church and he has to do like weird dance moves.

So I wonder, I don't know where if that is actually attached to this place or whether, like, whether it's like a big, whether it was like a school with a church nearby, or I don't, so I don't know, but actually, I should look that up.

Or whether they, because of COVID, they could only do like a certain amount of filming in one place and then the other, so they have to do two days.

I don't know.

I don't

know.

It's a big empty space.

Yes, big, old empty space.

And it was one of those complicated ones, made more complicated by the fact that part of the task required you to shred the task within a minute of starting the task.

Yes, I do think this is one of those ones where Alex wanted to make it as complicated as possible and then was like, oh, but they could just look at the task.

And so you have to find a way to undo that.

I mean,

it also made me realize how many, like, how many of these tasks they must have.

Because I think they've said it before, Jack Dee has done a task where the task didn't work or he ripped it.

And so he couldn't, like, go on with the task.

So they had to make him another task.

But that was in the house.

So here they must have prepared, like, I don't know, what, 20, 30?

Like, it's one of those ones where, like, they've

it's designed to annoy you.

I think this task.

As a person doing it, you're supposed to get like baffled and scared and get confused about what you're supposed to be doing.

Well, it's another one of those ones.

And we saw this, the series Julian Clary did, and they had those little ride-on uh

the street sweeper yes yeah it's exactly you're exactly that is i was trying to think of a good example that there are a few it's if you fail you have to go back to the beginning yes and that one was in fact it's similar in a way that one's almost harder because they alex doesn't tell you the rules until they're midway through the task so you have to you have to fail before you can find out what the answer to what you're actually supposed to be doing whereas here technically if you if you do have a photographic memory you could potentially just you know go okay that's what it is You know, I can only stand on each circle, and once unless it is black, you may stand on a black circle twice, but never twice in a row.

It's still baffling.

I still don't fully understand it while, like, like while doing it.

Um, but I think it's supposed to be, you know, it's supposed to be baffling.

Oh, definitely, definitely.

And the person who was most baffled by it was Victoria.

Yeah.

And again, we know she's a really clever woman, but I mean, you know, there was a level of

not understanding that was kind of worrying to a certain degree it was i think i i think what it is and i think this is true of quite a lot of oxbridge people and i think that like i i think actually it's kind of something that comes up quite a lot from people who if you if you go in with certain expectations of something and you are a very smart person because you know how the world works or you believe you know how the world works

you are then baffled when there is something slightly off and that and you because your brain doesn't like like comprehend like the thing that you thought being being the case is not the case.

So in this one where she was like, she just didn't, but she couldn't understand the idea that you had to bring your own chair.

That's the thing that really baffled her.

She sort of goes through, she gets to the tower and then is like,

there's no chair.

Therefore, the chair must be in this room.

Not thinking that maybe the chair is outside.

Maybe there's, you know, other things.

And that's where we got the title, where she thought there might be a chair in the suite.

I could, I mean, what I will say is often with Taskmaster, there is no, like, there's nothing, there's nothing, they use every part of the buffalo.

There's always the thing where you're like, that means something.

There must be a reason.

So if you put a random balloon in

a tower and it has a sweet on it, I would be instantly like, I must never eat that sweet.

I can never touch that sweet.

There's going to be a secret thing that says, if you eat or touch this sweet, you lose all of your points for the whole series.

So I think in a way she is right because you're there again to say my catchphrase this episode.

In a way, Victoria Cora Mitchell, while completely wrong, is right.

In the sense where I would just think, like, that must mean something.

Therefore, do I have to eat this sweet and get a chair?

So, there's a there's a stupid logic to it, and it doesn't, it doesn't work.

And

I do think that she gets away with it a bit here.

I think they could have been cruel to say, and I think actually, Alex is kind of

her voice got increasingly plaintive.

It was like

she was really getting quite pissed off with it.

What is a chair?

What is it?

Where is the chair?

What is it?

It's very, it's, I mean, she, she's a, I didn't realize before, but she's a very easily baffled woman.

You'll notice that Alex says his always dangerous words here, which is not, I've stopped the clock at the end of her one.

She says, he says, do you want to stop?

Do you want me to stop the clock?

Which we all know that means he thinks you haven't actually done the task, which is always a risk.

But I think because Victoria was doing so badly,

if Victoria had been, you know, miles ahead in the series, or even just competitive, I think Greg would have said, that's not a chair, go back and do it again, or you're disqualified because you didn't complete the task.

I think here

they're aware that Victoria at episode six is in trouble, therefore, it's fine.

Desiree was very competent on this one.

Desiree was, you know, on top Desiree former.

She just did it.

Alan gets quite far, realizes he forgot the red chair.

His best line in it, though, was, and apparently this is what he did before every task,

two cream eggs.

I cannot, I cannot fathom eating two cream eggs before, before appearing on television, I will say, just because I feel like your mouth would be so like, claggy, claggy, such a claggy sweet,

a chocolatey sweet.

You just wouldn't be able to talk.

But also, the sugar would, I think that the problem here is the sugar would, I think, would give you a massive high and then suddenly midway through and be like, what am I doing again?

What's happening?

Oh, no.

Well, that's when he has the second chocolate egg.

I mean, I kind of get it.

I mean, I can't drink it anymore because it gives me cystitis, but Diet Coke used to give me that little push.

Yeah,

I suppose

I can see the reasons for it.

I suppose Diet Coke I can see a bit more because it's, you know, it's refreshing.

Therefore, you'd be like, okay.

Whereas the clag, it's all about the clag with us.

I don't understand it.

I do like that Alan was the only one to think that there was going to be a lot more like going up.

Because when they said this way to the secret tower, I, like Alan, assumed we were going to be

a small staircase.

Yeah.

And it would go up forever and ever and ever and ever.

I think it's quite a fun joke that it is just there.

But you can imagine, it's so annoying from Alan's perspective.

And actually, it's something else that

in the live task is also like the thing of like hoarding stuff in the anticipation that you're going going to have to, you know, you'll be able to use it

in later in the task.

It sort of backfires here because he spends quite a long time gathering, gathering when he actually could have just been, you know, pew, pew, pew, pew, peep.

Going.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Guz, what is it?

Gus, Guz.

So Guzz shreds it.

He gets to the red.

I mean, I really like Guzz, and I think I would have done the same thing here, which is that he...

He gets to the red chair.

He shreds it, gets to the red chair, and then immediately sits down on the red chair and forgets what he's doing.

He just sits there and goes, I don't know what the fuck's going on.

He'd remembered up to the point of the red chair, and then the rest was a blur.

I think I would do exactly the same thing where I'd be like, Perfect.

I know exactly what I'm doing.

This is because I often do this when I'm like

reading or learning something.

I'm like, I understand everything.

And then I get to like the cliff edge where you're like, oh no, nothing.

I got nothing after this point.

I mean,

he does a, I mean, he does a decent enough job.

He, yeah, he gets he, well, actually, no, he doesn't.

He gets two points.

It's not, not a great one from Cuz.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I will say Alex's

scoring method, so his estimation method in this one, particularly aggravating.

I have no idea what he was actually talking about.

He says it's, in fact, I'll get exactly what he says, but it's something to do with like as a proportion of how old you would be.

Like it doesn't, it doesn't work as a thing.

I'd really thought it was meant to be a year for every hour.

But it wasn't that, was it?

It might have been.

I don't know, but it doesn't doesn't quite...

No, it can't be because, um, take for example, um, Alan did the task in five minutes and 37 seconds.

And uh, Alex described that as being seven years and six months.

Nothing makes any sense.

So he says, Do you want me to give them in minutes or seconds or do you want or to convert it into years if we're saying one hour is the average lifespan of a human?

What is that?

What is that?

He's gone mad with COVID.

He's mucking about.

He's just mucking about and they let let him.

But usually I can follow it.

Usually I can follow it, Jenny.

This one I was like, I do not understand.

Oh, baffling.

Well, sometimes it's quite good being a bit thick because you sort of approach things with

the attitude that you probably won't understand it anyway, so don't bother to even try.

Let it wash over.

Yeah, just wash over.

Apparently, that's how you should learn foreign languages.

I found out recently.

You should just, you should let it wash over.

Don't try.

Don't try

so hard.

Or don't like obsess over the mistakes or obsess over the like you should just enjoy the fact that you don't know what you're talking about.

That's what I and I should I should enjoy that more.

I really should enjoy that more.

You won't though, Jack.

It's just not in your nature.

Morgana got the best hack and she shuffled the dots.

She stood on her dots and she slid them over to the shredder.

Aggravating that she didn't read the full task though, because I think that if she had shuffled the whole way there, that would have been like an all-time taskmaster achievement the fact that she didn't realize what was going on and jumped off the dots and then had to do it again you're like ah it's just it's just it's just a slightly frustrating like yeah whereas Desiree just didn't break out into a sweat she just did it she got five points Morgana got four points Alan three points Guz two points and baffled old

Victoria got one point she had to try quite hard for

um

and I really liked the live task I don't know what that, what's what I wanted to ask you.

Has the complete abject failure of a studio task ever happened before?

I mean it depends what what we mean by abject failure.

Like, I mean, this one is interesting because, you know, there have been, there have been tasks where everyone's failed.

And in fact, your series, there was a task where everyone failed, the studio task, where you, the pouring of the sand.

I don't know if you remember that one.

Oh, yeah.

And everyone, and again, that was because it was too hard.

And I think there's an argument to be said, this one's a bit too hard as well.

This one doesn't immediately appear to be an abject failure because actually

the way it's scored,

you're actually scored because it's because you're technically scored for two things here.

So

if you're looking at the like the

stats, you would look at this and go, it was a normal live task because everyone did well.

Actually, everyone did terribly, but because of the number of

pieces of paper people took, they get more points.

We should say actually what it was.

What it was, yeah.

Choose the number of sheets you want for the second part of the task.

This is sheets of paper.

Each sheet will reduce your points total by five.

You have 30 seconds to select your sheets.

You don't know whether to go high or low at this point.

Yeah.

I think, well, we should talk exactly about what it is, but yes, I do.

I think there's an element.

It's a common Taskmaster thing, which is you're given the first part of a task and you don't know what to do with it until you get the second part.

So like there's another one which was make a make a like a lovely little ball feature um

and

you're not sure what to do with that because there's going to be a second part of the task so do you do a do you do a fun one do you do a you know do you do something where you keep all the balls together do you do them where they're all really far apart um it's hard to know it's hard to know Yeah, but

the second part of the task, which is obviously a surprise to everybody, make paper aeroplanes.

Your paper airplanes must look like airplanes.

You will have two minutes to make them, then 30 seconds each to throw them into the receptacles, all of which have points on them, different numbered points.

Most points win.

Now, again,

Victoria,

Bruce doesn't really belong to the real world, didn't know how to make a paper plane.

Yeah, I mean, I thought that was weird, but then I've talked to other people and they don't know how to make paper planes too.

I think that's, I know, I like, I spent many, many quiet, quiet, happy afternoons making paper airplanes and throwing them off things.

I enjoyed it a lot.

But like,

much to the frustration of my family.

But like, I, I mean, maybe that one's not so weird because I know a few people who are like, how do you do, how do you get it pointy?

But I think, I think, given Victoria's age.

She should now make her plane.

And the fact she, oh, did she have children at this point?

I'm not sure she had her kids.

I don't know if she did have her kids at this point.

Okay.

And also, I don't know whether, because I certainly haven't made a paper plane with Camille yet.

That's going to be a great day when we do that.

Oh, what a day.

What a day.

I think I've thrown one at Arlo by now.

Yeah.

I mean,

it was chaotic and it was catastrophic for all of them because none of them, Alan chose most sheets of paper.

And we know he's sporty.

We know he's good at throwing.

And even he failed.

And he missed all of them.

Desiree only had two sheets.

She had two chances, same as Guz.

She missed both times.

Yeah.

I think what would have been great would have been because they kept Victoria to last,

and

I really thought she was going to triumph.

I thought so as well.

There's a real,

there's a thing where you're like, people often say, like, oh, you know, how do you know Taskmaster isn't faked?

Or do they do, you know, like, like, you know, they edit certain things a certain way.

Stuff like this is where I'm like, well, they, they don't, because the narrative would mean you have to, you have to make her win here, or you should make her win.

The fact that it, it's a miserable failure, you're like, yeah, fair enough.

That's that's what it is.

Um, like, it would have been lovely.

I do think, I think Alan's talked about this before.

Again, Alan having a lot of complaints in this episode.

Um, Alan, he has to make eight paper airplanes in two minutes, whereas everyone else gets, you know, I know that, I know he chose more, but like, yeah, that is and he knows how to make a paper airplane.

Come on, you can make eight

paper airplanes in two minutes.

I still think it's a bit like he's, he's being given a, he's, he's it's a hard thing to have done and I do think it's a shame that basically I think this task was too hard.

That's that's my real feeling about it.

I just really like the end result which is this the floor just littered with paper planes that hadn't made it into any receptacle.

I wonder and this I this I don't know if this is

If this is just this is just coming to me now this thought whether they could have put because there was no audience whether they could have put like a target right where the audience would be normally and and say if you get that in there, then you know that's like a million points.

Um, but I, but they, you know, they never really talked about that.

I'll never really say if that was a thing, but like that would have been good, wouldn't it?

Just so taking advantage of the fact there's no, there's no studio audience, you could have a lot of people.

Yeah, but nobody would have got their paper airplane in it.

Well, just been another empty receptacle.

But sometimes I would say, much like free kicks in football, you can be too close to the goal.

And I think there's an element here where it can be.

You get where you're coming from.

It's actually quite hard to aim down into like.

You are now demonstrating your

sad youth.

Oh, I do that every week, Jenny.

Oh, dear.

Poor little Jack.

What's he doing?

Oh, he's playing with his paper airplanes again.

He's only 17.

He's 17.

He's saying he needs the receptacle to be much further away.

So this means that the final episode totals are Guz 19 points.

He wins that.

He wins his own,

the bully cutter.

He wins his bully cutter, so he doesn't have to rely on anyone else to get it, which is nice.

Yeah.

Morgana comes in second with 17 points.

Desiree, 17 points.

Alan, 14 points.

Victoria, nine points.

Oh, Victoria.

I think this is the beginning.

Well, it's not the beginning, but it's the point where...

So at the end of this episode, Victoria is 20 points behind everyone else.

And previously, she was, yeah, 18.

So we're getting to the point where she's really too far away.

No, so before this episode, before this episode, she was only 12 points behind everyone else.

Here she's 20 points.

And I think from

then on, this is like the episode where Victoria falls away and everyone else just shoots off from her.

Where is she in the league of losers?

She's pretty close to the bottom.

I would say she's either second bottom or she's

either second or third bottom, I think, points per task-wise.

It's either her or Catherine Parkinson's.

I can look it up right now.

It's quite triumphant position to be in, isn't it?

there's something joyful about it and also because she is the like because of her reputation i suppose is the thing of who she is like it it's quite glorious that this is how she's sort of done here it's not just like not great or you know not as good as you expect it is catastrophically bad like there's something really fun about it um in fact i'm just going to check now exactly where she was where she ended up a third worst third worst uh Rasheen Carnati and Catherine Parkinson are fractionally worst okay okay well well done, all.

Well done, all for so big, so splendidly bad.

Because you need them.

You actually need, you really need that.

It sort of adds that texture.

Yeah, it's texture that they're supplying.

You always need texture.

And it would be a very boring show if everyone was just brilliant all the time.

So thank you.

We've got some emails, Jack, which is lovely.

Thank you very much to everybody who has emailed in.

Heyo, Jack and Jenny.

That's a nice greeting from Jay Dean in North Carolina.

You'll probably get to this after season.

Oh, God, she's done it.

She's American.

She's done.

After series.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

After series 19 is over, but I noticed something funny and interesting.

Nish only had eight episodes of his season and ended with 107 points.

And Jason's total score up to episode eight was 107.

I was wondering if they performed similarly, and if not, how that could have happened.

Just a neat coincidence.

I noticed that I thought at least Jack would appreciate.

Oh, she's got me down, hasn't she?

You've checked out, that's fine.

Yeah, did you notice halfway through?

I didn't know what I was talking about.

No, I mean, it is fascinating.

It's also fascinating that episode eight is

the last one before Nish turns up as Jason.

So episode nine is where Nish turns up as Jason, which is a very sweet little combo.

I mean,

the thing to say, like, contestants who get the same number of points as another contestant can be vastly different.

Like,

there are so many different ways to

score points and do well.

I think Frankie Boyle has the same number of points as Munya Jawao, which is, I would argue, you don't have, there are two contestants who are not more similar.

Like, they are, they both scored.

Yeah, they both scored 150 in their series.

But Frankie and Munya, so different as contestants and as they score points.

But yes, I think what happened, I think in the end,

Jason does very well in the last two episodes, so he shoots far further up the table than Nish did.

And, you know, there's an argument to be said that if Nish had more time, he would have done better.

I don't know.

It's more that Nish, Nish was

on a downward trajectory for a lot of his series, and it's joyful.

Whereas

Jason is like up and down.

Yeah, he pulls it.

But in the last two episodes, you're absolutely right.

He pulls it completely together and just sort of decides to show everybody what he can actually do.

It's like he wakes up on the last day and is like, yeah, okay.

Hi, Jack and Jenny.

Love the pod.

Loyal listener from Canada.

You two are one of the podcasts I listen to where I get ready on a Monday.

Thanks for getting my weeks off to a great start.

That's very nice to know.

Jack, this is one for you.

Jack, your stats and memory are incredible.

You have clearly forgotten what a pillar of Taskmaster Patatas is.

The first time he is named is actually in episode four of series two.

Yes, Canadians stand strong with you on this point when the team must rescue the cat who answers to the name Patatas and Richard Osmond villainously decides not to rescue him.

I think I, okay, I think I know what's happened here, because I know that.

We all know Patatas turned up in Series 2, Episode 4.

We know this.

I think...

Well, I didn't, but I like the idea that maybe you've got this wrong.

Well, I think I said at some point, this is the first time Patatas, I think I said, because I said this on the podcast and someone said to me on Blue Sky, Patatas has been named many times.

I said, I may have said it by accident, that this is the first time that, because Patatas turns up in Series 19, Patatas, this is the first time Patatas turned up since he was named in Series 17.

And I got a few emails or a few messages of people saying he was named in Series 2.

What I mean is,

I can't believe

I'm sorry.

Come on, Chat, come on.

You've got to.

you know, you've got to.

What I mean is that was the first task where Patatas was talked about by name in the task itself.

So we've seen, Patatas turns up in plenty of other tasks.

So in in series two,

in series two, he is named Patatas, uh, and it's rescue this cat.

Jack, yeah.

Jack, what this sounds like is it sounds like you attempting to dig yourself out of a nice fat hole.

No,

I'm fully aware of when Patatas was named.

I know the episodes Patatas has been in.

I was trying to differentiate, because I think there have only been three tasks, as in tasks that have been given to contestants where the name Patatas has been written on the task, if that makes sense.

So there have been tasks where contestants have found Patatas in like the shed and have used him in a task.

And there have been tasks where he is turned up in the background, but we would never say like, find Patatas or save Patatas or give Patatas an elixir.

You're looking at me like I'm trying to dig and I'm not trying to dig.

I'm I'm not actually looking at you anymore.

You're looking at me.

I'm reading a book on the side.

Look, me deciding.

I'm not going to let you just get on with that by yourself.

Look, Rebecca, I accept I phrased it poorly because many people have already talked to me about this, but I will,

I still think you're absolutely right.

You say here, perhaps Jenny should assign this episode to Jack as homework for a change once we're done with series 19.

Keep up the stats and the pedantry.

Details matter.

Rebecca from Victoria, British Columbia.

I look, I'll obviously will happily watch series two, episode four.

I knew he was called Patatas, and I knew he was named in Series 2.

That is not what I meant.

Oh, God.

I'm furious.

I just really, I'm really enjoying the fact that Canadians say series like we do.

And I just, that makes me very thrilled indeed.

Last one here.

Oh, God.

This is the thing is a few people have messaged in because of how I phrase my sentence.

Oh, God.

So apparently, there was.

I did also miss something.

This is something I did miss, and someone else has pointed this out to me.

They said, I think you've missed something about the feed the elixir to Patatas task in episode nine.

In a YouTube extra from last August entitled The Story of Patatas, Alex detailed the cat's

patatistics, and we learned that Patatas is down to the last of his nine lives.

Alex concludes by saying, Much of Patatas' time is spent investigating rumors of a magical elixir that might restore some of his lives, foreshadowing last week's task.

Cheers, Ben.

Ah, that's.

So someone has actually taken the time to put together a video of Patatis' first eight lives.

Well, I think this is an official Taskmaster video, and they say this is, they say, the reason that Patatas has lost his eight lives.

We've got hit with a mallet, knocked out of a tree, shaken out of a tree, left in a tree to starve, eaten by two hats.

I'm trying to think of what that one was.

Eaten by Nishkumar, that is, of course, a famous one.

Smashed against the dome roof and flung onto a roof.

And I think those ones are, those ones are the Series 17 ones.

So, yes, I look, I love everyone's pedantry.

I'm very thankful towards it.

I'm thankful for it.

And I appreciate that.

While I knew in my heart of hearts that Patatas had been named in Series 2, Episode 4, I appreciate people calling me up on it.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate you.

Well, you should see what his face looks like.

Anyway,

we'd like to say thank you to Rebecca, to Ben, and Jadine for your emails this week.

We'd very much like you to keep sending your thoughts, stats, questions, and homework suggestions to fans at taskmaster.tv.

Do not forget to rate subscribe.

I'm going to hand the power back to you, Jack, because I know you're a bit upset.

I'm not a bitch.

And I'd like,

come on, love.

Come on.

You'll be fine after you've made a few paper planes.

I'll make a few paper planes.

Each one with JD and Ben and Rebecca's faces on them.

And then you're going to shoot them down the toilet and you're going to flush them away.

Okay, love.

What homework would you like me to do this week?

Let's do, let's do what the one that everyone's talking about, the reason that Patathas has lost so many lives, it is series two, episode four.

And that is Doc Brown, Joe Wilkinson, Catherine Ryan, John Richardson, and Richard Osman.

So that's series to episode four.

We shall be reporting back next week.

Thank you, everybody who has listened in today.

Thank you so much.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.