History Series / Taskmaster

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Given that each contestant place an item into the prize pot, the winner of each episode wins about four objects. A case of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin happens in "Pork Is A Sausage", when all the contestants donate their trendiest item of clothing to form a complete outfit.

** Never try to pretend you're filming for Comic Relief as it will enrage everyone else, which Tim found out to his cost.

* BilingualBonus: In the final challenge in "There's Strength In Arches", painted on the side of the toy boat is "debajo de la mesa", which is Spanish for "under the table".

* BrainsAndBrawn:
** Brain: Frank and Josh's attempts are often grouped together, as they both tend to think their actions through first. To a lesser extent, Roisin as well when she's not using unusual techniques.

* BritishStuffiness: All the players had difficulty asking strangers for their ages in one particular task, but Josh exhibits a reserved embarassment throughout the competition.

** [[spoiler: Josh]] appears in "A Pistachio Eclair" to help Richard and Jon in the team task.
** Al appears twice in "Hollowing Out A Baguette".
** Tim Key shows up in "Tony Three Pies".

** Rob in "Little Polythene Grief Cave". While all the contestants had to collect as much sweat as they could in 20 minutes to fill an eggcup, Rob also had to do the task in a different accent, [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent which kept changing throughout]].

** Series one has Roisin, her... alternative views and methods are sometimes at odds with her successfully completing a task.
** Joe in series two.

* ContinuityCameo: Al Murray appears in one of Joe Lycett's tasks in "Hollowing Out a Baguette". (He had responded to a tweet Joe sent out asking for help with the task.)

* EasterEgg: In the online interviews, it was revealed that Alex had set a secret task to see which of the five contestants could go the longest without touching their nose.

* FridgeBrilliance: In-Universe. Jon, able to read Spanish, translated the boat name from the bridge building task to himself, but thought nothing of it at the time. It wasn't until sometime after he completed the challenge that he realized how strange a name for a boat "Under the Table" was, and figured out there had probably been items useful to the task hidden underneath the table. Of course, his reaction to this was less impressed by the brilliance and subtlety of the clue; and more frustrated by the fact that during the task, he hadn't even thought twice about the hint.

** Lampshaded again with Fred's second appearance in "Fear of Failure". Doc Brown seems to have some chemistry with him.
** In Fred's fourth appearance in "Meat", [[BiTheWay Joe Lycett]] outright flirts with him, although that's more like actual text.

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Occasionally, Alex will group four of the contestants' efforts together, meaning that whoever was singled out had approached the task in a different manner.

* LoopholeAbuse: Often overlaps with ExactWords.
** In "Fear Of Failure", the contestants have to place three yoga balls on the yoga mat on top of a hill. Most of the contestants carry the balls up the hill, but Richard runs up to the hill to carry the mat down, and argues that the [[ExactWords wording of the challenge]] didn't outright state the mat had to stay in place on top of the hill.
** In "A Fat Bald White Man", one task is draw an accurate picture of a person sitting behind a curtain that the contestants are not allowed to look at (but are allowed to ask yes or no questions to). Hugh Dennis gets a mirror out of the house, places it opposite the curtain, and, while looking in the mirror, lifts the curtain. He defends this by saying that looking in a mirror is looking at an ''image'' of a person, not the ''actual'' person.
** In "Spatchcock It", one of the tasks involves working out what is inside a zipped up sleeping bag. The contestants are not allowed to look inside the bag or take anything out. Hugh unzips the bag, and then lifts it upside down so the contents fall out; and he argues that he hadn't physically taken anything out.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Applies to the first three series. The two hosts are male, as are four of the contestants, leaving Roisin, Katherine and Sara the token women of their series.

* ThingOMeter: In "The Dong and the Gong", for the task "Surprise Alex when he comes out of the shed", Greg had Alex rate how surprised he was by each contestant on a hypothetical, ill-defined "Surprise-O-Meter". (Which Greg insists is pronounced "Surprise-oh-meeter", ''not'' [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable "Surprise-ometer".)

* SuddenDeath: If two or more contestants are tied in first place, then a tiebreaker happens. So far, this has happened in five episodes.
** "Melon Buffet" involved a pre-recorded game of hide and seek played to determine whether Frank or Romesh won. [[spoiler: Frank won.]]

** "Hollowing Out a Baguette" had a pre-recorded tiebreaker between Joe Lycett and Noel. The task was to decant as much wine as possible in one minute. [[spoiler: Joe won.]]
** "Meat" had another pre-recorded tie breaker between Mel and Hugh. The task was to eat as many peas as possible in one minute. [[spoiler: Hugh won.]]

* ThingOMeter: In "The Dong and the Gong", for the task "Surprise Alex when he comes out of the shed", Greg had Alex rate how surprised he was by each contestant on a hypothetical, ill-defined "Surprise-O-Meter".[[note]]Pronounced "Surprise-oh-meeter", ''not'' [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable "Surprise-ometer".]][[/note]]

The contestants participate in a series of odd tasks, which are then ranked (sometimes by Greg, depending on the nature of the task) from best to worst performance. The ranks translate into points, with 5 given to first place, 4 to second place, 3 to third place, 2 to fourth place, and 1 to last place, although any disqualified contestants score no points. Some of the challenges are team tasks instead, with the winners earning 2 points each, and the losers no points. The teams are split like this:

* FridgeBrilliance: In-Universe. Jon, able to read Spanish, translated the boat name from the bridge building task to himself, but thought nothing of it at the time. It wasn't until sometime after he completed the challenge that he realized how strange a name for a boat "Under the Table" was, and figured out there had probably been items useful to the task hidden underneath the table. Of course, his reaction to this was less impressed by the brilliance and subtlety of the clue; and more frustrated by the fact that during the task, he hadn't even thought twice about the hint, which seemed more obvious in retrospect.

* FridgeBrilliance: In-Universe. Jon, able to read Spanish, noticed and translated to himself the name of the boat ("Debajo de la Mesa") in the bridge building task, but thought nothing of it at the time. It wasn't until long after he completed the challenge that he realized how strange a name for a boat "Under the Table" was, that it must have meant something, and there had probably been useful building materials hidden underneath the table the task was being completed on. Of course, his reaction to this realization was less to be impressed by the brilliance and subtlety of the clue; and more to be frustrated by the fact that, during the task, he hadn't even thought twice about a hint which seemed obvious in hindsight.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Applies to the first three series. The two hosts are male, as are four of the contestants, leaving Roisin, Katherine and Sara the token women of their series.

* TimeForPlanB: Roisin opts for this in one task. Instead of painting a horse while riding another horse, Roisin paints a horse while riding a mechanical horse.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Applies to the first three series. The two hosts are male, as are four of the contestants, leaving Roisin, Katherine and Sara the token women of their series. Averted in the fourth series with [[TwoGirlsToATeam Mel and Lolly]].

* Series Four: Hugh Dennis, Creator/NoelFielding, Mel Giedroyc, Lolly Adefope, Joe Lycett

** Each series features the task where the contestants buy a gift for Greg for £20.

* Series One: Tim Key, Romesh Ranganathan, Roisin Conaty, Josh Widdicombe, Frank Skinner
* Series Two: Jon Richardson, Richard Osman, Joe Wilkinson, Katherine Ryan, Doc Brown
* Series Three: Rob Beckett, Paul Chowdhry, Sara Pascoe, Dave Gorman, Al Murray

** So far, each series has one contestant--usually the youngest male contestant--carrying out tasks that nobody else does. See ButtMonkey above for specific details.

** Seems to be a RunningGag with Joe Lycett, who took a bowl of lemons in "A Fat Bald White Man", and a small bag of rice in "Look At Me".

* SuddenDeath: If two contestants are tied in first place, then a tiebreaker happens. So far, this has happened in four episodes.

* BreakTheCutie: Alex tries to do this to Mel in "Spatchcock It" by giving her several difficult tasks involving a large inflatable ball (see ButtMonkey for details).

* TooCleverByHalf: Tim is capable of thinking outside the box to win a task, but this creativity often veers into outright cheating which costs him. Dave also shows signs of this at times, and ends up being disqualified for cheating twice in the third series.

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Greg after watching back the [=VTs=] of the contestants trying to make Fred blush.
** Lampshaded again with Fred's second appearance. Doc Brown seems to have some chemistry with him.
** In Fred's fourth appearance, [[BiTheWay Joe Lycett]] outright flirts with him, although that's more like actual text.

* RunningGag: "Pork Is A Sausage" has Doc Brown saying several times that he is "[[ItMakesSenseInContext not a [food] man]]".

* HomoeroticSubtext: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Greg after watching back the [=VTs=] of the contestants trying to make a Sweedish man blush.

* SuddenDeath: If two contestants are tied in first place, then a tiebreaker happens. So far, this has happened in three episodes.

** In "Hollowing Out a Baguette", one of the tasks has a rule that if you any of the chocolate (that was provided for the task), you will be docked five points. However, this rule was printed on the reverse side of the task sheet and not a single contestant saw it.

* LimitedWardrobe: Tim wears red sportswear and a white headband for all his pre-recorded challenges. In the studio, he wears the same suit for all six episodes.

* StickyFingers: Seems to be a RunningGag with Joe Lycett, who took a bowl of lemons in "A Fat Bald White Man", and a small bag of rice in "Look At Me".

* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler: Josh]] appears in "A Pistachio Eclair" to help Richard and Jon in the team task.

* SuddenDeath: If two contestants are tied in first place, then a tiebreaker happens. So far, this has happened in two episodes.