Ep 211. Jason Mantzoukas - Series 20 Ep.1

Hello, it's Ed Gamble here, and welcome back, finally, to the Taskmaster podcast.

I say finally, it's actually not been that long since series 19, would you believe?

This is the sort of rate that I like Taskmaster to come out at.

You know, just you feel like you just feel like, oh, time for a bit more Taskmaster, And bang, here it is.

Delicious stuff.

Huge new lineup, of course.

Anya Magliano, Maisie Adam, Phil Ellis, Reese-Smith, and Sanjeev Baskar on what a first episode that was.

Obvs, if you've not seen the first episode, do go and watch that first.

Watch it on channel4.com.

But you should have watched it when it went out, really.

9pm on Thursdays on channel 4.

But I'm sure you've watched it.

Get ready for the podcast because we have an incredible special guest to discuss this episode one of Series 20, 10 Years of Taskmaster.

An amazing special guest from Series 19, Jason Manzoukas.

Now, obviously, Jason is not UK-based, so this was not recorded in the caravan.

This is recorded over Zoom.

So no vids for those of you who are into the vids.

But very exciting to have Jason on.

You're not going to turn down Jason Manzoukas as a guest just because he can't come to a tiny little caravan.

Maybe one day when he's in the UK, we will get him in the caravan.

But today, no.

Today, no, it's back to Zoom.

It's old school.

It's a brilliant episode.

Enjoy this.

Taskmaster Series 20, episode 1, as discussed by Jason Manzoukas.

Welcome back, Jason, to the Taskmaster podcast.

Yeah, let's go!

Bing, bang, boom.

Let's do it.

Come on.

Bing bang boom.

Jason is bouncing around his house.

Now I'm tired.

Now I'm exhausted.

That's it.

That's how we like people.

We like you to be completely worn out by the time we get into the meat of the pod.

Yeah, are you excited to be back talking about Tasman?

You didn't like the meat of the pod?

The meat of the pod.

That's not for me.

Thank you.

Let's retire that as a phrase.

The meat of the pod.

Ugh.

Do you prefer?

What do you prefer, the white meat or the dark meat of the pod?

What are you, what's the

tastiest cut of the pod for you?

I like the brisket of the pod.

The brisket of the pod is perfect.

Oh, we're having pod cracklings later.

See, I don't think we can retire that as a phrase because I think it's the first time it's ever been said.

Oh, yes.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I like a beefy, like a pod loin.

Definitely.

And I like it rare as well.

Please ask every guest now what cut of the pod is their favorite.

Yeah, I will.

Daisy, can you make a note of that?

Because otherwise I'll forget to ask our next guest that.

Oh, the way you just are casually, casually tossing off demands for poor Daisy to do

a Daisy I don't know if people if people can't watch this one the the contempt with which Ed is just tossing off work for for Daisy to do oh my god yeah because I got I do a lot of pods man I'm I'm dealing with I'm I'm basically a butcher oh yeah I'm chopping them up

Chopping up the pods?

Like, which one, honestly, which one is the sausage?

Which one is just the remains of all the other pods stuffed into one package?

Oh, well, one of my podcasts is an edited version of a radio show I do every week.

And that, so that is very much sausage.

There it is.

That's it.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Let's get into the meat of the pods.

Please, Jason.

I would love to.

Are you excited to be watching New Taskmaster or are you jealous of them?

You know,

we briefly spoke about it before we started recording.

It was so, it felt so quick that we were, that I was turning on and watching a new batch of contestants in the opening, you know, credit sequence.

And I was both thrilled and excited in that way that, oh yeah, new taskmaster, great.

You know, how, this is wonderful.

This is, I'm always waiting for new taskmaster.

But for the first time, I felt like heartbroken.

Because I'm, I, where am I?

Why, you know, why can't, why can't I be in there?

You know, know, after seeing myself in those credits for 10 weeks and then the hundreds of times that I've re-watched myself,

it was very hard to not, to be like, to really, and I don't know if you felt this, I have felt in every step of the process, more of the experience of Taskmaster leaving me.

You know, like each time I was like, oh, now I'm done with the tasks.

Oh, that's sad.

This is a bit of a, oh, I'm sad.

I'll never get to go to the house and do tasks again oh then the end of studio then the end of like watching it and that and now this is the true death the true cast death of pot of of of taskmaster is just watching other people in the show and you're like of course the show the show moves on without me like like we've been dumped well may i recommend uh agreeing to do a podcast about the show And then it never truly leaves you.

You just cling on until the very end.

This really has has become your identity.

Yes, yes.

And you know what?

I'm fine with that.

Oh, yeah.

You say

as the trophy looms large over your shoulder.

Don't worry.

The trophy is still in frame.

I'm going to be 90 years old talking to comedians in their 20s going like, well, when I did Taskmaster, it was very different back then.

They'll be like, whoa, you were on Taskmaster before lasers.

Or you were really on, you were really on Taskmaster, not just your avatar was on.

Yeah.

That's what it'll be.

It'll all be.

Yeah.

We'll all be sitting in our pods wearing our VR headsets, participating in dumb tasks that Alex has come up with because of AI.

I did, have you played the VR Taskmaster game?

I have not, and I'm only now finding out it exists.

What?

There is a VR Taskmaster game, and

I was sent a VR headset and got an opportunity to play the VR.

That's cool.

The VR Taskmaster.

And may I say, I think I am so computer game illiterate that it made me angrier than actually doing Taskmaster.

Which is shocking because you are a very angry player.

Yeah,

really, really angry guy.

But it was like even in the basic ones, I'm just, I don't think you're supposed to move around as much as I did.

And, you know, I was smashing into the coffee table, kicking kicking my cat all sorts of stuff that's how you're supposed to play the game as far as I'm concerned yeah I know that that's I don't I don't know if you're testing

I don't know if you're testing a beta but those would be my notes you did real taskmaster like I played the VR Taskmaster

How's the reaction been over in the States to your appearance on Taskmaster, Jason?

Here's what I'll say.

I've felt a gear shift.

Yeah.

Well, I don't know that I've felt felt a gear shift, but I have absolutely been so delighted.

Because I'll be honest, like, I know there are, of course, fans here, but it's nowhere near as popular as it is there.

You know, it is only available on YouTube.

It's not airing in prime time.

It's not a big, you know, show.

But I have been so delighted by...

just like the fan reaction on the streets, you know, out at shows, whatever.

People are,

people loved that season series of the show and wanted to talk to me about it.

And I like having now been in a lot of things, Taskmaster fans, please, those are the fans I'm more than happy to talk to.

Very polite, lovely people who just are genuinely want to say that they love the show versus some of the other people who come up to me who are like fans of let's say the league or something like that.

All they really want to do is try and like touch my dick in some way and then get away from me.

So, Taskmaster fans, delightful people, like truly lovely.

And they don't want to touch your dick in any way.

They don't at all.

They maintain a respectful distance between themselves and my dick.

Good.

And that's as much as you can say about Taskmaster fans.

Well, thank you, guys.

And thank you for that.

But no, I will say, like, it has been awesome.

It has been a tremendous reception for the season.

And like, people loved it.

And the stuff stuff that I hear the most that truly delights me is people saying how

I'm locked in.

The, um, the bot, the, the, the, the, the game with the spoons and the ball.

And

it didn't go in at the last meeting.

Like, like, it was like a sports slow motion movie heartbreak.

That really affected people, I've learned.

That heart, like, people felt that for real in a way that I'm, and I have said to them on the street, like, you know, it's just a comedy show.

But people were like, I cried.

I cried.

We cried, right?

We cried.

We cried for you guys.

Oh, and I was like, why?

Don't cry for us.

The world is crumbling.

I think it was so, it was almost as if it was scripted, though.

The way it went, the constant catchphrase of I'm locked in.

And then

that catchphrase coming back to I'm locked in, you know, with each other's hearts.

And you gave each other a big hug in defeat.

And it was, it was a really lovely moment.

And I can see why people cried.

Oh, yeah.

People are very into it.

People are making their own t-shirts.

People are like, there's like, there's, people are making stuff, Ed.

People are out there making stuff with our faces on it.

I don't care for it.

I'm not into it.

Don't do that.

But they're doing it.

Okay.

This is a request.

Yeah.

But it's either that or touch your dick.

So I think we'll go with making stuff.

Okay.

Oh,

if those are the options, then yes, please make those t-shirts, baby.

Yeah,

um, let's we're gonna have to move on, Jason.

We're gonna have to leave series.

I want to move on.

Here's what I want to.

Here's my question.

I only have just found out we're talking about the next season.

I assumed I was here to talk about being champion of the last season.

I only just, when I opened the email this morning, I was like, oh no, I got to watch a whole episode.

I thought I was just taking a victory lap here.

Do you think you won?

I'm pretty sure I did.

I'm pretty sure.

Like, now, let's say, it's

some months since I did it, but my recollection is that I won.

Yeah.

In that way, that I'm pretty sure Nish won season five.

Right?

Yeah.

Like,

you both won your season five.

Here's what I'll say.

I don't think people always remember who wins.

So if you just put it out there enough, I think people are going to remember.

who they loved.

And what is it, Ed?

Would you rather have

loved or have won?

You think so?

Oh, won.

Yeah, I'd rather win.

100%.

It was so quick.

Like, it was so quick.

And you were in the middle.

The crazy thing is, you were in the middle of saying something else.

You were in the middle of answering a different part of the question.

But when I gave you the option,

your eyes went wide and you said, oh, easy, win.

I want to win.

Like, yeah.

Like, you focused so quickly on it.

Yes.

Well, but it's the only answer for me.

But we must now talk about series 20.

Please let us talk about the new lineup.

Because we're talking about series 20 episode one, so we should discuss this new lineup.

Great cast.

Now, great cast.

Great cast, how many of them were you aware of before?

So this is what I was going to say to you.

And I knew nobody, with the exception of Maisie, who I had seen just randomly on an episode of Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

You know what I mean?

Like

I think in fact last year's Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

So that's really all I'd seen.

And prior to you and I speaking, I watched a bunch of clips on YouTube of people's either stand-up or act or something like that.

So I tried to familiarize myself a little bit, but genuinely, I don't know anybody.

You know, so, you know,

in a way that I will say much of Taskmaster has been for me, which is I'm being introduced to new people all the time, even the legends, even the people for whom

they are the people with the most seniority or the most, they are the most beloved or most kind of iconic.

Oftentimes, like I'm introduced to Bob Mortimer on Taskmaster, you know,

for example, just to get like, that's a good example to me.

Only later do I find out, oh, Bob Mortimer is like, you know, this complete legend.

So that's a little bit of my experience almost always with the show.

And the legends on this series, I'd say we've got two legends.

We've got two national institutions.

We've got Rhys Shear Smith, of course, from League of Gentlemen from Inside Number Nine, from Psychoville.

I mean,

a true hero of starting out in sketch comedy, moving through to narrative more sitcomy things.

Just incredible.

Like a proper League of Gentlemen are proper heroes of mine.

Oh, wow.

So very excited that Reese is on.

And that's a sketch.

Yeah, so they won the Perrier Award, as it was then,

like ages ago in Edinburgh.

And then they did a radio show, and then they did a sort of sketchy sitcom called League of Gentlemen, which is all set in this northern town called Royston Vasy.

And it's very odd and very disgusting.

And I would highly recommend it.

Love it.

And they do something called Inside Number Nine, where

that's different cast and different stories every episode.

Oh, wow.

And something called Psychoville.

But yeah,

very, very good.

Incredible writer.

Very funny man.

And previously, on a previous series of Taskmaster, there was Steve Pemberton.

I don't know if you saw that series.

He's another member of that group.

Great.

Got it.

So they're getting them on one by one.

I love that.

I love that.

And I love that element for me, I will say, that I will now go and watch those shows.

I will now go and, and that is part of what is wonderful about Taskmaster for me, for a viewer who is, like I I said, not always aware of everybody, to use it as an opportunity to go and find other people, people's other stuff, rather, incredible.

Totally.

And yeah, same with Sanju Baskar, who's from Goodness Gracious Me, which was a huge sketch show back in the day.

And the entire cast was British Asian, so it was like a massive thing and then got punctured through to the mainstream.

And it was just, it was huge.

He's very funny.

And then, obviously, the newer comics, we've got Annie Magliano, Maisie Adam, and Phil Ellis, who I don't know if you quite get it yet, but he is genuinely insane.

Seems like it.

And the

first episode, everything Phil did, I was like, I'm obsessed with this.

Yes.

And Anya is also

mad in a sort of gentle way.

And Anya is open for me on tour a fair few times and is very, very funny.

And look, Maisie's, Maisie's just one of the best new comics in the country.

She's

hilarious and chaos.

So I think it's a very, very good lineup this year.

So let's get into it.

The prize task for this first episode is a very soft thing that would be most beneficial to greg davis um here's i'm gonna stop you ed i'm gonna stop you go on please please please because in the banter how is it how have we gotten to episode 20 and alex is doing the bare minimum he's doing like

he's doing sound effects from his ipad this is i want to say frankly embarrassing Like that is, this is the stuff of radio, like morning drive time radio.

You can do better.

Alex, here's my challenge.

You can do better.

That's all.

Okay, sorry, we can move on.

I mean, but we're on episode one as well of the series, so that would suggest that this is the best.

This is what he's bringing to this series.

Right.

And please, if you're, if you're a watcher of the show, catalog, it's just going to go downhill from here.

What would be great is if every episode was more sound effects.

What if a whole, every banter was the next beat of the same bit?

Try that.

That would be incredible.

So by the end of it, it's really just long, meaningless sound effects that all tie everything together.

That would be awesome.

The thing is, we don't really have that tradition of like the morning radio, like wacky

sound effects.

Oh, wow.

So to us, this is like, this is great.

This is new.

To you, Alex just invented something?

Jesus Christ.

That's all he's doing.

He's passing off our inventions as his own.

That's it.

The show's a scam.

It's revealed.

How does it feel?

Anya brings in a bum cushion.

This is the first prize on this series.

A bum cushion.

It's like a piles cushion, I think.

I think this is like the doughnut-shaped thing.

For hemorrhoids?

For hemorrhoids, yeah.

Made with her cat's hair from when they were spayed, which is which is a detail she holds

until Greg's talked about it a little bit.

You look grossed out by this, Jason.

Yeah, I didn't like the cat hair part.

The bum cushion, I was like, yeah, sure, why not?

That does seem soft or seems to be at least, you know, in the right direction.

But the cat hair, I was like, no, I don't.

I felt as though that would be off-putting to Greg.

And in fact, I believe I was right.

Yeah, I mean,

I have a big white cat.

And he's very, very hairy.

So he needs brushing a lot.

Okay.

So there's

a lot of hair and you end up with clumps of hair and all of this stuff.

And I'm going to tell you my cat.

Just get rid of that cat.

No, because the cat, this is my point.

The cat, I love the the cat.

The cat is gorgeous.

He's very affectionate.

I love it when the hair is on him.

As soon as the hair is removed from him, I feel physically

disgusted.

Do you just use?

Here's the thing: here's what I never want to use.

Here's a word, a descriptor I never want to use about something or someone I love: clumps.

Don't need it.

I don't know, you're not.

Oh, you're not a fan of the naughty professor.

Well, that's a different clumps, my friend.

Yeah.

No, I understand.

I understand that clumps is not.

It's not a good word to be chucking about with your loved ones.

But you know what?

I think it was a fun thing to bring in.

It does look soft.

But how was Anya to know that Greg is allergic to cats?

You know, I would have asked.

I would have asked.

That's easy.

Yeah.

But hey, this is what we're doing.

This is what we're doing.

I would say, do you feel, maybe, and forgive me, maybe we covered this when last we we spoke.

Did you feel as though you put genuine effort into the prize tasks or were they a little bit haphazard?

You know what I mean?

Haphazard.

Haphazard.

Okay.

100% haphazard.

I didn't remember what you did, and I'm not remembering.

Yeah.

Well, there you go.

That should be enough of a clue.

The ones

I was proud of were best thing to do on a stage or to put on the stage.

And I did pants with a confetti cannon

attached at the penis area, so you could, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um,

found a garden gnome with a big dick.

I mean, they're all sort of dick-based, really, Jason.

Short hair, you know, listen, quite a few of them.

Mine were boobs-based, so I get it.

That's true.

Yeah, haphazard, I would say.

I think there's not many people who, I mean, I think Matthew Bayton named

the price ticket.

Yeah, I was just going to say, he really, every episode knocked it out of the park.

Just incredible stuff.

Yeah.

And I think there's a couple of people here who are going to do a good job.

Maisie brought in a manly bonnet, which is something for Greg to protect his head so he doesn't bump his head.

It's got a little barbecue, some beers, a toolbox, and boxing gloves.

I will say this is in a sort of grand tradition of Taskmaster: don't know what to do for the prize task, so stick a load of things on a hat.

Craft something.

Yes.

Craft.

I was, I appreciated that crafting made a comeback.

I feel like in our season, there weren't a lot of crafting.

Nobody was a crafter.

Nobody did stuff.

Nobody was a maker.

Yeah.

You know, it seemed like my entire season was found objects, and most of them seemed to be drawer-based.

Yeah.

Tiramasu in a drawer, et cetera.

I think Stevie and Rosie, I believe, brought drawers for 50% of the tasks, I think.

No,

it was a good effort from Maisie.

I think it does the job.

It's looking after Greg.

He's obviously bumping his head.

And great.

And gives her something to jump off of.

You know, it's a, it's a, yeah.

Those kind of prize tasks are just jumping off point to do bits in the studio and try and get carry, try and curry favor.

Yeah.

Um, do you think Phil carried favor with his prize task, which was he was, uh, it had elderly people's hand gloves?

This is where I was like, okay, we got one.

We got one.

We wrangled one into the studio.

Great.

The minute he was up and walking across the stage dangling weird rubber gloves, I was like, thank God, this is episode one.

This to me really set the tone for this, I'm hoping for the season because

I really, really love like a, and forgive me, Phil, you know, a true oddball.

Like I love having a person on the competitor on the show who I genuinely don't know what's going to happen.

And that was so surprising and so funny to me.

I loved it.

Phil, a few years ago, and he did it this year actually as well, did a kids' show in Edinburgh called Funs and Games,

where he's just horrible to the kids.

He's just

really horrible.

The kids, he's just got something about him that allows kids to be really mean back to him as well.

I can see that.

I actually do that as well, pretty well.

Being able, it takes a particular skill to be able to yell full on at children and have them know that you're just playing around.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, I think you've definitely got that, I'm sure.

And actually, actually, it's not just because you look similar.

Nish has that as well.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

The two of us just

angry man.

The two of us just screaming at Ashling's baby.

Just absolutely screaming at it.

Nish with, now, this, we're going off topic, but Nish with every baby or small child I've seen Nish meet does something that I've only ever seen grandmothers do, which is grab the cheeks and wiggle them around.

Yep.

You got to get those cheeks, baby.

And also there was a cassette of an elderly lady complimenting Greg as well as

Phil didn't have the gloves on properly, just wafting the gloves over.

Dangling the gloves over Greg's face and head while

a recording of an old lady saying nice things to Greg, which in a soft voice.

I loved that as well.

This was truly deranged in a way that I

this felt like a David Lynch movie was happening on the stage of Taskmaster.

So for me, mission accomplished.

Well done, Phil.

From David Lynch movie to Edgar Allan Poe short story, Reese brought in a fortune-telling Raven, which is a very Reese-Smith prize.

He crafted it.

He'd crafted it.

It got the cards.

The fortune that it selected was

You Left the iron on which i love

uh and this is i think i think reese is because he writes so much and he he crafts these entire incredible shows i think he is going to be like steve pemberton and have put a lot of work into those prize tasks very much i felt the same like he he feels like he is like the student he's gonna crush this you know like very he he is on top of it and very like you can i was like oh this is an assassin this this guy is gonna this is a murderer in, like, the best way.

Like, Phil's running around with a knife, but, like, like, Reese, Rhys has set the whole thing in motion.

Like, Rhys at the end will be revealed by, like, when Poirot enters and is like, let me explain how this all happened.

It will be Reese's engineering somehow.

Yeah, you thought it was Phil, the mad gardener, who was found covered in blood next to the body, but yeah.

And let's be clear, the body is Alex.

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

And Sanjeev, it felt like, even though they do it in order in the first episode along the seats, it really felt like it had been built up to he's going to have the worst one.

So much.

Yes.

The electric blanket hoodie.

And you know what?

Fair play to him.

He does not give a shit.

No.

Not at all.

Doesn't give a shit.

And by the way,

that continues through the whole episode.

He, and it's not that he, and I want to be clear.

I don't think it's that he doesn't give a shit.

I just feel like he can't be bothered in a way.

Like he's he let me be clear.

He's trying.

He's there.

Like he's he's present.

It's not that he's like, fuck this or something like that.

He's just he's just moving at his own pace, man.

And I appreciated that.

Oh, boy.

He also claims that the electric blanket hoodie is good for Greg because Greg's tall, so he feels the cold quicker.

Yeah.

This is something that I'd never, it's not discussed in the studio.

I've never heard that, that the tall feel the cold quicker.

And in fact, I would think it would not be the case because heat rises.

So quite a bit of Greg is going to be up where the heat is, you know?

Yeah.

Also this.

Here's the reality.

If you wanted to really give this as a gift to Greg, you'd have to sew like seven of them together.

Like very true.

This,

I wish they had put this thing on Greg because I guarantee it's supposed to go down to like the middle of your calves or your shins or something.

I guarantee it would be above Greg's waist.

And that would have been very funny.

Yeah, that it's almost, it makes me feel a little bit sort of weird because I'm imagining Greg wearing that naked and it not covering any of the important things.

And imagine Greg wearing that naked and it somehow conducts electricity?

Absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

Gross.

It is one point for Sanjeev.

It's two points for Phil.

It's three points for Anya, four points for Maisie, Maisie, and the big five for Reese.

Christ, none of these are rubbish.

You must be feeling the heat, aren't you, Sanjeev?

Totally.

Yeah.

I've gone incredibly practical.

Here it is.

Nice big blanket.

Do you see?

And there it is.

There he is.

Made the.

The contestant who grabbed something on his way to the chat.

Task one.

Honk the horn, fastest wins.

Your time started when you said your first word.

But of course, they cannot read that task until they scan the QR code, which is on Alex, and he runs away as they pursue him.

A chaotic task to say.

I loved it.

I love when the task is essentially some version of a children's game, and this one is like tag or something like that, you know, which I thought was so fun and playful and really set the tone for how everybody would, it felt very much like illustrative of who everybody's character is or whatever.

You know, this first episode, I think, is so, so, so important or impactful for the season because you really are, you know, receiving everybody's persona or their character or how they're going to do it.

And this, to me, really did that.

Yeah, and I think we got a real insight into both Reese and Sanjeev,

who clearly did not really enjoy this task with the chasing.

And they neither of them knew what a QR code was called.

Reese is just, you just use them to order in restaurants.

That made me laugh so hard because that's what I would have said.

Both of them, both of them, so

in a way that I really appreciated, like phone illiterate.

Like, I loved that.

I loved it.

And let's all strive to be a little bit more phone illiterate please um but uh the chasing of alex was great i do feel like

and and and i'm gonna ask you this because i you know previous to doing that most of the reason that i asked to do taskmaster was because at home i was like oh i want i would do it this way or i would do it that way and then i got to do it and of course fail at it but now i'm still like oh i absolutely would have honked the horn immediately i would have done what what you know, Maisie did without realizing it.

I would have done it immediately as well.

I'm sure I would have honked that horn, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Do you feel like when you're watching that you are constantly engaging in your own creative thinking?

Yes, 100%.

But also,

I thought about that because you definitely would have honked the horn.

You would have got in there, honked the horn.

Actually, you might have honked it before you said anything to Alex.

So the time might have been.

It might not have worked.

Yeah, it might not have worked for that reason.

because you would have you would have honked it straight away the horn's there you're gonna honk it and then thrown it through the window or something let me ask you this right i would have overthought it i would have overthought it jason so i i would have gone i want to honk the horn but i don't know what the task is yet what if the task is person who honks the horn last is the winner oh yeah oh see that's interesting uh that's the you go to a level you go to a level that is that is that really you know what ed you go to a level that nobody else does which is which is and i'm gonna,

and I adore you.

It's, it's joyless.

It's, it's,

it is, you, you are able to reduce this joyful game into a joyless binary.

Win or lose.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

The keyword is game.

Sorry.

Incredible.

Sorry, please continue.

So I would have overthought it.

Yeah, and then I would have been gutted that I didn't, I didn't honk the horn.

But But yeah, I definitely engage with it in that way still where I'm like, I would have done this.

I wouldn't have done that.

But also,

I think I would have had my phone on me.

So I think I would have done it maybe before he got to run away.

Would you bring your phone?

Your digital tasks?

Yeah.

Get ready for more joylessness.

I now have my phone with me most of the time because my glucose levels are on my phone.

Yeah, of course.

So

I would have it on me.

So I think maybe I'd get the QR code before Alex would run out of the room because I wouldn't leave him alone.

Yeah, I get that.

I can see doing that as well.

I could also see

like someone did tearing the QR code off.

You know, the QR code was very easy to get off of him, it seemed.

I could also have seen trying to get at it before I left the room or something like that.

But then I feel like I would have been disappointed if I had won this cleverly.

I think I would have been disappointed when I watched it that I didn't get to chase Alex around.

Because let's be honest, that's the part that looked the best.

that's the part that looked the most fun and not to be not to pull the curtain back too much but all I want to do is chase Alex around I don't want the I don't want the points God I would have been so disappointed if I honked the horn in two seconds and Alex was like okay you're done and then I was in the studio and I watched everybody get to run around and have fun I would have been like what a bummer

I know what you mean.

It's when people do tasks really quickly or they solve it really quickly and it'll come back to the studio and they've always got the same face, which is yeah I got the points but I know I know that was boring yes yes because sometimes winning is boring Ed

I don't know stop stop stop kissing your trophy

Anya is the one who grabs the QR code and as she did it I was thinking I don't know if I didn't even think of that as an option

when I saw her grab it.

So I thought she did she did a really good job there and she loves chasing alex so fun and that and and i love it when it brings out everybody's personalities you know like like everybody's being like either funny or mean or you know like trying to trap alex i just i just thought this was an absolute blast did you feel there was a clip at the beginning where it looked like the QR code was also posted like somewhere on the house.

Was the QR code?

Was the QR code available elsewhere?

Was my question.

Maybe not.

Maybe it was just a misdirect or something like that.

But I thought I maybe saw a click,

a shot rather, where it looked like the QR code was also somewhere static that you didn't have to chase.

But maybe I'm wrong.

No, but that seems like the sort of thing they would do, certainly.

But maybe because no one found it, then

they just didn't put it in the edit.

How is it possible that I spent 10 episodes in that house and didn't come close to breaking anything the way that Maisie did with the gargoyle and the steps.

Episode one,

episode one, they're letting other people get clear.

Here's what's fucking happened, Ed.

This is what,

here's what fucking happened.

They saw me do my destroy, dismantle, engulf in flames.

They saw that it got such big, huge attention, this idea of destroying the house, that now Taskmaster is encouraged I believe, I believe, encouraging and facilitating the destruction of the house.

They're taking my idea and they're running with it.

What would you do if you tune into a later episode and someone's allowed on the roof?

I swear to God, I will fly to your country.

Ed, do not fuck around.

I will fly to your country on my own dime again, and

I will tear that house to the ground with Alex's bare hands.

She does destroy the gargoyles, and the gargoyles have been there for a long time.

Incredible.

I love it.

I love that part of the fabric of the house.

I loved it.

And I also loved it because I loved it because it's destruction, of course, but it's accidental.

And

it incorporated

something else you love to see on the show, which is contestants being in this happened a couple of times in episode one alone, being in what appeared to be somewhat genuine danger she breaks the gargoyles because it's so slippery that she slips and falls on the on the brick steps which could have been you know really bad if if somebody older like alex had fallen on it he probably would have like broken all his bird bones

she fell because her um Her leggings were too saggy.

Yeah.

And

she took a bit of a tumble because she was going at top speed.

And she really was absolutely whipping along.

She really wanted to be.

Really moving, moving quick on slick ground.

We do get, I will say, and sorry if I'm jumping ahead too much, but we do get in this episode in this first task insight into people's costumes who's decided to wear costumes.

So we have

Phil has like a sash with like merit badges and so forth.

And then Reese is in like what I would describe as kind of almost

Blade Runner, kind of

noir detective, trench coat.

You know, like he's got a look.

I don't know if it's referencing anything specific.

Do you?

It will be referencing something specific.

Just because I know Reese and how obsessed he is with films.

I don't know what it is yet.

When we speak to him, we'll ask him.

Because even later on in the episode, he references, he walks like Nosferatu.

Yeah.

So that's.

Well, and when he was saying that, I was like, oh,

is his costume a reference to that?

And then I didn't think so.

But he looks great.

I mean,

and obviously I didn't wear a costume or anything, but I love it when people do.

So I was very pleased that a couple of people did this season.

Well, Maisie is also wearing a costume,

I'm led to believe.

Can you guess what she's referencing in her costume?

Oh, she seems to me to be like she's wearing like a black leather jacket.

She seems to be like

a rock and roller, like a Chrissy Hind rock and roller.

No?

I believe...

Well, you're kind of right, but I believe she's supposed to be dressed as Sandy at the end of Grease.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, great.

I love it.

But the way Maisie...

Because just because the way Maisie is, it really seems like she's just a pissed up northerner doing karaoke late on a Friday.

Amazing.

Yeah, I think it's...

And obviously the leggings are too baggy.

Yeah.

So it ruins it.

It ruins the Greece.

No, I would love.

Oh, man, you know what I would have loved if she started in episode one as demure Sandra Dee and in the final episode was in the full-on, we're getting in the car that goes into outer space?

Is that where they go at the end of Greece?

They drive off into the sky.

Here's my question about the end of Greece.

And this is for the listeners.

They seem to drive off into the sky.

Are they killing themselves?

Is this a Thelma and Louise?

Like, what's the story?

What are we led to believe here?

Are they driving literally to heaven?

Well, I think it's that's how John Travolta became a cyber pilot.

Oh, you know, he's a pilot.

You know, he's like a very experienced pilot.

Of course, he's a pilot.

He started driving that car.

People are like, you drove that car into the air.

You should fly planes.

And then he met an alien and all of that stuff.

Oh, and that's, and that, and then

Battlefielder.

That's how Battlefield.

Phil obviously loves this.

Always enjoyed to see Phil Ellis run with his very long arms.

Phil gets instruments

segue back into the episode, Ed.

I just want people to know

we stopped on for technical difficulties, and Ed just seamlessly brought us back in in a way that the listeners need to understand.

This is a professional podcaster.

As someone who's been podcasting for 16 years, I recognize it, and it's electric to watch.

And I tell you what, nothing helps a seamless link than someone calling attention to it.

You, the listener, don't know anything because Daisy's behind the scenes stitching it all together so perfectly,

lest Ed absolutely lose his mind again.

It's like when I do off-menu with James, one of the things.

We're doing plugs.

Are we doing plugs?

Oh, I'm sorry.

How did this get made?

What are we doing?

Do listen to how did this get made?

I do listen to off-menu.

Yes.

We're fans of each other, Ed.

Five.

Fans of each other.

But when one of us, and it's rare, asks a good question, the other one will have to stop the whole podcast and say good question.

Yes, it's good.

We have to do it.

We have to draw attention to it.

But Phil, of course, tries to lull Alex or lure Alex.

I'm not quite sure what his aim is with instruments,

which I think, I don't know how early this task was.

That to me is a comic trying to add something to the task to be like, I need to do something else here.

But it...

it works for him because he accidentally honks another horn and that's it it's only because he and I we don't realize that I think until or at least I didn't until we're back in the studio and they say as much yeah but that he brings a ukulele and a he finds a different horn and starts making that horn sound.

And that lures Alex out like Alex's horn is drawn out by horns, which is

so stupid.

Now you said that, and

this is the first time I've thought of this.

Could you have just honked Alex on the butt?

Honked the horn.

What do you mean?

Honk the horn.

And you think

that's his butt?

You think that that's...

Well, if I was going to honk him.

Yeah, go ahead.

If I was going to

work it out.

Yeah, go ahead.

If I was going to maybe grab

part of my friend and make it honk.

I like that you're saying that it's your friend.

That has to be my friend.

There's implied consent.

Okay, that's what I'm wondering.

Yes.

I'm going to grab the butt and honk the butt.

Do you have any other suggestions of where you could honk,

given I know you're particularly...

It's so hard, but I think you would...

Yeah, it's got to be boobs.

I think

it's got to be boobs because I just think that that's a natural honk, you know.

But if you think about it, the bellows, oh, what happened here?

Did I lose Ed?

I did not know what happened.

Okay.

Wow.

Wow.

I just want, and I'm, I, once again, once again, I demand that all of this be in the episode, first of all.

Yeah.

I want this all to be in the episode.

And I want listeners to really understand that once again, we've had catastrophic

technical difficulties

that have included Ed dropping off of the stream entirely of the podcast that he hosts.

Yeah.

And leaving Daisy and I still doing the show.

Still, by the way, seamlessly doing the show.

Yeah.

Well,

I would say that I blame Daisy for this.

And

there will be

serious repercussions.

Oh, serious repercussions wow yeah yeah wow wow daisy there's work for you in america

look i apologize i don't know what happened there it it it clocked out it came back on again probably something to say i can't help but notice it was in the middle of me saying something interesting i can't help but notice a lot of your technical difficulties happen when i'm in the middle of a point ed but you know go go ahead please please was your point that you would honk boobs rather than but yes it was I would do boobs rather than butt.

But if you think about it, the bellows of the horn would be the diaphragm.

You know, so I think you'd, in fact, push someone's belly in in order to make them honk out their mouth.

If I really was to drill down into it, Ed, which, you know, if I was tasked to, I absolutely would.

I would grab Alex, I'd put him over my knee, and I'd squeeze his belly

until he honked his little horn.

Perfect.

Right?

See, I think that would have been, you would have, you know, that would have got you the points.

It might not have been fastest wins.

You can't.

Let's be clear.

I neither would have been fast nor would I have gotten the points.

No, no.

It would have been very entertaining, though, Jason.

I'm sure.

It's all I wanted.

Let's talk about Sanjeev quickly,

which is inappropriate because he did nothing quickly in this task.

So funny.

I bet

when he did this task, and I'm sure it wasn't the first one, but when he did this task, I bet they were absolutely delighted because no one is doing it that slowly.

He just, he's so relaxed.

It's fantastic.

And he's comfortably relaxed, which is what was so wonderful about it, is that he is just strolling the property in pursuit of Alex as if he's chasing a grandchild, which I really enjoyed.

And Alex's impish joy at running away from everybody was so funny when everybody else participated.

But when Sanjeev was just kind of ambling around after him it made Alex look even more ridiculous which I appreciated yeah

particular moment that I enjoyed was when uh Sanjeev has put his phone away to try and stop Alex the numbers has to say where's your phone that was so funny and also how much difficulty Sanjeev was having using the elements of his phone and kept calling out oh now I'm in this other program or I'm on this other app rather or whatever that was also perfectly I'm very much looking forward to

him struggling with just like basic elements, which this made me laugh so hard.

Yeah, it was brilliant.

It was, of course, one point for Sanjeev because he did it in 10 minutes, 16 seconds.

Reese got two points, Anya got three points, four points for Phil, and five points for Maisie.

Very strong episode so far for Maisie.

And not a great episode for Sanjeev.

It's minimum points so far.

I know, I have to get it.

He likes music, doesn't he?

I've been in the wrong bloody setting now.

I'm still on the wrong bloody setting.

Come on.

Don't be scared.

You like instruments, don't you?

Task to roll an object onto the target.

You must release your object from behind this line.

You may not move the line or the target, and you may not affect your object after release.

You must use the first type of object you touch and can have three attempts with that type of object and must not go within Greg's height of the target.

You have 15 minutes.

Closest to the center of the target wins.

Okay.

I'll be honest, this was one of those tasks that I would have had to have read five times, and I still would have been confused, especially by the addendum of you cannot be within Greg's height.

Like, that would have really fucked me up.

I was so the so my assumption is there's another ring around the target that is just Greg's height.

So, you either have to be way outside or on the target, correct?

Yeah, if but if that's so you're not your thing can't land within that circle or is it you may not go you must not go within does that mean you can't walk within it at any point?

Oh, that's interesting.

I don't see this is where again this is what I this is where sometimes the wording of a task can be so I'm sure I'm certain so specific so as to be able to play the task correctly, but but so infuriating word soup, you know, word logic soup that I would have like I would have lost my mind, you know, and just started, yeah, probably just started chucking things.

Well, plenty of people did that.

Oh, yeah.

Uh,

obviously, Sanjeev did that, chooses the buck tie by accident, rolls two of them.

They clearly go either off in one direction or too far, and picks up the third one.

And Alex said, Alex said, What have you learned from the other two?

He says, Nothing, and just lobs it.

Loved it, loved it.

Just what I mean, like so casual, so at ease,

not frustrated at all with with results that were, I would say, very frustrating.

Really frustrating to watch.

He seemed totally relaxed about it.

Never at any point thinks

the tire is flat and I can throw it.

I should just frisbee it.

I can't throw it like a frisbee.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Never tries to throw it.

No, he's rolling it.

He's rolling it like you see in old movies where they're rolling like the

barrel,

the wire, the metal rim of a barrel in the old west or in like uh, or or in the like the city streets of New York in the 1920s,

um, like a stick and or yep, yeah,

stick and hoop, like the kids with the stick and hoop, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which is, do they still do that in America?

May I ask?

Oh, yeah, fuck yeah, man.

We're all about stick and hoop in America.

It's just, it's got a the stick is a gun now.

Yeah,

this the stick is an AR-15.

Oh, God.

Maisie, Maisie does a bit of research by blowing on the ice.

Loved it.

She blows on.

No, she blows on everything.

She blows on all the items.

I guess trying to figure out what's the most...

What's got the most like give or what's going to be the...

I couldn't, you know, in a way that I felt like she was trying to figure out curling or something like that.

But then she still just rolls them right along, you know.

I was, yeah, okay.

Let's keep illustrating everybody's thing, but everybody's like real trying to create a Rube Goldberg machine to get the thing.

I was like, this is wild stuff, but yeah, let's go.

I think I would have just thrown something, to be honest.

Like, I was impressed that other people, I would not, I would have been too eager to just get going.

I was impressed by Maisie's because she chose the ice and managed to get one on there.

But his strap in, oh, Joyless Ed's coming, coming coming to town.

She didn't get a whole bit of ice on there.

It broke.

So?

So does that count?

Why wouldn't it?

Because it's not the whole object.

And was that in the task?

Yeah, but you've got to get the object onto the thing.

Roll an object onto the target.

It doesn't say roll 75% of an object onto the target.

And also, it says roll right here.

It says roll, and she slides it.

She slides.

This right here.

And you're pointing so forcefully.

You're so

angry, so mad.

No, to be clear, I just want to be clear to the listeners, to Maisie, if she's listening.

I think any bit of that ice on that target wins you that task.

Once again, I would like to remind everybody listening: this is a quote-unquote comedy show.

Sure.

Sure, man.

And to be

binger, to be bickering

over the contestants' efforts in season 20 when you were on season.

What season were you on, Ed?

12?

Nine.

Nine?

Nine.

I mean, come on.

Jesus.

You're still.

You're so mad at Maisie.

You know what makes great comedy?

It's rigor and details.

Do you think they were in the writer's room at Seinfeld and going, oh, we'll just use that word.

It doesn't matter.

We've just got to move on to the next episode now.

No, they spent ages picking over every single syllable.

Yeah, and they came up with

Mulva.

So, you know, hey, so get through.

Yeah, rigorous, rigor.

Rigor.

Look, she did a good job, and it's good that something was on the target.

Okay.

And having said that, it says roll, so maybe Sanjeev couldn't have thrown

the target.

Oh, like a song.

Good call.

Good call.

Good call.

Yeah.

So Anya does a very smart.

Anya and Phil both do very smart things.

Not very well, but they try and control the

because forgive me, we haven't spoken about where we are.

This is the first

location task that we're seeing.

Yes, it is.

And they appear to be in an empty shopping center.

Yeah, or I actually don't know where they are, but it seems like maybe like a stadium, like an empty stadium or something.

Okay, yeah, great.

Okay, so yeah, sure.

Yeah, maybe something like that.

Because it said there was a food court, it looked like.

It was the signage I saw.

So anyway, so there's less, it's certainly less beautiful than the location that you filmed out for series nine.

I mean, certainly it wasn't covered in goose and duck shit everywhere.

You know, it's not in this stadium/slash shopping center.

Like, the floor is not covered in actual logs of foul shit.

Jesus Christ.

I had to throw all that outfit away.

Well, luckily, you owned that exact same outfit 15 more times, Jason.

So true.

But so

we're inside this kind of big industrial space, it looks like.

So they really are,

you know, you're rolling objects in a way that they can really get away from the contestants.

And so Anya and Phil kind of try and create a track track or something.

So what I couldn't figure out is nobody does it in such a way as to trap the ball in the center of the thing.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, no, I think the idea was there, wasn't it?

But neither of them had the proficiency to actually do it.

Like create a wall, that wall that was set up.

And this is where I was like, oh, I might be understanding this wrong.

Set up the wall right where you want the thing to stop, which would be dead center, right?

Or, or one of the really the brilliant idea that Anya had, which Alex even admitted he didn't realize was there, I love it when a contestant uses an object in the re in the space that the that the creators didn't think could or would be used.

In this case, Anya pulls out all of the trash and recycling bins and

puts lays them down as a kind of as walls so that the ball can't go out of the out of the way.

Why not just put those in a circle right around the center and chuck it right down into a trash can that's waiting there?

So this is, I got confused by that as well because the idea is so strong, but put it right behind and then, you know, you're trapping it straight away.

But was that the rule of you can't go within Greg's height of the target?

Is that why she put them?

That's my guess.

That's where I started to feel like, oh, this is, I've misunderstood.

And they must know what's right, you know, because I got confused.

But then I think Phil puts stuff right behind.

Yeah.

And, you know, he takes the tape over over there.

I mean, I think people really in this task overestimated the strength of tape.

Yes.

Yes.

There's a lot of building a tape.

Reese used a tape buffer like it was going to stop an actual bowling ball.

Was there an obvious

thing?

Do you feel as though there was a

not obvious, but like, which of those items would you have chosen?

Like, is there an obvious, oh, that's the better choice?

Or is it really just play

i mean we may i think maisie picked really well with that ice but then also there were some small like blue balls that i don't think we actually yeah saw get used at all so i don't i don't know what those would have been like i think the exercise balls is a crazy choice yeah i also was like you know how the exercise balls were sitting on the black tire i kept thinking what if you did like curling and just moved that black tire with the ball so that it wasn't rolling so much so that there was some friction.

Okay, I'm gonna stop myself Ed.

What are we doing?

What am I doing?

I'm trying.

This is it.

This is

oh no.

This is the taskmaster mind virus.

I'm infected with the task man.

I'm just here literally with you trying to work it out.

What would I do?

Yeah.

Oh, I missed you.

You've been sucked into what many people call the Ed Gamble vortex.

Oh God.

Bad luck.

You know, I'm going to first of all say people don't call it that.

People don't, absolutely don't call it that.

The only people that call it that are the people that you make call it that, poor Daisy being one of them.

Yeah.

Yep.

But welcome.

Welcome to the Ed Gambled.

It really is.

I am watching the episode.

I really was, I was fully Ed Gambled.

I was like, oh, and I even in my notes, because I wrote notes, I wrote, don't worry, Ed.

I wrote notes for this podcast because I'm a good guest.

Even in my notes, I wrote down that I would do this or that.

I wrote down my solutions inside of the notes on other people's stuff.

Absurd.

They looked cold.

Here's what I was saying.

Were you a buffer zone?

Yeah, big coats.

They had the big coats on, didn't they?

I was so grateful that my season was summer, spring and summer

when I looked at how cold they seemed.

So you would have gone with a sort of track or buffer zone situation.

Absolutely.

I would have done exactly what some people attempted, which is tried to create a pathway and a dead end that would be exactly where I wanted it to be.

But I'm guessing that was just almost impossible because nobody tried to do that.

No, no.

Anya, I think hers might have worked, but it was very frustrating because she created the wheelie bins and the tape thing.

She had it sort of all set up.

And then at least two of the balls, she just kicked the track completely.

Well, she just kicked them crazily in a way that I, listen, I respect it.

I respect a well-laid plan that then is

that then is chaotically implemented.

I appreciated it.

But I was, there were, I felt like she had two,

at least one ball role that she could have done,

that she could have done more

on track.

One of them, I think, just got away from her, or two of them did, but one of them I felt like, but I felt like she was frustrated, maybe.

Yes.

Also, what we call the, what the rest of us call the Ed Gamble vortex.

Yeah.

It's catching on.

A lot of people are saying it.

No, no, no.

The one that we call the Ed Gamble vortex is the one where you are acting in frustrated rage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of people have got different ideas about what the Ed Gamble vortex is, but the important thing is

people online are just trying to define the egv

maisy did not get sucked into the egv and gets the five points phil what an episode for maisie

yeah huge uh reese gets three points two episodes two points for sanjeev and sadly one point for anya because of that rebound off the wheelie bin Do you call them wheelie bins, Jason?

We do not.

We just call them bins.

Okay.

How do you trash bin or recycling bin?

Yeah.

But do yours have wheels on them?

We do.

Yes, we do.

Sorry.

Yep, we do.

Yes.

But we don't call things wheelie anything.

The word wheelie is not used here.

You know?

Like, if we were to call those, like, if we were to refer to it, we would just say the trash bins, or we might say wheeled bins, but we wouldn't even say that.

We wouldn't even, we wouldn't even qualify it as wheelie because that's how children talk.

Yeah.

What do you call it if you're riding a bike and you lean back and go onto one?

That's a wheelie.

That's pop.

That's popping a wheelie.

Okay, good.

I'm just gonna.

I was just

awesome.

I love it.

Yeah.

I love that we're finding our differences and what we share together, Ed.

It's lovely, isn't it?

Right, we've got one more.

What have you learned from the first two?

Absolutely nothing.

Great.

Give me a come.

Now then.

How charming.

Out the door.

Great, that's near Windsor.

Stop.

Stop!

Stop!

Stop!

Are you going to

take a picture just because they're going to melt in a minute?

Yeah, we're filming a lot of this.

Task three, do something behind this curtain that sounds disgusting, but it's actually really nice.

Yep.

Highest D times N score wins, where D is your disgustingness score out of 10, and N is your niceness score out of 10.

You have 15 minutes, your time starts now.

You know what my first thought was, Jason?

I can't wait to talk to Jason about this.

Same.

Because I want to hear what he would have done.

Okay.

This is one of the ones that I wrote down what I would do.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, and I love that when I'm watching the show, now that when I'm watching the show, I can envision not just what would I do, but how would I do it?

And the minute this one was read aloud, and I think everybody valiant efforts all around, but really unsuccessful.

I immediately could envision myself walking out of the,

okay, Ed is frozen again.

Oh, oh, no, Ed's back.

Okay, good.

No, no, you're back.

I'm just still.

I'm just being very still.

I'm back.

I'm back.

Okay.

I would, so I wrote, okay, what did I write down?

Hold on.

Okay, I would have immediately walked out and asked for a brand new toilet.

Like an unused toilet.

Have them go to a store and get a toilet, bring a toilet.

And that what I would have done was, and I would have done and made all of the sounds of diarrhea, of course, all of the sounds of diarrhea.

But when you pull the curtain back, inside of the toilet is like a beautiful chocolate cake.

Amazing.

You know, or something like that, you you know, basically, because what I couldn't, and maybe again, I might have misunderstood the prompt, but

the, it was, the, the, it was disgusting times nice, right?

So, so your, your disgusting thing needed to be revealed to be a nice thing, right?

Yes.

And I felt like a lot of people's disgusting things when they were revealed, I'll be honest, also seemed disgusting.

I completely agree with you.

I think there were so many things in there that were as disgusting as they sounded.

For sure, especially because a lot of them involve people's feet, which I am just wanting to say, just because I'm on record in my country is saying this, and I just want it in your country as well.

I'm not interested in feet.

I don't want to look at them.

I don't want to see your grubby little logs walking around.

Like,

you know, cover it up.

Cover it up, everybody.

Hey, if you're coming to my comedy show, don't wear sandals.

Not interesting.

Put on long pants.

I don't want to see shorts and sandals at a show.

Respect yourself.

You're an adult.

So Phil's must have really knocked you sick then.

Disgusting.

Absolutely disgusting.

And

as disgusting, frankly, as it should be for the sound.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Like appropriately disgusting for the first part.

But the part that was hard is he doesn't need to be doing all that with his feet because in reality, it's supposed to be a nice reveal.

Maybe, maybe his reveal is that it for people who would be like, oh, I want foot-based gravy mix,

which is a sentence I wish I'd never said.

I found it bizarre that Phil got four points here, personally, because to me, the reveal was more disgusting than the sound.

Another, he was making some horrible sounds.

Yep.

But the actual feet and the gravy is just really gross.

Disgusting.

And what I don't know what was nice about it.

That's the thing.

In a way that, in a way that, like,

I want to reiterate how successful it was at being disgusting.

So then the nice part of it was hard for me to figure out.

And it felt needlessly confusing.

May I just quickly loop back to what you were saying about getting the toilet and making a chocolate cake?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

For me, I think.

The niceness of a chocolate cake is somewhat ruined if it's in a toilet.

Brand new toilet.

You You heard me say brand new toilet, right?

Yeah, but it's still, it's still, it would remind me too much of a piece of shit if I was eating a chocolate cake out of a brand new toilet.

Yeah, but okay, now, okay, but hear me out.

Hear me out.

Hear me out.

Don't you think that Greg wants to eat a piece of shit out of a toilet?

And isn't that maybe?

And isn't that what we're here to talk about?

Not,

forgive me, Ed Gamble, but this isn't a show.

If I'm not mistaken, you are not the taskmaster.

Correct.

So what we're trying to figure out is, would Greg think it was nice to eat a chocolate, and I want to be now, I want to amend my thing.

I would have asked them to also get a chocolate treat in the shape of a log of shit.

Yeah.

Because I do think Greg would have liked to have eaten that.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, maybe you're right.

Maybe you're right.

I'll ask Greg if he wants to.

Would you please ask Greg?

It's a brand new toilet.

It's farts and diarrhea sounds.

I'm pushing.

I'm straining.

It's wet slapping against the

bowl of the toilet sound effects.

It sounds absolutely vile.

And then when you pull it back,

it is a pastry that is the shape of a poop in a brand new toilet, and it's and it's delicious.

I think it maybe the idea suffers slightly from the same thing that Maisie's suffered from, which is some of the sounds are not connected to what you're actually doing.

Because I don't know why you would be making a chocolate cake and just farting.

But I don't think that forgive me, Ed, but I don't think the two have to be related.

Do they?

Does the

sounds have to be the making of a cake?

Well, do something behind this curtain that sounds disgusting, but is actually really nice.

Oh, yeah.

You're right.

You're right.

You're right.

You're right.

You're right.

Okay.

I still think there is straining and straining and like the wet sounds could all be part of it, right?

I think it still works.

But Maisie, so for example, Maisie making a smoothie and then screaming, please stop it.

Yes.

They're not connected at all.

She's just pretending to be attacked while she's waiting.

And the minute that Alex pulls the curtain aside, she is like shaking the drink shaker like it's a maraca and having like she's Tom Cruise in cocktail and she's having the time of her life.

So I do see what you mean, and you're right.

My version of the task would also suffer that same problem as it would be, there would be a disconnect between the sound,

unless I really sold it, how wet and straining

it was to make a chocolate poo.

Yes,

I think the cake would have to be like coming out of your butt, which would be disgusting.

You know what, Ed?

You say it.

I'll make it happen.

I love your lateral thinking.

This is why you're the champion.

Anya's sounded disgusting, but also was disgusting.

Yes.

She She was licking their frost fluttering or something.

It was whipped cream with sugar in it.

Thank you.

But I know Anya's approach to sugary things and sweets.

She is absolutely obsessed with desserts.

Oh, funny.

And I know that she would genuinely love this.

She would genuinely love to eat cream and share with her hands.

Which is why she's slightly baffled by Greg saying that that wasn't nice because I think she genuinely likes it.

That's very funny.

It's very funny.

And I, and just the

this has one of my favorite

Taskmaster tropes, which is a reveal.

You know, like it is pulling the curtain back, and the curtain getting pulled back, and her having like a sugary white mustache on her upper lip and just lapping at that giant bowl of whipped cream.

It was visually just very funny, I thought, you know.

So

I liked that in all of these, but hers especially, just the I'm caught

eyes while lapping up the crazy bowl of whatever.

That was very funny, I thought.

So Reese and Sanjeev, I thought, nailed this because I think the sounds were connected with what they were doing, and what they were doing made sense with the sounds.

So Reese, Rhys is his odd, obviously, but you know, lots of farting sounds, lots of squeaky things, lots of straining.

Turns out he's playing the horn to a duck to send it to sleep.

Lovely.

Great.

I thought this was a perfect example of it.

And this is, exactly, to your point, illustrates perfectly.

And at every stage, I would say Reese never was confused in any task.

He understood

every turn and twist so much so that when he read the task and said it back to Alex, Alex seemed genuinely shocked and said, that's actually a really good explanation of it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No one's ever understood it.

Reese took it and synthesized the gobbledygook nonsense speak and into like an actual statement that was helpful.

There was a moment in the series I did where there was a live task that had caused a lot of confusion as to what were the rules.

And I got really angry and broke through the whole task.

Yeah, mad.

And

got angry with everyone and went, no, this is how it works.

This, this, this, and this, and explained it really angrily.

And everyone went, right, I understand it now.

And then I stepped up first and completely fucked it up.

That's the Ed Gamble vortex right there.

And there it is.

Um, Sanjeev.

Um, see, Sanjeev's was great.

I thought Sanjeev nailed it doing farting and you know, all these sound effects.

And it turns out he's entertaining a baby, and that's it's it's perfect.

I thought that was exactly what I was both of those guys really did exactly what you're describing, which is the gross thing was correctly revealed to be very sweet or very nice or whatever.

Um, Great.

Even though the baby was a horrible old hideous man mask with flywink on it.

That was very funny.

And I loved that like one of the things he's holding is like

a linked group of sausages.

Like a big round of sausages like a baby would love.

That's what that just like I love when the thing.

I love when it's

When you're in the show, it's so chaotic.

You're running around.

You're doing what you're doing.

But then when you watch the show and you're like, oh,

he just clearly grabbed a bunch of plastic sausages from the shed and is just like, yeah, sure, this works.

This is fine.

And then it's like, oh, no, now I'm on TV justifying why I think a group of sausages is exactly what a baby would like.

It's absolute madness.

He doesn't justify it.

He absolutely doesn't justify it.

It was one point for Maisie, two points for Reese, three points for Anya, four points for Phil.

Amazing.

I did not know how Phil got four points for putting his feet in gravy.

And five points for Sanjeev.

Thank God he got five points there.

He saved his episode.

Let's talk about the live task.

Oh, wait.

Before we do, Ed, if you don't mind, and I know we're going long and I'm so sorry, it's my fault.

But here's what I'll say.

As the new co-host of the Taskmaster podcast, I'm so thrilled to be here.

No, this was the debut of

this is episode one, so this is the new theme, theme, including the caravan, which is now a cowavan, I believe.

It is now painted like a cow.

And I'm not, again, not for nothing.

I just want to say I love the show.

I'm so grateful to be on it.

So happy to be on it.

Maybe I made my mark on it because the theme appears to be the American West.

Like,

I'm pretty sure the theme this season is America.

Interesting.

So interesting.

And you think that's all down to you?

You think they hadn't heard of, hadn't heard of America before?

I'm just saying,

I'm just saying, up until now, I don't think there's ever last season was science.

Before that, it's been all sorts of nonsense.

And this season, it's just America after they have an American champion on the last season.

Yeah.

We'll see.

We'll see if you're anything to do with that.

Are you having a nice time?

I'm gonna reveal you.

It's really tasty.

I'm gonna cover you up again.

Are you sure you don't want to suck a bit off?

Okay.

Let's talk about the live task.

I'm not going to read out all of the instructions because it's going to take far too long.

But they are blindfolded

and the task is end up on your spot.

You must obey the taskmaster's instructions.

Closest person to their spot at the end of the task wins.

I mean,

sometimes you come up with an image and you just work backwards from there.

Then with those masks on with the huge eyes is absolutely hella.

Yes, everybody wearing googly eyes masks.

Again, this gets, like i was saying before the first task kind of having like a kids playground tag style game this felt like a game like here we call simon says i'm sure you guys call it something dumb um

no we have simon says thank you oh okay but it's spelled differently i'm sure it's like p-s-y-m-o-n

um

uh so no no but i mean like and this had that vibe but again what i loved about it was like the genuine danger that people seemed to be in.

Like people were getting so close to the edge of the stage that I was like, no, no, these people are too old to be this close to the edge of the stage, guys.

What are you doing?

That felt nuts.

But you, you love that, right?

You absolutely love that people could fall in hell.

I loved the danger.

I loved the danger.

I loved it because I love when the show gets so fun or off the rails or whatever that like Greg at a certain point had to get out of his seat on the ground floor to stop people on stage, to with his hands, stop people who were just that close to the Sanchef at one point is on the edge of the stage.

This is an older man.

He's not coming back.

This is episode one.

He's not coming back for the rest of the week if he falls off this stage, guys.

What are we doing?

So I loved it.

I loved it, especially as a tone setter for the season of

for a new season.

That the first group live task is abject chaos.

It was great.

Total chaos.

Total chaos.

And I do think the image of Maisie with that blindfold on squatting down and marching on the spot is going to be a really enduring image of this whole series, I think.

Great.

Super funny.

Incredible.

Loved it.

Really, really, really fun.

Now

I'm going to do a,

do you think, because it was hard to be like, oh, you know, you got to move this, you got to move that.

Greg is telling you to take two steps this way, spin around, all this stuff.

And of course, you're supposed to stay on your spot.

Do you think you could have picked up the spot?

Interesting.

I'm never sure about...

I bet you could have picked up the spots about

cheats in live tasks.

And then just

at the end of the game, put it down and stepped right back on it.

That's what I'm...

Because

there's no way you would have been able to do it.

Or is it just whoever was closest, which is what it ended up being?

Anyway.

Yeah, but I think the spirit of the live tasks, really, if you'd found a hack for the live tasks, it might not.

Yeah, it might be, it might be frowned upon, but it's a good idea.

I didn't think of it.

Interesting.

Yeah.

But Anya nailed it.

30 centimeters is pretty impressive for that, especially given as she, I think, headbutts Maisie or punches her in the nose at some point.

No, no, they both, they knock faces.

Yeah.

I was like, oh my God.

This episode had quite a few spills and falls and stuff that I was like, oh, this is is already destructive and

perhaps injurious.

It was Anyaga who gets the five points, Maisie got the four points, Sanjeev gets three points, Phil gets two points, and Reese with the one point.

Meaning, Maisie wins this episode with 19 points, Phil inside

16.

Oh, yeah, handily.

Anya with 15 points, Reese on 13, Sanjeev on 12.

Pretty even spread, but Maisie just nudging out into the lead there.

Given you've only seen this first episode, Jason,

but you are a Taskmaster veteran.

Do you have any idea of who might win the series?

We always ask our guests to make a prediction.

You know,

I don't know.

I don't know who will win.

I thought everybody...

I think everybody fared well to some degree, such that I believe everybody could do well.

And Maisie ran away with this one, which I thought was fantastic.

And I think I could easily see her continuing to perform well.

I think Reese is a sleeper.

I think he is, like I was saying, he seemed to not be confused by anything.

And that's huge.

If he can continue to, because I feel like there are so many tasks I lost points in just because I didn't, I missed a piece or I forgot an element or whatever.

And my suspicion is he might not do that.

So that I think he is, you know, a perhaps a stealthy, great competitor in that sense.

But who knows?

I'm looking forward to all of them.

Sanjeev, of course, is a sleeper, but in a different way.

Absolutely.

As is Anya.

I feel like

Anya's making choices that I appreciate, like

taking the time to stack all the bins to make a tunnel and then just dropkicking the ball chaotically.

Like, I'm maybe most excited to see what Anya's just up to.

Yeah.

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

A la the style of the taskmaster.

We hope you've enjoyed yourself, Jason, but please give us an honest rating.

Five points, as always, Ed Gamble.

What a delight.

Thank you.

I'm a fan.

I love the podcast.

I'm a listener.

I mean, it couldn't make me happier.

And

it truly delights me that we get to talk about Taskmaster.

Like I said at the beginning, I'm devastated that I'm not on it, that I'm not talking about me on Taskmaster anymore.

I'm very selfish.

I'm very self-absorbed.

But just that we get to talk about it, just to watch it was what a blast.

What a treat.

I'm glad you gave me five points because if it was anything less, Daisy was

completely.

Don't worry, Daisy.

Come to America.

How did this get made?

We'll set you up right.

Yeah, Daisy, go and work on how did this get made, which seems like a very sort of calm operation, not chaotic in any way.

It's very straightforward.

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

You're, of course, welcome anytime.

Thank you, Ed.

Thanks, Jason.

Oh, what a blast.

Thank you so much to Jason for coming on the pod.

Jason is, I mean, you've got to think the ultimate podcast guest, no matter what the podcast is, he truly brings it.

Absolutely astounding.

Even though he accused me of being joyless.

But let's be fair, he had a point.

Do keep watching Taskmasters if you need any encouragement.

Uh, next episode will be next Thursday at 9 p.m.

channel 4.

Then come straight back here for the podcast.

We have a wonderful special guest, and it's only Bloody Anya Magliano.

That's right, we will get Anya into the caravan to talk about her time on Taskmaster and specifically episode two.

It's going to be a good one.

We will see you next week, 10 p.m., straight after the main show.

Get your pod.

Bye.