Ep 177. Jack Bernhardt - S18 Ep.6

Hello, and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast.

It's me, Ed Gamble, host of the Taskmaster Podcast.

And today we continue to talk about Taskmaster Series 18.

What a series it is.

It's still so close.

This is very, very exciting.

In terms of points, got to be one of the most gripping series ever.

Love all the contestants.

Everyone is doing their job brilliantly or not brilliantly in a funny way.

This is the ideal series of Taskmaster.

Today we'll be talking about episode six of Taskmaster Series 18.

Hopefully you've watched it.

If you've not, go to channel4.com, watch it, or better yet, watch it live.

Channel 4, Thursdays, 9 p.m.

You know the drill by now.

I don't need to tell you.

We have the wonderful Jack Bernhardt, co-host of Taskmaster the People's podcast with the equally brilliant Jenny Eclair.

I did last week say that Sophie Willen will be joining us for this episode, but things happen and schedules change.

So hopefully Sophie will come back on the podcast soon.

We wish her well.

But looking forward to talking to Jack.

He is always a font of knowledge when it comes to Taskmaster.

He has Taskmaster stats and Taskmaster facts.

at the forefront of his brain.

He can reach back into history and compare things, contrast things.

He's a fantastic man.

Let's get on with it.

Let's talk about Taskmaster Series 18, episode 6, with the brilliant Jack Bernhardt.

Welcome, Jack, to the Taskmaster podcast.

Hello, Ed.

Thank you very much for having me.

Welcome back, indeed.

I don't even know what number you've done of this podcast.

Of course, you have many under your belt with Taskmaster the People's podcast, but you spend a lot of your time talking about Taskmaster.

I do.

And that's why we thought...

get Jack back on last minute because someone cancelled.

Yep, that's the role I have now.

That's good.

I basically

sit by the phone waiting for someone to fail to talk about Taskmaster and then I jump in.

Well, we're very, very grateful for you doing it.

And you're always brilliant when you talk about Taskmaster.

And even though I understand you've probably talked about this episode on your podcast already, I do think you are so brimming with thoughts and notes and stats and ideas around Taskmaster that you probably do have some more to get off your chest that Jenny Claire wouldn't let you get in there.

Every time we finish a recording,

I come out to my wife and I say, there was so much more.

There was so much more I could have said.

I have hours.

Every time you finish a recording, you come out to your wife.

Now, that must be.

The first time she was shot.

The first time she was shot.

Yeah, yeah.

Every progress of time.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's fine.

Let's talk, first of all, because it's the first time that we are talking about series 18 of Taskmaster.

And we're going to talk about episode 6 in more detail.

But how are you finding the series so far?

I love it.

I think this might be one of the most chaotic and hard to predict series that's ever been.

And I think that's partially due to the hot dog.

It's partially due to the fact that I think they're all they're all bad at taskmaster and good at taskmaster in very different ways so it feels like it usually you're like okay we've got someone who's great at prize tasks we've got you Steve Pemberton who's great at prior tasks we've got someone who's really good at like um logic tasks it feels like everyone is good at being very good one minute and then uh very good at being terrible the next.

Yeah, and that I guess we've had five winners from five separate episodes, which I'm sure you've you've talked about a lot.

And how close this series is really must be throwing your stats up the wazoo.

Look, I love it.

People are always like, Well, this hot dog, how's that going for you?

And I say it's great.

I love, I love the hot dog.

I love my stats being thrown up the wazoo.

I've had my heart broken so many times by the stats being unfair that I just at this point, I'm just along for the ride.

Well, of course, the hot dog has caused the biggest controversy so far this series, I do believe, which is

Bubba wearing the hot dog in the maze task.

And as far as I'm aware, it is the position of Taskmaster the podcast that he broke the flagrantly broke the rules and it was not discussed in the studio.

How do you feel about it over in the People's Podcast camera?

On the People's Podcast,

I raised it tentatively, and Jenny said, Oh, that's unfair.

And so

I think we sort of jumped off from that.

Jenny did make the good point that all the other people also didn't laugh the whole time.

So if that's

look, I agree.

I agree.

And my, I don't represent the People's Podcast.

I think our position is that the Taskmaster, what the Taskmaster says goes because we're afraid of scaring Greg, because we're terrified of him.

But if I can say it here, I will say Baba Ran.

And

I cannot believe they didn't talk about it in the studio.

Well, I think

that was my main issue.

I do agree that what the Taskmaster says is final.

These are the rules.

But I did need some discussion about it.

I need to see Greg to come to that decision, but it seemed like no one brought it up.

I

find it really interesting what gets brought up and what doesn't, because I also think there was a controversy in the very first film task of the series.

Um, when Jack said the Q word early on, um, but it was he wasn't supposed to talk, no one was supposed to talk during that task, so it shouldn't really have counted, but no one brought it up.

And later on, it felt like uh, Andy seemed to regret not bringing it up because he then got quite like, he got in the rocket task, he got very like, I'm going to bring this up.

So I wonder if Andy is aware of, because I feel like it would be Andy.

If anyone's bringing it up, I think it's Andy.

100%.

I think he's aware of when to do it.

And maybe he felt that Baba hadn't won many tasks.

It felt very cruel to take it away from Baba.

But it may decide the whole series.

So, you know.

It could still do.

It could still do.

Although

we've not seen some hot dogs yet, of course.

That's true.

We're missing every task that starts i'm like is this it is this the hot dog coming out

and it it could be at any someone could wear it during a prize task edge that's what's exciting about it yeah it's it's fascinating someone could walk out come back in with a hot dog and say this is the best prize i've ever got imagine imagine if that happened oh i mean tactically would you have done the hot dog early or later would you have held held it off i don't know i feel like it's really risky to not to to do it after the filming because you just don't know when as in the film tasks, you just don't know how it's going to go.

Um, I don't I guess the prize tasks, there's some control, right?

Because you, if you know, you've got a belter, like a couple of times when I did do well on prize tasks, I knew, I knew it was good, I knew it was going to be hard to beat.

So that would be a smart move.

Would it have been hard because it's not just it's hard to beat, but also you've got to think the arrogance of wearing a hot dog would immediately make you a target for Greg.

So

it would need to be like, it would need to be Steve Pemberton crossword level, I think, where you're just like, it's undeniable.

And like you doing the,

I would say, what was your favorite prize task?

Was it the sweets and the in the bat in the mannequin?

Yeah, but I didn't know how well that was going to go down, to be honest, because that was like more of a bit.

It was more of like a comedy bit.

This is fat.

And you're never sure about those, really.

I'm not as a comedian anyway, like 18 years in.

The one I would have won a hot dog on, were that a rule, would have been champion of champion sending the trophy to space.

Yeah, that would have done it.

That would have done it.

Because five or four, five or four any day of the week.

Absolutely.

And even if you're wearing the hot dog, it's one of those things where you're like, this is good.

And you will not, you will not eat.

Because if Greg marked that down, you'd be like, well, it's gone to space.

It's gone to space.

You can't really argue with that.

And that would have won me Champion of Champions.

It would have.

It would have been so unfair to win a champion of champions on a hot dog prize task.

Especially as that was not introduced as a rule.

So I would have been sat there dressed as a hot dog and going, right, the agreement is because I'm wearing this, I get double points for this.

And Alex is like, you know what?

I can't, I can't disagree.

Fine.

Yeah.

Fine.

I think we'll have to use that in the future series.

Let's not see him do the duck task at all.

We don't need to see it.

Let's crack on talking about this specific episode, episode six.

The prize task.

Let's talk about the prize task.

The most fun thing to put in Alex's pocket without him knowing.

Now, Alex has got this new jacket covered in pockets.

He's clearly trying to get as much use out of it as possible.

Uh-huh.

I have a theory that Alex gets a word stuck in his head before doing tasks sometimes.

And then that sort of comes throughout the whole series because this year it's pocket.

They've never mentioned pocket in tasks before.

And now there have been three.

There have been three pocket tasks, Ed.

It's ridiculous.

Yeah.

Last year it was thumbs for some reason.

He got really into thumbs.

I guess that's how he probably does it now.

He might pick a word and then sort of do a thought tree yes like a diagram where he just does loads of ideas based off one word and this year it's pocket there was locket pick pick the locket from the pocket put a rocket in your pocket and now of course the most fun thing to put in alex's pocket without him knowing there's some good there's some good entries here i think it's a very broad church the selections it is and it's surprising in a way because it's one of those tasks that is actually quite limiting as in you know usually with prize tasks it can be anything this is basically it has to be small enough to fit into a pocket and it also has to have a good enough reaction in the studio because it's very rare for uh for prizes to come to to be to to actually be in the studio in this section they're usually only seen at the end or seen on the vt so i think that's quite interesting that all of them are actually of uh of varying levels of quality but also like they're very different as a result yeah you're right because it's way more difficult to get a reaction in the studio if you're not using the big screen because there's a rhythm that taskmaster viewers know which is well well I was thinking da da da da da so I brought in this bang pictures up you get the laugh you get the round of applause or whatever yeah yeah but in the pocket it's a lot harder and and Alex you're sort of relying on Alex introducing it but I do I will also say what's what's really exciting about this series is I don't think anyone's nailed the prize tasks necessarily throughout but I always think the way that everyone talks in the studio and like the banter between the contestants is really really strong so even if everyone's uh tasks aren't that good even if everyone's prize entries aren't that good you're still gonna get like just a ridiculous bit that comes out of it and i feel like that happens here as well because um it's mostly just baba baba is so good baba is so good at the prize tasks that yeah He's fantastic at selling his prize tasks.

I don't know if the quality of the prize tasks are very good.

I would agree with that.

Yeah.

It feels like Baba didn't know what the show was before he came on.

And then in episode one, was like, oh, okay.

And then like from that point has been able to sell so, so well.

But he's stuck with the things that he brought in before because he's not going to change them um but yeah um rosie came out the gate in the series looking like she was going to be one of the best prize task contestants of all time yeah but the the quality has gone up and down with rosie yeah it's not maintained back on the people's pod i think the moment is the saxophone the saxophone to me is a bad prize task entry jenny maintains it's good i think it is bad because do you and jenny get on because i'm i'm getting a lot of you

she seems to disagree with everything everything you say

it's it's fun it's fun there's disagreement there's a it would be fun if there wasn't a frisson there's certainly a frisson in everything that we do um jenny jenny knows very well that she sides with rosie on everything because as we can see they're very similar people yes in this episode rosie plugs her book and one of Jenny's prize tasks was her own book so look they're on the same they're on the same page pun fully intended um i and i do also think that that jenny will come out with like oh i would have done exactly what rosie did here or like oh god I've so they are very much kindred spirits in that sense.

Um, I think you're right that Rosie has fallen a bit off a cliff with regards to the prize task.

I do think this one was a this was a good, this wasn't as bad as saxophone or balloon.

Balloon was the nadir, I would say.

Balloon just

made no sense as a prize task.

And like, and and also it was like I brought in a video to demonstrate it, and then it was just a balloon exploding.

We're like, yeah, we're not a balloonist.

We've seen balloons.

But she looked delighted.

I'll just I'll watch Rosie be delighted by crap prizes all day I think it's brilliant I think she's very a bit like Babba she's very good at selling it and I think that that the the nice thing about the ice cube was it was like it was like we all saw what the joke was but it was really just Rosie being like looks like he's pissed himself that made it I think yeah

yeah absolutely and that I did I did enjoy that for that reason just very rosy everyone has their roles in this series and everyone has a persona and they're very good at executing it

every episode and rosie get delighting in the immature nature of alex looking like he's pissed himself is is fantastic and baba he's look he's such a sweet man he's very motivating he he bigs himself up all day every day as it says on his key room absolutely and i do i think it's fascinating that baba went for something that was pro Alex and still managed to get four points.

That shows you how like charismatic he is.

Because usually, if you give a prize task that is basically, I wanted Alex to feel good, Greg will be like, no,

no, absolutely not.

Yeah.

Not having that.

Like, there's one where Guz Khan brought in a bunch of jackets for Alex and was like, you know,

he needs more jackets because, you know, he's the reason this whole show exists.

And Alex is like, can I just tell you, you've ruined it.

You've absolutely blown it.

And I think, yeah.

I agree.

I totally agree.

But this works for Bubba because Greg manages to find a way to somehow make Alex look ridiculous with it because he says, because he enjoys Alex saying big up yourself all day every day this is true I do think that I do think there's probably a way for Alex to do it that wouldn't sound ridiculous and I feel like Alex is very good at good at finding ways to say things that make him sound stupid and yes and it's it's it's he he looks so not upset with himself but sort of like horrified at the idea of having to big himself up that it sort of did yeah that a little bit like the um the the you're you're right in the sense that the intention of the thing isn't actually what Baba was going for, but it still is enough to get in the port.

And I mean,

obviously, I loved Rosie's.

I mean, I've really enjoyed most things that Rosie has done on this series, including later on in this episode, we will be talking about what I do consider to be in my top five moments in Taskmaster history.

Certainly in terms of task execution, just because it appeals to me in such a specific way.

Emma, this is such a lovely, weird prize from Emma.

A QR code to get tickets to

Bon Bon Jovi tribute band Rong Jovi in Basildon.

The little detail of the fact they played her wedding.

Yep.

So, so weird.

Also, so weird that it's a QR code and not a ticket.

Just put the ticket in there.

Just put the ticket in there because

this episode is going out

on the 17th.

It's for the ticket is for the 19th.

If you were so inclined, you could probably steal that QR code.

I think Alex had got it, though, didn't he?

Didn't he immediately go and get the tickets?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It depends what ticket website it is because you can potentially, you know, get the QR code and download extras, can't you?

And it depends on who gets there first.

I would like the idea of people rushing to go see Rong Jovi based on this Taskmaster.

I mean, in Basildon.

Yeah, in Baseldon.

Second mention of Baseldon in the series by Emma, I'll also say, because she talked about how she pushed the envelope by dressing up as Spongebob SquarePants in Baseldon.

Which, yeah.

There There you go.

She's obsessed.

She is.

I mean, let's talk about Andy's because Andy is now, I think, you get to know Andy, and then he wrong foots you.

Yeah.

But this, even though it's a very weird prize, feels very Zaltzmann.

The elixir of eternal life.

It's sort of, it's sort of such a fun thing to say because it's the way he sort of goes like, I thought that'd be fun.

You're like, yeah, is it?

Is that fun?

I guess it's fun.

It could be fun.

It's weird because it's sort of, because he's brought in the trampoline last week, which was another Zaltz tech thing.

It sort of feels like, not that he's hit a niche or not that he's sort of like, he's found his groove, but it is weird how familiar this did feel.

You're like, oh, sure.

Andy's brought in a made-up elixir of life.

Yeah.

Eternal.

Everyone asks him questions about as if it's real.

It's fantastic.

I mean, also...

Andy got into a habit of dressing up for the studio.

He's not this week.

Yeah.

So he's just decided that's not the week.

I find it fascinating.

Why does he decide to do it some weeks and not others?

Does he know what tasks are going to come up?

So he's like, oh, I got to wear the snooker outfit for that one.

I want to know what goes on in his weird brain.

I think

it's very difficult to find out.

We tried.

We tried on this podcast.

But yeah, Elixir of Eternal Life.

But again, I think Greg turns it around to his own enjoyment by just watching Alex drink it, and it's clearly disgusting.

Yeah, this is one of those ones where if it had been like, I put some, some, you know, something gross for Alex to drink in your pocket, I don't think it would have got the points, but I think Greg would have got the same amount of enjoyment out of it.

Uh, because Greg's made Alex eat a lot of prize tasks before.

He's, um, in fact, in your series, uh, uh, Dave Badil, uh, those super sour sweets, he made him eat five of them, uh, which is just cruel.

He's just a cruel man, really, when it comes down to it.

Yeah, but it is fun, it is fun to watch.

Um, it does scratch my itch for a bit of cruel humour, yeah.

Um, but very high-scoring prize tasks, Greg's in a good mood, clearly.

Yeah, now, Jax, I found obviously funny because I really enjoy farts.

But I just really enjoyed the way he introduced it.

Yeah.

The tag is the sports injury and then getting Alex to bend over and then setting off the fart machine, I thought was absolutely fantastic.

It was, I think it might be the first time Jax properly, like, nailed how to introduce a task, if that makes sense.

And it was very satisfying to watch.

The bending over was particular.

And

it's the different sounds of the farts that I enjoyed as well.

Like,

Usually with fart machines, I feel like you just get one or two, but

it felt like there was like an orchestra, like a catalogue of fart machines and fart noises you could get.

What I want to know,

and Andy Devonshire, please feel free to hear this and then get back in contact with me in a couple of weeks to answer the question.

Did they

add the fart sound effect in post or did they mic up the fart machine for the studio so the audience got the full effect?

Because that's certainly not the noise you would hear in a room from a fart machine.

It was very loud.

It was very loud.

Ah, yeah.

It would have just sounded weird and quiet, I suppose, wouldn't it?

If it was in the actual room.

But it got a good reaction.

So I'm wondering, did they mic up the fart machine in the studio?

I suppose they must have, but I think that would have been quite odd if you were listening.

Or if you, if you were in the studio, wouldn't you have been like, that's the loudest fart I've ever heard.

Such a loud fart machine.

Unnaturally Unnaturally loud.

But no, I thought that was fantastic.

It scored quite low.

Greg's clearly in a good mood today because of the high scores, but also not in the mood for immaturity necessarily that's not his own.

I think he was looking for a...

a reason not to give everyone very high marks.

And I think he sort of jumped on route one,

like,

which I think is okay.

I do think it's unfair because it's probably Jack's best prize task.

And Jack has not scored more than three on a prize task so far.

Wowzers.

And he doesn't today.

It's three points for Jack, three points for Rosie as well, four points for both Bubba and Emma, and five points for Andy's Elixir of Eternal Life, even though he probably could have just brought in disgusting liquid in a bottle and watched Alex drink that.

Okay.

Pop it out.

Here it comes.

Read it.

Read it.

It's a key ring, which you know I like.

Yeah.

But what is it?

So far, so disappointing.

Listen, I'm going to tell you right now, I don't care for what you want to do.

I know.

This is for me and my brethren right here.

We made friends, we made a tight bond, and this is for him, and this is something we found fun.

It says, big up yourself all day, every day.

Every day,

every single day.

Big up yourself, all day, every day.

I remember.

So now when you look at your keys, are you going to read that?

And are you going to big yourself up?

I will say to myself, big up yourself.

All day, every day.

My God.

And also, he's got a lot of days now that you've just

quite a fun thing to put in Alex's pocket.

Task one, put one fish in the frying pan.

Dottius fish wins.

Your task ends when you put a fish in the frying pan.

You have 15 minutes.

Your time starts now.

The key sentence in this, Jack, is your task ends when you put a fish in the frying pan, which it seems like a couple of people simply didn't read.

I, yes, I think I would argue that probably,

probably Emma didn't read it.

I would say Jack did read it, but just didn't care because he

didn't enjoy this one, did he?

No, I think this is probably the least that Jack has enjoyed a Task Hall series, which is probably saying something.

It's the worst he's done.

Apart from maybe the tiebreaker last week.

Yes, it's weird, isn't it?

He seems to have had two tasks where he's just given up in a row, two film tasks where he's just been like, oh, I can't, I really can't be bothered to do this.

Yeah, and so Jack gets the first fish.

He finally manages to get a fish onto the fishing rod.

Yeah.

Which amazing setting, by the way.

I don't know what bit of thought park that is, but the crackle, the occasional crackles of electricity,

like the sort of abandoned, spooky nature to it, I thought it looked incredible and so Taskmaster to be like, we're going to use all this atmosphere to pick Dotty Fish up off a track.

Yeah, I was trying.

I think we talked about this on the People's Podcast.

We can't work it out if that is an actual bit of thought park that people are let into or if it's like a behind the scenes, like a sort of a bit that you would have, like a gantry behind a, um, behind a roller coaster, if that makes sense.

It looks too atmospheric in a way for it to be not something you would actually use, but God, it, I, I mean, Thought Park is just in general, what a place.

Yeah, what a place to use.

I sort of feel that if those crackles of electricity and stuff around, it made it feel like it was a themed bit of the park rather than just a very dangerous thing.

That's a good point, actually.

If they had, if they were like, that's sparking, don't worry about it.

But they also didn't, last series, they didn't know about wild horses being in the in the field.

So maybe they're just like,

you know what?

Use some electricity.

If someone gets sparked by electricity, it'll make a really good bit, won't it?

Yeah.

Jack can't seem to get a fish on.

Finally gets one.

Without looking at it, he puts it directly into the pan from the fishing rod.

And of course, I mean, Alex must have been jumping for joy internally when the fish had one dot on it.

It is the funniest possible number of dots that can be on that fish.

Absolutely.

Apart from maybe zero, actually, no, no, it needs to be one.

It needs to be one.

It needs to be one.

It is perfect.

I also, I mean, I like the way that Alex, Alex really found the whole thing very, very funny,

especially because Jack wasn't.

But you do sort of get Alex kind of almost warning him, almost being like, just so you know, the task is over when you put the fish in.

And he's just like, don't care.

Don't care, do it, which is brilliant.

Yeah, I do.

I maintain that Alex is giving preferential treatment to Jack, but it's not working.

It's not working.

Jack will not take it, but I think Alex,

probably a controversial theory online, but I think Alex is so delighted that Jack is doing it that he almost wants to keep him there for longer.

Okay, so you think he's champion of champions and he's like, okay, I can get him in and then

possibly.

I think he's overawed.

I would agree.

There are times where I feel like there are things I'm like, oh, you wouldn't necessarily have let someone else get away with that.

Yeah.

And also, I mean, we'll talk about the live task, but like, I feel like there are certain things that are just going Jack's way with regards to what's happening in the show.

Not that that is anything to do with Alex, but just that it's interesting that there's little bits of luck, I think, are going Jack's way as well.

Yeah.

Emma,

I mean, she

questions what a dotty fish is for so long, whereas you would have thought if you actually just get a fish,

you can then work out what that means.

I couldn't quite work out, and again, I think we talk about this on the People's Podcast, that I, and I, I don't want to defame Emma and I don't want to like make her, I don't want to, to, to cast aspersions.

I'm not sure she fully understood that there were fish on the other side.

I don't think she, she doesn't really seem to get that at any point, apart from at the end, once she's put the fish down, she looks over the edge and goes, oh, I could have used one of those.

I, I wonder, I really do, because she, she spends so long looking in a bin at.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Why is she looking in a bin?

Well, to be fair, you do have to scour.

If it's Alex, you know, that's, I mean, there's one underneath the pan, you know, it's good that she was looking around.

The one she uses.

Which is the one she uses, and then, but then puts it straight in the frying pan and is disappointed to hear that the task is then over.

I, I'm really, because they seem to cut quite quickly away from that.

I kind of want to see what Emma's reaction was, whether she was like, oh, no, wait, oh, no.

And then, yeah.

Because

there's a lot of dots on that fish.

It's amazing that.

that so many other people did so well in this task to actually like the number of dots i thought that was going to be like the the winning amount of dots there would be in the you know without doing what andy does yeah it's just that she does it she doesn't seem to sort of at any point engage with the idea of the fishing rod which i think is quite odd it's weird isn't it yeah but also i'd say it was tricksy from alex i think it's very clever that sometimes he offers hacks that people would take straight away and end the task as Emma did.

She's like, yes, I found a hack.

It's clearly going to be the best thing, but it's not the best option.

Yes, that's actually a really good point.

And also that

you would,

it feels like the show is doing a very clever thing, which is sometimes there will be things where you're like, oh, the obvious answer is the, you know, like the pocket task from a couple of weeks ago, where it's like, you have to look through all these pockets, but obviously the answer isn't any of those things.

It's actually in your pocket.

Like, it feels like it's throwing everyone off because there are times where you can try and find the hack and that will be.

the perfect solution.

And there are times where the hack will, yeah, limit you entirely, which is fascinating.

it did it did with rosie as well there was another hack of taking the dots off the fish oh and and putting them on on one fish but she found that and it's a it is a classic taskmaster hack that makes no difference or if anything slows you down i yeah i would definitely say it it's uh hugh dennis-esque i would say is is is that hack uh denisian it's very yes i don't think she was super proud that she had found the hack but it was almost that she had thought of a hack and therefore wouldn't go away from it but it's not it's actually actually quite a time-consuming thing to to to re-dot a fish absolutely i think really loved the sequence of her trying to open the briefcase and saying that she was an independent lady and then just going can you open this briefcase it'll be alex um it was when alex said you got you used half your time she's like okay okay i understand

but you know he left that briefcase there to slow people down it was it was a cruel trick and i think you're right in that sense that like there will be times where you're like if only you'd looked if only you'd thought to look in the briefcase, the briefcase would have had everything in there.

And then there are times where it's like, there's nothing in there, you idiot.

Why would you spend 15 minutes looking in a bin or in a briefcase?

It's yeah,

it must be an infuriating show to do.

Yes, I mean, well, more and more infuriating every series, I think.

I think Alex finds new ways to

upset the contestants.

And we will talk later about Alex truly screwing over Rosie in a task.

Yeah, remarkable.

Baba goes quite route one, doesn't try to find a hack,

just tries to look for as many dots on the fish as possible.

Says your mum to a fish.

Incredible.

And then nails it.

I mean,

feels like he nails it.

30 dots on a fish.

And then he picks himself up all day, every day, calls himself the man.

He is the man, to be fair.

Well, I do love

whenever Baba does well on a task, he will demand that someone calls him the man

or call himself the man as well, which is a great, I think that is a great way to live your life, frankly.

Yeah, I mean, look, I find him very motivational.

I was watching this yesterday.

I was, you know, having a fine day, but, you know, I wasn't picking myself up all day, every day.

And then I picked myself up a bit and I genuinely felt as Brigamuster.

Of course.

Your life is like 90% more successful now.

Yeah, I feel great.

Talking of 90% more successful or hundreds of times more successful, Andy goes for the pen.

Now, this is an interesting example, I think, Jack, of taskmaster blindness, where sometimes when you're a contestant doing something,

you look and because you're focused on the fish, you simply don't see that there's something else lying there, or you see it and you discount it as not being useful.

I had this champion of champions with a duck task.

There was a key hung on Ollie.

I said to Alex afterwards, the key was not there when I was there.

He said, it was there.

It was there for everyone.

And I completely couldn't see it.

Oh, wow.

I didn't realize that.

So it's just because you're focusing on one thing, your brain goes, boop, that's not important.

Yeah.

They probably left that there by mistake.

But nothing is by mistake in Taskmaster.

And if it's there and it's not useful, it's because they want to screw with you.

But you can then discount that.

Whereas you should always pick up the thing.

It's interesting because Andy has been looking for the hack all series and often to the detriment of actually doing the task.

In the pocket task, he tried to find a hack that didn't exist by trying to put, you know, lockets in a pocket from a snooker club that made made no sense but this is the first time that it felt his rocket of course his his rocket was uh

i just feel i it this felt like a very um um what's the word not not lethargic what's the word when you're really happy for someone cathartic that's it similar to lethargic yes cathartic um task where you where you're like you finally done it you found the hack you were looking for the hack all series you found it and then when you did the hack you didn't just think i'll put like i'll put a hundred dots on.

You put 657 dots on that fish.

Oh, I'm so happy for him.

Yeah, well, you never know.

And I'd imagine the studio did have a moment where he went, what a total waste of time that was.

I could have done 32 and I still would have got the five points, but you simply don't know at the time.

And the fact that he put them on the rim of the fish, I mean, it's just a lovely detail, isn't it?

I think it's a proper cricket like

headspace where you're like, I've got to get a total that is insurmountable.

Yeah.

You could, yeah, you can think like later on, oh, I didn't need to do that, but I don't think Andy is ever thinking that because I think he's like, just in case, just in case there was a John Robbins who did 656, I will have beaten him.

Yeah, it was fantastic, it was lovely work from Andy.

It was one point for Jack, two points for Rosie, three points for Emma, four points for Bubba, and five points for Andy.

No, up, down, stop, forward a bit, stop, down,

down,

down, up, please.

No,

I see what you're trying to do.

Yeah, well, yeah, I'm trying to get a fish in the frying pan.

Yeah,

down a bit.

Okay, try to bring that up.

Up it comes, Jack.

Yeah.

Keep going.

Right, bring it back.

Bring it down.

So the task ends when the fish goes in the pan.

Right, the task is over.

Oh, yeah.

So, how dotty is your fish, Jack?

One dot.

One dot.

Task two, create, handle, and voice the most charismatic new children's television puppet sidekick for Alex.

You have 30 minutes.

Your time starts now.

I loved this task, Jack.

I loved it too.

I think I loved how little Jack liked it the most, though.

Yeah, but

he didn't like it, just the idea of it.

But then, wasn't it great to hear Jack do a silly voice and do something where he wasn't being himself?

It really was.

And I think we've sort of been denied it because the other opportunities to do it, like a sort of a big like film sketch thing, he's found a workaround

around it.

Whereas here, I think you could see in his head when he walked off being like, yep, never

made a...

puppet before you could see in his head he was like this is it i have to make a puppet there's nothing i can do that will mean i can't make a puppet um

yeah it it it was it was really good and i really like i like it when we see a different side of contestants we just get to see everyone's weird personalities come out in very different and strange ways.

Very different ways.

I mean, Jax

Horny and Horsey, and it was

a horse with the Bronx accent.

Trying to get Alex to say the C word, basically,

leads to some great studio stuff and a kiss, kissing again, fueling the fanfic authors.

Yeah, it was great.

I really, I really, really liked Jax.

But somehow there were even weirder things to come.

come there really were i liked how um jack jack seems to really like the idea of two presenters being on a show that hate each other uh like because he did this last week

with the um with the with the news report where he he and him and um rosie hate each other um let's talk about emma's which was probably the i mean definitely the least successful uh out of everyone which is odd because emma is so brilliant at creating characters and acting and she just seemed a little bit half-hearted with the little cheeky banana boy i personally love Little Cheeky Banana Boy, but I think it also needs to get as few points as possible for it to be funny, if that makes sense.

It can't be successful because that is not the point of Little Little Cheeky Banana Boy.

But yeah, it is weird with Emma.

We've sort of noticed this on the People's Podcast as well.

She should be doing, you know, because she is such a brilliant sketch comedian, you'd think that all of these

creative tasks would be like her wheelhouse and she'd be getting loads of points.

But actually, she's scoring the lowest amount in the film creative tasks, which is really weird interesting yeah yeah and she's i think people always worry when there's like sketch comics or actors in the studio they're like oh they're not gonna be used to panel shows they're not gonna be able to keep up with all the banter but she's absolutely tearing through everyone in the studio she's amazing yeah she i in in the studio she is incredible and it's so weird that and actually i think it makes her it makes her film stuff even funnier because you you know that instead of coming when we come back to the film stuff or so when we come back from the film stuff she's not going to be like oh god what was that that was terrible She'll be able to find a way to make it really, really funny.

And here, her plan of just saying, I don't remember I did that is really, it's very effective, I will say.

I had a thought.

Maybe it was, yeah, it was the envelope task.

It was pushing the envelope task where she said she was having a weird day.

Yeah.

Do you think this was filmed on the same day as the envelope task?

I think I wonder which happened first because there's a certain, I feel like this might have been so traumatic and so weird for her that she was like i'm just gonna have to to block out everything else that comes for the rest of this day um because she really she really did seem to like talk herself into a in into a weird space with this one i think they probably were the same day um yeah and she felt like she couldn't because i was always curious why she didn't push the envelope harder in that task and have like a weirder uh you know a weirder thing a weird letter that she would send to greg I suppose after little banana boy you're just thinking just get through it just get through the day ask Greg how he's doing just get to the end end.

Yeah, I think it was like the essays I used to, the sort of stories I used to have to write in school.

Yeah, it's always a bad story if someone just dies at the end for no reason.

I think there was a completely legitimate reason, which was that she wasn't allowed to kiss Little Banana Boy wasn't allowed to kiss Alex, and therefore,

it spontaneously died.

That's spontaneously died.

That can happen, actually.

I think you'll find.

Let's talk about Andy yet again absolutely nailing the andy zoltzmann persona with pidgey or

um an absolutely awful creature head of a pigeon blonde hair top hat bear claws horrifying talk yeah you can't eat an ice cream you can't eat an ice cream when you're burning in hell i mean obviously i loved this anyway of course right up my street this and then pecking slowly pecking alex to death i thought it was so funny i i love the slow pecking to death i also love the the the the amount of stuff that he created for it he actually created like a proper marionette, like

picture.

It's incredible.

It sort of reminded me a little bit of Sue Perkins doing that when she tried to make herself look as if she was asleep in the bed.

She sort of created a whole thing of like wires and things and pulleys.

And then Flossy, the kid, was just like, nah, doesn't want to sleep on that.

It sort of felt similar where you're like, Andy's gone through so much effort here.

And Greg's just like, that was weird.

Yeah.

I just love, I love how much sort of mythological language is at the forefront of Andy's brain that he can just spout all of this stuff.

It's just so, it's so funny.

He's fascinating.

He is a fascinating guy in the sense that he feels like, yeah, you're right.

It's always right on the edge there.

You feel like he's got his

classical references and just also the name Pidgeor.

It feels very evocative, you know?

I feel like

we're tapping into a mythology with Andy at all points.

I mean, I absolutely love that.

I feel like when Greg was judging the initial ones, he was almost judging them and scoring them in his head based on how appropriate they were for children.

Yeah.

Then realizes at the end that that is not going to be possible with any of them.

So the ones that came later did do better.

Yeah, you're right.

There was an interesting moment where Greg seemed a little bit like the grandma task from last series, where it was like the best gift for a grandma.

Greg seemed to really get in his head.

He was like, but children will be watching this.

You can't say, go fuck yourself, Alex Horne.

Although it is weird, because I do think, I will say, Jack was able to do a version that was actually, you could put that in front of kids, and they would get the joke that, or like, adults would get the joke that Alex wants to call them, the C-word.

But,

but for kids, they would find that fine, whereas they would be traumatized by Pidgey York.

So I do understand.

I do understand.

I think none of the others were appropriate.

So, I mean, Bubba, let's talk about Manlike Tyrone, Bubba's Otter puppet.

In terms of charisma, I agree.

Man like Tyrone is clearly the winner.

And Bubba had absolutely nailed the puppetry of the late 90s, mid to late 90s, where when Tyrone laughed and fell on his side,

that to me was that summed up my entire childhood TV viewing.

That is very true.

It sort of unlocked something in my brain where I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, Basil Brush is here.

It is.

Yeah, it's sort of falling to the side.

And yeah,

it was a really really good puppet it was like a proper like like you know like it looked it looked like you could imagine that being on cbbc yeah um and and also just like a good sketch just a good sketch that you can imagine being on a sketch show um yeah what should they almost think greg would have preferred it if there wasn't Tyrone saying they should sell them, but you know,

for the studio and for the fact it's a comedy show, that was definitely the way to go.

It was very funny, but he could have just done it like say no to drugs and Tyrone the Otter.

I would would have been really happy with that as well.

You could have.

I do think that there's a part where Greg seemed like he felt like he was a commissioner, being like, well,

that's inappropriate.

But I do, I was happy to see Baba really, it felt like he'd properly nailed a sketch for the first, I'd probably say for the first time in this series, which is very,

really, really strong.

And now we get to my favorite thing that's happened this series, and potentially in my top five

taskmaster/slash TV moments of all time, Little Alex and Mr.

Pooh.

Now, this this is just so Rosie Jones.

It is so up my street.

There is no attempt to do anything subtle, no attempt for any subtext, no attempt for a clever joke.

The puppet is called Mr.

Pooh.

It is a poo.

Yeah, it's covered in chocolate mousse.

It is gross.

She makes Alex say, I squeezed you out of my bum hole, which made me cry laughing both times I've watched it.

Insisting that Alex kiss Mr.

Pooh.

And you can hear her laughing when she says, little kissy.

And the pan out at the end, and you can see her face, she's fucking chuffed with herself.

I loved every single second of little Alex and Mr.

Pooh.

It is remarkable

as an achievement, I would say.

And also because

I feel like the show sometimes, you know, going scatological is always a risk, especially with like, like, you know, with Steve Pemberton last year with the, with the Pooh game show,

it clearly, it clearly didn't quite work from Greg's perspective.

This is so joyful that I think it just, you just, you just, you're willing it.

You're willing it to do well.

And yeah, Kissy on my mouth is, is the bit that I cried laughing at.

It's just the way she...

Kissy?

Kissy?

Kissy?

On my mouth.

On my mouth?

On my mouth.

It's so funny.

I mean, very similar vibe to the bubblegum fairy, I thought, as well.

Just it's like the bubblegum fairy had uh accidentally used a spell and turned into a massive shit.

I do, I feel like the bubblegum fairy, the advantage the poo has is there's something so charming about existing as a poo.

Whereas, I feel like the bubblegum fairy, there's there's a level of like power disparity there where you feel like the bubblegum fairy might be might be bullying Alex.

Whereas I feel

yeah, yeah, a poo, a poo can't bully Alex, it just wants a kiss, have a little kiss.

How can it bully Alex?

It was squeezed out of his bum hole.

Um,

My God, it made me laugh.

I mean, if I was Taskmaster, five points all the way for little Alex and Mr.

Pooh.

But I can see why Greg doesn't go in that direction.

Yes.

It's a one point for Emma, two points for Rosie, three points for Andy, four points for Jack, and a well-deserved five points for Bubba.

Mr.

Alex

and Mr.

Pooh.

Hello, kiddiewinks.

It's me, little Alex, and my bestest friend in the whole wide wide world, Mr.

Pooh.

Hello to you!

Well I made you.

You made me?

Yes, Mr.

Pooh.

I squeezed you out of my bum hole and I kicked you.

Because before you I had no friends and I was lonely, very, very lonely.

But now I have you, Mr.

Pooh, who I love with all my heart.

Oh,

I love you,

Kitty,

Kissy,

okay,

oh my mouth!

Okay, we'll see you after the break.

Mr.

Pooh.

Oh, Alex.

Task three, diffuse the robot.

You must cut all the wires but one.

If you cut the danger wire, the robot will spew and you'll be disqualified.

You must keep your goggles on at all times.

Fastest to defuse the robot wins.

You have a maximum of 10 minutes.

Your time starts now.

So, if Alex has done a lot of pocket tasks, surely robot must be his other favorite word this series.

I think you must be right.

He's obsessed with robots again.

I do, part of me does wonder if this was like a, we've built the robot, let's use the robot again, kind of vibe as well, because it's such a cool robot, this one.

It's a lot of fun, this one.

This is another, they do them occasionally.

This is an escape room.

Yes, yeah.

Very much an escape room.

The caravan escape room from series 14 as first seen in Taskmaster New Zealand as well.

This is the kind of task where I was watching and being like, I would love to do this.

I don't think I would do very well, but I would absolutely love to do it because it just feels like there's so much stuff to get into and to really like, to get excited by.

And there are not that many red herrings, which I think is quite satisfying.

Yeah, everything seems to mean something.

Yeah, the clues were really good as well.

Like, I'd happily, like, I'd be very happy doing this escape room.

I'd be like, yeah, this is really good.

Especially the Gordon Derren clue.

The safeless.

Yeah, and they're all called something brown.

Absolutely love that.

And the date on the red wine and the blue moon and everything blue has danger written on it.

I loved that detail as well.

Really, really good.

So there's multiple ways of working out what the colours are.

I really love this task.

And I also love how little Baba and Emma really got behind it.

So funny.

I mean, Baba managing to cut the danger wire immediately.

The one wire.

And then saying, did I win?

Yeah.

Have I won?

But this is the danger, Jack, of bigging yourself up every day, all day.

Yeah, sometimes you big yourself up in the moments where you really should be shrinking yourself down.

You bigged yourself up and you've blown yourself up.

Those two things have happened.

But very, very funny.

Still, still so confident, Bubba.

Yeah, I love it.

Emma cuts green because Gordon's on the safe list.

Is that a Thomas the Tank engine reference?

Oh my god, I hadn't thought about that, but yes, it must be.

That is so weird.

She just sees Gordon and she goes, well, Gordon's green.

Cut the wire.

Obviously,

I mean, but by that logic, like, you know, James, there are lots of names on there for Thomas the Tank engine.

You'd cut the blue one if you did that.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

I really liked her explanation of saying I was just cosplaying or role-playing as a woman,

drinking wine and cutting wires.

And Alex being like, yeah, that is what you were doing.

That's what you were doing.

That's what's what you were doing.

She's so funny.

I mean, it's phrases like that.

And also, I'm a girl who likes a clean line.

I'm just like, it's wonderful just to be in Emma's head for a bit, I think.

Yeah, absolutely.

I was surprised that she wasn't necessarily good at this because I sort of put her in the same

pub,

given that she can do pub quizzes, I was thinking pub quizzes, escape rooms, similar Venn diagram.

I sort of, the fact that she didn't seem to get on board with it at all was quite fascinating.

I think she was trying, though.

She tried more than Barbara.

I think she just, she got a bit, a bit sort of overwhelmed, I think.

I think 10 minutes is an intimidating amount of time.

It is.

It really felt like

that's quite a limiting amount.

And he does very, very well.

Gets the brown clue, cuts the red after the wine, realises the blue moon.

I think he's one of the only ones who gets the blue moon thing.

He does great.

He succeeds.

As does Jack.

Jack, weirdly, it felt like he wasn't going to get it at all.

And then within just like the last minute, it was like, yeah, okay.

I guess everything here is blue.

I'll cut all these things and off I go.

I would be very frustrated doing an escape room with Jack D.

Yes, I think I would be because also I think

he would be very slow, but then he would also get it in the end.

So you couldn't even get angry at him at the end.

You'd have to be like,

but he wouldn't be bothered that he'd got it.

And also he wouldn't be impressed by the theming.

If someone can't do an escape room, I don't mind being in a team with them.

Yeah.

As long as they enjoy the theming and they're having a nice time.

I think Jack would bring the mood down and not help

well or well i see i think he would help but he would resent helping and then it would just be like it would the whole thing would feel like a chore and you'd be like well we've got out of the room but at what cost um yeah um but he does he does very well he discovers the only one to discover the blue wire cutters with danger written on them uh and phones greg on the phone the only person to do that the riddles didn't seem to mean anything could you work out what the riddles meant or were they just a red herring i think that was the only red herring but obviously it wasn't entirely a red herring because if you got the zero zero zero zero it would open the safe so i think that was that was the sort of thing where you're like you can call greg it won't help but hopefully it will lead to um i can't think of another time uh greg's been in a uh task though like involved in this way i was trying to think yeah that's a good point like yeah it's very weird it's like whenever he turns up in the house uh like during like little clips they do in between you're always a bit like i didn't realize you were aware of this place it sort of feels odd to me that he suddenly turns up and it's his house.

I come on.

If you're going to be part of the Taskmaster podcast universe, you really do have to get on with the backstory of mythology.

Rosie, I think, does very well in this and she works out the clues well, but she is relying on Alex to cut the wires.

And I have never been more frustrated watching Taskmaster than her telling Alex to cut the final wire

and him double-checking

whether she wants him to cut that wire and then taking so long to cut the wire do you think alex sort of forgot what his role was in this if that makes sense and he kind of thought he was doing the sort of like i'm you know the assistant who doesn't really help and therefore but like you are sort of like oh no you you you you do have to cut the wire for rosie like yeah it's sort of

It's sort of a part of it.

And he seems to almost at the end be like, oh, that was a bit, that was a bit late.

And I think Rosie's genuinely like, what are you doing?

Like, what the hell mate why did that happen it is so weird i do i because i do understand like saying like wanting to double check and not because i suppose from from alex's perspective he doesn't want to like get it wrong and then being like yeah and then have that be the thing but you are also just like

we are very much against the clock here alex by your own design we are against the clock could you just pick up the pace a tiny bit um she has said yes cut that one we've established that do it it's so weird it's so weird i have a question jack a grey wire was mentioned quite a lot we didn't ever see a clue for the grey wire or work out how people solved it was there a grey am i right in saying that was there a grey wire i thought i think there was i didn't see that because i i made a note of everything they that they did the green made the fan go off the red makes the eyes light up brown makes the coffee beans come out yellow makes the arm whiz round and black it beeps they kept mentioning a grey wire yeah there is a grey wire you're right but is there a brown wire yeah there is a brown wire as well yeah there's a grey wire i'm

I feel horrified that I didn't notice the grey wire.

Yeah.

So the grey wire was mentioned a couple of times, and I wonder what the clue was for that and how people, because, you know, three people definitely got it.

I feel like we need to know.

And what was the consequence of cutting the grey wire?

Because all the other wires, something happened when you cut the grey wire.

I did something.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Well, sometimes you just got to edit stuff out, I guess.

Maybe we'll only find out in series 20.

Yeah.

With the big grey wire task.

Very successful for three of the contestants.

Andy got five points.

Jack got four points.

Rosie ends up getting three points.

Now,

is that based on the times?

Because

didn't Jack do it closer to the wire than Rosie did?

Shouldn't she have got the time that Alex should have cut that wire in?

So I think,

I wonder if they cut this because it would have been quite a tedious discussion.

I suppose the argument that

Alex said was Rosie worked out everything at eight seconds.

And she said, cut the wire at eight seconds.

Jack cut the wire at four, but potentially worked it out earlier.

Okay.

That's the only thing I can think of.

I think it should have been.

She worked it out at eight seconds.

Alex could have cut that wire in two seconds if he'd done it properly.

I think Rosie should have got four points, but that's just me.

I think we're entering into hypothetical wire-cutting situations here, which are never, which are never

a good idea.

This is what the show is all about.

Three points for Rosie.

Emma and and Bubba, of course, got nought points.

I'm going to cut the green wire.

Why?

Because it says Gordon on the safe list.

Okay.

The fans spinning around at the back.

He's not spewed.

Brilliant.

So there's three letters in Dan, so I'm going to do three wires down.

One, two, three, Dan.

Let's cut blue.

See how we go.

Oh, you managed to only cut the danger wire.

Who rubbish is that?

Everything spews once in a while, my guy.

You know what I mean?

So have I won?

The live task.

Normally we sort of

gloss over the live tasks a bit.

There's sort of less to talk about because it's just this person won, this person came last.

But this one, I guess, is more to talk about from your perspective as well, Jack.

Correctly guess this person's job.

You must ask a yes or no question on your turn.

If you take more than 10 seconds to ask your question, you miss a go.

The person who guesses correctly wins five points.

And of course, this man is Quentin.

from series 13 episode 6.

Absolutely right.

So exactly five series ago, we had Quinton appear for the first time when they had to guess Quinton's or find out Quinton's name.

And it took them 75 questions to do so.

Um, which is I thought we were heading in a similar direction when Andy said, Do you take blood?

Uh, and do you chase people?

was a question as well.

Yeah.

Um, Emma was just offering her off in her own world, saying, Do you do medicine on humans, even though that had been established already?

Just I thought, but luckily, luckily, uh, Jack came through.

Well, okay, that's interesting you should say that because I feel like Emma set him up quite hard in this one, which I feel like Emma, I feel like Jack got pretty lucky in this final task because when Emma says, Emma says in the 13th question, she says,

are you an obstetrician?

And Quinton's response isn't no, it's no.

Oh, okay.

Which obviously, if you're not an obstetrician, you are a

gynecologist, which is what Jack asked in the next one.

So, I mean,

I feel like this was a very, the consequences of this are quite big because obviously it's yet another all or nothing task, which means that Jack gets five points and everyone else gets zero.

If Andy had won this task, the scores would be level right now.

As it is,

there's a 10-point gap.

So hugely consequently.

You can't bet against Andy for just doing something for a laugh as well.

Even though he's clearly competitive and he does want to win tasks and he wants to do things well, he does, if it's asking questions, he is going to ask the weirdest thing that pops into his brain.

It is weird, though, that he asked, have you drawn blood at work?

As the first, that was the first question.

I thought, yeah, we're like, okay, here we go.

And it's the fact that

Quentin just goes, right?

You're like, okay, great, cool.

That's limited to us.

It was that Baba then followed up with, Do you chase people?

And you're like, those two.

Hang on.

So a very specific job that could be.

And I don't think he would come on Taskmaster to say that he is that.

Yeah.

Anyway, weird.

There was another accidental Easter egg in the questioning.

Did you spot it?

Uh, I don't know.

Did I?

No, I didn't.

What was it?

One of the one of the guesses to Quentin's job was anaesthetist.

Yes.

Which was the last guess the job task in series three, of course, where the man was an anaesthetist.

That sort of makes me wonder because that was Andy who guessed that.

And I feel like Andy, if anyone's watched a lot of Taskmaster, I think Andy is the person who has done his research.

It makes me wonder if he was even even subconsciously was thinking that um i also just shout out to emma saying do you do lots of different things in your job every day

and then and then the look on everyone else's face and quinton going yes and her being like good good thank you

so chuffed she's like good i think i've got it when it comes around to me i don't know

no exactly exactly what you do

but yeah it was a a lot of fun i'm i'm i'm a fan of those ones where they stay in their seats yeah quite often i thought i thought that was really good fun.

Did you notice the big G, by the way?

No.

Above

the, in the drain shot above the,

at the start of the task, you could see a massive G on the stage, which is similar to what they had

in series 13 when they had a massive Q on the stage as a clue to what the answer was.

Oh, fascinating.

Oh, goodness.

Trixie.

Very tricky.

These people.

Andy wins the episode on 18, but Jack very close behind on 17.

Bubba on 13.

Rosie on 10.

and a bad episode for Emma on eight points, which is, it's always a bad episode if it's under double figures, isn't it, Jack?

It's poor, and I think she is the, I think, along with, so Baba and Andy, weirdly, both got nine in the first episode.

I think she's the first contestant to get under double figures

since then.

So really, really poor.

I feel like we're at the stage now where I'm slightly worried for Emma.

I've always been thinking Emma was going to come good.

I'm not sure.

We're running out of time.

We're really running out of time now.

We're running out of time, but it's still close.

I mean, that was episode six.

You know,

we've got four episodes to go.

Jack's on 101.

Rosie's on 81.

There's still only 20 between

top and bottom.

That's close.

It was previously very, very, very close.

Like it was 13 or nine a couple of episodes as well.

And I think, you know, we can always say the hot dog, the hot dog will, you know, help Emma through.

Part of me feels like we're getting to, you know, it's what, 18 points between Emma and Jack now, which means even with a hot dog, she's she's still relying on quite a lot.

Um, so I

don't, I don't know.

I think it is close.

It's still not, I don't think it's Jack's to, I don't think Jack's going to necessarily win, but I'm starting to feel like we're limiting the number of, with only four, four episodes left.

I feel like we're limiting the number of people who could win.

Yeah, Emma and Rosie lagging behind a little bit now.

Um, Jack, thank you so much for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast.

You are welcome anytime someone drops out on the day.

No, you're welcome anytime.

And look, I am free all the time, it seems.

I'm embarrassed by how quickly I said yes.

We always ask our guests on the Taskmaster podcast to rate their experience on the podcast between one and five points.

Please be honest with us.

Of course, I wouldn't like you to mark us down because you're on a rival podcast, but please tell us how you feel.

I think,

well,

I have had a good time, but I do also want to, I feel bad about me implying that Jenny and I don't get on.

So I'm going to have to give it a two.

I think I implied that, actually.

I think you said you did get on, and it's good to disagree about that.

I did say that, but then I feel like I set it up.

I walked into the trap.

And now the Taskmaster boards will be like, oh, trouble, trouble in paradise between Jack and Jenny.

This can never get back to you.

Yeah.

Oh, God, she's going to absolutely flay you alive, mate.

Well, good luck, Jack.

Good luck if this is the last time we see you.

Thank you so much for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast.

Goodbye, Jack.

Bye-bye.

Bye, everyone.

Thank you so much to Jack for coming back on the Taskmaster podcast.

We will see him again soon, I'm very, very sure.

In terms of what you need to do now, is you need to go away, live your life next Thursday at 9 p.m.

You want to watch Taskmaster Series 18, episode 7, and come back here and listen to the podcast about it.

We'll have another brilliant special guest who I'm not going to name just in case it doesn't work out in the end.

You've all been wonderful.

See you next week.

Bye-bye.