History Series / Taskmaster

*** A similar example comes up in a conversation between Ed Gamble and Romesh Ranganathan about the "best blooper" task in Series 1. The blooper that Romesh, Roisin Conaty and Josh Widdicombe devised partly involves an argument with Alex over counting hundreds and thousands. As Josh was similarly subject to a solo task involving him laboriously counting numerous small objects (baked beans, grains of rice, etc.) and as Josh had suggested this part of the blooper, Ed and Romesh are amused to realise that he may have done so because he was under the impression that everyone else had completed the counting task, whereas Romesh and Roisin obviously had no idea about it. This makes it a potential two-fer; Romesh and Roisin didn't realise that Josh had done a solo task, and Josh didn't realise that he was the only one who had completed his solo task.

** In "Wiley Giraffe blower", the final task was to write down the second longest word while on a plinth with three steps. The second longest word got to move down, and the first to touch the floor won.[[spoiler:Josh, Noel, Rob and Alex]] all had the word "Toblerone" as an example of a 9-lettered word, which got them disqualified from the task. This happens again in the following round to [[spoiler:Katherine and Bob]] with the word "To", which made the three disqualified contestants back in the game again, and made the other two disqualified.

** James becomes so enraged by missing a par in "Twelve Blush Majesty Two," due to the inherent problems knocking a cricket ball into a golf hole that he takes it out on the hole's flag, which has a camera attached to it. Greg wasn't happy abut the broken camera, but he understood why he was angry.

** In "The Leprechaun or The Lesbian", contestants were told to slice a loaf of bread located in the lab. Aisling somehow missed the last bit and spent the entire time allotted trying to slice a loaf of bread located ''in the caravan''.

** Rhod admits to targeting the groin area of the volunteers he pelts with tennis balls for his ''Space Invaders'' recreation.

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: In Series 2, Greg consistently refers to the competitors as "four comedians, and [some appelation appropriate to Richard Osman]", since the latter isn't a professional comedian.

* DrosteImage: For the "most eggs held by the most people in a photo" task in "Tarpeters," Tim Vine attempts to use this trope by going to his local butcher and asking him to take a photo of Tim and the butcher holding eggs in front of hand mirrors (and therefore have "infinite Tims holding infinite eggs"). Unfortunately, Greg judges that he can only see 8 people holding 8 eggs, [[spoiler:and Tim places last in the task]].

* BigBeautifulMan: Greg Davies is, by his own admission, a very large man. This hasn't stopped multiple contestants from being flirtatious with him, nor the audience from reacting appreciatively when he described himself as [[FatAndProud "22 stone of prime marbled beef"]] in one episode.

** A task in series 9 has the contestants get asked to choose a letter, and then to put as many things from around the house beginning with that letter onto Alex's tray. David Baddiel picked Q, but didn't find any item in the house that actually began with the letter, instead claiming he had a speech impediment that made him start most words with a Q. At the end of the task, Alex revealed that he had the foresight to litter the house with appropriately named objects for each letter, and said that he had stocked up the fridge in particular with quail's eggs, quiche, Quavers and a quesadilla to cover the letter Q, just in case someone chose it.

** On being asked to say a letter of the alphabet, Ed Gamble says "[[ExactWords a letter of the alphabet]]". He's then given another envelope that laughs at him and asks him to less ambiguously ''choose'' a letter of the alphabet and say it out loud. It later turns out that Ed was the ''only'' contestant for whom this eventuality had been prepared.

** James Acaster has quite a few, with "Suck it!" being his go-to catchphrase. See PhraseCatcher for the other one.

''(later, to Alex)'' So we gave them a task where they all got the same points?! Don't you ever, ever do that again! [[BadBoss I'll kick you in the leg]]!

-->'''Kerry:''' ''[To Jessica Knappett]'' Did ''you'' think we were allowed to use calculators when you were using bean juice on a window? I was doing sums in my head...\\

'''Kerry:''' ''[Sullen but grudging concession]'' I see... what you're saying...

---> '''Kerry (reading from a task letter inside)''' "E, look under the doormat...where's the doormat?!"\\

''[Beat]''\\
'''Kerry (now outside the front door to the house):''' Oh there's the doormat!

---> '''Lou:''' And what's the camera for?\\
'''Alex:''' We're going to show this on tv.

---> '''Richard:''' How do I know when it's full, it'll overflow, will it?\\

-->''[After Alex has handed over the bandana]''\\
'''Greg:''' ''[Kindly]'' You don't need it, mate. You're fine as you are.

--> '''Greg:''' "We're basically saying there are no rules in our version of golf."

---> '''Alex:''' There was one fewer profiteroles than when I'd started.

---> '''Greg (while still laughing):''' I mean, absolute carnage before the blindfold has gone on!

--->'''Nish Kumar:''' [''during a task where he has to paint a rainbow in a darkened room, with a tone of sudden realisation''] Oh... I can't see the colors!

''[Beat]''\\

---->'''Greg:''' ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext (pointing at Alex's bare foot)]]'' Do you see what I'm capable of?!

--> '''Paul (whispering)''': He's a doctor.\\
'''Alex (whispering)''': What sort of doctor, Paul?\\
'''Paul (whispering)''': Oh for fuck's sake you '''fucking''' bastard.

'''Alex:''' ''(mouthing)'' I'm being bullied.\\

-->You must under no circumstances not avoid not making the bell not ring.

-->'''Rob:''' (affecting a creepy voice) Mummy says we're good at puzzles.

---> '''''NEVER EVER inhale perm lotion. [[RunningGag Your time starts now.]]'''''

---> '''Iain:''' "You may not touch the sand, done that. You may not move the bucket, done that. You may not leave the room, fuck it, let's do that as well!. What a waste of everyone's time, you '''IDIOT!'''"

''(Later, during Lee's attempt)''\\

---> '''Greg:''' "So, It's going to be that kind of crowd..."

--->'''Greg''': Right, [[TakeThat and you don't like flights of fancy]], [[Series/TheMightyBoosh Noel]], do you?

'''Greg:''' ''[Interrupting]'' I mean, how ''dare'' you even speak.

--> '''Greg''': Now these are intelligent people, they're not just gonna steam in and just start popping balloons.\\
'''Alex''': No, because they can make a plan, they can get something.\\
'''Greg''': They're just gonna think about it.\\
'''Alex''': Yeah. So, do you want to start with [[IdiotBall Dave and Sara]]?

--> '''Frank''': Someone'll take the first 45 minutes realising the teabags are better wet.\\
(''Cut to Romesh, with dry teabags by his feet'')\\
'''Romesh''': Just realised I should probably wet them.

'''Romesh:''' ''[Deflated]'' ... It ''is'' a lot shitter than I thought it was gonna look, that is the honest truth. ''[Roisin reacts with betrayal]'' When I watched it, I thought "This must be some off-cuts version of the thing," and then I waited for the reveal. And then there was none, and we had to defend that dogshit. And I feel I gave an impassioned speech, but I didn't believe a word of it.\\

-->'''Greg:''' I've written down "nightmareish, creepy" and then "strangel attractive."

---->'''Greg:''' I hate to be the guy to break it to you, but it is now time for a commercial break. (long pause without applause, then Greg shuts his eyes) I'm so sorry.

---> '''Greg:''' "When we separate someone, it's for one of two reasons - 1: It's gone very well, or 2: it's gone ''very''...'''''very badly."'''''

--->'''Joe:''' I just feel -- ''[Angrily]'' I'm just ''so fed up'' with putting, like, loads and loads of just genuine physical effort into the tasks, and then these other people come up with some wanky work-around! [[{{Angrish}} I mean -- rea --]] put some fucking effort in! ''[Calming down]'' I'm sorry, I dunno where that's come from.

-->'''Alex''': (after Daisy had finished) There are no more swear words, as far as I can tell.

-->'''Greg:''' ''(While grading the prize entries)'' Fourth... it's the Chuckle Brothers, I--\\

''(Audience boos and groans)''\\
'''Greg:''' ''(addressing the audience)'' You shut your fucking mouths. I will put him last!

'''Katherine:''' ''No!!'' Let's all put on a tampon, and then we'll see! ''(thunderous applause)''

--->''[After Tim Vine's "join-the-dots" artwork of the wreck of the ''Titanic'' is unveiled:]''\\

--> '''Joe:''' ''"Satan is your best friend in the world".''

--->'''Noel''': There's no such thing as a carrot skipping rope. You just made that up [...] it's not a real thing though, is it?\\
'''Greg''': Right, [[TakeThat and you don't like flights of fancy]], [[Series/TheMightyBoosh Noel]], do you?

-->'''Greg:''' Finally, just to annoy everybody, I'm giving a man who found an old wig in his attic five points! That's ''Taskmaster'' and, if you don't like it, tough shit! ''TWEET AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE AT ME!!!''

-->'''Greg:''' (addressing Kerry during the prize round for "Another Spoon") What did Katy bring in and can you fill a minute talking about it?

--->'''Mel:''' I made him look away and then slipped it into his box. (realises what she says and grimaces)

--->'''Bob:''' ''With your head placed firmly in your hole''[[note]]a canvas which they are wearing around their necks[[/note]] -- (stops to laugh)

---> '''Alice:''' You'd bounce right off, spread the load.\\
'''Greg:''' I'd spread my load (immediately realises what he says, cue laughter and disgust)\\
'''Greg:''' So until I distribute myself... (stops to laugh a bit)\\

--->'''Nish''': I have to say, I'm starting to increasingly understand why we're being grouped together [...] because when you [[ItMakesSenseInContext got that grill out]], I was like, "This guy's a fucking genius."

-->'''Paul:''' The expression and the tears reflect what I'm going through on the inside. (sad ambient piano) [[MoodWhiplash Bastard's crying, innit]]?

--->'''Josh Widdicombe:''' Greg, I felt you and I have been getting in on this show.
--->'''Greg:''' Yeah, it's been alright.
--->'''Josh:''' And I was afraid that you'd forget me, [[spoiler:so I got a tattoo]].
--->''A photo of Josh [[spoiler:getting Greg's name tattooed on his foot]] appears on the screen.''

--->'''Jon:''' I'm very frustrated to have asked if you knew what "debajo de la mesa" means.
--->'''Greg:''' Have you worked it out now?
--->'''Jon:''' Yeah, not followed through on that.
--->'''Alex:''' What does it mean, Jon?
--->'''Jon:''' [[spoiler:I think it means "under the table".]]
--->'''Other Contestants:''' ''[[{{GASP}} big gasp]]''

-->'''Kerry''': What -- what was he ''doing''?\\

[[folder: Contestants by Series]]

* Champion of Champions Special: [[spoiler: Bob Mortimer, Josh Widdicombe, Katherine Ryan, Noel Fielding, Rob Beckett]]

* Champion of Champions 2: [[spoiler: Ed Gamble, Kerry Godliman, Liza Tarbuck, Lou Sanders, Richard Herring]]

[[folder: A - B]]

** In the tiebreaker for "Spoony Neeson", Greg asked an audience member who should win the task, as neither Bob nor Sally got close to their goal of flinging yogurt at a target. When the audience member said that [[spoiler: Bob]] should win, [[spoiler: Sally ended up winning according to Greg]].

* AuthorTract: In [="BMXing"=], in the second task of the show (do something manly inside of a box), Asim and Alice took the opportunity to talk about Men's Mental Health and the stigma that causes, while Alice poked fun at the gender pay gap. [[spoiler: They both got 4 points.]]
* AwfulWeddedLife: Greg jokes about this happening to Joe Wilkinson [[spoiler: after he loses his wedding certificate in "Fear Of Failure"]].

** Iain knows ''a lot'' about puppets (comes with the territory of being a former ''Creator/{{CBBC}}'' presenter), and he flexes his knowledge on the matter for a task in "Hello". Greg was questioning a puppet Iain had [[ItMakesSenseInContext made on its seductiveness]], but he fires back as to what constituted a ventriloquist puppet, and points out the other contestants hadn't actually made ventriloquist puppets, they had just made regular dummies with mouthholes, or in Pauls case, a Piggy Bank with glasses "wearing" trousers. As the task goes on, Iain gets increasingly irate about it, and he is ''visibly'' annoyed at the others, and also at the very real possibility of him coming last in a task he knows so much about. [[spoiler: He comes first place, but Greg waits until [[BaitAndSwitch the last possible moment to announce this]] to deliberately push his buttons, while everyone except Joe got 4 points (Joe got 1 point for killing his puppet)]].

* BigEntrance: A task from Series 9 episode "Join Our Cult" is to create the most dramatic entrance. David Baddiel makes a ''Series/DoctorWho''-inspired appearance in the phone booth and imitates the Doctor and Daleks and plays the music. Jo emerges from the shed dressed as UsefulNotes/HenryVIII and shows off the head of UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn (played by Alex) on a platter. Ed makes an appearance as a creepy hooded figure before cheerily saying "Hello" to Alex. Katy creates doppelgangers of herself and hands out a flyer to Alex encouraging him to join their cult. Rose, dressed as a bush, runs out onto the driveway yelling "[[Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire STELLAAAA]]!!" [[spoiler: Rose wins the task with 5 points, Ed and Jo are joint second with 4 points, Katy receives 3 points, and David receives 1 point.]]

** For one task, the contestants had to get an egg as high as possible in 20 minutes. They were aided with a table, some pens, and a big stack of paper. Romesh's attempt saw him just stack the egg on top of the pens, and the pens on top of the paper. Greg was in disbelief that that was all Romesh could come up with in 20 minutes, and he was certain Romesh would come last. [[spoiler: That is...until it transpired that Roisin, Tim, and Frank all had to be disqualified because they broke their eggs, meaning that Josh came in first place, and Romesh in second.]]

** In the "kick a goal from the furthest distance" task in "Rock and Roll Umlaut", while everyone sets up elaborate, long-distance kicks to try and get the ball in from as far as possible, to the point where some shots would give difficulty to professional soccer players, Sian Gibson elects to simply move the ball a short distance from the goal, reasoning that with her poor skills that she'd be better off just getting it in the goal and [[DeterminedDefeatist at least securing a point]]. [[spoiler: Everyone else misses their shots and disqualifies, meaning Sian wins the task.]]

* BreakTheCutie: Alex tries to do this to [[GenkiGirl Mel]] in "Spatchcock It" by giving her several difficult tasks involving a large inflatable ball (see ButtMonkey for details). [[spoiler: He ends up failing; Mel, while undeniably frustrated, remains quite perky and bubbly throughout.]]

** [[spoiler: Josh (series one)]] appears in "A Pistachio Eclair" (series two) to help Richard and Jon in the team task. Unlike most of the other examples below, which appear to be spontaneously arranged on the part of the contestant, this one was arranged by the producers as part of the task itself, which required three people to complete.

** Josh in "Down An Octave". He was made to count [[SerialEscalation how many baked beans were in a can, then spaghetti hoops, and finally grains of rice in a bag]]. [[spoiler: He was initially denied points by Greg, but Josh was eventually awarded a single point overall for doing these tasks]], he might well have been thankful, as [[spoiler: he won that series by 1 point]].

*** In "A Wind-Dried Puffin", he was given a mobile to send daily texts to Greg's real number for 5 months, or 150 texts, [[spoiler: and then was awarded no points because he'd only sent 148.]]

** David Baddiel is openly mocked in series 9 as its worst contestant, particularly in "Don't Like Them Go Bang" [[spoiler: despite winning that episode]]. Greg states outright that Ed having David on his team in a live task is a handicap.

[[folder: C]]

* CringeComedy: The premise of the first prize task in "Champions of Champions" was to bring in the most genuinely cringe-worthy / embarrassing item. [[spoiler:Noel]] brought in a picture of him and his family when he was 14 years old, [[spoiler:Bob]] brought in a drawing his son did of "dog dirt", [[spoiler:Rob]] brought in elephants silk pants that he soiled himself in, [[spoiler:Katherine]] brought in a video of her and her sister pretending to be Hitler, while [[spoiler:Josh]] brought in a clip of him being an interviewee on an episode of "This Week" (a late-night British political discussion show). [[spoiler: Noel came last, Bob came fourth, Rob came third, Katherine came second, and Josh came first]]

* CryingWolf: During Champion of Champions, [[spoiler: Katherine Ryan]] decided to put a personal spin on the "Create the Biggest Mess" and create an [[spoiler:emotional mess within her family by spreading rumors of infidelity. Her father, knowing her too well, doesn't believe her for a second and just chuckles]].

** In "The Last Supper", a task required to get the least amount of points possible on a Miniature golf course. They all had to use eggs, and the scores were calculated by how many eggs they used, as well as the shots taken, ans also the minutes taken to complete the task. Tim, instead of shooting raw eggs with a golf club like other contestants, hard-boiled one of the eggs, grabbed a tennis ball, cut it open, and placed the egg ''inside'' of the ball, then taping the cut back up. [[spoiler: Tim got 1,200 points and came third]].

** In "Tarpeters", A team challenge was to make Alex as waterproof as possible in 2 minutes, and after the allotted time, a shower above him will turn on. The driest Alex won the points. Asim, Liza, and Tim did the task as one would expect, covered Alex in mats (or "Tarpeters" as the three called them, which got mocked by Greg in the studio, hence the episode name), a towel, a bowl on his head and bin bags. They did reasonably well, and actually only got the bottom half of Alex wet. Russell and Alice on the other hand used this to their advantage, by ''disconnecting the shower'' and let the water run on the ground (the task never said you had to cover Alex to keep him dry). To [[RefugeInAudacity rub it in a bit]], they made Alex ''as dry as possible'', giving him a [[PunnyName ''Dry'' Martini]], with a towel around his neck, all the while drying him with a hairdryer. [[spoiler: They won four points, while Asim's team won one point. Greg was suitably impressed.]]
** In [="BMXing!"=], a task required the contestants to get a £5 note from under a glass full of beer, all the while without touching the glass, and not spilling any beer. [[BoringButPractical Alice and Russell grabbed a straw and started drinking the beer]] before Alice moved onto scooping the beer into a spit can with a dainty little cup, before sheepishly realising she could use the task letter to move the glass and get the fiver. [[spoiler: It was all for nought, as Alice got disqualified for dropping a tiny drop of beer onto the table while transferring it to the spit cup, and Russell won the full 5 points for his quick time of 1:19]].
** In "Roadkill Doused in Syrup", one task required the contestants to get the bales off a cricket set, which was at the end of a long red carpet. They were all given various ball types to help them, and couldn't move from the other end of the carpet. Tim's solution? Tie string to one of the stumps, cut a bit out from the carpet, thread it through, then pick up the other end of carpet, and shake until they fall over. [[spoiler: Tim did succeed, but only got 4 points due to Russell having amazing cricket ball throwing skills, and hit the stump '''in 21 seconds!''' Liza got disqualified for not staying at the other end, while Asim and Alice failed to hit any of the bales.]]

* CycleOfHurting: In "Think About the Spirit", a task was to complete seven smaller tasks laid out in front of them: assemble a jigsaw puzzle, hide all the jigsaw pieces, put the wheelbarrow in the caravan, put 20 larger-than-tennis-ball items into the wheelbarrow, knock down bowling pins from the driveway from behind a velvet rope, assemble a tower 26 inches tall, and finally, put your hand on your hip for the rest of the task(s). Certain tasks had stipulations that had them redo the entire task ''again'' if they fail any mini-task. [[spoiler: This happened to Ed Gamble, who got caught in a GroundhogDayLoop, with items falling out of his wheelbarrow, twice.]]

[[folder: D - F]]

** Ollie, the small knight statue near the front door first seen in Series 7 had one, appropriately enough in the episode “OLLIE”, [[spoiler: when it featured in most of the tasks in some way (except the stage task), and was also featured in the AdBumpers]].

** In "Bready, Bready, Bready," there is a task where the contestants need to push a watermelon up a slide into the caravan using breadsticks, with the provision that the slide cannot be adjusted from its position and that only breadsticks can touch the watermelon. David, Ed and Rose all dropped their watermelons on the ground, but Ed was the only one able to get the watermelon back on the slide with only breadsticks (Rose used her hands to get the watermelon back on the slide, and David struggled using breadsticks but eventually gave up). Jo and Katy attached breadsticks to gloves to push the watermelon into the caravan. [[spoiler: In the end, Greg judges that only Ed successfully pushed the watermelon into the caravan using only breadsticks and would receive the full 5 points while everybody else is disqualified.]]
** The final pre-recorded task of Series 9 was made up of seven intersecting mini-tasks, and failing in one of them meant you had to start from the beginning again. This happened to [[spoiler: Ed Gamble]], who was the only one who had to restart, and took ''far longer'' to finish than any of the rest of the contestants... except ''all of the other contestants'' were disqualified, as the rest all failed because they should have restarted but didn't, and so the other contestants failed to complete one of the tasks ([[spoiler:Jo took items out of her wheelbarrow, Rose's brick tower was 23 inches, not 26, David kept removing his hand from his hip, and Katy did not have enough items in her wheelbarrow]]), meaning that not only did [[spoiler: Ed Gamble]] take first place by default but was the only one to score '''any''' points on that task at all.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Ed Gamble, who appeared in Series 9, played a key role in Mark Watson's prize task for Series 5's "A Wind-dried Puffin", [[spoiler: stealing Greg's trousers at a gig so Mark could submit them as the episode's prize]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding: In the Series 9 finale, Ed is the only contestant to follow the rules of the final pre-recorded task, by starting again from the beginning when he failed one of the series of mini-tasks. He is clearly frustrated and swears repeatedly at Alex, but this nets him the whole 5 points while disqualifying the rest of the team, [[spoiler: and solidifies his series lead]].

** The Series 10 line-up does it again in "Moments of Silence", when [[spoiler: all five contestants are disqualified]] in the task to make the cup on a pole overflow. Greg says he has never felt contempt for an entire line-up before, and makes the studio take a few moments of silence so the contestants can think about what they've done while he stands and glowers at them like a teacher who's reached his limits with an unruly class.

** The most famous example is the task in the first episode of Series 2, which involved three large yoga balls, a steep hill, and a yoga mat at the top of the hill, with the challenge ending when the balls were arranged on top of the yoga mat. Whereas everyone else, to varying degrees of competency and efficiency, interpreted this as taking the balls up the hill to the yoga mat, Richard Osman instead left the balls at the bottom of the hill and brought the yoga mat down from the hill, arranging the balls on top of it there. He argued to Greg that the task was worded in a way that never directly said that the balls had to be taken to the top of the hill, and it got to the point where it was revealed that Alex had consulted Susie Dent, the official lexicographer of ''Series/{{Countdown}}'', for a ruling. [[spoiler: Susie, while acknowledging the unusual interpretation of the task, concurred with Richard, who won the round.]] In episode 8 of the Taskmaster Podcast, Ed Gamble (talking to Richard Osman) suggested that this task was essentially where ExactWords became more popular to exploit, thanks to Richards success.

** In "The Leprechaun Or The Lesbian", one of the tasks is to paint a rainbow in a darkened room. [[spoiler: Aisling, Sally, and Bob]] play this trope straight by painting without knowing what colours they were using. Subverted by [[spoiler: Nish]] who realises that the colors are infused with smells, e.g. the yellow paint smells of lemons, but [[spoiler: Mark]] is the only contestant who [[SubvertedTrope notices]] the light switch ([[spoiler:the task rules didn't specify that the painting had to actually be done in the dark]]).

* {{Fartillery}}: Iain's prize for the Prize task in "Hello" was a large bottle of his own farts, which was apparently the result of going to his local food shops after he was hung over and him bottling it. Alex took a whiff of it from a sample he had taken, and his expression was that he ''really'', ''really'' didn't like that smell. [[spoiler: He comes fourth, though largely because he was the only contestant that didn't have Greg smell his smelly item]].

** Katherine Parkinson from series ten is an accomplished actor, not a comedian, and Greg constantly [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] her attempts going wrong as being not indicative of her acting performance. As with Paul Sinha, Katherine is very ''very'' clueless as to how the show works, but unlike Paul who realises when ExactWords are at play, Katherine often fails tasks because she takes things too literally, seems to be blind to the clues Alex gives her (some more explicit than anothers, to be fair), and she doesn't employ LoopholeAbuse in a lot of her attempts. It didn't help either that for several tasks, she didn't realise that she could leave the room. [[spoiler: Not surprisingly, she came last in her series]].

[[folder: G - L]]

* GirlsWithMoustaches: Lou and Sian in "A Novel About Russian Gulags". A task was to create and put on a moustache out of unexpected objects, with Greg in the studio having to guess what they were made up of from a distance away. Lou made hers out of fake flies, but real meal worms, while Sian stuck hair from a barbie doll and made a paper collage of Alex's face in the shape of a moustache, and stuck the hair onto it. [[spoiler: Sian came last, on the grounds that hers was made of hair, which was hardly an unexpected thing for a moustache to be made from, and Lou came second as it truly squicked out Greg.]]

** In Season 2, when Joe Wilkinson's impressive one-shot throw of [[ItMakesSenseInContext a potato into a hole]] faces disqualification due to the fact that his feet were slightly over the boundary, he is sent out while the rest of the contestants debate whether or not to allow it. [[spoiler: While Richard Osman and Katherine Ryan argue that he should be allowed to receive points for it, Doc Brown and Jon Richardson loudly insist that he broke the rules and should be penalised accordingly. When Joe returns, Greg informs him he has been disqualified for the round. Doc and Jon loudly declare how harsh and unfair this is. Greg looks incredibly unimpressed.]]

* TheImmodestOrgasm: [[spoiler: Sally Philips]] fakes one in "A Wind-Dried Puffin" by creating a water-cooler moment skit that suggests she is having sex with a water cooler inside the Taskmaster caravan. It also gave her the full five points.

* {{Keet}}: Mel, and to a lesser extent, Lolly in Series 4. They are constantly optimistic and seem to be on the show to have a good time, no matter what. Alex noticed this with Mel, and it got to the point where in "Spatchcock it" Alex and Greg set 3 tasks for Mel to complete specifically to [[BreakTheCutie make her swear and be annoyed]]; Blow up a massive inflatable ball, Get it out of the house and score a goal with it (which required her to deflate it a bit). Then finally, hide it from Alex in the middle of a football field. [[spoiler: They end up failing; the worst Mel gets is mildly frustrated, leading the two to conclude that she really is just that nice.]]
* KneelBeforeZod: Joe Wilkinson does this in front of Greg in "Fear of Failure". He does so after a task to get a hole in one when throwing a potato into a golf hole (the contestants weren't allowed to touch the red-green). Not even he thought he could manage the feat in the clip. After replaying the footage in the studio to show off the shot, it suddenly zooms onto his foot, leaving Joe to be absolutely distraught that his toe was touching the red-green. He spends what appears to be a minute pacing about looking really unhappy, and begs for Greg to not disqualify him, and ''kneels at Greg's feet'', begging him to not take the achievement away from him. Greg felt so conflicted on what to do, the other contestants got to choose his fate [[spoiler: The votes were tied at 2-2, and Greg, with much sorrow, disqualifies Joe]].

[[folder: M - Q]]

* MonaLisaSmile: Alice recreates Art/TheMonaLisa with squirty cream in a task from the episode "[=BMXing!=]." [[spoiler: Alice got second place.]]

* NiceHat: The Prize task in "The leprechaun or the lesbian" had contestants bring in "hip head-wear". Aisling brought in a Yorkshire Pudding hat, Bob Mortimer brought in what can only be described as a grey executioner hat, Mark Watson got a custom made neon sign logo on a hat. And just to clarify, not a hat that has neon colors, ''A hat that has an '''actual''' neon sign attached that reads "TASK MASTER" on it'', and apparently cost Mark '''£400 to make!''' Sally took things literally and attached a [[LiteralMinded balaclava with cloth wings attached to a beret]], and Nish brought in a custom-made cap made in Disneyland that reads Nishi on it (apparently a nickname his parents gave him). [[spoiler: Sally got 5 points, Bob got 4, Aisling got 3, Mark, despite the price and Gregs' spite, got 2 points, and Nish came last, and got a single point.]]

** In "Boing boing", a preface to a task was to be blindfolded, let Alex read out the task proper, and the task itself was to travel as far as possible in 3 minutes, then after that, take off the blindfold, and get back to your starting location in 3 minutes. Furthest travelled away from the starting point, along with the quickest to reach the starting point wins. They were also all given bread to help them. [[spoiler: Bob came in first, as he got pretty far, and got back to his starting point, as did Aisling, who came second. Sally got 200 metres away, and was 74 metres away from her starting point, and came third, while Mark thought his starting point was in the ''wrong direction'' and came fourth despite using his bread as a guide - apparently a passing dog had eaten his bread. Nish literally went in circles when retracing his steps, and ended up being 87 metres away from his starting point.]]
** In "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man", a task was to drive a scooter blindfolded and interact with certain objects, with a 10 minute trial period to get the layout of the course, after which the blindfold goes on. shortest distance to the finishing parking spot won. HilarityEnsues. [[https://imgur.com/K4oVqvZ Here are the results]], but the highlights include; Paul getting lost on foot, Sian using centimetres to measure distances, Lou getting lost for ''[[EpicFail half an hour]]'', Joe using Alex as a sound beacon to get to the finish, and Iain doing surprisingly well. [[spoiler: Iain comes first, then Sian, then Joe, then Paul, with Lou coming stone dead last.]]

** How Joe Wilkinson reacts after [[spoiler: realising he broke the rules by stepping into the red green for his potato throwing attempt in "Fear Of Failure"]].

** The team tasks in series two has Richard Osman (6'6") compared to Jon Richardson (5'7") [[spoiler: and Josh Widdicombe]].

* {{Pride}}: Two contestants display a certain amount of hubris throughout the eighth series -- Lou Sanders performs her filmed challenges in a bright pink tracksuit with "Taskmaster Series 8 Champion" boldly emblazoned on the back, while Iain Stirling at several points confidently declares a hope to be appearing in a future Champion of Champions special. [[spoiler: Works out for Lou, who eventually wins; less so for Iain, who comes second.]]

*** Mark Watson refers to the dilemma faced by the contestants in the "coconut bobsleigh" task by the trope name. The device titled "Coconut Harness" in the caravan is obviously perfect for the task - but if anyone uses the same item as another contestant then they're disqualified. Mark muses that because of this dilemma, everyone will be so wary of someone else using the Harness that ironically no one actually will. [[spoiler: He's correct; nobody ends up using it. Furthermore, two other contestants are disqualified because they happen to use a curtain as a sack.]]

** In "Look at me" the contestants had to get an egg into a eggcup using only implements found on the table. The catch being that if anyone else used the same objects as one another, they would later receive a 1 minute penalty. [[spoiler: Noel and Joe get 3 minutes tacked onto their time using a bread slice, Hugh used the bread slice and a chopstick and had a 4 minute penalty, Lolly used sticky tack and was done in under 30 seconds, with a 1 minute penalty, and Mel touched ''all'' the items, before settling on what the first three used, and got a 5 minute penalty]].
** In "Stay Humble", a task required the contestants to stage an injury made out of food. However, a stipulation to the task was that if two or more people used Tomato Ketchup, they were disqualified. Paul Sinha challenged this double-bluff and made his injury include ketchup. [[spoiler: He was also the only contestant to use Ketchup.]]

[[folder: R - S]]

** Daisy May Cooper in the finale of Series 10, after [[ItMakesSenseInContext failing to construct a spaghetti bridge to hold all her provided biscuits, angrily throws a coconut, tears apart a grapefruit with her teeth and consumes a lot of mints at once]]. [[spoiler: Perhaps justified, as she'd been leading narrowly both in the episode and the series points, and in doing so she completely blew her chances of winning either.]]

** Daisy-May Cooper bringing in very mundane prizes to fulfil the prize task requirements of Series 10, with Greg getting increasingly exasperated and annoyed at this. Her "nicest thing to put in your mouth" was white wine, her "best thing with lots of holes in it" was crumpets, her "best thing that probably has a spring in its mechanism" was an umbrella, her "cheekiest food" was Billy Bear Ham (ham in the shape of a bear), her "best pointy thing" was a metal kebab stick, and her "best top heavy item" was a cottonbud wearing a pirates hat. Only [[spoiler: the White Wine]] has won her the round so far, the rest of the prizes never getting her above 2 points.

** In [="BMXing"=], the Prize challenge was a thought-provoking prize, and when Liza revealed her prize to be about Nikola Tesla (specifically the concept of "Tesla" itself), and Liza also revealed his fate of basically dying alone in a hotel without a penny to his name, while another man took his idea and sold it on without proper credit, which had Greg shout Nikola Tesla's surname upwards while he sat down[[spoiler: She came 4th, and got 2 points, with Greg claiming her prize was "a bit too dry."]]

* SeriousBusiness: The trivial, silly nature of the tasks is often contrasted with the laser-focussed sense of competitive seriousness with which the contestants attempt to complete them. Genuinely heated arguments and tension have broken out over matters such as finding a satsuma in a sock as quickly possible. This is made even more ridiculous by the prizes the contestants are competing for each week which are usually, in Greg's words, "complete tat." This is both an intentional part of the format (Alex Horne has discussed in interviews how part of his inspiration for the show is how ridiculously competitive comedians can get with each other) and is frequently lampshaded, with Greg often commenting on how insanely seriously everyone is taking everything, or how weirdly invested he's become in the outcome of whether the contestants can, for example, tell whether the person behind them is touching their neck with a finger or a sausage. The drama in series 2 when Joe Wilkinson's superb single-shot throw of a potato into a golf hole [[spoiler: is disqualified after he is shown to have accidentally stepped on the "red-green" with his toe]] is also described by Greg as "a surprisingly genuinely harrowing moment".

** The stand-out incident for a disqualification is when Joe Wilkinson perfectly threw a potato into a golf hole and everyone made a big to-do over the feat, [[spoiler: only for it to be nullified (after some very intense debate) because his foot was touching the "red green" that he wasn't meant to touch.]]

* SimonSaysMiniGame: The final task of "Residue round the hoof" was to balance on one foot while wearing a spiked shoe over a balloon. Alex would shout out instructions in the form of "Greg says...", which they then have to do, and "Alex says...", which they would ignore. [[spoiler: Aisling wins, then Mark, then Sally, then Nish, then finally Bob.]]

** Rhod Gilbert in Series 7 is repeatedly shown intensely thinking at the start of his tasks, often pressing his fingertips to the side of his head. In contrast to some of the others who rush off as soon as the task starts, this extra thinking allows him to come up with more imaginative (and sometimes more effective) solutions, such as [[spoiler: digging up and carrying a golf hole closer to the tee to make his shot easier]].

** In "Wiley Giraffe blower", the final task was to write down the second longest word while on a plinth with three steps. The second longest word got to move down, and the first to touch the floor won.[[spoiler:Josh, Noel, Rob and Alex]] all had the word "Toblerone" as an example of a 9-lettered word, which got them disqualified from the task. This happens again in the following round to [[spoiler: Katherine and Bob]] with the word "To", which made the three disqualified contestants back in the game again, and made the other two disqualified.

* StringTheory: Two teams (Asim, Tim and Liza vs Russell and Alice) in "H." had to "Find the link, then do it 100 times" in the shortest amount of time. The board contained string connecting an overhead projector, various letter scrawlings, the word "Urination", as well as other odd pictures that seemingly mean nothing. The table below had Whiskey, a Bunny, and a Hotel Bell. The Link? [[spoiler: They had to hop 100 times. The bunny was referring to... well ''"Hopping".'' The string arrangement spelled out the word ''"Hop"'', the whiskey was an allusion to the word "hop scotch", the Hotel Bell would be used to call a bell''Hop'']]. [[spoiler: Asim's team got 5 points, while Russell's team got 3 points.]]

** Greg reacts this way when Josh shows him a tattoo on his foot he had done for a task involving giving Greg the best present for £20. [[spoiler: It was "Greg". He won first place.]]

** Greg is literally speechless when Mike [[spoiler: reveals his mohawk for the Series 11 finale]].

* SwappedRoles: In "Welcome to Rico Face", a task was to set Jon Richardson a task to do. As Jon was not aware of this at the time, he got points for working out who set which task that he had to complete, one point for each task he guessed correctly, and if he guessed wrong, the contestant would get the point. The tasks in question were; "Prove how strong you are" [[spoiler: set by Joe]], "Watch a clip of the Taskmaster" [[spoiler: set by Richard]], "Perform a recognisable rendition of the William Tell overture" [[spoiler: set by Doc Brown]], and "Do a makeup tutorial" [[spoiler: set by Katherine]]. The results had [[spoiler:Jon guess all of the tasks' creators correctly, and wins all 4 points]].

[[folder: T - Z]]

** In "Little Denim Shorts", the prize task was the most valuable item. Josh put in the pot a blank signed cheque, meaning whoever won could take up to £20,000 out of his account. [[spoiler: Frank won, and took out £19,000 (though he apparently did return it immediately afterwards).]]

** At several points in Series 8, Iain Stirling confidently asserts his intention to win the series by expressing a desire to appear in a hypothetical Champion of Champions sequel, including at one point while launching his truly epic attempt at creating a model volcano. [[spoiler: He's less successful in both winning the series and his volcano; although he does manage to come second in the series, his volcano turns into an absolute AntiClimax.]]

--->'''Josh:''' And I was afraid that you'd forget me, [[spoiler: so I got a tattoo]].
--->''A photo of Josh [[spoiler: getting Greg's name tattooed on his foot]] appears on the screen.''

* WhamShot: The infamous overhead shot of potato golf [[spoiler: showing that Joe Wilkinson's toes were on the red green, disqualifying his hole-in-one]].

* InsubstantialIngredients: For her "delicious dust" in the episode "I've Been a Bit Ill," Lou uses a mixture of Fizz Wizz popping candy and the objectification of women (represented by burnt pornography magazines). Alex describes Lou's concoction as the ''worst'' thing he has eaten '''''by far''''' on ''Taskmaster'' at the time of the episode.

* AccidentalPervert: On the rare occasion, the tasks are worded in what Greg suspects as a "deliberately saucy" way that can frame Alex as one. The tasks to give Alex a "special cuddle" ("Dignity Intact") and to "excite Alex" as measured by his heart rate increase ("Twelve Blush Majesty Two") come to mind. Special mention to “get the most water from barrel A into barrel B”, which may have been devised solely for Alex to exclusively refer to the barrels as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_wine_cask_units#butt (wine) butts]] and the stopper for the secret leak in the bottom as the “ [[InsistentTerminology butt hole plug]]”.

** Katherine Parkinson may be the show's patron saint of this trope; her embracing of this trope extended to the fact that, for some reason, she was unaware that she was even allowed to ''leave the room'' she was completing the task in, meaning that her attempts to complete the task -- never exactly overly-competent at the best of times -- were utterly hindered by the limitations of the near-surroundings that she was currently standing within. Perhaps the nadir of this for her is the "put the boots on the spider" task, wherein this self-imposed limitation completely bewildered her as to what "the spider" was supposed to be, until she eventually just ended up putting books on a six-legged table in the room. The spider she was ''supposed'' to use was, of course, outside.

** Greg as a general rule finds Alex's riffing in the show's intro tedious at best, or genuinely annoying. However he does occasionally crack up and admit it when one of Alex's pieces tickles him, such as when Alex tricks him into drinking undiluted fruit cordial in Series 8.

* ShapedLikeItself: Some of Alex's unusual measurements are like this, such as saying that 52 metres is "the distance to the moon and back, if you start 26 metres away from the moon."

** In "Rock 'n' Roll Umlaut", a task is presented as being to memorise the sequence of a deck of playing cards; several of the contestants realise that the instructions don't rule out just writing down the sequence and reading it back, but none of them are able to find writing implements. None of the competitors discover the pen taped to the side of the table next a neat label saying "PEN". In the studio, Alex notes that there were also several cameras in the room that contestants could have used to complete the task, had any of the contestants noticed them.

** In "Rock and Roll Umlaut", in order to complete the "balance the most items on the hammock without anything falling off", Joe and Sian dismantle the hammock, thus ensuring that nothing will fall off. They argue in studio that the hammock was still a hammock even if it wasn't actually set up at the time. Greg concedes the argument, but he nevertheless docks them a point on the reasoning that the spirit of the task clearly intended for them to use a ''working'' hammock (namely, a fabric surface actually suspended off the ground between two points).