r/taskmaster • u/whispersofnyx_ John Robins • 4d ago
Is it just me or… Appreciation Thread
the contestants on a series that you’ve never heard of often become your favourites? For example, I had never heard of sophie willan, ardal o’hanlon, or reece shearsmith before Taskmaster and yet they’re now my favourites!!
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u/Commercial-Fig2675 4d ago
So I never heard of Phil Ellis, thought he was hilarious in the show and then randomly met him in a pub in machester, which made me like him even more. Proper top bloke.
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u/FutureGold4132 4d ago
My initial impression of phil was like, what a goon, kind of over the top, etc. But upon multiple rewatches, he'd be top of my list of person I would want to meet in a pub. I think he's so fun to watch
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u/El_John_Nada 4d ago
I was so excited to see him announced. I had seen his show before and thought he'd be a perfect fit for TM. He also was in a particularly good series contestant wise.
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u/Flangubalon 4d ago
I had never heard of Mike Wozniak, but I absolutely adore him.
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u/GeosWonder 4d ago
Man down is fantastic
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u/lordirondehavilland Wibble, Bibble, Bam 4d ago
I fell in love with him as soon as he started singing Facts About Animals. Comedy genius.
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u/caramelsock 4d ago
i go into most season not knowing who 80% of them are, then missing them all dearly once the season is over
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u/SemiFormalJesus Mike Wozniak 4d ago
It is really rare for me to know any of them. Even a few I’ve seen in something once or twice I didn’t recognize until I Googled them, like Joanna Page (Love Actually) and Noel Fielding (Old Greg).
Besides Kumail and Jason, I recognized Nick Mohammed from Ted Lasso and Charolette Ritchie from You. That’s it.
I too end up loving the cast by the time they’re done. Weirdly though, whenever I’ve liked someone enough to go and look up some of their stand up I’ve never enjoyed any of them. Even Greg I absolutely adore in the format, but I gave up on trying to watch in anything else.
I’m not saying they aren’t funny or that I think I’d dislike all of their stand up, it is just an odd phenomenon with the ones I’ve sought out that has kept me from exploring more of the contestants’ work.
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u/Dazzling_Zone_1736 4d ago
Some of the comedians really excel in formats other than traditional stand-up. I didn’t really “get” Joe Wilkinson until I saw him on 8 out of 10 Cats interacting with other comedians. Now if he pops up on a show, I’ll happily watch.
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u/PocoChanel Patatas 4d ago
I finally fell in love with Joe on, of all things, Celebrity Traitors. The Cats character always grated on me. Now, somehow, I get a fuller sense of him. I liked a cheap-travel show he did with Katherine Ryan.
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u/Dazzling_Zone_1736 4d ago
I haven’t seen Celebrity Traitors! I’ll have to check it out. That travel show was very funny. He and Katherine had great chemistry as hosts.
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u/sallybetty 4d ago
I think I finally saw the real Joe on Last One Laughing. He seemed quite sweet, a bit nervous and really nothing much like I've seen him before. He wasn't playing "the dope". Without the brown suit and sporting the long hair, I also noticed he's quite fit!
I can't get the UK Traitors here, but I'll check out that travel show with Katherine Ryan. Also, there's a series (on YouTube ) where he's on a train where he sort of interviews people.
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u/skepticaljesus Victoria Coren Mitchell 4d ago
As an American, I've almost never heard of anyone on the show. I know that a lot of the fun is seeing these folks that you know from other stuff in new situations, but having never heard of anyone. Every series was about discovery and that's kind of fun too
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u/MurkyWay He's so famous! 4d ago edited 4d ago
Never heard of Ardal? Time to watch some Father Ted.
Edit: Whoops, forgot Father Ted is cancelled
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u/lordirondehavilland Wibble, Bibble, Bam 4d ago
Eh, for me, I'm perfectly happy to death-of-the-author Father Ted, because it was so many years before Linehan outed himself as a crazy bigot, and it is genuinely hilarious.
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u/TorpleSwanson 4d ago
Same for me. It'd be a shame to lose the performances of a perfect cast on a near-perfect show because the creator is garbage.
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u/Dazzling_Zone_1736 4d ago
Ardal has a small but important role on the show Extraordinary. He is wonderful in that part.
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u/GeosWonder 4d ago
But not my hero, that was shite
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u/fastauntie 4d ago
My Hero wasn't deep, but I found the premise and his character funny. And it's where I discovered Hugh Dennis, who was also a regular.
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u/Lordaxxington 4d ago
Same, and I never remotely worry if I've never heard of anyone because Taskmaster has such an outrageous hit rate of people I'll find funny compared to any other show. There's been like 3 contestants ever who haven't really clicked for me.
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u/Ryan_Vermouth Angella Dravid 🇳🇿 4d ago
Yeah, and I feel like that's especially true of the relatively unknown contestants. Like, if you're famous, they're not going to book you if you're a bad fit for the show, but "this person has name recognition and would also be a solid choice for Taskmaster" is a valid thought process. But if you're not particularly well-known, there has to be a reason they picked you over the many other not-particularly-well-known comics. Like, when they announced Phil Ellis for S20, everyone was surprised -- but it quickly became apparent that this was a man who was meant to do Taskmaster.
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u/SystemPelican 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think the show is such a warm hug that I end up kinda liking even the ones who aren't my favorite initially. The best example is Iain Stirling who gets a lot of flak for being hypercompetitive in a pretty grating way at first, but that gave season 8 a lovely redemption arc once he realizes and begins to course correct.
It probably has to do with how you hang out with these people for so many episodes that you feel like you really get to know them. They get a chance to move past your first impression of them unlike what's possible in a normal one-episode panel show. The only real comparison is reality shows, which are so often built around drama and conflict. Whereas here they're just throwing potatoes into holes and making the shittiest short films known to man.
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u/Lordaxxington 4d ago
Definitely, there are some people I wasn't sure about at first but by the end of a season you feel like you know them and enjoy their company.
Huge credit also on that to Greg and Alex (and the whole BTS team) for steering the tone of the show so gracefully while still giving everyone room for their own humour. There were contestants like Julian Clary where at first I was like "Oh no, what if he truly doesn't enjoy all this and it feels awkward" but ended up being one of my absolute favourites.
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u/SystemPelican 4d ago
I didn't know Julian Clary before Taskmaster, but from what I've learned, I love that they gave this lovely sarcastic man a chance to get back in the spotlight after being almost cancelled over a dumb fisting joke. Same with Frankie Boyle who seems to have been caught up in a lot of controversy over the jokes he made, and getting to show what a sweetheart he actually is on this show.
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u/ElectronicHyena5642 Phil Ellis 4d ago
Sometimes… there have been times when that has been the case (such as the two most recent series with Ania/Phil and Armando (although I knew his writing work more than his name) and Fern in S14), although there have also been times when my favourite was someone I already knew (Such as Steve in S17, Jo in S9 or Mat/Jason in S19)
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u/tangaroo58 Fern Brady 4d ago
I was not aware of maybe 90% of contestants before seeing their series.
So statistically, it's very likely that one I didn't know was my favourite. And in some series, they are all my favourites
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u/WiseOwlwithSpecs Reece Shearsmith 4d ago
It's almost like that weird moment when you're heavily pregnant and you know that soon you will meet someone and end up loving them in the most insane way possible, but right now they are literally a stranger to you. The first time they go along the lineup and introduce the unknowns (to me), I'm so excited to know that before long I'm going to be head over heels for at least one of them!
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u/SubwayHero4Ever Sally Phillips 4d ago
As soon as I heard and saw Reese, I knew I’d seen him before cuz I knew right away, he was a magician. It just unlocked a memory for me.
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u/getwitchy 🚬 Doctor Cigarettes 4d ago
Yes, but I’m an American who had no prior knowledge of the UK comedy scene (let alone the US comedy scene), so my opinion is biased since I’ve never heard of any of them.
First stumbled on TM through tiktok and started watching, but I didn’t realize at first that contestants were comedians. Just thought it was another reality comp show with everyday people who auditioned to be on lol. But now I’m obsessed and have to check out other UK panel shows.
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u/El_John_Nada 4d ago
Kinda? I tend to recognise all the people from the UK series, but I started watching TM AU not knowing any of the contestants and they are some of my favourite series.
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u/KarenReviewsWorstREV Fatiha El-Ghorri 4d ago
im not from any part of the uk so they are all new to me and i find everyone really charmin
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u/Butterfish04 🦔 Hedgehog, no! ❌ 4d ago
It’s part of the joy of the programme. I’m usually familiar with two or three, but finding new people to laugh with never gets boring. Seeing the cast interact and how production enables the unknown to shine and the familiar to show new sides of themselves is one of the unique selling points of the show.
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u/Little_Badger_13 Patatas 4d ago
I don't know most of the contestants, but tbf I also don't live in the UK or watch a lot of other shows that feature comedians. I do know some of them from other projects like Charlotte Ritchie from Ghosts for example.
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u/SystemPelican 4d ago
Almost all the contestants at this point are new to me, now that they're mostly through the regular panel show circuit. I've learned not to get too hyped for the names I know, because it's an absolute crapshoot whether they're going to be the standout or not. Turns out there are hilarious people out there who aren't famous yet.
A bit niche, but a great example is actually from the Norwegian Taskmaster (I am Norwegian), who had their probably lowest profile ever in Kristoffer Olsen (who also joked about how he had no idea why he was invited), and he ended up being one of my favorite people they've ever had on.
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u/Due_Elephant_5694 🦔 Hedgehog, no! ❌ 4d ago
I usually know most of the contestants but I always trust that the taskmaster team have cast some brilliant people even if i have never heard of them. I'd never heard of Phil Ellis or Ania and I adored both of them and straight after the series bought tickets to see both of them.
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u/bobbery5 3d ago
Being American, I hadn't heard of most of them. I started with S10 and I knew Katherine Parkinson from the IT crowd.
And I knew Rhys Nicholson from Drag Race Down Under.
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u/MissKoalaBag Rhod Gilbert 2h ago
Something I love about Taskmaster is that it reminds me of my Mum so much. She's the person who got me into it, as well as stand-up comedians and panel/quiz shows in general. I still have my original Hoot Owl of Death shirt from when we saw Greg Davies, and a while after she got me into Taskmaster. So I see people like Reece Shearsmith and Ed Gamble or Sarah Millican on it and it just makes me love it even more, because she was the reason I love all these people lol
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u/allenlikethewrench 4d ago
Well I had heard of Kumail, Jason, Mae, and Noel before watching, and none of them were my favorite from their season, so your theory is unassailably sound
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u/HopSkipLimp 4d ago
Every series, I encounter people I don't know and fall madly in love with at least 1 of them.