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
"I know it’s early days... Are we the stupidest so far?"
—James Acaster
James Acaster
"Suck it!"
Alex: Why don’t you talk to me at the beginning of the tasks?
James: What?
Alex: I always say “Hello James.” You never say hello back.
James: It’s not in the task is it. The task isn’t “Say hello to Alex.”
A comedian known for his dry, sarcastic personality. He is best known for his four-part comedy special Repertoire on Netflix.
- Aside Glance: He demonstrated his impressive ability to pull this off while blindfolded in "My Eyes Are Circles".
- The Bus Came Back: James makes a cameo appearance in "The Alpine Darling", as part of Kerry's attempt at the grape task.
- He also reappeared with his Celebrity: Hunted partner Ed Gamble in the Series 15 finale “A Yardstick for Failure” during one of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it establishing shots of the house, inside the dome, for Task 1.
- Catchphrase: "Suck it!"Greg: According to my records that is the fifth use of your catchphrase, "Suck it," in this series. And a new catchphrase was born during that: "I can hear it gooping!"
- Cloudcuckoolander: In an understated way, but for example, in his first episode James does try to run up a tree and makes a rope out of gaffer tape while singing a song.
- Dynamic Entry: James has clearly taken a page out of Kramer’s book when it comes to opening doors, spectacularly slamming them open any time he enters a room. One instance even made it to the opening credits!
- Entertainingly Wrong: Discussed on the podcast. James saw his fellow competitors a few times prior to the studio recordings. Both Kerry and Jess told him that they were stumped about what to do for the fez task, which led James to believe that he was the only person who had been given the hula-hooping task.
- Jerkass: He'll ignore Alex's greetings before every task. When later asked about it, he replied that greeting Alex was not part of the task.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: After pretending to hate a calendar he received from a nephew, and offering it up as a prize task, James admits that he really likes the guy.
- Making a Spectacle of Yourself: James wears a pair of yellow shutter shades as part of his outfit for some of his pre-recorded challenges.
- Oh, Crap!: Combined with Did I Just Say That Out Loud?, he impulsively calls Greg a "pussy" as a joke, then immediately backtracks once Greg stands up to confront him. Luckily, Greg appears to mainly be playing it up for laughs, taking James aside for a teacher-esque "talking to."
- Rage Breaking Point: After being denied points due to a strict reading of the rules for his hula-hooping attempt in "The Pendulum Draws the Eye", he loses his temper when Greg reacts favorably to Rhod's Loophole Abuse in the find-a-satsuma-in-a-sock task, leading to an angry on-camera argument and sour moods for the rest of the taping.
- Serious Business: He's a noted fan of the show, so he had a desire to win it when he appeared. It most notably clashed with Rhod's less-than-serious approach to their shared team tasks.
- Title Drop: He named the episode "My Eyes are Circles" after his disastrous attempt to draw a circle, "The Perfect Stuff" gets the title from his rant about Rhod Gilbert ignoring the open garage during their team task, and he said "I Can Hear It Gooping" while doing the egg task.
Jessica Knappett
Air horn noises
"I hope you’ll take this in the spirit that it’s intended Jess, but sometimes watching you is like watching an episode of Sesame Street."
—The Taskmaster
A comedian who is known for writing and staring in Drifters.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Her attempts at cheering up a traffic warden ended up with him depressing her instead - but made her realise that the more miserable he made her, the happier he became.
- Failed a Spot Check: In Episode 6, the cast are challenged to make a portrait of the Taskmaster using objects they had gathered for an unrelated task. Jessica was the only one who had happened to have gathered art supplies, but she only realised that in the studio. She instead used boxes of paint and pencils to make a crude outline of Greg's head.
- The Klutz: Jess is the only contestant to injure herself in the live tasks, when she fell off the stage which later led to the stage being referred to as The Knappett in subsequent series.
- The Pollyanna: Jess remains remarkably cheerful at all times, despite suffering as much as other contestants.
Kerry Godliman
"Bosh!"
Greg: In many ways, you are the grandmaster of this show.
Kerry: Well, that’s praise indeed.
Greg: Yeah, because you don’t think.
Click to see Kerry in “The Alpine Darling” Spoilers!
An actress and comedian who played Hannah in Derek and Lisa in After Life (2019)
- The Bus Came Back: Kerry filled in for Katy Wix, when she was ill, in the studio segments of "Another Spoon".
- Out-of-Character Moment: Greg repeatedly complimented Kerry's practical mindset and effective attempts, and then lampshaded how that contrasted against her dire attempt to "deliver a task to Alex in a spectacular way".
- Simple, yet Awesome: Greg praised her for her direct attitude toward tasks, giving her the nickname "the Bosh Queen". Need to see where a bin is on the other side of a fence? Drill a hole through a slat! Bosh!
Phil Wang
"I haggled for this..."
"After one minute, Phil pointed at the red one and said ‘That one’s red’."
— Alex Horne
A comedian and member of sketch trio Daphne, who competed wearing Bruce Lee's iconic outfit from Game of Death.
- Ascended Extra: On Taskmaster: The Podcast, Phil reveals that he was brought in to trial various tasks during the very early stages of the show. The tasks he was given included the melon task in Series One's "Melon Buffet", and the pizza ordering task in Series Two's "Pork is a Sausage".
- Butt-Monkey: He was judged particularly harshly throughout his series, which Greg acknowledged later.note He was notably the only contestant in a ten-episode series to never win a single episode until Season 13 (when Judi Love suffered the same fate).
- Do You Want to Haggle?: Tries and fails to haggle for his prize items. Repeatedly.
- Fan Disservice: His outfit left little to the imagination in his crotch area, to the discomfort of others. On the podcast, Phil reveals that this was unintentional and that he had no idea his crotch area was so prominent until he'd filmed the team tasks, and Rhod and James both talked about his outfit. He then made a conscious effort to "hide" himself during the team tasks, although it was too late by that point as he had already completed the majority of his tasks.Greg: It doesn't matter how ornate the grandfather clock is, the pendulum draws the eye.
- Phil's prominent crotch led to problems for the family-friendly version that goes out, resulting in editors needing to crop out large portions of the frame often just leaving Phil's face on screen.
- Genre Savvy: When asked to pick a box prior to packing 10 pairs of glasses in another room, Phil was the only one to assume and plan that the glasses were drinking glasses, not spectacles.
- Groin Attack: He appeared to be physically pained when he was hula-ing and the hoop began hitting his crotch.
- Once an Episode: Someone makes a reference to Phil's ... bulge in his costume.
- Running Gag: Phil prefaces most of his Prize Task entries with stories about how he failed to haggle for them.
- Whole Costume Reference: He wore Bruce Lee's iconic outfit from Game of Death for the prerecorded tasks.
Rhod Gilbert
"People say my ADHD makes me shit at problem solving. No, sir!"
"It's always scary when you leave Rhod till last...he does crazy shit."
— Kerry Godliman
A comedian and personal friend of the Taskmaster - a fact which both helps and hinders him.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Rhod is easily one of the most chaotic contestants to ever appear on the show and one might think that his constant trolling of Greg and Alex would be detrimental to his final scores. In actuality, he was a consistently high-performing player, winning 3 episodes and finishing third place in the series (only 9 points lower than Kerry and 8 points lower than Jessica). He also finished third place or better in all but 2 episodes he was in (coming last place in "Twelve Blush Majesty Two" and "The Pendulum Draws the Eye").
- Comedic Sociopath: The ruthlessness with which Rhod deals with Alex in his tasks is commented upon several times. Rhod defends it as him going into a blind panic under time pressure, but Greg notes that Rhod appears quite stoic the entire time. In the course of Series 7 Rhod:
- pantsed Alex;
- waterboarded Alex with a mocha to raise his heart rate;
- threw a javelinnote at the caravan while Alex was inside;
- squirted a water bottle between Alex's bare buttocks as a water feature; and
- tied Alex to a chair and put a bucket on his head.
- and put a hat on top of the bucket!
- In a non-Alex related moment, he hid in Greg's house for an entire night just to take a video of him sleeping to submit for the 'creepiest thing' prize task.
- This is lampshaded in the outtakes for the infamous argument between Rhod and James over the fairness of the satsuma judgement. At one point, Rhod points out that James was marked higher in the task where Rhod threw the javelin at the caravan despite the impressiveness of the achievement. Jess immediately retorts that Rhod "can't keep doing this, you can't always nearly kill Alex every task and expect a point!"
-
Crazy Is Cool: His response to the challenge of tying himself up in a way that Alex could not untie him. His solution? Tie Alex up first. The other contestants can only express their awe, but Greg freely calls his move that of a psychopath.Phil: "I'd love to hate you for that. We'd love to hate you for that. But that was fucking brilliant!" - "Eureka!" Moment: While many contestants hop into tasks immediately, there are several instances where Rhod notably pauses and thinks through a task, springing into action once he figures out a loophole. Best seen when he ties Alex up.
- The Gadfly: He will take any opportunity to embarrass Greg. Any. He also takes a lot of joy in putting Alex in humiliating positions.
- Groin Attack: When recreating Space Invaders, he amuses himself by throwing tennis balls at the groins of male volunteers playing the titular aliens.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While his Comedic Sociopath tormenting of Alex has become rather memetic, it's often forgotten that at several points he's often the quickest to defend or support his fellow contestants in their efforts to complete a task, at times to his own detriment. Part of what causes the argument with James over the "satsuma in a sock" incident is that Rhod got quite nettled at James's over-competitive hostility and insistence that the fix was in despite Rhod having several times supported James when he had been faced with a potentially contentious judgement on a task. Most notably, Rhod had mere moments before vocally insisted that James's second and more successful attempt at hula-hooping, the rejection of which had partly resulted in James's sour mood, should be the one to be judged rather than the first attempt where he choked.
- Naked People Are Funny: He will take any opportunity to remove clothing - his own or someone else's (mainly Alex).
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: While Rhod is quick to support the other contestants, that feeling is absolutely not mutual as Phil, Kerry, and James have turned on him, sometimes immediately after he defended them. From "OLLIE" during the elevator change task:Kerry: I did look dramatically different, more so than these two (Phil and Rhod).Rhod: No, you did not - I was just backing you up!Kerry: You've learnt! Have you learned nothing?Rhod: All you did there was shove a bloody Brillo pad up your tits!Kerry: You need to learn not to help people because we always stab you in the back.
- No Sense of Personal Space: For the quick change outfit task, he has himself and Alex put on bikinis and forces Alex to stand intimately close as he undoes the knots holding up Alex's bottoms.
- The Unfettered: If one had to pick a contestant who disregarded societal norms to complete their tasks, Rhod immediately comes to mind. Nudity, Alex's welfare and dignity, or even his own comfort wouldn't stop Rhod from a method he thought was funny.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Rhod and Greg, to the point that Greg correctly predicted when Rhod would make a fat joke about him.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Rhod thought he was on a typical panel show where the goal would be to get the biggest laughs and the game would just be a framing device. He didn't realize that the competition was legitimate and that others would be deadly serious about winning.
