Reaction: Taskmaster, "Sometimes Spit" | Season 19, Episode 1

Hey everyone, Myles here—earlier this year, as I was teasing out the possibility of introducing “Reactions” as a low-stakes way to expand our coverage, someone reached out to me with a similar proposal. Laura M. Browning, one-time executive editor of The A.V. Club, has been among our subscribers and expressed a desire for a space to discuss one of her television loves for a dedicated audience: Taskmaster, the U.K. comedy sensation that many Americans discovered over the pandemic, and which now airs day-and-date on YouTube in the U.S.

As with our other reactions, these will go out to all subscribers on Saturdays, but as a reminder: if you don’t want to receive emails, you can log into your Substack account to adjust your email preferences to exclude certain newsletters. Additionally, as before, only paid subscribers can comment to join the conversation.

Hello and welcome to the first Episodic Reaction of Taskmaster series/season (we’ll get to that) 19! I’m Laura—longtime Anglophile, and as Myles notes, one-time executive editor of The A.V. Club—and I’m delighted to be your host.

If you’re new to Taskmaster, here’s the basic premise: Five comedians do a series of pointless, inane, and generally unhinged tasks designed by fellow comedian Alex Horne, who plays the role of the Taskmaster’s assistant. The Taskmaster himself is comedian Greg Davies, who is 6’8” and has giant hands. All episodes from all seasons are free to watch on the Taskmaster YouTube channel, and if you’re not watching yet, come join us. It is an antidote to these trying times, etc.

There’s not a bad season of Taskmaster, but just how good it is hinges on the mix of contestants—the best seasons have somebody who’s hopelessly terrible at all the tasks (S4’s Lolly Adefope, S11’s Charlotte Ritchie), somebody who’s diabolically great (S2’s Katherine Ryan, S4’s Noel Fielding), and at least one contestant who’s willing to be made an absolute fool over and over again (take your pick).

This season’s contestants: Fatiha El-Ghorri, Jason Mantzoukas, Matthew Baynton, Rosie Ramsey, and Stevie Martin.

Mantzoukas is the show’s second American contestant, after season 12’s Desiree Burch—but the first American professionally based in the U.S.—and possibly the reason you’re watching. (For the Good Place fans, I kept accidentally writing his name as “Derek” in my notes.) Americans don’t really do comedy panel shows like the Brits do, and Taskmaster is among the best, so I’m excited that more Yanks will be watching each week. I also hope we see more language-based banter between Mantzoukas and the hosts, like tonight’s opening barb after Mantzoukas proclaimed, “an auspicious beginning to a new season.” Little Alex Horne: “Series, Jason.” Davies: “You’re a guest in this country.”

Overall impressions of E1, “Sometimes Spit”:

• The opening prize task, in which contestants have to bring in an object that fits into a narrowly defined category, usually sets the tone of the show. The first prize task was to bring in an object that reminded you of school—but in a good way. From the jump, it looks like Mantzoukas is going to be the teacher’s pet, and El-Ghorri, who brought in a golf club, is going to be the class clown who’s constantly being sent to the principal’s office. Based on this task alone, I’m very optimistic about the season. And Mantzoukas’ pull-down map was very sweet indeed.
• The first task, in the lab, was a solid start. Taskmaster tasks are never straightforward, and finding out that the “fish tank” was a toy fish driving a toy tank was a groaner of a pun, but it inspired some delightful swearing directed at Alex Horne. Baynton’s vigorous “Fuck off!” said it all.

• The second task, doing something “cool” and then doing it backwards, fell a little short for me. El-Ghorri and Mantzoukas were the stand-outs; hers was the kind of absolute stupidity that makes this show so great (guessing what candy Horne was eating based on how he chewed it, or as Davies put it, “Miss Fucking Guess the Sweets”). And Mantzoukas’ lock-picking was, in my estimation, the only genuinely cool task of the five of them (though he only came in third). Davies awarding Baynton first place felt like a pity prize, and it’s much funnier when Davies is merciless.
• The third task, the Pealympics, was classic Taskmaster: There’s a pea hidden under one of 26 pillows, but nobody figures out that each pillow represents a letter of the alphabet, meaning the pea is under the 16th one. I was a little surprised that Mantzoukas didn’t try harder to figure it out — he’s a longtime fan of the show, so he should know there’s usually (an absurd) method to Horne’s madness. And El-Ghorri came so close, too!

• The live task was pure, perfect chaos. There’s less room in the live tasks for what the show likes to call “lateral thinking,” so whether it’s funny depends entirely on whether watching five comedians make asses of themselves trying to spit raisins in wine glasses is funny. Turns out: Yes, very.

I’ll see you again next week for episode 2; in the meantime, I’d love to know what your favorite season of Taskmaster is (season 4 is hard to beat imo), how you think season 19 is shaping up, and if you have any early guesses for a winner.

As noted, to join the conversation as we follow the season over the next ten weeks, become a paid subscriber.