History LoopholeAbuse / Taskmaster

* In "Croissants is Croissants", the task is to prevent Alex from scoring a goal: Alex must kick the ball from a red dot, and the contestants must be at least 18 feet away from the dot while Alex is attempting to score. While the other contestants created barriers to block the goalpost, Guz instead moves the dot and ball inside the house, covering it with furniture and taping the doors closed for good measure. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Alex turns it around on him]], as nothing in the rules state the ball could be recovered and moved back to its original position. Further more, because of the aforementioned "18 foot distance" rule, Guz can't move the ball again. Because of the 3 minutes it took Alex to recover the ball and 2 and a half minutes goalkeeping the old fashion way, his attempted earned him third place.]]

* In "Croissants is Croissants", the task is to prevent Alex from scoring a goal: Alex must kick the ball from a red dot, and the contestants must be at least 18 feet away from the dot while Alex is attempting to score. While the other contestants created barriers to block to goalpost, Guz instead moves the dot and ball inside the house, covering it with furniture and taping the doors closed for good measure. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Alex turns it around on him]], as nothing in the rules state the ball could be recovered and moved back to its original position. Further more, because of the aforementioned "18 foot distance" rule, Guz can't move the ball again. Because of the 3 minutes it took Alex to recover the ball and 2 and a half minutes goalkeeping the old fashion way, his attempted earned him third place.]]

* The prize task for "Welcome to Rico Face" is to bring in the "coolest blue thing". Doc, Kathrine, and Richard all bring in items that are the color blue. Jon and Joe being from Northern UK, however, take "blue" to mean "filth"[[note]]"Blue" has been used as a slang term for "filth" in the UK and Europe since at least the early 1800s[[/note]]. Joe brings in a vintage smut novel, and Jon brings in a fridge magnet with some sexually explicit cartoons. [[spoiler:They place second and first, respectively, in the task]].

** The ducks and socks task states that contestants can't touch any ducks or socks that touch the ground. To counter this, Munya places the ubiquitous bathtub at the end of the treadmill conveyor belt to catch anything he misses so he can try again.

[[header:[[center:''Series/{{Taskmaster}}'' [[Series/{{Taskmaster}} tropes index]]\\
[-[[Taskmaster/TropesAToF A to F]] | [[Taskmaster/TropesGToQ G to Q]] ('''Loophole Abuse''') | [[Taskmaster/TropesRToZ R to Z]] ([[ShoutOut/{{Taskmaster}} Shout Out]])-]]]]]-]]]]]

* The ducks and socks task for "Enormous Hugness" states that contestants can't touch any ducks or socks that touch the ground. To counter this, Munya places the ubiquitous bathtub at the end of the treadmill conveyor belt to catch anything he misses so he can try again.
* During the grapes and flour task in "Enormous Hugeness", Dara realizes that the task doesn't specify which grapes he needs to use and that there's no need to dig through the pile of flour in front of him. Instead, he runs to the kitchen to grab a package of grapes. Hilariously, he fails to spot the grapes secreted around the garage despite them being mere inches away in his line of sight.

* In "Meat", a task involves putting on a wetsuit in the fastest time. Several of the competitors give up partway through, for instance after getting their legs in but before they've got their arms in and zipped it up, arguing that this counts as 'on' and that the task didn't specify 'completely on'. Noel goes further, asserting that folding up the wetsuit and placing it on his head counts as putting it on. [[spoiler:Noel gets disqualified, but the other contestants are judged to have completed the task sufficiently.]]

!!!Taskmaster UK

!!In General

!!Series One

!!Series Two

* The prize task for "Welcome to Rico Face" is to bring in the "coolest blue thing". Doc, Kathryn, and Richard all bring in items that are the color blue. Jon and Joe being from Northern UK, however, take "blue" to mean "filth"[[note]]"Blue" has been used as a slang term for "filth" in the UK and Europe since at least the early 1800s[[/note]]. Joe brings in a vintage smut novel, and Jon brings in a fridge magnet with some sexually explicit cartoons. [[spoiler:They place second and first, respectively, in the task]].

!!Series Three

!!Series Four

!!Series Five

!!Series Six

!!Series Seven

!!Series Eight

!!Series Nine

!!Series Ten

!!New Year Treat 2020

!!Series Eleven

!!Series Twelve

!!Series Thirteen

!!Series Fourteen

!!!International Taskmaster

!!Taskmaster Denmark (aka Stormester)

!!Taskmaster Finland (aka Suurmestari)

!!Taskmaster Sweden (aka Bäst i test)

!!Taskmaster Spain (aka Dicho y hecho)

!Other Taskmaster-related content

!Taskmaster UK

!International Taskmaster

!Taskmaster Denmark (aka Stormester)

!Taskmaster Finland (aka Suurmestari)

!Taskmaster Sweden (aka Bäst i test)

!Taskmaster Spain (aka Dicho y hecho)

A LoopholeAbuse examples list from the British TV Show ''Series/{{Taskmaster}}'', a list so big we had to give it its own page. This is down to the nature of the show and how it involves lateral thinking, which makes its celebrity contestants think of ways to [[ExactWords abuse the wording of a task]], [[CuttingTheKnot bypass a task requirement entirely]], question the AmbiguousSyntax tasks are often given, or, well, they employ LoopholeAbuse. As intended, this happens pretty often, and Greg will allow the behavior if it's sufficiently funny, clever, or entertaining [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs (or all three)]], but he is not afraid to disqualify contestants who obviously break the rules of the Tasks. Reggie from ''Series/TaskmasterUS'' also did the same thing. There is also an unspoken assumption that the contestant will at least try to complete the task in a way which is in keeping with the spirit of both of what the task is asking for and the show overall; they're there to be entertaining, funny and silly, and the show isn't just a venue for contestants to show off how good they are at finding loopholes. Accordingly, just because a contestant finds a clever loophole in the task does not always guarantee them a victory.

* In "The 75th Question", one task is 'Record the highest number on this pedometer.' While the other contestants attempt various tricks to increase the pedometer count, Bridget sits on the pedometer and makes a recording on her phone of herself saying the number "eleven trillion gazillion". [[spoiler:Greg allows it (though without the "gazillion," as not being a real number), and Bridget wins the task.]]

* In "The 75th Question", one task is 'Record the highest number on this pedometer.' While the other contestants attempt various tricks to increase the pedometer count, Bridget sits on the pedometer and makes a recording on her phone of herself saying the number "eleven trillion gazillion". [[spoiler:Greg allows it, and Bridget wins the task.]]

!!New Year Treat

A LoopholeAbuse examples list from the British TV Show ''Series/{{Taskmaster}}'', a list so big we had to give it its own page. This is down to the nature of the show and how it involves lateral thinking, which makes its celebrity contestants think of ways to [[ExactWords abuse the wording of a task]], [[CuttingTheKnot bypass a task requirement entirely]], question the AmbiguousSyntax tasks are often given, or, well, they employ LoopholeAbuse. As intended, this happens pretty often, and Greg will allow the behavior if it's sufficiently funny, clever, or entertaining [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs (or all three)]], but he is not afraid to disqualify contestants who obviously break the rules of the Tasks. Reggie from ''Series/TaskmasterUS'' also did the same thing. There is also an unspoken assumption that the contestant will at least try to complete the task in a way which is in keeping with both the spirit of what the task is asking for and the nature of the show, which is to be entertaining, funny and silly and not just a venue for contestants to show off how good they are at finding loopholes; accordingly, just because a contestant finds a clever loophole in the task does not always guarantee them a victory.

* In "You Tuper Super", the contestants are required to hold a conversation with Swedish Fred after spending fifteen minutes cramming the Swedish language. Bridget phones a family member who speaks Swedish and has him coach her through the conversation. [[spoiler:Alex notes that this technically fulfills the task, which says "Best demonstration of the Swedish language wins" but doesn't specify that it has to be the contestant giving the demonstration. Greg awards Bridget second place.]]

* In "The Pendulum Draws the Eye", the contestants are tasked to discover which of 50 socks has a satsuma in it. Rhod finds a satsuma in the kitchen, puts it in a randomly-selected sock, and presents it to Alex. [[spoiler:Despite the energetic protests of the others, Greg rules this an acceptable solution, though he does give Rhod only 4 points and a tie for first place instead of giving him outright victory with 5 points.]]

* In "Fear of Failure", the contestants are ordered to place three large exercise balls on top of a yoga mat which is in top of a steep hill. While everyone else interprets this as getting the balls up the hill and does so (with varying degrees of competency), Richard instead brings the yoga mat down from the hill and places the balls on it at the bottom, reasoning that the task is worded in such a way that it never actually requires the balls to be taken up the hill. This one ultimately required the producers to get in touch with Susie Dent, the prominent lexicographer who notably appears on ''Series/{{Countdown}}'', to judge whether Richard had interpreted the task reasonably. [[spoiler: Susie concurs with Richard's reading as being valid, enabling Richard to win the task.]] Ed Gamble suggests on the Taskmaster podcast that this moment, and Richard's getting away with it, was the very moment Taskmaster came to be defined by its lateral-thinking LoopholeAbuse.