Reaction: Taskmaster, “The clever side” | Series 19, Episode 10

Well, friends: The time has come. Series 19 of Taskmaster is over, and this is our final 45 minutes with contestants Fatiha El-Ghorri, who has definitely farted in front of a cat; Jason Mantzoukas, who has definitely worked a service job before; Mathew Baynton, who definitely has not; Rosie Ramsey, who is looking especially glorious in this ep; and Stevie Martin, who is definitely not deliberate with her thoughts and emotions.

This has been arguably the strongest cast in Taskmaster history; certainly one of the most congenial. Even though the studio tapings are condensed into a week or two, their camaraderie clearly grew over the course of the series. The grand finale was a banger of an episode, even though we all knew going in who the winner was going to be. (Though one of the joys of Taskmaster is that winning isn’t really all that important.)

The Prize Task

• This week’s prize task is to bring in the thing most likely to make you do a double take. I still have not figured out El-Ghorri’s fake beard, but I sure enjoyed the journey: “Have you ever farted in front of a cat?” “I just couldn’t find a guy with a beard I liked.” What exactly were we supposed to be double-taking at? Who can say.
• Mantzoukas’ yard sale trophy may not have been the most visually interesting, like Baynton’s boots in a bin or Martin’s fake hand, but it elicited the biggest “WTF?!” from me.
• Martin deserved all five points; masterfully done.

The Other Tasks

• The first task is to completely fill the yellow box with sand. Once you have touched a box, you must hold that box for the rest of the task. Poor Martin: One has to wonder what tasks she’d done immediately prior to this one that made her solemnly vow to “be very deliberate in my thoughts and emotions.” Mantzoukas was smart to use the tablecloth to avoid touching the boxes directly; I don’t think anybody else realized that the orange box was only partly filled with sand. He and Baynton clobbered the others in this one, with a nearly 13-minute difference between second place (Mantzoukas) and third place (Martin).

• The second task is a sneaky two-parter: First, freeze on your spot in the most powerful pose. You must be holding two of the objects [displayed on stands]. As Thingamajig said in the comments a few weeks back, if the first task doesn’t say how you win, there’s a second part coming! The contestants then had to stay still for 10 minutes. The person with the least movement wins. I fully believe Baynton when he said he was sore for days—I can barely stay in a squat like that for 30 seconds, much less 10 minutes.

• I need a supercut of all of Baynton’s demented little grins. He made Little Alex Horne repeatedly dunk his head in a water-filled trash can (rubbish bin, sorry), stole a kayak from his friend Jim Howick, and now threatens to kill poor Rufus the (stuffed) puppy.

• The third task, our final team task of the season, was to provide the best drive-thru experience. The team of three had the ostensible advantage here—though I maintain that teams of two have an inherent advantage because communication is easier—since there were three stations to operate. As the team of two, J.V. Martzoukas had to divvy up the stations, with Mantzoukas taking orders in the hutch and then taking payments under the dome. Everybody wins when Mantzoukas gets to show off his improv; bullshitting his way through the entire history and philosophy of the J.V. Martzoukas Deli was a brilliant time-delaying device, giving Martin more time in the kitchen.

• It was clear from the get-go that the team of three—Baynton, El-Ghorri, and Ramsey—was going to be a hot mess, but wow, I didn’t not expect that much of a disaster. Has Baynton ever worked a service job in his life?

• And, as predicted, Mathew Baynton wins the Golden Noggin with 169 points. What I didn’t predict was the order of the rest of the contestants: Martin was second (154 points), Mantzoukas third (150 points), Ramsey fourth (149 points), and El-Ghorri last (141 points).

Elsewhere in the Taskmaster extended universe

• “Your country is known for things being uncut”: Jason Mantzoukas makes another plea to release more Taskmaster footage in this absolutely delightful Instagram Live conversation with Martin:

• Supercut of Fatiha being Fatiha, bruv:

• Taskmaster went to Glastonbury, and if you search Instagram/TikTok/YouTube, you can find some very chaotic videos of James Acaster and Nish Kumar DJing and dancing. Also, a puppet named Basil Brush (who I am reliably told is a well-known character, at least to people old enough to watch Taskmaster) sang “Purple Rain.”
• Martin has said that apparently this cast was the only one to eat all of its meals together between tapings (except for one episode where Mantzoukas had catastrophic food poisoning).
• The Taskmaster series 20 cast has been announced (though the premiere date has not, other than “soon”): Ania Magliano, Maisie Adam, Phil Ellis, Reese Shearsmith, and Sanjeev Bhaskar.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to do these mini reviews of Taskmaster for you. Thank you for reading, for commenting, and for being a part of Episodic Medium!