British series:
Series: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen
Specials: New Year Treat | New Year Treat II | New Year Treat III | New Year Treat IV
New Zealand series:
Seasons: One | Two | Three | Four
Australian Series:
Seasons: One
Frank Skinner
"But then I saw who I was up against: women, poets..."
"He is a national treasure, by which I mean he's older than the others, it's Frank Skinner!"
— The Taskmaster
A comedian who rose to fame as the double act partner of David Baddiel. He hosted the TV show Fantasy Football League, and he was the third host of Room 101.
- Cool Old Guy: The oldest member of the Series 1 cast, and referred to as a comic "sage" by his fellow competitor Tim Key. It was his participation that convinced other comedians to start signing on (including Greg), as it gave significant strength and legitimacy to a line-up of an experimental new show.
- Participants of the podcast have also complimented Frank's demeanour in the show, where he seemed to tackle tasks breezily and in a calm, good-natured spirit. It's particularly highlighted in the 'fill an eggcup with tears' task, where he's the only contestant to not fail or cause himself pain, while breezily singing.
- The Gadfly: Frank is a subtle variant - he takes the occasional opportunity to rub it in other contestants' faces when they do poorly in a very mild manner:Frank: [after he and Tim determined the scoring system for the "get to 11 points" task] Wasn't it fantastic?
Tim: Oh, it was amazing!
Frank: [addressing the other contestants] Must have been horrible not to work [the scoring system] out at all! - The Stoic: Downplayed, but as Romesh notes in the podcast he very rarely lets the tasks get to him and tends to respond to things in a cool-headed and efficient fashion.
- Uncle Pennybags: Frank is quite wealthy in large part due to songwriting royalties he has received for "Three Lions", the English soccer anthem, which is the source of some jokes on the show. For example, Frank quips that he could meet the bribe amount (£12,500) needed to secure first place with cash on hand in one task, and then that he didn't need the money but relished the opportunity to withdraw a vast sum from Josh's bank account after winning the blank cheque in "Little Denim Shorts".
Josh Widdicombe
"I don't know who's the bigger loser out of me and you on this one."
"When he reached the age of 12, he thought 'yep, I'm sticking with this,' Josh Widdicombe!"
— The Taskmaster
A stand-up comedian and co-presenter of The Last Leg.
- The Bus Came Back: Returned for a group task in "A Pistachio Eclair" (series 2) as well as the Champions of Champions special.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Only the youngest of the group by four years, but very baby-faced, which the Taskmaster frequently riffs on.
- Butt-Monkey: He kicked off the tradition of contestants being singled out to do tedious tasks not for points, but for the amusement of everyone else. In "Down An Octave", he was made to count how many baked beans were in a can, then spaghetti hoops, and finally grains of rice in a bag.
- Did Not Think This Through: Once brought a blank cheque in for a prize task without realizing how much money he'd stand to lose if he didn't win that episode. His eyes turned to saucers when the other contestants pointed out that under British banking regulations, someone could pull up to 20 grand out in a single withdrawal.note
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The counting task above led to general mockery of Josh, and he was clearly annoyed in the recordings, but the single point Greg gave him out of pity was enough to make him the Champion, at 94 points ahead of Romesh and Frank on 93.
- Loophole Abuse: Largely averted. Josh discusses on the official podcast that he didn't particularly enjoy exploiting the wording of tasks, as it didn't suit him personality-wise. The exception to this is the 'throw a teabag into a mug' task which was recorded on his first day, but he nevertheless considers it an exception which proves the rule, as he didn't feel it was a good idea and ended up getting disqualified for it.
- Oh, Crap!: When discussing the £20 gift task on the podcast, Josh says that the viewers can see him silently panicking about his foot tattoo when Tim Key hands Greg some book vouchers. This is because Josh had realised just how much further he had gone on the task, and was worried he would completely warp the tone of the show. He even compares it to the nervousness he felt before proposing.
Roisin Conaty
"Papa don't breach."
"Next up, a woman that I genuinely witnessed calling for her mum because she had seen a mouse, it's Roisin Conaty!"
— The Taskmaster
A comedian, actress, and personal friend of the Taskmaster. She co-starred with Greg in Man Down.
- Butt-Monkey: Most of her intros by Greg include one personal but embarrassing anecdote about her.
- Did Not Think This Through: Roisin didn't think to put down any sort of safety matting when throwing an egg up in the air for a task that requires the egg to be intact. No prizes for guessing what happens next...
- The Ditz: Roisin had her moments of ingenuity, such as when she was the only person who thought to make Fred blush by standing with his head between his legs, to get the blood flowing to his face. Alex has however stated that Roisin set an early benchmark for comparing contestants' incompetence, and as of the Season 10 premiere she is the Taskmaster contestant who has scored the lowest percentage of her maximum possible score (42.5%). Despite this, she still managed to win an episode.
- Establishing Character Moment: Roisin's approach to the show (or lack of one) is best demonstrated in the very first recorded task (eat as much melon in one minute, with your time starting as soon as you enter the lab). She assumed that the watermelon would already have been cut open, so when she opens the door to the lab and finds a whole, uncut melon, she stops, ponders her options, and then trots out of the lab to the kitchen to look for knives, all while the timer is going down. After some prompting from Alex, she then runs back into the lab, cuts open the watermelon, and then (in her words) "barely grazes it" with six seconds left on the clock. Not surprisingly, she places last in the task with 9 grams of melon (the equivalent of a single Rolo) consumed.
- The Smurfette Principle: Roisin was the only female contestant in her series.
- Willfully Weak: For the pie-breaching task, Roisin was clever enough to ask Alex to breach the pies by tasting the contents, but then hampers her own efforts by standing in the opposite corner and looking away from Alex whenever he took a bite out of each pie. In the studio, Roisin tells Greg that only ten minutes after the task was over, she realised she should have asked Alex to ''smash'' the pies open, just like Tim's method.
Romesh Ranganathan
"Tree Wizard!"
"Quite simply a lovely, kind man. Probably my favourite, really the loveliest of all the contestants, Romesh Ranganathan!"
— The Taskmaster
A comedian known for his stand-up and his appearances on panel shows.
- Always Second Best: Romesh ranks high in a series wide comparison of the highest scoring contestants, and came joint second in Series 1 by a single point. Surprisingly though, he never won an episode.
- Berserk Button: In the episode "The Poet and the Egg", he claims that unlike everyone else he was not provided with any kind of box to use, with the resulting argument eventually getting to the point where even mentioning the word "box" would set him off. This continues to the podcast, where he is apparently still, six years later, determined to make it clear that he didn't get a box.Romesh: There was NO box, mate!
- Butt-Monkey: He's probably the biggest target of Greg's jibes in the first series, and it becomes pretty clear that several scoring decisions are made with the explicit intention of provoking Romesh. In his appearance on the show's podcast, Romesh concedes that he likely brought a lot of this on himself because he was taking matters too seriously, making it impossible for Greg to resist winding him up.
- The Cameo: Romesh appears in Series 8 episode "Stay Humble" with Sian in the team task to play the longest game of catch, remarking on how wonderful it is to be in Johannesburg/Malaysia/New Zealandnote .
- The Comically Serious: For comedic effect, he pretends to have no sense of humor whatsoever.
- Competition Freak: Except for (maybe) Tim, who is arguably more of The Gadfly, he's the contestant in the first series who is most invested in winning. Numerous examples can be located throughout the show, but one behind the scenes story sums everything up; Josh wins the series by virtue of one point, which came from a bonus point he received from being a good sport about his "count [X]" solo tasks in one episode. Later, Josh reported on the podcast that a "nameless" contestant had been heard to loudly grumble about "that fucking bean point!" Absolutely no one who heard this had any doubt who the "nameless" contestant was, and when Romesh was confronted with this story on a later appearance his only response was to burst out laughing.
- Did Not Think This Through: Ed tells Romesh on the podcast what he thinks made the latter such a great contestant: Romesh plowed on with the simple but insane strategies most people would think of but then dismiss out of restraint. For example, many people would consider using chilli sauce to make themselves cry, but would then try to think of a less painful route. Romesh conceded that such brutal simplicity did somewhat define his attempts.
- Eye Scream: Romesh set an early marker for contestants performing sacrifices in recorded tasks, when he rubbed chilli sauce into his eyes to generate tears. Tim recoiled in horror to the video.
- Hates Being Touched: Played with in one episode, when Greg mentioned that before the show he lightly touched Romesh's nose, which the latter didn't take kindly to. This then became a Running Gag for the episode, resulting with Romesh touching Greg's nose back.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Romesh's attempts were characterised generally by a lack of thought and general destruction. Greg even referred to him as a "lunatic".
- Munchkin: He's competitive to the point he rarely looks like he's having any fun, he takes every opportunity to argue with Greg's decisions, and he treats the prize round as if Taskmaster were the last thing he had left to live for in the whole wide world (putting up, for instance, his wedding ring, his car, and a statuette of supposedly immense sentimental value).
- Not So Above It All: In the studio, he usually maintains a grumpy and combative attitude, but he can be seen laughing and joking along with the other contestants when he thinks the camera isn't on him while taped tasks are played for the audience. There are also a few moments where he clearly thinks Greg's jibes towards him are Actually Pretty Funny but is maintaining his persona.
- There's also "Tree Wizard"
, which is very cheerful and silly.
- There's also "Tree Wizard"
- Serious Business: A lot of his grumpiness comes from the fact that he is clearly very invested in winning this show, and gets very annoyed when his attempts to do so are ridiculed or undervalued. This extends to bringing in his wedding ring and his wife's car as prize task submissions, stuffing himself with watermelon to the point where he vomits, compromising his vegan ideals by hitting dozens of eggs with a golf club to get them around a mini-golf course, and the aforementioned rubbing chilli sauce in his eyes to get the most tears. On his appearance in the podcast, Romesh concedes that he probably took things more seriously than he should have and if he did it again would probably try not to get quite so invested in things.
- Small Role, Big Impact: According to Romesh himself on the official podcast, contrary to expectations he actually didn't get into as much trouble as you'd think for losing his wedding ring or his wife's car in the prize tasks (it's unstated, but it can be assumed that jokes aside he sought her approval for both beforehand), both of which are generally held as key examples of just how far contestants can be willing to go to win the prize rounds. In fact, the prize that actually caused him the most trouble in his personal life turned out to be the cheap trinket snowglobe given to him by his sister-in-law he brought in for episode one. Romesh revealed that his sister-in-law was genuinely offended by the merciless put-downs and mockery he subjected it to on the show, causing a bit of bad feeling and leaving him with some explaining and apologising to do.
- Those Two Guys: Romesh's efforts were often paired with or compared to Tim's, as similarly "psychopathic". They also appeared to develop a bit of a rivalry, often ending up engaging in scuffling and sabotage in-studio.
Tim Key
"I'm doing a... shooting a TV show for Comic Relief."
"Sort of a poet, sort of a comedian, sort of a hairstyle, it's Tim Key!"
— The Taskmaster
A comedian and poet who also contributed as the "Task Consultant" from Series 2 onwards. He wore a red tracksuit and sweatband for his taped tasks, setting up a trend where at least one contestant each series will wear an odd outfit.
- Authority in Name Only: His title of "Task Consultant" might make him seem important, but apparently Alex has claimed he only gave Tim that title for the later series so he could brainstorm tasks at their local pub and remain guilt-free for using Tim's ideas on the show. Tim himself later all-but-confirmed on the podcast that despite the lofty-sounding title, his actual role involves pretty much bugger all actual work.
- The Cameo: Tim appears again in "Tony Three Pies" to officiate Noel Fielding's marriage to a rubber duck.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: He cheated in a few of the tasks where he would have either won or otherwise done well, such as the watermelon task from "Melon Buffet", when he ate an extra piece of watermelon after the task was finished.
- The Gadfly: Most prominently in the "Make The Best Meal For The Taskmaster" task, which Alex would have to eat; Tim and Alex are long-time close friends, and Tim was clearly relishing the chance to prank his friend by forcing him to eat a very unappetising meal, which included dog-food ravioli.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: He performed his recorded tasks in a red tracksuit, setting the precedent for at least one contestant per series wearing something tacky for their tasks.
- Limited Wardrobe: Tim wore the same suit for all six episodes.
- Those Two Guys: Tim's efforts were often paired with or compared to Romesh's, as similarly "psychopathic".
