History Series / Taskmaster

''Taskmaster'' is a British [[ComedySeries Comedy]] GameShow which first aired on Dave in 2015, before switching to Channel 4 in 2020. Creator/GregDavies is the host and titular Taskmaster, and is assisted by Creator/AlexHorne (who also acts as showrunner and the head task-deviser behind the scenes). Each series features five different contestants (almost invariably stand-up comedians or comedy actors / perfomers with the occasional wildcard), with "Champion of Champions" specials featuring the winners of the preceding five series.

* Series Sixteen: Julian Clary, Lucy Beaumont, Sam Campbell, Sue Perkins, Susan Wokoma

** [[{{LoopholeAbuse/Taskmaster}} Loophole Abuse]]

** [[{{ShoutOut/Taskmaster}} Shout Out]]

''Taskmaster'' | ''Series/TaskmasterUS'' | ''Series/TaskmasterNZ'' | [[Franchise/{{Taskmaster}} Other Global Versions]] ]]]]

Full episodes can be viewed on [[https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/taskmaster/watch-online UKTV Play]] and [[https://www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmaster All4]] (both UK only). The official [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT5C7yaO3RVuOgwP8JVAujQ/featured Taskmaster YouTube channel]] also features every episode up to Series 12 (albeit currently region-blocked in some parts), along with clips and compilations. The first seasons of the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian adaptations, plus the first episode of the Finnish version are available on the channel as well. In March 2022, a new dedicated subscription service called [[https://taskmastersupermaxplus.vhx.tv/ Taskmaster SuperMax+]] was launched, allowing viewers from around the world to watch the series ad-free.

''Taskmaster'' is a British [[ComedySeries Comedy]] GameShow which first aired on Dave in 2015, before switching to Channel 4 in 2020. Creator/GregDavies is the host and titular Taskmaster, and is assisted by Creator/AlexHorne (who also acts as showrunner and the head task-deviser behind the scenes). Each series features five different contestants (almost invariably stand-up comedians or comedy actors / perfomers with the occasional wildcard), with "Champion of Champions" special featuring the winners of the preceding five series.

''Taskmaster'' is a British [[ComedySeries Comedy]] GameShow which first aired on Dave in 2015, before switching to Channel 4 in 2020. Creator/GregDavies is the host and titular Taskmaster, and is assisted by Creator/AlexHorne (who also acts as showrunner and the head task-deviser behind the scenes). Each series features five different contestants (almost invariably stand-up comedians or comedy actors / perfomers with the occasional wildcard), with a "Champion of Champions" two-part special following the fifth series featuring the winners of each series to date.

At the end of each series, the contestant with the most points is crowned Taskmaster Champion and receives a trophy, usually in the form of Greg's golden head. There have been several exceptions; the Series 1 Champion received a cheap karate trophy; the Champion of Champions received a lifesize model of Greg's body; and the New Year Treat Champion received Greg's golden eyebrows.

* Series Fifteen: Frankie Boyle, Ivo Graham, Jenny Eclair, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Mae Martin

* Series Five: Aisling Bea, Bob Mortimer, Mark Watson, Nish Kumar, Sally Phillips

Full episodes can be viewed on [[https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/taskmaster/watch-online UKTV Play]] and [[https://www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmaster All4]] (both UK only). The official [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT5C7yaO3RVuOgwP8JVAujQ/featured Taskmaster YouTube channel]] also features every episode broadcast so far (albeit currently region-blocked in some parts), along with clips and compilations. The first episode of the Finnish version of the show, ''Suurmestari'', is available on the channel as well. In March 2022, a new dedicated subscription service called [[https://taskmastersupermaxplus.vhx.tv/ Taskmaster SuperMax+]] was launched, allowing viewers from around the world to watch the series ad-free.

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

''Taskmaster'' is a British [[ComedySeries Comedy]] GameShow which first aired on Dave in 2015, before switching to Channel 4 in 2020. Creator/GregDavies is the host and titular Taskmaster, and is assisted by Alex Horne (who also acts as showrunner and the head task-deviser behind the scenes). Each series features five different contestants (almost invariably stand-up comedians or comedy actors / perfomers with the occasional wildcard), with a "Champion of Champions" two-part special following the fifth series featuring the winners of each series to date.

** The '''team tasks''', where the five contestants are split into two teams for the series, one of three members and one of two[[note]]one exception was in Series 2, where Josh Widdicombe of Series 1 made a one-off return to even out the numbers[[/note]]. From Series 1 through 9, Greg usually divided five points between the two teams (for example, if the first team scores three points, the second gets two). Starting from Series 10, Greg will occasionally score each team out of five instead of splitting the points or even score players individually due to COVID-related social-distancing rules often making team tasks more difficult.

* Series Two: Doc Brown, Joe Wilkinson, Jon Richardson, Katherine Ryan, Richard Osman

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

[[caption-width-right:350:Your task is to read this entire page from top to bottom, then click the "Random Trope" button. Fastest person to read the page wins. Your time starts now.]]

[[foldercontrol]]

!!Read through the tropes related to ''Taskmaster''. Your time starts now:

[[folder:A - B]]
* AbortedArc: During initial filming of the tasks, Phil Wang originally imagines that he would develop an intense rivalry with fellow contestant James Acaster, going so far as to write "Fuck You James Acaster" in the "deliver this task to Alex" task ("Lotta Soup"). However, he quickly forgets about it over the course of filming and only remembers when they show his VT for the aforementioned task.
* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: The contestants have a clause in their contracts saying that they are genuinely giving up ownership for their submissions for the Prize Tasks, and are only allowed to request that the winner returns them if they lose. Prizes (particularly in the early seasons) can be of absurdly high value (sentimental or monetary)for a comedy show, including marriage certificates, wedding rings, Guinness World Record certificates and blank cheques. This has gradually downplayed over the years as contestants have caught on and decided not to risk their prized possessions, with most prizes being either overtly absurd novelty items or, it's hinted, things that the contestants have specially bought from sites like eBay.
* 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]]”.
* AchievementsInIgnorance:
** While playing Charades in "The FIP", Sara simply starts yelling out guesses and manages to give three correct anwers even without Rob miming anything. Then a passerby randomly suggests another correct answer.
** When put in a squash court full of various objects and simply told "Score 11 points" with zero indication of how it's done, the winning team never actually figures out that points are scored by touching their head and just luck out that they all tend to do it pretty regularly.
* ActorAllusion:
** Mel Giedroyc gets several references to her double act with Sue Perkins: for the team tasks, she's paired with Hugh Dennis to make team "Mel and Hugh", and in live task where she successfully juices a fruit using a piece of footwear is announced as a victory for "Mel and Shoe".
** Johnny Vegas brings in a ''teabag'' for a prize task and alludes to the adverts he used to do for PG Tips tea.
** Alan Davies' contribution to a prize task is a VHS cassette of the first two episodes of ''Series/JonathanCreek''.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny:
** In Series 1, Romesh Ranganathan can at times be seen concealing a grin after Greg makes a crack at his expense, in order to maintain his GrumpyBear persona.
** 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's "This Is Trevor".
* AdBumpers: Each section ends with specially filmed ad bumpers; the first series used the same ones each week, the second and third series used a mix of ad bumpers, but the fourth series onward has a different set of bumpers for each show. The common link is that each bumper leading into a break will feature Alex waving goodbye, and each bumper starting a new section will have Alex showing which part of the show this is (usually by holding up fingers).
** [="BMXing"=], uses leftover footage from "One Warm Prawn", specifically involving a spinning plastic lizard attached to a cordless drill, which had kept on going for just over an hour and a half.
** Paul Chowdhry in "A Very Nuanced Character" is set the task of having the most fun on a bouncy castle for an hour, and clips from his attempt are used on each advert break for that episode.
** Mike Wozniak is given his own special task to fart the fastest in Series 11 episode "Absolute Casserole." Footage of him contorting his body in order to tease one out precedes and follows each ad break.
* AintTooProudToBeg: In "Fear of Failure", when it looks like Joe Wilkinson's impressive hole-in-one with a potato is going to be disqualified owing to an inadvertant rule violation, Joe becomes so distraught and desperate to salvage his achievement that he ends up [[KneelBeforeZod crawling across the studio on his hands and knees to beg in front of Greg.]]
-->'''Greg:''' God, I got a real sense of power for a moment then.
* AllForNothing:
** A task in "Tony three pies" requires the contestants to make an exotic sandwich. However, they also get up to 5 bonus points for eating their sandwich (they're not aware of this fact until they've made their sandwich). When the scores are tallied up, everyone has been given the same amount of points, essentially making the task pointless (because, unsurprisingly, the more points they got for the sandwich's "exoticness", the fewer points they got for eating it -- the two sets of points were the direct inverse of each other). Noel and Mel do get an extra bonus point each for [[ItMakesSenseInContext eating Alex's beard hair and inhaling an [=M&M=] via her nose]] respectively, but those hardly count as this trope, as neither are listed in the task, and are given out at the kindness of the Taskmaster.
** In "A Wind-Dried Puffin", it's revealed that Mark (and only Mark) was given the task of sending a "cheeky text" to Greg every day for five months. He notes that it occupied a considerable cumulative amount of time and attention, and because it's a solo task (as well as, supposedly, because he missed a couple days) he gets no points for it.
** Nobody receives points in the live task in "Tarpeters" because Greg is able to eliminate all the contestants by correctly deducing whether the grape is in each contestant's hand or mouth (in Russell's case, he left his grape in his pocket, and is disqualified).
** In Series 6 episode "H." everybody manages to successfully TableclothYank without breaking any eggs and receives the full 5 points. Greg gets quite annoyed:
--->'''Greg:''' And that's the end of Taskmaster, good night!\\
''[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]]!
** In "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man", the Series 8 finale, the live task is a challenging one involving retrieving a rubber duck while wearing vision-distorting goggles. After much effort and confusion, nobody receives any points -- only two contestants manage to retrieve a duck within the time limit, and they are disqualified because, in the chaos, they ended up retrieving each other's duck instead of their own.
** In Series 10, there are three tasks where ''everybody'' is disqualified, rendering all that effort meaningless. Two of these tasks come up in the very first episode, although Daisy earns a bonus point for getting an egg closest to the frying pan.
* AlwaysSecondBest: In Series 1 [[spoiler:Romesh. He's in both of the tiebreaker tasks that season but loses both. His overall performance gets him tied for 2nd for the series overall, just 1 point below Josh who becomes the winner. Moreover, despite a relatively high score overall, Romesh is the only person that season to never win an episode]].
* AmbiguousSyntax:
** Intentionally using the specific wording of the task to your advantage is an intended part of the show. Sometimes this is done when setting the task, such as in the "painting in the dark" task in Series 5, in which the task letter intentionally ''never'' specifies that the task had to actually be done with the lights off). Other times the contestant will come up with a way of CuttingTheKnot, abusing ExactWords, or employing LoopholeAbuse. It will be up to the Taskmaster's discretion as to whether or not their unorthodox solution is allowed. This often leads to contestants to their advantage.
** In "One Warm Prawn", after a task that involved eating chicken, Alex notes that in one contestant's case they had used vegetarian chicken (meat substitute) instead. Greg reacts with bemusement to the concept of "vegetarian chicken", and Tim quips that as far as he knows all chickens are vegetarians.
** In "The Pendulum Draws the Eye", the banter segment sees Alex presenting Greg with "a horse-drawn carriage" -- a picture, supposedly drawn by a horse, of something that might arguably be a carriage.
* AndNowYouMustMarryMe: In "Caring Uncle Minpict", one task is to propose to Alex in the most irresistable manner. Guz Khan does this by [[spoiler:threatening him with a horse's head, a la ''Film/TheGodfather'']].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Some times a contestent will bring in an item of clothing as a prize. There have been several episodes where the prizes specifically were clothes:
** In "Pork Is A Sausage", the contestants are asked to put their "trendiest" item of clothing in the pot.
** In "The Leprechaun Or The Lesbian", the contestants all put in unusual hats.
** In "My Eyes are Circles", the contestants bring in their "boldest" belts, although two contestants didn't bring in actual belts.
* AnnoyingLaugh: Nish's laugh is considered to be this in "Dignity Intact" by Greg and [[SelfDeprecation even Nish]]. The prize task for that episode has him bring in a [=CD=] that had his laugh looped over and over again.
* AntennaAdjusting: In "Shaqinahat", one task begins with the contestants watching a TV in the caravan. The interstitial that leads into it shows Greg watching TV in the caravan and forcing Alex to adopt an awkward position with the antenna to improve the reception.
* AntiClimax:
** Iain's volcano in "Stuck in a Mammal Groove". Construction involves a wheelbarrow full of dirt, a long pipe, stones, little figurines, ''power tools'', a lot of cola and an entire bag full of Mentos. Before activating it, he delivers a tribute to the previous Champion of Champions and expresses a wish to join their ranks one day. And after activating it and running away from the blast zone in slow-mo, the result is... a tiny bit of Mentos bubbling up around the top.
---> '''Iain''': I genuinely don't want to talk about it.
** The finales of Series 9 and 10 both end with a tiebreak task, but by that point any excitement or tension would have been lost because everyone would have already worked out the champion of the series by that point. [[spoiler:By coincidence, Ed Gamble and Richard Herring, the champions of their respective series, are also the winners of those tiebreak tasks.]]
* AntiNepotism: Being Alex Horne's friend of 20 years doesn't get Mark Watson any special privileges. It gets him singled out for the most demanding trick task in the show's history, sending daily cheeky texts to Greg for five straight months. [[{{Troll}} One can almost be forgiven for suspecting that Alex eagerly embraced the opportunity to mess with an old friend.]]
* ArcWords: "Your Time Starts Now" probably counts. It's said several times an episode, at least.
* ArmorPiercingResponse: When Kerry Godliman starts getting a bit shirty about Rhod Gilbert using a calculator in the "guess the circumference of the caravan in baked beans" task, after trying to do sums in her head, his retort quickly shuts her down.
-->'''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...\\
'''Rhod:''' Tell me you didn't use anything from the house in any of the tasks.\\
'''Kerry:''' ''[sullen but grudging concession]'' I see... what you're saying...
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: In the "tie yourself up as securely as possible" task, Rhod Gilbert gets around it by instead tying ''Alex'' up, with such precision and expertise that it begins to look a bit sinister. To add insult to injury, he then puts a bucket on Alex's head, and then a hat on the bucket. In the studio, while everyone else is united in grudging admiration of Rhod's cleverness in getting around the task, they are equally in agreement that the bucket was just being mean.
* ArtShift: The background theme of the Taskmaster House shifts from season to season. It's often quite subtle, but frequently most noticeable through the large portrait of Greg in the main room, which changes to reflect a particular artistic style (see "ShoutOut" below). While earlier series mainly focussed on changing the portrait (due to general budget issues), later series have expanded the theme by incorporating it into the props / decorations as well. Particularly prominent examples include:
** Series Three is still quite subtle (again, budget issues) but clearly has a bit of a "pop art" motif running through it; the main portrait of Greg is a homage to Roy Lichtenstein's "Oh Jeff, I Love You Too, But...", and a recurring prop is a model of an American fighter plane[[note]]specifically, as Al Murray notes, a P-51 Mustang[[/note]] similar to the one that appears prominently in Lichtenstein's "Whaaam!". A mural of Greg on the outside wall of the Taskmaster Houser also parodies Banksy's "Girl with Balloon".
** Series Eight has a very distinct Japanese/Asian theme, reflect in the font of the Taskmaster logo, the music, and the art style (including the anime-style portrait of Greg), and even the font used on the wax seal.
** Series Nine is also quite subtle, but as the main portrait is a homage to Giuseppe Arcimboldo's style of representing the details of portraits and other objects with fruits and vegetables, many of the decorations in the main living room are also produce or produce-based. The new incidental music for this series is Baroque-themed.
** Series Ten has a noticeable cowboy/western theme.
** The New Year Treat special is themed around the Golden Age of Hollywood and filmmaking.
** Series Eleven goes for a Soviet propaganda / "socialist realist" art style.
** Series Twelve is {{Steampunk}} themed.
* TheArtifact: Greg Davies began to wear glasses and grew a beard from Series 6 onwards, which makes the title sequence outdated, as it still shows Greg clean-shaven and not wearing his glasses. The sequence was eventually refilmed for Series 10. His portrait that is on the stage and in the Taskmaster House foyer also get an update.
* AsideGlance:
** Alex does this ''a lot''. Specifically when the contestants come up with bizarre interpretations or solutions to the task. In "Their Water's So Delicious" Alex gives one to the camera in response to a very honest answer Rosalind tells the contestants.
** James Acaster does this during the team task in "My Eyes Are Circles", while ''blindfolded''.
* AskAStupidQuestion:
** This gem of an exchange in "Mother Honks Her Horn" between Alex Horne and Kerry Godliman:
--->'''Kerry:''' ''[reading from a task letter inside]'' "E, look under the doormat... where's the doormat?!"\\
'''Alex:''' Probably under a door.\\
''[beat]''\\
'''Kerry:''' ''[now outside the front door to the house]'' Oh, there's the doormat!
** For a season 8 task, the competitors have to wear a helmet with a baby monitor, and find the other monitor. Also attached to the helmet is a camera, to capture everyone's reactions. Lou Sanders is a bit confused about this last part:
--->'''Lou:''' And what's the camera for?\\
'''Alex:''' We're going to show this on TV.
** This exchange from Richard Herring and Alex, as Richard tries to fill a cup at the top of a long pole:
--->'''Richard:''' How do I know when it's full, it'll overflow, will it?\\
'''Alex:''' Yeah, you'll be able to see that with your eyes.
* AssShove:
** "Welcome to Rico Face" has a task where the contestants have to hide a pineapple on their body before Alex then inspects them:
*** Joe Wilkinson hides a piece of pineapple down the back of his pants. During Alex's inspection, it becomes clear that some of the pineapple has slipped into a very uncomfortable place. Joe even requests that nobody looks at his arse when he walks back to the house.
*** Katherine Ryan implies shoving things up a different orifice. She lists out a number of fruits and vegetables she might be able to hide but concludes that a pineapple would be difficult to fit inside. Fortunately for her and the viewers, she does not actually follow through.
---->'''Katherine:''' I can do a courgette. I can do oranges, an apple...this...''[motions towards pineapple]''\\
'''Greg:''' I mean, it is incredible to me that that's the conclusion you'd come to.
** In "He Was A Different Man", after being made to sit bare-assed on a cake, Alex makes a few remarks that make the audience and contestants react with disgust: one about the chair shape and another about the whereabouts of one of the profiteroles that topped the cake.
* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Johnny Vegas's attempt to make "the largest thing disappear" in "God's Haemorrhoid" becomes a combination of a political commentary on Jeremy Corbyn's decisive defeat in the 2019 general election and this trope as he depicts an attack on Westminster (or a paper replica thereof) by a "400ft" mutant socialist chicken unleashed on the capital by Corbyn against his political enemies.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny:
** A line placed in a song Nish and Mark had to make in "Their Water's So Delicious" about Nish being momentarily distracted by a tree, then continue singing.
** In "A fat bald white man", at the start of the first task of the episode, Mel was presented with a cake, which she had to destroy. Before reading the task however, she gets momentarily distracted with complimenting the cake.
** Mel, again, in "Look At Me." There is a task where the contestants must move an egg into an eggcup without touching either, and will gain a time penalty for each tool they touch. She immediately picks up two straws, then briefly ponders why a model horse figurine was provided to move the egg. Upon realizing she's picked up the horse, she impulsively touches all the other items just for good measure.
** Nell the toddler in "The Barrel Dad" on the grounds of being a toddler. Nell often got distracted by other things in the room, before Alex pointed her back to the item the contestants had to make for her.
* AudienceParticipation:
** Roisin asked the audience in "Down an Octave" about her sequined jumper she brought in, and whether or not it looked good. A few people cheered in agreement, but when Greg asked if the jumper looked bad far more cheered.
** 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]].
** During a final task in which the goal was to get an inflatable donut as high as possible, [[spoiler:Rhod kicks his donut into the audience and has them pass it up to the very back row, a considerable height above the stage, winning him the task.]]
** On stage tasks that involves the contestants being blindfolded often results in them asking the audience for help.
* 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"]].
* AwkwardKiss: In the game of "Greg says, Alex says," at one point the contestants are instructed to blow the Taskmaster a French Kiss, with some interesting and unattractive results.
* BackhandedApology: When the competitors were tasked with apologizing to Alex for something they did, Joe Thomas carefully worded his apology so as not to take back what he sang in an insulting song. Lou Sanders, meanwhile, trashed Alex's car and as a way of "apologizing" [[spoiler:gave out Alex's genuine phone number to several telemarketers and organizations known for being very pushy]].
* BadBadActing: The beginning of the second part of "Stuck in a Mammal Groove" has Alex read off the autocue as stilted as possible, then abruptly go back to his regular acting style.
* BadBoss: Greg, as the Taskmaster, tends to be portrayed as somewhere between this and an abusive heterosexual life-partner for Alex.
* BaitAndSwitch: Throughout "Spoony Neeson", Alex has been wearing a bandana as an attempt to rebrand himself as "Bandana Guy" because he feels his current persona isn't exciting enough. At the end, Greg orders him to surrender the bandana, apparently for the set-up of some final bit of bullying, only to result in this:
-->''[after Alex has handed over the bandana]''\\
'''Greg:''' ''[kindly]'' You don't need it, mate. You're fine as you are.
* BaitAndSwitchComment: In "Lotta Soup", a hidden condition on one task results in a situation where one competitor would receive 5 points despite completely failing to achieve the supposed objective, while another would receive no points despite an impressive result. Greg says solemnly that it would be very mean-spirited to actually award the points that way... before making it clear that that's exactly what he's going to do.
* BananaPeel: The prize task for "This Is Trevor" had Paul Sinha bring in a banana peel as his slippery object. He goes one further and [[SerialEscalation shows that he also brought in Ban-Jelly pie]]. He wasn't done. He also, much to Sian's annoyance, brought in slippers.
* BarSlide: The stage task for "Bready Bready Bready" was to slide a drink to Greg from one side of the table to the other, in order for him to catch it. It starts out with half a pint of Vodka (in a pint glass), [[SerialEscalation then a pint of gin (in a pint glass), then sambuca (in a shotglass). and finally white wine (in a wineglass).]]
* BehindAStick: The ad bumpers for the episode "Dignity Intact" show Alex peering out from behind various trees, including one no wider than his arm that clearly should not be able to hide the invisible portion of him.
* BeleagueredAssistant: Alex plays this part with respect to Greg, suffering mild abuse in moment of pique, and occasionally getting the same from the competitors as well.
* BelligerentSexualTension: In a series 6 outtake, Alex corrects Greg's grammar and says afterward that he was considering against it because Greg might hurt him. Asim lampshades their relationship.
-->'''Asim:''' I can never tell if you two are going to fuck or fight.\\
'''Greg:''' Frequently both.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't mention [[ItMakesSenseInContext cardboard boxes]] to Romesh. Or watermelons, for that matter.
** Never lie about doing something for charity as it will enrage everyone else, which both Tim Key and Joe Lycett found out to their cost. (In Joe's case, it was someone lying about signing a vegetable on his behalf, which he never asked them to do.)
** 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)]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Throughout series 8, Joe Thomas was one of the more mild-mannered contestants, to the extent that he wasn't even that angry after [[spoiler:Sian was caught cheating in the team task in "Aquatic Sewing Machine", which disqualified ''both'' of them]]. He eventually loses his temper in response to the other contestants' efforts in the first task in "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man".
* 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 "Quisps".
* BigDamnKiss: In "We Met at Mealtimes," Alex suddenly announces that he genuinely wants to kiss the Taskmaster in that moment. Greg and Alex then share a tender kiss to the loud cheers of the cast and the audience.
* 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.]]
* BigGuyLittleGuy: Greg Davies and Alex Horne play this straight-ish behind the scenes (albeit without the "big dumb muscle" angle), as Alex is the actual "Taskmaster"; he's the showrunner and the one who devises and runs the tasks. On stage, however, the typical "little guy's in charge" dynamic is inverted, with Greg lording it over "Little Alex Horne" despite Alex's frequent protests that he's actually 6'2 and Greg, at 6'8 as mentioned above, simply towers over pretty much everyone.
* BigNo: Josh is the most prone to shouting a few of these, such as during the final challenge in "The Pie Whisperer", and the tea challenge in "The Poet And The Egg".
* 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", a hint to the fact that there were items helpful for the task hidden on the underside of the table. Jon Richardson even notes this ''during'' the task, but fails to connect the dots, and laments the fact while watching the footage in the studio.
** "Boing boing" has Greg, Sally, and Nish peppering French phrases during the flip book task onward. Greg also ends the show by speaking French.
** In "No Stars for Naughty Boys", the team task involves one team member riding in a wheely bin and not allowed to speak English, and the other(s) steering the bin while blindfolded. Lolly speaks German and Mel speaks French, neither very well but well enough to be understood by their teammates. None of it is translated.
* BitingTheHandHumor:
** A few gags in the show relied on Dave (the channel Taskmaster first aired on) and its notoriety for repeating the same shows (such as Series/TopGear and yes, even Taskmaster) quite often.
** Some of the ad break reads are Greg basically making fun of adverts, and on more than one occasion has insulted the audience at home for falling for the ads.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy49x-8lS4E One of the trailers for the first Channel 4 series]] was based entirely around mocking the channel for turning it down at first before poaching it from Dave. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/comments/iqn120/coming_soon/g4t3omg?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 The letter the Taskmaster partially reads out]] also mocks the tendency for Channel 4 to show Home Improvement programs of varying kinds on their channels.
* BizarreAndImprobableGolfGame: Literally the case. In "The Last Supper", Tim, Roisin, Josh, Romesh and Frank all had to complete a golf course in the shape of a "T" and an "M" using eggs instead of golf balls. The scores were calculated by shots multiplied by eggs multiplied by the minutes taken to do the task. They had to get the lowest score to win. It went as well as you'd expect it to. [[spoiler:Roisin got 1,000 points, and so came first, Frank claimed second place with 1,096 points, Tim came third with 1,200 points, Josh came fourth with slightly over 6,000 points, Romesh came stone dead last with [[EpicFail over 38,000 points]].]] Greg summed up the task quite nicely after doling out the points:
-->'''Greg:''' We're basically saying there are no rules in our version of golf.
* BizarreTasteInFood:
** The "guess the contents of the pie" task from "The Pie Whisperer in Series 1. Frank was shown first and made normal guesses (mostly steak-based) through intuition. It was then revealed that most of the pie fillings were... ''unusual'' to say the least. (A "Taskmaster photo" pie, a steak pie, a frozen peas pie, a glass marble pie, and a hot mint toothpaste pie - the only normal pie was a steak pie). Despite being forced to munch on the toothpaste pie, Alex claims on the official Taskmaster Podcast that it was the best thing that he has had to put in his mouth for the show, but was otherwise the worst-''tasting''.
** Series 6 episode "One Warm Prawn" had one task where the contestants had to guess the contents of three jars of baby food. The three baby food jars contained what Alex imagined that babies would enjoy eating - sausage and sugar puffs (Jar 1), pilchards and coconut (Jar 2), and prawn cocktail, chicken breast, and chocolate cake (Jar 3). During the live segment after the task, Alex revealed how much of the "baby food" each contestant ate: Tim ate none of it (he only smelled them), Alice ate 6 grams, Russell ate 14 grams, Liza ate 33 grams, and Asim (who claimed he didn't have lunch and was hungry) ate 38 grams.
** In "This is Trevor," the competitors need to guess the flavours of 5 different bags of crisps while wearing a ridiculous costume that reduces dexterity (e.g. a pirate outfit with a hook). The crisp flavours were (in numerical order) gin and tonic, toothpaste and tomato, burnt toast, vegan chocolate, and giant Refreshers crisps.
* BlandNameProduct: One task in "Spatchcock It" features a shopping bag blazoned with the logo of a fictional supermarket called "Tasko", a riff on the Tesco supermarket chain.
* BlatantLies: Often comes up as contestants try to fudge their way around a task's requirements:
** For the prize task in Series 3 episode "The Dong and the Gong," ("heaviest item in a box"), Sara Pascoe brings in a "poisonous snake"[[note]]It was a stuffed toy snake and a 12.5 kg weight[[/note]]. She refused to allow Alex to weigh the box and claimed that it could only be handled by a snake handler and was a few kilos heavier than the heaviest item that the other contestants brought (Dave Gorman's lump of marble, which was 27.3 kg). Not surprisingly, Greg sticks her in last place.
** The prize task for Series 5's "Phoenix" was to bring in the item the contestant was proudest of. Sally Phillips brought in an item of her standing outside the Icelandic Parliament building before what she claimed was a ceremony to reward her for her contribution to research that changed Iceland's laws regarding "how women are treated in pregnancy". As the prize basically amounted to a holiday snapshot, she had tried to claim that "Iceland" in Icelandic was "Icelandinga", and she offered a SuspiciouslySpecificDenial about how she ''didn't'' simply think "lie creatively" in order to win a point, Greg was highly suspicious of her story but, as he couldn't actually disprove it in-studio he was forced to give her points.
** In the prize task for Series 7's "I Can Hear It Gooping", Phil's offering is a "custom made" "solid gold" pen that's obviously a cheap ballpoint with gold-coloured foil badly wrapped around it.
** In Series 8's "long distance catch" task, Sian's contributions to her and Joe's attempt mainly involved her and former contestant Romesh Ranganathan standing in different parts of the set of ''The Reluctant Landlord''[[note]]which is shot in Surrey[[/note]] while Romesh intoned dramatically about how great it was to be in Johannesburg / Malaysia / New Zealand.
** In Series 10, Katherine Parkinson claims to weigh 22 stones (140 kilograms or 308 pounds) to do well in a task where scoring was based partly on weight. This is what ''Greg'' actually weighs and he's more than a foot taller and a lot bulkier than she is.
* BookEnds: Occasionally happens in some episodes:
** In "Phoenix", the first pre-recorded task involves the contestants getting a ping pong ball out of a long tube, and the live task involves the contestants using the ball to play a game of [[ItMakesSenseInContext verbal ping pong]]. In the same episode, Alex mentions at the beginning that he has been taking elocution lessons and that saying the word "salivate" will make one immediately salivate. Cut to the end of the episode when Greg suddenly says "Salivate!" and Alex immediately does so.
** The first recorded task of "This is Trevor" was to find all the pink lady apples hidden underneath bowls at tables, but finding the [[Literature/GreenEggsAndHam green (chicken) egg]] meant that the contestant would be disqualified. The live task put the five contestants into teams, where they must determine the numerical answer to the Taskmaster's questions and pull that number within 30 seconds - pulling a correct answer resulted in a pink lady falling from above that number, but pulling an incorrect answer would result in a green (ostrich) egg falling down so that the opposing team would receive the full 5 points and the losing team 0 points.
* BoringButPractical: This happens frequently, enough that it would overtake the LoopholeAbuse entry by miles
** 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.]]
** Kerry Godliman in Series 7 is repeatedly complimented by Greg as "the Bosh Queen" for her simple and blunt yet effective approaches to tasks. Need to find out where a bin is on the other side of a fence? Drill a hole in it, bosh.
** 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.]]
* BornUnlucky: In “Boing boing”, a task requires contestants to don a blindfold, travel as far as they can, remove the blindfold, and try to find their way back to where they started. They are given a slice of bread to potentially leave breadcrumbs, a strategy employed by Mark Watson. He ends up losing the task, as ''a dog happened to come along and eat the breadcrumbs''.
* {{Bowdlerise}}:
** Pre-watershed versions of Series 1-9 were made so Dave could get more mileage out of repeats. For the most part this just amounted to bleeping out the swearing, although one task from the sixth series had to have so much cut out of it to make it broadcastable pre-watershed that an extra line was added explaining how much had been edited.
** When Creator/TheCW acquired the rights to broadcast and stream Series 8 and 9 in the US, they cut out a lot of the raunchier jokes, removed the ad break transitions, and inserted several "Don't Try This At Home" messages. This also ended up cutting out context for various sequences (for example, in the original broadcast of "Clumpey Swayey Clumsy Man," Greg orders Alex to shout loudly while recapping what happened before the ad break and who will be shown next - however, the CW edit just cuts to Alex shouting out "LOU SANDERS" for no apparent reason).
* BrainBleach:
** Everyone in the studio has a ''very justified'' reaction after discussing Bob's...unique toilet sitting position in "Spoony Neeson", as he apparently has "an anus that is a bit too high."
** Alex putting his bare rear into a cake topped with profiteroles and custard. The below quote truly squicked out the audience however:
--->'''Alex:''' There was one fewer profiteroles than when I'd started.
* BrainsAndBrawn: In series one:
** Brain: Frank and Josh's attempts are often shown 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.
** Brawn: Romesh and Tim take a much more brash, hands-on approach, which led to Greg calling them "the psychopaths". They also have a tendency to try and sabotage each others' efforts in the live 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.]]
* BribingYourWayToVictory:
** Narrowly averted in "The Pie Whisperer": Tim Key claims he's doing a stunt for Sport Relief in order to get strangers to cooperate with his task, earning him immediate enmity from the rest of the cast and the audience. Greg rules that he'll lose points unless he gives £185 to the charity, whereupon he immediately asks how much he could give to win the task. Frank Skinner jumps in asking for the same deal. Greg ultimatey decides to drop the deal and just dock Tim a point.
** In Series 3, Al "Money Bags" Murray displays a tendency to complete tasks by throwing money around to the people around him to help him do them. He rented a gong to surprise Alex (we don't know the price, but there's a good chance it wasn't cheap), bought a fairly costly taxi cab ride so he could drive to Slough with a pea in a rolled-up red mat (£150), did the same thing to cover 4 corners of London with his clothes (price unknown, also likely not cheap), spent £60 for Alex's taxi, and paid a man to walk with a piece of clothing. His spending spree has reached over £380! This creates a minor controversy in one episode, when Al pays Alex to carry a bucket full of water up a race track to another bucket so he could transfer water from it quicker (the task had stated that the contestants themselves couldn't move the bucket, but [[ExactWords technically said nothing]] about someone else doing so), which led to him winning the round. The problem was, when Sara Pascoe had had the same idea during her attempt and had asked Alex to move the bucket ''without'' offering him money, he had refused in a way that suggested that this was a violation of the rules. As this ended up severely disadvantaging Sara, Greg ruled that she would get an extra point but that it would be unfair to disqualify Al since he had no idea of any of this, so he instead punished Alex for his corruption by making him donate the money to charity and Rob (who is in dire financial straits) and by making him take off his right shoe and sock for the rest of the episode.
--->'''Rob Beckett:''' You're going to be at a loss at the end of the series, on the amount of money you've spent on-\\
'''Al Murray:''' What price glory?\\
'''Alex:''' Currently £340.
** The prize task for "Tony Three Pies" from Series 4 required the contestants to bring in the largest amount of cash. Lolly Adefope decided to bring in a blank cheque so she could top the highest amount by 1p. When Greg called her out, she brought out her back-up plan: an envelope filled with £2000 of genuine currency.
** Played with by Mark Watson, who also demonstrated a tendency to splash some cash around to try and win tasks. However, on several occasions, this backfired when he ended up not doing so well, leaving him significantly out-of-pocket with little to show for it. This most significantly occurred in the prize task where each contestant was required to bring in a special hat, as Greg instinctively found Mark's £400 light-up red "Taskmaster" hat insufficient. It finally worked out for Mark in "Boing Boing" when, after learning that (for unrelated reasons) Mark had once had to pay £18,000 to have a garden gate installed[[note]]FWIW the gate would open into a private communal garden owned by a resident's association that he also had to pay a membership fee to in order to access[[/note]], Greg made him the winner of the round out of pity.
--->'''Greg:''' I've seen the hurt in Mark "£18,000 gate" Watson's eyes...\\
'''Mark:''' Oh, I ''need'' this. I ''need'' this, yeah.\\
'''Greg:''' ... So I have to give in to it.
* BrickJoke:
** In the first episode of Series 3, Alex offers Greg some raisins during the banter segment at the beginning of the episode, then brings them out again after the final pre-recorded task, in which raisins played a significant role in one contestant's attempt.
** In the task where the contestants had to spot the differences made in the scene in front of them as they blew up a balloon blindfolded, Alex had been switched with a body double and nobody but Aisling noticed when naming the differences. Later in the episode, the same man swapped with Alex and sat next to Greg ahead of one of the ad breaks, which nobody comments on.
** In the first episode of Series 4, Mel puts on a black shoe to crush a lime in the final in-studio task. Not only does she return to her chair in mismatched shoes, but she continues to sport the black shoe in studio during the next three episodes.
** In "I Can Hear Gooping", the first bit of pre-recorded task footage is of the contestants receiving instructions for a task to be completed later, when a siren sounds. The siren eventually sounds halfway through the episode's final pre-recorded task.
** During the banter segment at the start of "Hello", Alex demonstrates a system he's devised so he can pull up his socks by pulling on a string that runs up through his clothes and loops around the back of his neck. At the end of the episode, Greg yanks on the string and apparently pulls Alex's socks right off and out through the collar of his shirt.
* BriefAccentImitation: During the prize task in "Shaqinahat", Greg imitates the way it sounds to him when Rose says "shed" in her New Zealand accent, and Rose retaliates by demonstrating how it sounds to her when Greg says "shed".
* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: In "Tony Three Pies", Mel's offering for the prize task is a briefcase full of banknotes. It turns out that only the top layer of banknotes is real, and the rest of it is Monopoly money.
* BritishBrevity: Played straight for the first few series, but number of episodes has increased over time. Series one has 6 episodes, series two and three have 5 episodes, series four and five have 8 episodes, and all the series from series six onwards have 10 episodes.
* BritishStuffiness: All the players had difficulty asking strangers for their ages in a Series One task, but Josh exhibits a reserved embarrassment throughout the task.
* BritishTeeth: In Series 2, after Katherine Ryan performs a children's song about dental hygiene, Alex draws attention to the wide gap in his own teeth and says that he can fit a coin through it.
* BrokenRecord: Literally. The video that precedes a task in "Rock 'n' Roll Umlaut" had the task-setting tune on a vinyl record, with it skipping near the end, then cutting off.
* TheBusCameBack:
** [[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.
** Al (series three) appears twice in "Hollowing Out A Baguette" (series four). Al shows up as one of the people Joe Lycett contacted on Twitter to help him camouflage himself, which leads Greg and Alex to quip that Al just can't accept that he's no longer on the show anymore. Later on in the same episode, his short film from "The F.I.P." is played as an introduction to a task.
** Tim Key (series one) shows up in "Tony Three Pies" (series four) to officiate Noel Fielding's [[ItMakesSenseInContext marriage to a rubber duck]].
** Dave (series three) appears as the model for Aisling's Yorkshire pudding hat in "The Leprechaun or the Lesbian" (series five).
** All five contestants in the Champion of Champions specials.
** Richard (series two) appears in "Lotta Soup" (series seven) as part of James Acaster's attempt to deliver a task to Alex in the most spectacular way.
** Romesh (series one) appears in "Stay Humble" (series eight)[[note]]via video shot on the set of ''The Reluctant Landlord'', the TV series he stars in alongside Series 8 competitor Sian Gibson[[/note]].
** Kerry (series seven) and Katherine (series two) replaced Katy in the studio segments while she was ill for "Another spoon" and "Bready Bready Bready" respectively (series nine).
* BusbyBerkeleyNumber: In "Lotta Soup," the task is to deliver the task (envelope) to Alex in the most spectacular manner. Kerry decides to stage a Busby Berkeley-type number (which she initially mispeaks as "Bertie Bassett," the mascot for licorice allsorts) and accompanies it with dancing crew members and a tune. The results were so spectacularly and uncharacteristically poor that it allegedly overshadowed everyone else's attempts at the task.
* ButtMonkey: This is done in a number of ways. At least once a series by giving a contestant a special task which nobody else has to do, or an additional rule in a task just for them (they are invariably unaware that nobody else had to do it until the footage is played). Oftentimes a contestant will be singled out for consistently struggling as well. To some extent the Taskmaster makes their struggle worse by punishing them, but often times one player is genuinely just very bad at the tasks.
** Alex Horne is the show's ongoing Butt-Monkey. Greg constantly insults or mocks him, and in many of the later series the contestants join on. As the assistant around to observe the contestants as they undertake a challenge he also takes the brunt of their verbal abuse when they get frustrated with the task. In the spirit of the show, Alex typically goes along with whatever humiliating things are requested of him. Among other things, he has been made to eat several pies full of unusual fillings in "The Pie Whisperer", eat dog food in "The Last Supper", and put his bare arse into a cake in "He Was A Different Man". In series 7, Rhod repeatedly requires him to strip down to his underwear, or even further. For the team task in "The Last Supper", the teams had to make a blooper reel; and Josh, Romesh, and Roisin decided to [[PieInTheFace shove Alex's face into a cake]] before making him fall into a paddling pool full of water. The blooper reel example ends up backfiring on the team, however; after watching the blooper back, Greg pointed out that the team were supposed to make one of ''themselves'' the victim of the misfortune rather than inflicting it on a third party.
** 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]].
** Jon in "Welcome To Rico Face". The other contestants were asked to set a fun challenge that should take no longer than a minute to complete ... and then Jon carried out all four challenges, and had to guess who set which challenge to win a maximum of four points. [[spoiler:He succeeds.]]
** Richard in series 2 often gets called out for being a guest star / producer / tall man, as he's unusual in being the only contestant in series 2 to not be a comedian. (even Doc Brown does comedy as one of his ''many'' side careers). Mel Giedroyc would later appear on the show in series 4, as well as Alice Levine in series 6, but these two being [=TV=] presenters in a show that features mostly comedians is seldom brought up by Alex (in Mel's case, most of the jokes are about her being a former co-host of ''[[Series/TheGreatBritishBakeoff Bake Off]]'').
** 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 was not allowed to speak in his natural accent during the task, despite the fact that he apparently can't imitate [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent any other existing accents]].
** Paul Chowdhry in "A Very Nuanced Character". He was set the task of having the most fun on a bouncy castle for an hour, and clips from his attempt book-ended each advert break.
** Joe Lycett in "Look at Me." All the contestants had to draw a painting of Greg from a distance, but Joe also had to do it while smiling with increasing enthusiasm every thirty seconds.
** Mel in "Spatchcock It". As part of Alex's attempt to BreakTheCutie, Mel was given five minutes to try and hide an enormous, multi-colored ball from Alex. Then it turned out that she had previously been given the task to inflate the ball inside the house, which took 45 minutes, before she had to score a goal with it. The goal was outside, meaning Mel had to partially deflate the ball again just to get it out of the front door.
** Mark becomes one twice in series five:
*** 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.]]
*** In "Spoony Neeson", all the contestants had to guide a cupcake with a lit candle through the house to light a candle in the caravan, but Mark was not allowed to say any words that contained any of the letters in the word Taskmaster. He spends most of his time saying the words "fiddly" and "how?" in tones of increasing desperation.
** ''Attempted'' in "Spoony Neeson", where Aisling is given a pineapple and has to have its photograph taken in "esteemed company" as many times as possible in six months. It rather backfires on the production team when, rather than carrying it around for six months, she decides to post it to her mother in Ireland. It also backfired on Aisling, however, since on receiving the pineapple her mother just took photos of it around town with her iPad, thus failing the task requirements.
** "I've Sinned Again" opens with [[spoiler:Josh]] being made to sing along to the Taskmaster theme tune.
** In "The Bubble Brothers", Tim Vine was tasked with making an outfit using only material he'd purchased from a stationers, and according to Alex this task was originally going to be for all of the contestants other than Tim. The other contestants would win a bonus point if they could guess the PunnyName Tim gave his outfit. He had made [[spoiler:a "track suit"]], and nobody guessed it.
** Phil Wang becomes this in Series 7. Unlike some of the other contestants however, who had either eagerly embraced their ineptitude at the tasks or were otherwise good-humouredly willing to play along with being the butt of the joke, one gets the sense that Phil is genuinely disappointed/irritated to find himself in this position. He later stated on Twitter that he felt the judging process had been unfair towards him, and Greg Davies did acknowledge that watching back he felt he'd judged Phil too harshly at times.
** 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.
** Richard Herring in "Moments of Silence". One of the tasks involved the contestants acting out a script. They were each given two out of five parts to learn, and their parts would then be spliced together to create one big scene. Richard ended up learning all five parts, which Alex claimed was the result of an "admin error".
** In the New Year Treat special, all the contestants were tasked with building the lightest tower that they could. Rylan was given the extra rule that he had to say that he had just come up with a great idea every time he heard Alex ring a bell.
** In "Absolute Casserole", Mike was the only contestant who was given the task to fart.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:C]]
* CallBack:
** In "Hollowing Out a Baguette", one task is given as a film presentation. It opens with Al Murray's entry for the "do something that will look cool when sped up or slowed down" task from the previous series.
** The Ad-Bumpers for "I've Sinned Again" features Alex recreating past tasks using miniature figurines of the champions on the model of a field. Those same figurines are then used by Iain Stirling for his best volcano in Series 8 episode "Stuck in a Mammal Groove" so that he can pay tribute to them.
** Series 5 features a call back to a different show entirely. In "A Wind-Dried Puffin", Bob Mortimer breaks an apple with his bare hands as part of the "make a water-cooler moment with this water-cooler" task. Greg then points out that he'd previously done so on an episode of ''Series/WouldILieToYou'' that both men had appeared on (which had also become an actual water-cooler moment, having achieved over a million views on [=YouTube=]). While he admits it's still impressive, Greg thus docks Bob points because he was repeating himself.
** The runway which is sometimes set up for live tasks has been dubbed as "The Knappett" ever since "The Perfect Stuff" where Series 7 contestant Jessica Knappett fell off said runway for her disastrous, magnificent walk. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/comments/jos2tl/of_course_the_stage_is_called_the_knappett_just/ It even has a plaque to signify this]].
** The series 12 episode "Croissants Is Croissants" contains a few of these, not in the least because it is the hundredth episode:
*** The prize task is about the most elegant thing beginning with "G", which riffs off the prize task from [[Recap/TaskmasterSeriesSeven series seven]] episode "The Perfect Stuff," which was the most ''exciting'' thing beginning with the letter "G."
*** The introduction clip for the first task was a montage of all the Taskmaster portraits in the living room. The music playing over it was the main theme tune, along with all the variations over the years.
*** The first task was to sit on a cake. This refers to the final task in series six's "He Was A Different Man", when Liza Tarbuck made Alex sit on a cake.
* CallingYourBathroomBreaks: Jo Brand announces that she needs "a quick wee" in the team task in "Think About The Spirit". In the studio, Greg points out that she's the only contestant ever who has gone to the toilet mid-task while against the clock.
* {{Calvinball}}:
** A task in "Down An Octave" was one that sent the teams to a squash court, and had to score 11 points as fast as possible. When Frank asked Alex what the rules were, he simply replied "The Taskmaster Rules". They were given things to aid them such as cakes, a bucket, and squash rackets and balls. Alex in the studio later clarified the points system: Disrespecting the Taskmaster deducts 2 points, shaking your head deducts a point, but to score a point, they had to [[spoiler:touch their head]].
** For the "Play a minute of sport and then provide commentary for it" task in "A Couple of Ethels", Alan Davies and Victoria Coren Mitchell invent "[=MultiSport=]", which basically utilises every piece of equipment provided for them and allows Victoria to make up new rules on the fly to try and score a goal.
* TheCameo: Former contestants have at times popped up to help out in challenges in later series. See TheBusCameBack above for the full list.
* CameraAbuse:
** In the credits of "Hollowing Out a Baguette," Joe Lycett tosses a chunk of cheese into the studio audience and accidentally strikes a camera.
** In "Boing Boing", one task involves rolling coconuts down a ramp. During one attempt, a coconut veers off to the side and hits the action camera positioned at the bottom of the slope.
** In "The old soft curved padlock", Tim's interpretation of a task involves the throwing of several tennis balls, one of which ricochets and knocks over an action camera positioned nearby.
** 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 about the broken camera, but he understood why he was angry.
** During the ball-throwing task in "The Perfect Stuff", James kicks a soccer ball that goes wildly off course and hits the cameraman.
** During the beachball-rolling task in "Aquatic Sewing Machine", one contestant's attempt ends with the ball rolling down the slope of the driveway and colliding with an action camera.
** Paul Sinha knocks into a camera in "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man" while trialing his route to take in a task that had him blindfolded and riding a scooter. Bear in mind, he knocked into the camera '''''BEFORE''''' he put the blindfold on. Greg does lampshade this.
--->'''Greg:''' ''[while still laughing]'' I mean, absolute carnage before the blindfold has gone on!
** Lou crashes into one of the camera operators during her attempt at the blindfolded obstacle course in "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man."
** One task in Series 9 episode "Join Our Cult" has the contestants rearrange ice lollies by colour while wearing blindfold goggles. At one point, David asks where Alex is and throws an ice lolly in his direction, splattering a camera in the process.
** In "Legit Glass," Mawaan, after having completed the task at hand, manages to cause a remote-controlled buggy (which has a camera attached to it) to crash into one of the camera operators.
* CaptainObvious:
** Occasionally when one of the panellists is getting to grips with a task...
--->'''Nish Kumar:''' ''[during a task where he has to paint a rainbow in a darkened room, with a tone of sudden realization]'' Oh... I can't see the colors!
** Greg, Taskmaster of ''Taskmaster'', understanding the rules of the show:
--->'''Greg:''' How was Josh better than Frank, it looked like Frank-\\
'''Alex:''' He was faster.\\
''[beat]''\\
'''Greg:''' ''Aaaah! That's how this works!''
** In the recorded tasks, Alex has a tendency to point out an obvious error or unfortunate circumstance that has arisen during a contestant's attempt to complete the task in a tone that seems helpful and innocent, yet is conveniently placed to frustrate and annoy the contestant.
* CareerRevealingTrait: In "A Very Nuanced Character", one task involved the contestants working out the previous occupation of Hugh, a retiree. Al utilised this trope to work out that Hugh wasn't a manual labourer, because he had soft hands without any calluses.
* CatUpATree: In "Welcome to Rico Face", a task required the contestants to get a toy cat named Patatas down from a tree. The fastest to do so won. Jon, Joe and Doc Brown immediately head for the shed to get a ball to ''throw at Patatas'', with the tactic backfiring a few moments later for both Jon and Doc Brown, as their balls ''also'' got stuck in the tree. Richard and Katherine opted to duct-tape sticks to form one big stick. [[spoiler:Katherine came first, Doc Brown came second, as "cats like string!" apparently, Joe came third, Jon came fourth, with Richard being disqualified as he didn't rescue Patatas and gave up after 45 minutes]].
* {{Catchphrase}}: Quite a few:
** "Your time starts now" is one due to it's frequent use in the show's task letters.
** Roisin has "That's a lotta pie!", even when referring to a thing that are ostensibly '''not''' a pie.
** Paul Chowdhry, innit?
** Bob Mortimer has "[[https://twitter.com/davechannel/status/923865980832542720 do you know what I mean?]]"
** James Acaster has a few, with "Suck it!" being his go-to catchphrase.
** Kerry Godliman had "Bosh!" This led to her being dubbed the "Bosh Queen" by Greg.
** Lou has "Mummy!"
** David Baddiel frequently says "Bollocks" when he realises that he has messed up.
** Mike Wozniak developed a habit of saying "Tick-tock, it's ____ o'clock", with the blank being filled by such gems as "bamboo" or "fart".
* CheatersNeverProsper: While the Taskmaster will at times allow "[[LoopholeAbuse creative]]" interpretations of task rules if the contestant is engaging in a good-faith attempt to complete the task and can convincingly argue that it's a valid interpretation of what the task is asking for, outright cheating is not tolerated and will be immediately smacked down with an automatic disqualification. Examples include:
** [[spoiler:Dave Gorman]] attempted to cheat and pass it off twice in Series 3, leading to disqualifications:
*** In the Pea Throwing task in "Pea in a Haystack", [[spoiler:Dave claimed the pea was wedged in the tennis racket they was using. Greg attempted to get the truth out of him, twice, and when he maintained he was telling the truth, Alex brought in the slow-motion footage to reveal that the pea had left the racket when Dave threw it. Dave ''then'' tried to claim [[DiggingYourselfDeeper the pea must've gotten wedged when he used the racket for searching for the pea]]. Unsurprisingly, this led to a disqualification, and to add [[HumiliationConga insult to injury,]] Paul, who failed to get the pea onto the rug, came in 4th for at least ''propelling'' the pea.]]
*** In "The F.I.P", Contestants had to get as much water from one bucket to another without him touching the bucket. They...didn't do very well, and when it came to compare buckets with other contestants, [[spoiler:Dave's bucket looked suspiciously brown. He tried to claim it was his bile from siphoning the water, but footage revealed he had dumped extra coffee and tea into the bucket after the task had finished. This also led to a disqualification.]]
---->'''Greg:''' ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext [pointing at Alex's bare foot]]]'' Do you see what I'm capable of?!
** In "Look at Me", A task required the contestants to get flour from a bandstand to a target located outside of the bandstand. This task had them grouped up (Mel and Hugh versus Noel, Joe, and Lolly). At one point [[spoiler:Noel]] interfered with Alex's clock, and pressed pause on it. Alex did a reveal slow-motion montage after the video had rolled, and Greg disqualified the entire team for [[spoiler:Noel's]] meddling.
** In "Aquatic Sewing Machine", the teams had to catch balls of varying colors in varying containers, with certain balls being only to be allowed to be in each container (except green balls, which had to be ignored). [[spoiler:Sian's entire team]] got disqualified as they had tried to discreetly add in red balls into one of their containers, and was embarrassed to be [[ImplausibleDeniability caught red handed]] by the camera.
--->'''Greg:''' I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the back: of all the people!
* ChekhovsGun: In "Residue round the hoof", a task was to blow up a balloon to the size of a cucumber (30 centimetres) while blindfolded, all the while a bunch of seemingly-unrelated props were at the other end of the garden. After doing the task, the contestants were given a second task, which was to remember as many of the now-very-relevant props as possible. Amazingly, ''nobody'' had noticed [[EpicFail a hanging tarpaulin had changed color]] from dark green to dark blue. Everyone but Aisling also failed to notice that Alex was replaced with a body double, but a few of them ''did notice'' his hat had changed.
* ChekhovsNews: In "H.", Asim announces that he is now a vegan. In the following episode, "We met at mealtimes", it is revealed that one of the tasks involves making the biggest announcement, and that Asim's announcement had been his attempt for the task. [[spoiler:He won that task.]]
* ClarkKenting: Discussed in "Little Polythene Grief Cave" when everyone is arguing whether Paul's flag meal resembles the Mexican flag.
-->'''Paul:''' It did look like an eagle, you ate the beak.\\
'''Greg:''' So if an eagle wanted to disguise itself-- (covers his nose and mouth with his hands, through barely concealed laughter) [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial NO EAGLES HERE]]!\\
'''Paul:''' Clark Kent has got the glasses...\\
'''Greg:''' Eagles have got the beaks.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: The team task in "A Coquettish Fascinator" was to create the best 1-minute soap opera cliffhanger.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}:
** Series one has Roisin; her... alternative views and methods are sometimes at odds with her successfully completing a task.
** Joe Wilkinson in series two. He decided to impress a mayor by buying him 42 Callipos, a six-pack of beer, and also threw in £15. When he made a music video for a nursery rhyme, his attempt involved him standing in front of a green screen and mangling the lyrics to "Old [=MacDonald=] Had A Farm" while singing in a monotone.
** Bob in series five. For instance, his idea of a special cuddle was to cuddle Alex in the boot of his car, and then he revealed that he'd been looking for an excuse to get into the boot anyway.
** Liza Tarbuck in series six. She twice has been distracted by trees in the surroundings and for her "longest spin," she stuck a toy lizard onto a cordless drill.
--->'''Greg:''' You buggered a toy lizard
** Tim Vine in series six. Asim even lampshades this following the team task in "The Bubble Brothers". The teams had to perform a song for Taskmaster: The Musical, and Tim was the one who came up with a short and quirky tune about a task where a father and son found each other.
--->'''Asim:''' So Tim Vine’s a lovely man, right? Wonderful man but he’s fucking weird!
** James at times in Series 7, but most especially his submission for the "Draw The Biggest Circle" task. Not only did he inexplicably seem to interpret it as "Collect The Most Circles" for some reason, but even his attempt to do ''that'' saw him briefly ride around on a bike trying to spin a hula-hoop for some inadequately explained reason, before claiming the circles on the garden paving as being part of his attempt somehow. For the collective response to this madness, see WhatWereYouThinking below.
** David Baddiel is this in series 9, rivalling Roisin in his unusual methods of task completion. His idea of getting a lasso to gain leverage is to attach more spoons ("Another Spoon"). It’s revealed on the Taskmaster podcast that this task was originally meant to be a tiebreaker, but Alex and the producers found David’s method to be so strange that they absolutely had to share it.
** Despite some stiff competition from fellow competitors, particularly Johnny Vegas and Mawaan Rizwan, Katherine Parkinson is Season 10's primary head-in-the-clouds contestant. Her big idea to get around a "do not walk on the grass" requirement in the first task is to tippy-toe run across it. She seem to genuinely believe that Mawaan Rizwan has suspended himself upside down in the "film the best thing upside down" task. Her attempt at completing the "fling the shoe into the bath with your foot task" simply defies explanation for how odd it gets (she at one point tries to use her own feet as a catapult). Her attempt to guess what Johnny Vegas is drawing in the "Pictionary on a spinning turntable" task sees her reduced to repeatedly yelling "BOX! BOX!" as Johnny desperately tries to get her to broaden the guess (it was actually a ''sand''box).
%% The below are all Administrivia/ZeroContextExample
%%** Paul Chowdhry in series three. Sara also fits this trope at times.
%%** Noel, Hugh, and Mel all have their moments in series four.
* ClusterFBomb: The series started off fairly G-rated, sprinkled with the occasional swear for emphasis. When frustration gets the best of some of the contestants they can come out with these.
-->'''Paul:''' ''[whispering]'' He's a doctor.\\
'''Alex:''' ''[whispering]'' What sort of doctor, Paul?\\
'''Paul:''' ''[whispering]'' Oh for fuck's sake you '''fucking''' bastard.
* ComedicSociopathy:
** In Series 6, Liza has stomped on a wind-up toy man on a pennyfarthing and forced Alex to look at its remains and asked Alex to sit bare-arsed onto a cake (after which she runs away giggling like a madwoman).
** In the same task to take the toy man on the incredible journey in "Tarpeters," Asim jokingly calls out the other contestants for how little regard they possessed for the toy man's well being, who was variously left to die alone in a bag (Alice), smashed to pieces (Liza), brainwashed into a cult (Russell) and lynched in a tree (Tim).
** Demonstrated repeatedly by Rhod throughout Series 7, in which he took every opportunity to humiliate Alex as often as possible by stripping him naked, creating a "water feature" by squirting water between Alex's bare buttocks, force-feeding him warm mocha to get his heart rate up, and tying him up to a chair and placing a bucket over his head. In one (in)famous moment, he delivered a task to Alex by ''throwing a makeshift javelin into the caravan that Alex as also inside of''.
--->'''Jessica:''' (from an outtake of "The Pendulum Draws the Eye," referencing the javelin incident) Yes, but Rhod, we can't-- you've got to stop doing this! You can't just ''nearly'' kill Alex ''every'' time you have to do a task!
** Katy from Series 9 is a surprisingly mild-mannered one, such as when she uses a water torture egg timer on Alex and when she cruelly rebuffs his cry for help with bullying.
--->'''Katy:''' Alex, you should tell people when you're being bullied.\\
'''Alex:''' ''[mouthing]'' I'm being bullied.\\
'''Katy:''' I don't care. Why are you telling me?
* TheComicallySerious: In series 1, Romesh Ranganathan tends to approach his participation in the show as if he is in a prisoner-of-war camp being threatened with having his finger- and toenails sadistically removed. Given his overall comic persona it's unclear just how much he genuinely wasn't enjoying himself, but as a result his outbursts formed some of the funniest moments of the series.
* CommercialBreakCliffhanger: Some episodes of Series 1 and 2, and some of series 3 leave the final contestants task until after the break. Series 4 onward changes this to have at least 2 people to go in any given adbreak.
* ComicallyInappropriateFuneralUrn: In "Another Spoon", the prize task is 'best defunct object', and David's offering is the ashes of his pet cat -- which he apparently keeps in a plastic screw-lid jar that originally contained laundry powder.
* CompetitionFreak: The show came about because Alex Horne realized that comedians are naturally competitive and keen to one up each other[[note]]in fact, Alex organized the first stage versions of the show because he was jealous that Tim Key won a Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe while he didn't[[/note]]. Because of this trait, some contestants are very keen to win and this is reflected in how they approach the tasks and interact with others.
** James Acaster (Series 7) and Iain Stirling (Series 8) could be particularly aggressive in completing tasks and trying to justify points from the Taskmaster.
** Creator/RichardHerring (Series 10) would passive-aggressively try to set himself apart from his competitors by prefacing his attempts with comments about how he tried to follow the rules as they were presented.
* ComplexityAddiction:
** Invoked as part of a task in "The Dong and the Gong", where Alex is tied up, but the solution for freeing him was simple. The task had the teams complete a multi-step puzzle to locate the key to free Alex from handcuffs, one big RedHerring that could've been avoided [[spoiler:had both teams inspected Alex properly--he was holding the key]].
** A team task in "H." had instructions for each team to figure out the connection between a bunch of items on a wall connected by [[StringTheory string]] and then do the thing 100 times. The link: [[spoiler:"Hop". Every object and image spelled "hop" or was connected to "hop". Liza quickly figured out the link and began hopping, while Tim and Asim decided that was too simple and continued trying to figure out the puzzle, and the task was completed without them realizing it.]]
** The team task in "Butter in the Microwave" is a recreation of a ''[[GameBooks Choose Your Own Adventure]]'' where each team goes to various areas around the Taskmaster House property and complete a mini task. Choosing the wrong combination or accidentally breaking the rule meant the team would either be stuck in a loop or that the team would have to start all over again from the starting bench. The key to finishing the task was [[spoiler:to say the word "demeaning"]], which could have been done at any point during the ordeal [[spoiler:unprompted (several of the mini tasks were quite demeaning, like wearing a kitchen item for the duration of the entire task) rather than being prompted by the task underneath the door mat]].
* ConfusingMultipleNegatives: One of the tasks in "A Couple of Ethels" is all about this. Victoria and Desiree [[spoiler:incorrectly]] didn't ring the bell, while the other three [[spoiler:correctly]] rang the bell.
-->Make and wear a popcorn necklace with at least five pieces of popcorn then do the opposite of the following:\\
You must under no circumstances not avoid not making the bell not ring.
* ContinuityCameo: Al Murray (series three) appears in a task for "Hollowing Out a Baguette" (series four). He had responded to a tweet Joe sent out asking for help with the task.
-->'''Greg:''' [Al] will not accept that he's not on the show anymore!
* ContinuityCavalcade:
** Various ad spots and trailers the show has made over the years while on Dave showed off memorable props and the varying paintings that hang up in the Taskmaster house.
** The ad bumpers for the Series 6 finale "He Was a Different Man" show Alex composited into scenes from earlier series.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy49x-8lS4E In the first channel 4 promo]], it shows off pretty much every painting hung up in the house, showing a golden pineapple statue (Series 5), painting a picture of a horse wile riding a horse (Series 1), collecting tears in an eggcup (Series 1), and destroying a cake beautifully (Series 4). The golden trophy and throne also gets shown off too.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ch4m2kiTdw The trailer for Series 11]] makes reference in portrait form to past tasks such as eating a watermelon without touching it (Series 10, with Daisy in the portrait), determining the contents of a locked briefcase (Champion of Champions, with [[spoiler:Bob]] in the portrait), and scoring a goal with a steamroller (Series 9, with Rose in the portrait).
** "Croissants is Croissants" is the 100th episode of the programme to air, so the transition piece to the first recorded task contains a mashup of all the Taskmaster portraits and incidental music from over the course of 12 series.
* ContinuityNod:
** AdBumpers show Alex in a scene or with objects used in previous episodes' tasks:
*** One of the tasks in "One Warm Prawn" involves making something spin unaided for the longest time. [[spoiler:Liza Tarbuck]] won the task by spinning a plastic lizard attached to a cordless drill, which kept on going ''for just over an hour and a half!'' The footage of the drill was then reused for the ad bumpers of the next episode, "[=BMXing=]!".
*** In "Quisps", the ad bumpers has Alex use the cement roller from the previous episode; "Five Miles Per Day", who uses it to squish food items in the shape of numbers.
*** In "A Cuddle", the ad bumpers had Alex [[SerenadeYourLover serenade himself]], while his "partner" in the window mimed the number of the ad break on his hands.
*** The ad bumpers in Series 10 finale "Dog Meat Trifle" is footage of Mawaan's spectacular lighthouse (with rotating light) made from beermats which he had constructed in the previous episode.
** In series 4 episode "Hollowing Out a Baguette," the camouflage task is introduced with the same diorama on which the series 2 cast constructed their highest bridge for a potato in "There's Strength in Arches." The diorama additionally features a shopping trolley in the river[[note]]which references the memorable instance when Richard Osman threw a shopping trolley into a small stream in "There's Strength in Arches"[[/note]] and a bag of rice[[note]]referencing the trick task in which Josh Widdicombe counted the number of grains of rice in a bag in "Down an Octave"[[/note]].
** In series 7, during the live task for "The Perfect Stuff", Jessica Knappett fell off the stage. The stage has since been named The Knappett.
* ConvenienceStoreGiftShopping: [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Unlike following series,]] where the contestants vie for a trophy shaped like the Taskmaster's head, the winner of Series 1 received a trophy for a karate competition.
-->'''Josh:''' I'm not saying that this is a last minute purchase, but why is there a man doing karate on the top?
* CoordinatedClothes: All of the competitors in the Series Nine finale "Think About the Spirit" were dressed in matching formal tuxedos. Amusingly, Greg and Alex also sported "coordinated" fake tan sprays, which is explained away as the two of them lying in Greg's sunbed together over the weekend.
* CordonBleughChef:
** Some of the cooking tasks like the final pre-recorded task of Series 1 (best meal using ingredients beginning with all the letters of the alphabet). Tim Key made ravioli with ''dog food'' filling.
** Invoked with the exotic sandwich task from Series 4 episode "Tony Three Pies."
*** Mel used Turkish delight, a crunchy bar, a Kit Kat, double deckers, chocolate oranges, marshmallows, [=M&Ms=], Nutella, Snickers, and Maltesers.
*** Hugh used halloumi, pesto, parma ham, sashimi, wasabi peas, banana, and kiwifruit in his sandwich.
*** Lolly used kiwifruit, chili jam, grapefruit, frankfurters, prawn, and pineapple in her sandwich.
*** Joe used kumquat, a sausage roll, smoked trout, yam, tequila, dark chocolate, spring roll, chorizo, pomegranate and an arctic roll in his "Mother's delight."
** 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.
* {{Corpsing}}: Alex tries to maintain a deadpan persona during the pre-recorded tasks, but inevitably the contestants' attempts tests this.
** Alex openly laughs in Series 3 at Rob's attempt to somersault over a short fence without taking any steps.
** In Series 9, Alex has to cover his face at David Baddiel's bizarre attempts to lasso him by tying wooden spoons to the rope.
** In "Point of Swivel", Alex ends up having to turn away to laugh twice during Katherine's attempt to catapult a shoe into a bathtub.
* CoverInnocentEyesAndEars: Played for laughs in "God's Haemorroid." After he finishes the "carry the drinks from the phone box to the caravan" task, Johnny shields the baby teddy bear from the papa and mama bear, which are both lying on the grass as mats.
-->'''Johnny:''' That's what life'll do ta ya. Look away, child. Look away.
* CrazyPrepared: Especially as they start getting used to the program, several contestants throughout the show's run start making preparations for what they think the task is going to be before reading out the task. This is especially as numerous tasks begin as soon as the contestant reads out the line "Your time starts now", and they often have little time to get on top of things. Perhaps the clearest example of this, however, is Richard Osman blowing up an airbed that is found among a collection of items just in case doing so will be useful, lampshading it with this reason. Ironically, it turns out he didn't have to; the task is simply to transfer all the items to a shopping trolley on the other side of a canal.
* CreatorKiller: Discussed in-universe. While thankfully so far nothing on the show has managed to destroy any careers (and some contestants have benefited immensely from appearing on the show), it's a frequent joke that none of the contestants who appear will ever be able to work again due to the existence of copious amounts of video evidence proving how utterly inept and dire at completing tasks they are. Particularly, in Series 8 Paul Sinha's poor showing led to jokes that he would be fired from ''Series/{{The Chase|GameShow}}'' if the producers of that show ever watched it. Similarly, in Series 11 Charlotte Ritchie's consistently chipper and enthusiastic personality during the tasks was suggested to be destroying her career as a comedic / dramatic actress and reducing her to a children's television presenter.
* CreepyCleanliness: The lab room in the Taskmaster House has been noted by at least two contestants to be creepy and unnerving because of this trope (all-white room, plastic sheeting, etc.). Jo Brand, on the Taskmaster Podcast, compared the lab to an abattoir.
* CreepyTwins: Greg calls Sara and Rob the "sinister Aryan twins" in "The Dong and the Gong".
-->'''Rob:''' ''[affecting a creepy voice]'' Mummy says we're good at puzzles.
* 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]]
* CrossesTheLineTwice: [[invoked]]Alex's opening banter is a comedic version: it's so painfully unfunny that it has everyone (except Greg) in stitches at the sheer awkwardness.
* 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]].
-->'''[[spoiler:Katherine's father]]:''' Heh heh heh...Hey, I didn't come over here on the last banana boat, you know.
* {{Cult}}:
** In the task to take a wind-up toy man on the most incredible journey ("Tarpeters"), Russell takes him on a ''spiritual'' journey by asking Alex to read out spiritual proverbs and carrying the toy man with a litter picker up along the roof, dropping him, and having Alex catch him. In the studio, Asim jokes that Russell brainwashed the little man into a cult.
** The first episode of Series 9 is called "Join Our Cult", which is the mantra said by Katy when the task was to make a dramatic entrance to Alex. She interpreted this as making balloon people and sticking them onto poles onto her back.
* CutenessProximity: Pretty much the entire audience's reaction in "The Barrel Dad" when Nell the toddler entered the living room for a task.
* CuttingTheKnot: A classic method to score highly in tasks, provided it doesn't creep over into outright cheating.
** 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 the Series 2 episode "Pork Is a Sausage," task where the contestants have to order a pizza without using specific words, there is a bonus point for getting the person taking the order to say the word "bubbles". Richard Osman tries asking them if they remember the name of Michael Jackson's pet chimp, Jon Richardson tries asking about flat cola, Doc Brown pretends his name is "Bubbles"... whilst Joe Wilkinson just asks the guy if he can say the word "bubbles".
** In "A Fat Bald White Man," one of the tasks required the contestants to paint a caricature of the person behind a curtain without being able to look at that person and only being allowed to ask yes/no questions. They also had the opportunity to earn a bonus point for obtaining that person's full name[[note]]Jennifer Christine Wright[[/note]]. Most of the contestants went about it by guessing individual names or going through the alphabet. Hugh, however, hands that person a pen and paper and asks if they can write their name on that that paper.
** In "No stars for naughty boys", a task required the contestants to deliver mini sandwiches to Alex while hopping, and had to eat one every time they put their foot on the ground, along with a 5 second penalty. Between them and Alex though was some bunting. While everyone else went under the bunting with various levels of success, Hugh outright hopped off to the kitchen, grabbed a pair of scissors, and cut the bunting, then delivered the food to Alex [[spoiler:Hugh came second, only beaten by Noel, who had insane hopping skills]].
** In Champion of Champions, the contestants have to discover what's inside a padlocked armored briefcase, with various methods of discovering the passcode (science and maths formulas on a nearby whiteboard, counting the number of grains of rice in a nearby drawer, hunting for the number hidden around the Taskmaster house etc.). [[spoiler:Rob]] and [[spoiler:Noel]] take unconventional, yet simple, approaches. [[spoiler:Rob]] shook the briefcase and guessed it was frozen peas, and [[spoiler:Noel]] grabbed a hammer from the shed and struck the padlocks off (winning the round).
** 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 realizing she could use the task letter to move the glass and get the fiver. [[spoiler:It was all for naught, 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.]]
** In a task to tie themselves up as securely as possible for Alex to untie ("I Can Hear It Gooping"), Rhod tied Alex to a chair and then quickly bound his own wrists, making it impossible for Alex to untie him.
** In "Hello", A task required the contestants to find a baby monitor, and they were given a Baby Monitor attached to some string, hanging from a stick, attached to a hat, they had to wear throughout the task. Immediately after Iain had read the task out, he took the Baby Monitor off of the string (the task never specified it had to stay there, he only had to wear the hat). Sian also realised this a little later on in her attempt, as did Paul.
** In "Aquatic Sewing Machine", a task was to get a beach ball from one side of the garden to another by only using water, with a track laid out in front of them. Both Paul Sinha and Iain cut the proverbial knot, the former moved the finish line ''behind'' the starting line, and got the ball in that way, and the latter realised pretty quickly that the task never specified the ball had to remain on the track, and used a water hose to blast it in the direction of the finish line, while avoiding the track obstacles. [[spoiler:Iain got 5 points, while Paul got 2 points]].
** In "Shaqinahat", the first task is to throw an object into a pedal bin from the furthest distance, with the caveat that the lid of the pedal bin must be closed when the object is thrown. Whilst all of the other contestants try varying methods of hitting the pedal after they've thrown their object, Ed Gamble knocks out the bottom of the bin and puts it upside-down, which Greg decides is valid as the lid of the bin is closed.
** As part of the live task of "Absolute Casserole", the contestants have to open a padlocked toolbox, by using the difficult mathematical clues given to work out the numbercode. Jamali opts to just stamp on the toolbox until it buckles, though he figures this out too late to avoid coming last.
** In "Moments of silence", the contestants are presented with coconuts and a table full of tools and tasked to drink a tablespoonful of coconut water, with the caveat of disqualification for using the same tool as another contestant. Four contestants use the tools to break the coconuts open; [[spoiler:Katherine Parkinson]] goes to the kitchen, obtains a carton of coconut water, pours herself a spoonful, and wins the task.
* 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]]

[[folder:D - F]]
* ADayInTheLimelight:
** 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]].
** The third task in "Croissants Is Croissants" sees the contestants attempting to stop Alex from scoring a goal with a football. This is one of the rare instances where Alex is physically active during a task, as he has to work around the contestants' obstructions in order to score the goal.
* DeadpanSnarker: Joe Wilkinson can be one at times, like when he reads out the live task in "Pork Is A Sausage".
* DeathGlare: James Acaster throughout series 7 gives Alex an angry look every time Alex greets him (rather than greet him back as contestants usually do), to the point the official taskmaster channel [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaPgDM1fCPg made a compilation reel of every time James did it]].
** Amusingly, James himself was subject to one of these by Greg when he impulsively called Greg a "pussy", [[OhCrap making James immediately backtrack.]]
** James evidently provoked Greg's latent teacher mode a lot, as he was subject to this ''again'' following his hilariously inept attempt that the "draw the biggest circle" task, which culminated in Greg spending the first few moments after the video playback just staring at James with a thunderous expression on his face before demanding an explanation.
* DecoyProtagonist: A lot of attention is on Greg Davies as the titular "Taskmaster". However, Alex Horne is the one actually in charge and he sometimes very clearly guides Greg on camera.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: This will occur every now and then when there is a task which requires the competitors to compose a short film.
** Roisin's backwards film ''Thirsty Wolf'' from "The Pie Whisperer" is filmed in this manner, accompanied by soft, calming piano music.
** Bob and Nish's flick book films from "Boing Boing" are shot in this manner (''How to Peel a Banana'' and ''A Cautionary Tale for Cats'', respectively).
** In the Limited Palette version, the task to arrange ice lollies in a rainbow in "Join Our Cult" is heavily de-saturated, but the ice lollies and the dodo statue retain their normal colours.
* DescriptionCut: A common gag is for Greg and Alex to discuss the task that's just been read out, emphasising how clearly worded it is and how [[WhoWouldBeStupidEnough you'd have to be a complete idiot]] to, say, start popping balloons right away without any preparation, when the time doesn't start until you pop the first one. After a {{beat}} Alex will announce, as if at random, which contestants attempts we're going to see first...
* DeterminedDefeatist: It is frequently noted on the companion podcast that no matter how badly one is doing in a task, it is always better to press on and ''complete'' the task rather than just give up, because you would at least earn the one point, and chances are one of the other competitors could have done the task much ''worse'' or have gotten themselves disqualified.
** Nish Kumar from Series 5 is a zigzagged example. On the one hand, he gave up rather quickly on some tasks (such as getting the coconut as far away from the house as possible, in which he could have easily retrieved his coconut and when he gave up on sneezing after 10 minutes, which is 1 second less than when Bob, the winner of that task, managed to sneeze). On the other hand, he persisted in attempting to chip a basketball into a hoop for over 28 minutes (which took 52 tries) and in retrieving the ping pong ball from an upright drain pipe without moving it in just under 45 minutes. In the latter two examples, he did manage to earn two points each since [[spoiler:Sally and Aisling]] were disqualified in those tasks, respectively.
--->'''Nish:''' ''[after the nth attempt at chipping the basketball]'' I'm gonna do this if it kills me and everyone here!
** In the aforementioned sneezing task, Mark was not able to produce a sneeze in the Taskmaster House after 40 minutes, but promised to send video evidence of him sneezing within the next 2-3 days. Within 48 hours, Alex received 7 videos of Mark and his distinctive sneeze. Mark ended up earning 4 points because [[spoiler:Aisling, Nish and Sally]] were disqualified for either giving up on the spot or faking sneezes.
** When he is a guest on the companion podcast, Iain Stirling professes his admiration of Paul Sinha for getting on with the task at hand despite doing it poorly or slowly and with a shoulder injury to boot. During the studio recordings, the latter would frequently shout "Yes, [[SelfDeprecation 4th place]]!" when it transpires that somebody else does worse than him or breaks a task rule.
* DevelopersForesight:
** The tiebreaker tasks are pre-recorded months in advance, ''just in case'' they're needed.
** A task in series 9 episode "Quisps" 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.
* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: In Series 7, James Acaster impulsively calls Greg a "pussy" in the studio and immediately jerks back in shock when he realizes what he just said. James' reaction then shifts to OhCrap when the ''much'' larger Greg stands up and beckons him over.
* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: Ironically, several contestants have scuttled what would otherwise have been winning, or at least very successful, attempts at completing the tasks because they pushed the rules a bit too far (or outright cheated) and ended up being docked points or otherwise disqualified. Some examples include:
** Tim Key would have won, or at least drawn, the watermelon-eating contest in Series 1 had he not slipped a bit of watermelon into his mouth after the task was completed.
** Similarly, Tim probably would have won the "empty the bath the quickest" task as well, or at least not been disqualified, had he not surreptitiously tried to put the plug back into the bath after realising it had came out. While the rules stated that the plug had to be in the bath at all times, it could have possibly been explained away as an accident had he not clearly tried to cover it up.
** Dave Gorman got caught twice outright cheating in his series, first when he replaced his pea in the "propel the pea" task, then when he filled his bucket in the finale with his coffee instead of water. In both instances, Alex lampshades that Dave is filmed in all his attempts, so his cheating was easily caught.
** Noel Fielding tried to tamper with the clock in the "hit the target with flour" team task in Series 4 to give his team extra time, which led to an automatic disqualification. However, it turned out when both attempts were played back in the studio that his team had utterly trounced the other team and hadn't needed the advantage anyway.
** Sian sneakily collected more balls in her chute after the team task was over in "Aquatic Sewing Machine" and was caught out on camera. Had she not done so and gotten her entire team disqualified, they would have handily beaten the other team with a score of -8 to -27.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Occasionally happens with some of the contestants:
** 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. [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou No prizes for guessing what happens next...]]
** Roisin... again, tried to get a courier to [[ItMakesSenseInContext remove a boulder]], but forgot to take into account the amount of time it would take the courier to arrive, resulting in her rolling it out of the house with very little time left.
** Josh Widdicombe brought in a signed blank checque for the prize task on "Little Denim Shorts". His eyes turned into saucers when he realized that his competitors could pull up to ''£20,000'' out of his account[[note]]Frank Skinner withdrew £19,000 from Josh's account and returned the money right afterwards[[/note]].
** Romesh Ranganathan admits to this in the watermelon eating challenge. He was so focused on getting the melon open as quickly as possible, he didn't think of what might happen if he [[spoiler:smashed it onto the floor]].
** Aisling in Series 5's "Phoenix". When she reads out that she needs to eat one item placed before her, she grabs a Weetabix biscuit and stuffs it in her mouth, only to struggle to swallow and realize that she'd have had an easier time eating a much smaller twiglet.
* DisqualificationInducedVictory:
** [[spoiler:Romesh]] achieves this in "The Poet And The Egg", which has a task where the contestants must get an egg as high as possible without breaking it. His attempt was considered too safe by Greg's standards (he just placed it on top of a stack of paper), but he manages to achieve second place because [[spoiler:Frank, Roisin, and Tim]] all broke their eggs.
** The live task for "Welcome To Rico Face" was to build a tower of potato-based foods. The tower had to be free-standing at the end of exactly 100 seconds, and the only contestant who wasn't holding their tower by then was [[spoiler:Doc Brown.]]
** In "The leprechaun or the lesbian", one of the tasks was to slice a loaf of bread with an item found in the caravan. Whilst neither [[spoiler:Mark nor Nish]] do especially well (the former used a grill, the latter a front of a book), the other three were disqualified ([[spoiler:Sally and Bob]] for using more than one item, and [[spoiler:Aisling]] for not reading the task correctly and slicing the [[RedHerring wrong loaf of bread]]), allowing [[spoiler:Mark and Nish]] to take the top two places by default, much to their shared delight.
** In "A wind-dried puffin," the first pre-recorded task asked each of the contestants to place the largest item inside a balloon and then blow it up. [[spoiler:Bob and Sally]] failed to inflate and tie the balloon before the time was up, and [[spoiler:Nish]] popped his balloon while inflating it. Both Greg and Alex expressed their annoyance that [[spoiler:Aisling and Mark]], the only people who did ''not'' blow up their balloons themselves (the former being unable to blow up balloons, the latter being afraid of balloons-- their balloons were inflated and tied by the sound man) were the only ones to score points in this round.
** In "Boing Boing", one task has a limited selection of helpful equipment available with the condition that if any piece of equipment is used by more than one contestant, all those contestants will be disqualified. Mark tries to invoke the trope by attempting the task with no additional equipment at all, noting that although the result is very poor it will put him ahead of anybody who is disqualified and may even lead to a victory by default. [[spoiler:In the end, two other contestants are disqualified, and Mark comes in third.]]
** The first recorded task in "The Pendulum Draws the Eye," is to fill a small metal bowl floating inside a fishbowl with coins from a swear jar, with the highest numerical value being awarded first and the caveat that nobody is allowed to touch the metal bowl or allow the bowl to sink. [[spoiler:In the end, it didn't matter what the highest value was because James, Jess, Phil and Rhod all overloaded their bowls (although Jess and Rhod both made good effort in trying to fish the metal bowl back out). Kerry won this task merely by not overloading her bowl, despite some prompting from Alex]].
** "I Can Hear It Gooping" has a task where each contestant needs to find the boiled egg among 5 other eggs. They can touch two eggs max and can damage two eggs max, but the boiled egg could not be damaged. [[spoiler:James was the only one to find the boiled egg without damaging it through process of elimination and received the 5 points.]]
** This benefits [[spoiler:Sian]] for the last recorded task of "Rock 'N' Roll Umlaut," in which the contestants must choose a distance from where to kick a goal in one attempt. There is also a potential bonus point at play that the Taskmaster ''may'' award for the best goal celebration that must be done (even if the contestant misses the goal). [[spoiler:Sian]] selected the shortest distance from the goal to kick her football (from a measly 9 metres), but all of the other contestants missed the goal (including [[spoiler:Iain]], who replaced the original goal with a much wider professional one) and so were disqualified in this round. To add salt to the wound, Greg decides that nobody's celebration was worthy of a bonus point.
** 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.
* DistinctionWithoutADifference:
** In "The Pie Whisperer", a task was to inspect the contents of a pie without "breaching it". Both Romesh and Josh "breached" some of their pies as their bottoms fell off, and Romesh in particular maintained throughout that he shouldn't be penalized for something that he had no control over. It got quite heated between Romesh and Greg, not helped when Roisin and Tim used ExactWords to their advantage, and had "breached" their pies by way of asking Alex to do it. In the end, nobody got disqualified, (Alex likely realised they had a point and the breakages wasn't their fault) but [[spoiler:Romesh came third, and Josh came fourth]].
** In "Meat", Greg puts Lolly in last place for the 'incredible throw' task because her attempt was just sitting in a chair throwing [=M&Ms=] at Alex. Lolly says indignantly that they were Skittles, not [=M&Ms=], and Greg says sarcastically that in that case it's worth first place.
** In "Run Up a Tree to the Moon", after [[spoiler:Charlotte gets disqualified from a task where she had to move luggage through a maze and restart if the luggage hit the barriers as a result of not thinking she had to restart due to the luggage only hitting the base of the pole]], Greg says that she "absolutely fucked it", to which Alex says "I wouldn't have used those words, no, I would've said ''completely'' fucked it."
* DoItYourselfThemeTune: The theme tune is performed by The Horne Section, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_25JDS1H_o and is rather catchy.]]
** At the start of Champions of Champions [[spoiler:Josh Widdicombe]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnuTQfxlGmg had to sing it at one point for a special task.]]
** A Task in "Shaqinahat" was to provide lyrics for the Taskmaster theme tune. Ed thought the song sounded like crying, and dressed up as a baby and made lyrics asking for his mom, Rose made a Texan hoedown song (that got the audience clapping along!), Jo just insulted Alex and Greg in song form with accompanying backup dancers and saxophone musician, Katy attempted to rhyme to the tune, and David did a stilted piano piece of him making lyrics up on the spot. [[spoiler:Jo gets one point (guess why), David gets 2 points, Katy gets 3 points, Ed gets 4 points, and Rose came first with 5 points.]]
* DoubleTake: The Taskmaster when it's revealed for a task that Rhod had made his mother wear a fez in the bath. [[https://youtu.be/I9H-Zf8HLcY He looks absolutely stunned]].
* DoNotTryThisAtHome:
** In "Down an Octave," this disclaimer appears when Romesh rubs hot chili sauce around his eyes in order to collect the most tears in an egg cup. [[spoiler:He managed to capture 10 tears in the cup and placed second, while Frank leveraged the crew and won the task with 12 tears]].
** In "Pork Is a Sausage", the contestants mull over eating an egg raw. Alex had to loop in a warning to the people at home not to do this themselves. [[spoiler:Katherine attempts to eat her egg raw but cannot bring herself to finish it after one tiny sip and is disqualified in this round. Richard chugs his egg in one gulp and takes first place]].
** For the "don't blink" task in "The Perfect Stuff," Rhod says this trope word for word after his VT. In his attempt, he held his eyelids up with his fingers, then asked Alex to gaffer his forehead to keep his eyelids peeled back, and continued to hold his eyelids apart. At one point, he had to crouch down to tip the tears out of his eyes. [[spoiler:Rhod managed to keep his eyes open for 7 minutes and 10 seconds and took first place.]]
** In "Hello", Sian had brought in perm lotion for the prize task, which was to bring in the most smelly thing. Greg ''inhales the perm lotion'', and the on-screen text shows up to remind the audience to not do it, ever:
--->'''''NEVER EVER inhale perm lotion. [[RunningGag Your time starts now.]]'''''
** This disclaimer pops up for the "build the best volcano" task in "Stuck in a Mammal Groove" when the [=VTs=] for Sian and Lou's attempts are shown (both used sparklers or fire).
** Creator/TheCW's broadcasting and streaming edit of Series 8 for the United States market added this disclaimer more frequently than in the original (e.g. Lou attempting to eat her eraser in "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man")
* DontYouDarePityMe: On the odd occasion, Greg's attempt to award a pity point will get this reaction from that contestant, with mixed results:
** Greg was about to award David an extra point in "Join Our Cult" for his dramatic entrance (David materialising in a phone box à la ''Series/DoctorWho'', but in which Greg noted David seemed to lose all conviction), but David promptly refuses the pity point, to which Greg acquiesces and David is only awarded the initial 1 point.
** For the Mt. Rushmore task in "A Cuddle," Greg initially awards Jo 1 point, and then he offers a pity point that she vociferously refuses. Greg then awards Jo two extra points (3 points in total for the task).
** In "Don't Like Them Go Bang", Jo gets disqualified from one task after overlooking a small detail. When this is revealed, the audience makes sympathetic noises, which Jo responds to by snapping at them to fuck off.
* 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]].
** In "Bready Bready Bready", one of the ad bumpers shows Greg opening a door to show Greg opening the door to show Greg... and so on.
* DullSurprise:
** For Mel's attempt at doing something surprising with a rubber duck, she calls a courier and hides the duck in his delivery box. When she reveals it to him, he rates the surprise as a 10 out of 10... whilst maintaining the same expression.
--->'''Greg:''' You fried [the courier]'s brain! He was so shocked that his facial expression didn't change at all.
** In "Their Water's So Delicious," Mark notes that although he and Nish gave their all in the song about a stranger, the stranger (Rosalind) never changed her expression and remain visibly unmoved.
* 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]].
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** For series one, Greg would give a short comical introduction for each contestant. He also opened and closed each episode standing up.
** The golden bust of Greg only appears from series two onward; the winner of series one won a trophy designed for a karate competition.
** Alex Horne has said that the "high-five a 55-year-old" task from the Series One is [[https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2017/11/09/38372/why_taskmaster_was_a_hard_sell "really awkward" and a "different sort of show"]]. It's the only task where the contestants were told to get unaware members of the public involved (some later tasks have involved the contestants roping in members of the general public, but this has been on their own initiative and not part of the task requirements).
** In Series 1, Alex used an [=iPad=] holder to keep his [=iPad=] upright. In later series, he holds it in his hands.
** In the first few series, the prize task had the guests, more often than not, bring in genuinely valuable, or otherwise important possessions that they owned, which -- given the competitiveness on display -- got to the point of being ''dangerously'' valuable. To wit, in respective episodes, Romesh Raganathan brought in his wedding ring, another time Josh Widdicombe brought in a blank check, and Joe Wilkinson brought in his wedding certificate[[note]]the more valuable[=/=]precious prizes were returned after the winners got to have fun at the losers' expense[[/note]]. Later series had the prize task revolve around more light-hearted challenges with prizes that emphasised novelty, implausibility or ludicrousness over actual monetary value or personal significance (unless intentionally specified), instead of the participants risking losing precious items on national television.
** The prize tasks in the first few series are also far more general compared to the later series'. Ed Gamble and Alex lampshade this in a podcast retrospective of the first TV episode, comparing "bring in the most unusual object" to Series 9's task to bring in "the object you'd most want to find in a field".
** Series 1 episodes would end with Greg delivering an absurd IceCreamKoan or parable to sum up the episode's "moral" (such as it may have been). Later episodes instead have him draw a humourous lesson via a CallBack to something absurd a contestant had said or done in the episode, along with a reminder along the lines of "we've also learned that [X] is the winner of tonight's show!"
** The first series has one or two tasks that take place live in the studio apart from the final task, such as the "grow the longest nail" one, or a tiebreaker where the two tied contestants had to guess Frank Skinner's age in minutes. The only example of this after the first series was the "buy the Taskmaster a present with £20" task, which seemed to be a OnceASeason thing as it survived into the third series, but was dropped after that.
** The scoreboard headshots used in Series 1 are quarter headshots of the contestants, made to look as if they had just finished reading a task. Subsequent seasons use headshots that are cropped closer to the contestants' faces.
** In Series 1, Greg was less likely to outright disqualify contestants when they break task rules, instead knocking them down a place or awarding them last place.
** Series Two had a couple of experimentations that didn't last. One was the return of Josh Widdicombe to even out the numbers for a teams task. Afterwards, team tasks were devised so that the difference in team sizes wouldn't matter. Also, it featured a task that had someone other than Greg have an input in the judgement. This was also a one off, with all subsequent series making Greg the one and only arbiter for points.
** Greg doesn't start calling Alex "Little Alex Horne" until Series Three, and it doesn't become a OnceAnEpisode tradition until Series Six. He is also noticeably less abusive towards Alex in Series One, even getting the audience to applaud Alex after one clip.
** On two occasions early on (Series Two episode "Fear of Failure" and Series Three episode "Little Polythene Grief Cave"), Greg and Alex have to get professional input from lexicographer Susie Dent of ''Series/{{Countdown}}'' on the interpretation of task language and from the Van Tulleken brothers (doctors) of ''Operation Ouch!'' on whether urine and sweat were the same substance. On both occasions, those opinions had some bearing on how Greg judged the attempts. Later series has Greg relying solely on his own gut instinct.
* 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]].
* EasterEgg:
** In the series one 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.
** A tangerine appears for some of Bob's tasks in series five, which may be a reference to his "tangents".
** Alex's default attire is a two piece suit and a button-up shirt with no tie. However, eagle-eyed viewers will notice that he wore a tie for all of Mel Giedroyc's pre-recorded shoots in Series 4.
** Instead of a whistle as per usual, in Series 9, Alex would use a bell to signal the end of the task for David Baddiel's pre-recorded solo tasks.
* TheEeyore:
** Romesh's default setting is depressed, and only gets worse due to any slight, real or imaginary.
** Joe Thomas at times seemed to be participating while suffering a mild depression. This came to a head in "A Novel about Russian Gulags" where, after completing the "travel as far as you can while making a continuous noise" task, he complained about it being "dehumanising", prompting Greg berate him:
--->'''Greg:''' Again you confound me. Like... you know, you just looked like you were having a lovely time, just running in the wind shouting, but then you end it with a phrase that I'd expect to read in [[TitleDrop a novel about Russian gulags]]. It's not supposed to be dehumanising! It's just a bit of fun!
* EmbarrassingOldPhoto:
** The Prize task for "Friendship is truth" was to bring in surprising photo's of themselves. Joe brought in a photo of him topless wrapped in a hammock, Hugh brought in a facemask of himself, Mel brought in an edited version of the painting [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_D%C3%A9jeuner_sur_l%E2%80%99herbe "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe"]], with her behind a tree [[DisapprovingLook staring disapprovingly]] at the picnic. Noel got a photo of him as the Virgin Mary (taken during his Series/TheMightyBoosh years). Lolly presented a photo of her hidden under heavy layers of makeup to look like Lady Diana, in large part poking fun at Blackface. [[spoiler:Hugh comes last, Noel comes 4th, Mel places third, Joe comes second, with Lolly winning the round.]]
** Rhod Gilbert weaponized one of Greg in Series 7, repeatedly bringing in a photo of Greg dressed in nothing but a pair of briefs for the prize task.
* EmbarrassingTattoo: Josh gets one in "The Poet and the Egg" as a present for Greg. It was [[spoiler:Greg's name.]]
* EpicFail: A few:
** In "The Pie Whisperer", Frank claimed to know a lot about pies for a task that required him to guess what was in 5 pies without "breaching" the pastry. He got only one right, but this isn't the fail. The fail comes from after the task had ended, Alex told him to open the pies, and while others had correctly guessed Mint Toothpaste, he went from Milk, to Mint, to his final answer which was "Mint Tippex."
** In "Meat", a task required to slide as far as possible, with the furthest winning. Lolly managed to make a setup that had a plastic slide covered in various lubricants, and some diluted water and dish soap plastered over concrete. She ''Missed'' the slide and went 3.2 metres.
** 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''. She also cut herself twice on the tin lid she was using and bled on her loaf.
--->'''Greg:''' Can there be any sadder sight than a blood-covered loaf of bread in the wrong room?
** In "Phoenix," Nish's go at the "complete three tasks with the three foodstuffs." He chose to eat his Twiglet, throw the Weetabix into the bucket, and balance the jelly on the pole (which had to remain balanced until all three tasks were complete). The Twiglet went smoothly, but he kept missing the bucket on his throws and it eventually broke into impractically small pieces (one of which he crushed in his hand). Finally, he tried to balance the jelly on the pole, which collapsed, pierced itself and fell onto the ground. Frustrated and having given up on the task, he successfully threw his spoiled jelly into the bucket in one go, and then he pushed the table over in frustration.
** In "Spoony Neeson", a task was to get a cupcake with a lit birthday candle from the lab to the caravan. Aisling managed to fail in '''less than nine seconds''' as she moved too quickly, which blew out the candle.
** In "The Pendulum Draws The Eye", a task required James and Phil to hula hoop for as long as possible, then improve on that attempt in the live show. Not only did neither of them improve, they both managed to do ''worse'', with Phil in particular going from 57 seconds to '''1 second'''. This was particularly galling for James, who had practiced the task for ''months'' in-between and visibly demonstrated how much he had improved, but still lost out on points due to choking in his first attempt.
** [[https://youtu.be/WiOsY3lFMT0?t=157 James Acaster's attempt]] at "drawing" a circle in "My Eyes are Circles". He appears to have interpreted the (otherwise quite clear) task to mean that the person who collects the most circles wins, but even by those standards it's... well, a deeply unimpressed Greg sums it up better than anyone else could:
--->'''Greg:''' Okay. Explain yourself.\\
'''James:''' I thought...\\
'''Greg:''' You thought, "I've been told I should draw the biggest circle, but what I'm gonna do is ride around aimlessly on a bike whilst badly spinning a hula-hoop. And then I'm gonna crash, accidentally notice there's another circle on the floor and try and claim that as part of my attempt." That's my reading of what I saw. Have you got anything different to add?\\
'''James:''' ''[Hopefully]''... [[TitleDrop My eyes are circles?]]
** In "Stay Humble", a task required the contestants to move sand from one raised bucket to another bucket on the floor, with their finger being placed into a string loop connected to a cork. The most sand in the bucket on the floor won. Iain, not reading the task correctly, though he couldn't touch the bucket, when in fact it had said that he couldn't ''move the bucket'', which he only learned after moving said bucket. This prompted him to break every other rule the task had set out, including leaving the room.
--->'''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!'''"
** In "Rock [='n'=] Roll Umlaut", A task had contestants shoot a ball into a goal from the furthest distance, with a possible bonus point for the best goal celebration, which they '''must''' perform, even if they miss. Iain got out a massive goal net from behind some trees, and places it at the other end of the field. He places the ball 35 metres away, and kicks the ball. He misses the goal completely, does a stilted conga dance to "celebrate" his goal, and got zero points for his endeavour. Nobody got a bonus point either.
** The first episode of Series 10 featured [[spoiler:the first example of ''everyone'' getting disqualified from a task. ''Twice''.]]
** 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.
** In "An Imbalance in the Poppability", Desiree Burch's attempt at the balloon-popping task is declared by Greg to be the worst attempt at any task in the history of the show. Rather than resort to using the scissors to complete the task easily (stating later that her priority was to make sure the show wasn't boring), she tried ''everything else'' without success. This included an entire bucket full of forks, which cost her a time penalty of an ''hour'' compared to the scissors' cost of merely 8 minutes. In the end, she cracked and purchased the scissors... only for the cut rope to get stuck and ''still'' leave the balloon unpopped for a few more moments.
** The paper aeroplane-throwing task at the end of "Chair in a Sweet". None of the contestants' aeroplanes land on any of the point-scoring targets, causing everyone to finish with a minus score.
* EskimosArentReal: In Series 10 episode "Toshwash", Daisy compares a task to circus shallow diving. Greg flat-out refuses to believe that such a sport exists. In "Moments of Silence" again, when Daisy mentions that wasps are able to identify landmarks and make their way home, Greg also dismisses it until Alex looks it up.
* EstablishingSeriesMoment:
** Fans and creators of the show tend to agree that Romesh Ranganathan smashing open a watermelon on the floor and then gorging on it to nausea, in the first ever pre-recorded task, is what established Taskmaster's tone. Alex and Ed discuss in the original podcast that it might not have had as much impact if there hadn't been such contrasting attempts by Roisin and Josh before, highlighting the show's exploration of comedians' thought processes.
** Richard Osman reinterpreting the "Put the exercise balls on the yoga map on top of the hill" task to mean that he can bring the yoga mat down from the hill rather than struggling to get the exercise balls up it is widely seen to be the point where contestants start realising that they can employ LoopholeAbuse to approach the tasks rather than relying solely on a straight literal interpretation, and that these attempts can be considered as valid so long as they don't outright break the rules.
** You can tell what season 10 will be like after the first episode, where one task has everyone disqualified, and another task has everyone fail.
* EurekaMoment: Joe Wilkinson has one in "There's Strength In Arches", when he realises he can bend the cards into arches to form a more stable bridge.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In Desiree Burch's "wellie-cam" video in "The End of the Franchise", when the evil Taskmaster House starts sending her threatening messages ordering her to "get out", it feels the need to also include one clarifying "not in a racist way, just in a murderous way".
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Zigzagged. Everyone calls Greg by his name in the studio, but in the pre-recorded challenges, Greg is called "The Taskmaster" instead.
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Aisling Bea would make sex jokes and reference her sex life at the drop of a hat throughout her apearance in Series 5. But, she became visibly uncomfortable when Bob Mortimer began going into detail about his pooing habits (whereas everyone else was howling with laughter).
** In Series 7, after the ladies' entry for the "soap opera cliffhanger task" ends with Kerry's character vomiting over the realisation that [[SurpriseIncest she accidentally had sex with her son]], James Acaster makes a crack about how she ''actually'' vomited because she realised she'd had sex with Alex, who played Kerry's lover/son. Even Greg is moved to point out how mean that joke is.
* EverythingIsRacist:
** "The Dong and the Gong" has a task where the contestants must create an upside-down self portrait using condiment bottles. Paul Chowdhry claims that he was at a disadvantage since "there was loads of white but not enough brown."
** According to Alex, during the fifty-plus times he unsuccessfully attempted to kick a basketball through a hoop in "Dignity Intact" Nish Kumar twice accused the basketball of being racist.
* EverythingsBetterWithSparkles:
** In "We Met at Mealtimes," Liza creates a snowglobe using a handheld butter churner, water, and glitter. After she finishes her snowglobe, she asks Alex to hold it and rubs some glitter into his beard. [[spoiler:Liza received 4 points for her effort.]]
** In Series 8, Greg posits that Sian has attempted to sneak glitter into every task (such as her attire in the "Fairy Sian" video for a toddler and an additive in her delicious dust). She admits that it is embarrassing for a woman of her age to be obsessed with glitter and princesses.
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: The prize task in "Butter In The Microwave" was to bring in the best bag. Katy Wix brought in a bagpipe ''without'' the pipes, specifically ''because'' of this trope (and DreadfulMusician). [[spoiler:Katy gets 4 points]].
* ExactWords: Contestants often interpret a task differently from the obvious reading, often in an attempt to score highly.
** 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.
** Mawaan in Series 10 used this in a challenge to transfer as much water from Barrel A to Barrel B as possible, after already losing most of Barrel A's water from a leak and spillage. He angled Barrel A above Barrel B and poured water from a hose so it would cascade through Barrel A into Barrel B. Alex noted that the original task never said that Mawaan could only use the water already in Barrel A, and Greg was suitably impressed.
** This can also work against a contestant if they don't read the task carefully. For example, in Season 2 the contestants are tasked with rescuing a toy cat called Patatas out of a tree. Most of the contestants, seeing as it's a just toy, focus on brute force. In the studio, however, it's pointed out that the word "rescue" is significant: they were supposed to treat it as a real cat and show at least some concern for its welfare as well as for getting it out of the tree. Katherine Ryan ends up winning the task simply because she is the only one who arranges for Alex to catch Patatas.
** Inversely, Greg and Alex have used this trope to give contestants' efforts a boost, such as Paul Chowdhry's flag meal[[note]]Paul created a meal out of pasta, tomato sauce, peas and mustard that was a terrible representation of his intended Mexican flag, but much better resembled the Malian flag. Since Alex pointed out that the task didn't specify the meal had to look like the flag that a contestant chose, Greg decided to rank it second best and awarded Paul 4 points.[[/note]] or Phil packing 10 pairs of glasses[[note]]The task was to pack 10 pairs of ''drinking'' glasses into as small a cardboard box as possible without cracking a ''pair'' of glasses. Phil was one of two people to fit all the glasses in their box, but one of the glasses cracked in the process. Still, in a rare moment of leniency (Phil had been struggling through the series to that point), Greg deemed that his effort would still hold since Phil had only broken a ''single'' glass and not a pair, and awarded Phil 5 points.[[/note]].
** Calling upon this trope doesn't always work, however; a certain level of basic commonsense is often assumed and required when interpreting the task even if it is not spelled out for the contestant, which the Taskmaster will point out when they try to protest that the task didn't actually specify they should do something that they clearly should have done. For example, in the "have an argument in only ten words at a time ending on a four-letter word" task in "The Lure of Treacle Puppies", Jamali tries to defend his team's gradual degeneration into absolute gibberish by pointing out that the task didn't say that the argument had to make sense, only for Greg to shut him down by pointing out that an argument by nature implicitly has to have ''some'' level of coherence and logic it to it beyond simply blurting out four-letter words like "town".
** In "The Barrel Dad", 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).
* ExecutiveBallClicker: In one episode, Kerry Godliman brings in one, which Alex Horne calls by the trope name. Greg goes on to say "Executive Ball Clicker" is [[HoYay his nickname for Alex.]]
* ExpertConsultant: While it is used sparingly, Greg and Alex have to consult with professionals in a few areas where they lack expertise. On those handful occasions, the professionals' opinions do have bearing on the how Greg ultimately judges those specific tasks:
** Susie Dent, the resident lexicographer on ''Series/{{Countdown}}'', has been consulted twice in Series 2 and once in Series 12 on the interpretation of the task language. She helps Richard win the exercise ball-yoga ball task, strengthens Alex's argument that [[spoiler:the useful materials taped underneath the table for the bridge-building task ''are'' considered '''on''' the table]], and determines that ConfusingMultipleNegative ultimately meant that anyone who [[spoiler:''did'' ring the bell]] completed that task correctly.
** The Van Tulleken brothers, the medical doctor hosts of ''Operation Ouch'', help to advise in Series 3 on whether Al Murray's argument that sweat and piss are the same substance holds true (they are '''''not''''' the same thing).
* ExtremeDoormat: Co-star Alex Horne. He is often abused by the contestants, as well as the Taskmaster. Alex is often able to help out in tasks that don't specify that he can't do so, which contestants often abuse for their own ends, Alex's feelings, dignity and general exposure be damned.
* EyeCatch: Into each commercial break is a clip of Alex doing something weird and waving at the camera. Out of each commercial break is a clip of Alex doing something weird and making the number of the segment of the show we're about to watch (2, 3, or 4).
* EyeScream: In "Stay Humble", one of the tasks involves making the most realistic injury out of food. Joe Thomas creates a public information film about a man who trips while holding a birthday cake and ends up stabbing his eye with candles.
* FaceDoodling:
** In Series 1, Roisin is introduced in one episode as being subject to several drawings of penises on her face while she was asleep during a house party.
** Alex takes a nap in his chair ahead of one of the ad breaks in "Dog Meat Trifle." When the show returns from the ad break, Alex wakes up with the word "DOUCHE" written on his forehead, presumably by Greg.
* {{Facepalm}}: The full-faced humiliation version is on display quite often when a contestant [[ThisIsGonnaSuck knows that his or her spectacularly bad task attempt will be shown next]]. Roisin in the Series 1 does this very often.
* FailedASpotCheck:
** A RunningGag in "The Poet and the Egg" is Romesh's complaint that a cardboard box was not provided for him while doing the "throwing a teabag into a mug from a distance" task, versus Greg, Alex and everyone else's insistence that there ''were'' boxes provided, he just didn't notice them. Romesh's complaint is weakened slightly by the fact that we visibly see other contestants either using boxes in their attempts or asking for tools which they might want/need, meaning that if he'd wanted one he could have gotten it.
** In the first task in "There's Strength In Arches", Doc Brown only notices not one but ''two'' bridges that he could have used to cross a canal separating a shopping trolley and the items he was asked to put in the shopping trolley ''after'' he's completed the task by wading through the canal. He's still kicking himself over it weeks later in the studio recording. In the same task, both Doc and Jon neglected to check that they put all the groceries in the shopping cart (Jon left the area with some sponges in his coat pockets and Doc missed a can that had fallen into the canal) and were disqualified for not completing the task.
** For the final task in "There's Strength In Arches", nobody notices the three separate clues that there was useful building materials attached to the underside of the table; one as mentioned above for BilingualBonus; a button that Jon presses which lights up a clue under the table; and a sign above the doorway that tells the contestant to look under the table.
** "The Dong and the Gong" has a task where the contestants have to pop balloons clipped to a washing line in the fastest time. Al remarks that the balloons appear to have been arranged into a morse code message... and it turns out that, when translated from morse, all the contestants had to do to win the task [[spoiler:was to pop just two balloons.]] But the real spot check fail for the task comes from Dave, who doesn't even notice the presence of the large collection of balloons until it's pointed out.
** In "Hollowing Out a Baguette", one of the tasks has a rule that if you eat 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.
** 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 colors they were using. Subverted by [[spoiler:Nish]] who realizes 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]]).
** [[ButtMonkey Sally]] in "Their Water's So Delicious" was given the task of coming up with as many fish puns as she could in one minute. It then turns out that she had actually been in a secret, series-long race against Alex to see who could make the most puns. This went completely unnoticed by Sally, who thought that Alex just had trouble pronouncing his words.
** Unintentionally happens in "The Bubble Brothers". One of the tasks involves the contestants making a plastic bag as heavy as possible without the bag breaking. The bag is hooked to some weighing scales. When Tim Vine attempts the task, he notices that the hook for the scales has disappeared, and he doesn't realise that the hook is attached to his shoulder loop (having managed to attach itself there and then come away from the scales when he briefly brushed against it earlier) until the task has finished.
** During "My Eyes are Circles", everyone is tasked with writing a ten-word story whilst running to the finish line. Phil's eyes completely glaze over both the word 'write' and the clipboard and paper next to the task, and after eventually crossing the finish line delivers his story 'in the oral tradition'.
** In "The Pendulum Draws The Eye", the contestants were tasked to find a satsuma hidden inside one of the 50 red socks hanging outside the caravan. Nobody noticed that a number had been painted on the caravan behind them, to tell them which sock the satsuma was in.
** In "The Barrel Dad", one task is to get an object through a toilet seat suspended in the air. Two of the contestants completely failed to spot the suspended toilet seat and attempted to complete the task using the seat of the toilet inside the house. [[spoiler:Greg ruled that both had acceptably completed the task as they understood it, and one of them, Iain, won the task based on his time.]]
** In "Stay Humble", one task involved the contestants moving ping pong balls from one pen to another. Nobody realised that hidden amongst the balls was Greg's special ball. Anyone who moved Greg's ball would [[spoiler:have their final score for the task halved]]. Though in complete fairness to the contestants, the only way the special ball was identifiable was with a tiny white sticker on the bottom of one of a hundred otherwise entirely identical white ping pong balls that they were hurriedly trying to move from one place to another, making it easy to fail this particular spot check.
** 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 to 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 "Butter In The Microwave", a task was to correctly guess which bin Alex was hiding in. Rose managed to miss a sealed envelope from underneath a bin when it was staring at her in the face, which otherwise would have given a clue as to which bin Alex was hiding in.
** In "Five Miles Per Day," there is a two part task where they all begin in the lab where various items are hanging from a board from the ceiling, Alex tells them a bunch of phrases and they need to head to the caravan to meet Alex in two minutes. In the caravan, Alex then hands them a second task where they need to tell him what was hanging from the board, what Alex told them in the lab, and what colour was the board. Ed, Jo and Rose all headed out of the lab without pausing to take everything in (placing 3rd, 5th and 4th, respectively), while David and Katy hung around to memorise each hanging item (and placed 2nd and 1st, respectively). None of the contestants noticed that the answers were on the back of the second task, which Alex demonstrates to the camera.
** One task in Series 9's "A Cuddle" tasked each contestant to "release" an egg into a "metal thing" from on a single chair without manipulating either and score the highest amount of points - if an egg doesn't break after landing in a metal "thing," the score is doubled. Ed and Jo were the only ones who checked to see that each "metal thing" had numbers written on them that represented the scores. Rose put 9 whole eggs into the one metal thing within arm's reach of the chair, which had ''-5'' written on it.
** In "Don't Like Them Go Bang", the first thing David does during the balloon task is to go out looking for an air pump, overlooking the air pump that's already in the room. He does find it after a while, which puts him ahead of Jo, who never does spot the air pump [[spoiler:and also overlooks one of her own balloons, leading to her disqualification]].
** In "Air Horn Andy", the final task involved the contestants guessing how many balls were inside a large basket. Johnny was the only person who found a matchbox full of ball bearings. Alex later revealed that the number of balls was written inside the matchbox. [[spoiler:There were 1192 balls]].
** In "The Lure of the Treacle Puppies", Lee Mack fails to spot a bright red balloon which is bobbing around barely a foot above his head for about a minute.
** In "Absolute Casserole", the third task involved the contestants working out what six objects had been deep-fried in batter. One of the objects was a leather wallet, but [[spoiler:Jamali was the only person who found a receipt inside the wallet, which listed what all the objects were.]]
** ''No one,'' not even the production staff, noticed that the Canadian flag superimposed next to Sarah Pascoe's flag meal was wrong.[[note]]The maple leaf on the Canadian flag is eleven-pointed, while the one they displayed was thirteen-pointed.[[/note]]
** Discussed a couple of times in the podcast, where some behind-the-scenes examples of this trope come up:
*** Mark Watson discusses an example related to his infamous solo task in Series 5. Despite the long-standing friendship between him and Alex Horne, the two respected the show's rules about not discussing tasks outside of filming, but on one occasion while Mark was staying at Alex's house Alex casually asked him whether he was keeping up with the task where he was asked to send the Taskmaster a cheeky text message every day for 150 days. While Mark didn't think much of it at the time, in hindsight after the big reveal he realised that this was actually a clue that he actually was the only person doing the task -- not only because of the rule mentioned above, but because if the others were completing it as well there'd be no need to check up on him.
*** 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 from the suggestion that Josh had done a solo task, and Josh didn't realise from their disinterested responses that he was the only one who had completed his solo task.
* FallOfTheHouseOfCards: One of the interstitials in "Stay Humble" shows Alex building a house of cards on the table in the caravan, until Greg comes along and deliberately rocks the caravan to make the house fall down.
* FanDisservice: Phil Wang and his yellow jumpsuit which leaves little to the imagination. ''Everyone'' groaned whenever they could see the clear outline of his genitals.
-->'''Greg:''' It doesn't matter how ornate the grandfather clock is, [[TitleDrop the pendulum draws the eye]].
* FantasticMeasurementSystem:
** If a task involves measurements to determine the winner, Alex will sometimes give an alternative system such as the distance in Rolos or Fruit Pastilles, and in the case of lemon towers in 'The Old, Soft, Curved Padlock', children's shoes.
** When tasked with guessing the length of a piece of string, Tim Vine used lobsters as a unit of measure, because he'd wrapped the string around a plastic lobster.
* {{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]].
* FishOutOfWater:
** Richard Osman from the second series (frequently lampshaded by Greg referring to the lineup as some variation on "four comedians and Richard Osman"); he is better known as a producer and television presenter for ''Series/{{Pointless}}'' (though he is a regular on the panel show circuit). Unlike some of the others listed under this trope, however, he actually adapted to the show and the many curveballs it throws to contestants quite well, to the point where he is arguably the codifier for the many examples of ExactWords and LoopholeAbuse that later contestants would employ.[[note]]His interpretation of the "put these exercise balls on the mat on top of the hill, which unlike the other contestants he interpreted as allowing him to bring the mat down from the hill to the balls rather than having to struggle to get the balls up the hill, is generally credited as the point where contestants realised they could creatively reinterpret the tasks rather than relying on a purely literal interpretation[[/note]] In the podcast, he credits this to his experience with producing game shows and panel shows, as he's aware there's always a trick involved and so consequently was quite willing to look a bit harder for it.
** From the sixth series is Alice Levine, a radio DJ and presenter also known for ''Podcast/MyDadWroteAPorno''. She could appear very awkward and bemused in some of the situations the show placed her in.
** A few contestants from series 8 also fall into this category:
*** Paul Sinha is more at home on quiz shows (like, say ''Series/{{The Chase|GameShow}}''). His comedy performances explore general knowledge and the strange ways things are interconnected, so his entire body behaviour ''screams'' cluelessness when needing to fulfill strange tasks for a maniacal taskmaster[[note]]not helped by the fact that he had a shoulder injury and was trying to keep his right arm as immobile as possible[[/note]]. He gets wiser to the show during studio segments, but is still awkward in the pre-recorded tasks.
*** Joe Thomas and Sian Gibson were fairly awkward as well. Unlike most other contestants, they're comedic actors rather than comedians and aren't as familiar with being put on the spot and expected to perform and be funny. Adding to the awkwardness was the fact that they were put together for team tasks and didn't really gel.
** 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]].
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Alex Horne ''loves'' doing this whenever he can get away with it, as it acts as a VisualGag that becomes very obvious after being read out. For example; The wax seals in the first task of "A Novel About Russian Gulags" are moustache-shaped, with the [=TM=] circle in the middle. The task itself 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.
* {{Flanderization}}: Greg and Alex had a far more respectful relationship in series 1, with Greg asking the audience to give Alex a round of applause in episode 6 for eating a round of questionable food and for falling into a swimming pool, which was something he believed to being above and beyond the call of duty. Come series 2, the {{Kayfabe}} master/slave relationship that we all love was well on its way to being built.
* FoodSlap:
** In "This Is Trevor," Alex mistakenly interrupts Greg while the latter is welcoming the viewers back from the ad break. As retaliation, Greg throws a glass of water into Alex's face, which also causes water damage to Alex's [=iPad=].
** After realising that he has screwed up the "face-based geometry" task, Lee, still wearing the blindfold goggles, grabs a fistful of fallen jelly from the floor and throws it at Alex and one of the cameramen.
* ForbiddenFruit: The prize category for "The Mean Bean" is 'thing you most want to touch'; James and Jessica both offer objects chosen on the theory that the thing you most want to touch is the thing you've been instructed not to.
* ForeignLookingFont: Series 8, to go along with the Japanese decor in the House, uses a special version of the Taskmaster seal with the TM rendered in a vaguely Oriental-looking font.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The painting that's hung up in the living room in Series 3 has a key role in a task of the second episode of that series; "The Dong and the Gong", where a task required two teams to free Alex. One of the key-codes was painted in UV Ink onto the painting.
** The beginning bumper for the "herd ping pong balls into the pen" task in "Stay Humble" had the Taskmaster holding a ping pong ball and some paper. [[spoiler:This is foreshadowing to Greg adding a sticker to a ball to halve their total score.]]
** If Alex says "''They told me to'' stop the clock" rather than "I've stopped the clock" at the end of a task, or "Do you think you've finished the task?", that usually means there's some kind of twist the contestant(s) didn't catch onto.
** An unintentional variation happens in Series 9. During the live task of the premiere episode (to draw the second-longest snake at least half an inch in width), Rose Matafeo (who is from New Zealand) asks Alex and Greg if they could convert that to metric (her request is denied). In the series finale, she breezes through the last recorded tasks (to complete the 7 mini-tasks, which also sparks Ed Gamble's RageBreakingPoint about following the tasks to the letter) and initially appears poised to win. However, (potentially due to Rose's unfamiliarity with imperial units) it transpires that she did not build a brick tower that was tall enough (the tower had to be 26 ''inches'' tall, costing her this task and this episode.
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** Some of the photos in the hallway of the Taskmaster House are photoshopped themed photos of each series's cast (such as the Series 1 cast as a band or the Series 2 cast as a cricket team).
** When Joe Thomas "apologises" for celebrating Alex's death in a music video, the camera briefly pans to Alex's view of his phone, which is placed on top of Alex's paper and clipboard. On Alex's clipboard, it reads ''JOE THOMAS (DO NOT READ THESE NOTES)''.
** During the task to deliver a 5-word set of instructions to Alex as stealthily as possible ("Don't Like Them Go Bang"), Alex is reading a newspaper ("The Tasks") that contains some self-referential headlines ("Alex Horne Sports Dramatic New Look" and "Cliched Spy Newspaper Headlines Divide Opinions") as well as ones that reference two (in)famous sporting events from ''Taskmaster'' history ("Wilkinson's Potat-Woe" and "Pan Hoop History Made").
* FunWithSubtitles: In "An Orderly Species", the third task involved the contestants creating the most memorable aircraft safety announcement and demonstration. They had to either speak in a different accent to their own, or speak in a different language. Jamali spoke his in French, and a translation was provided in subtitles. When Jamali finished his attempt and spoke to Alex in English, the subtitles translated their conversation into French.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In the team task in "Their Water's So Delicious", while Aisling, Bob, and Sally are performing their song, Alex can be seen picking up various items in the background that had been blown over by some wind.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G - L]]
* TheGadfly:
** Rhod Gilbert in series 7. As he and Greg have a long-standing friendship, Rhod took as many opportunities as he could (particularly with the prize rounds) to embarrass and taunt Greg as much as possible. It backfired on him, however; Rhod later [[https://www.chortle.co.uk/interviews/2018/08/27/41107/alex_horne_got_gagged_with_an_egg_in_his_mouth_but_they_werent_allowed_to_show_it admitted]] that because he hadn't really watched the show and didn't understood the format, he didn't realise that Greg actually was genuinely acting as a judge, and that by focussing more on winding Greg up he was sabotaging himself. He acknowledged that if he'd used his friendship with Greg more constructively, he could have probably done much better in terms of points. Although considering some people already complained about their friendship being an advantage, maybe it's better off the way it went.
** Greg himself clearly enjoys winding up the contestants, especially those who are tantrum-prone and inclined to take the tasks more seriously than perhaps they should be taken. He also delights in picking on Alex and trolling him at every opportunity.
** Alex also performs a subtle, low-key version of this during the recorded tasks. His tone is never anything less than mild, helpful and innocent, yet his contributions frequently tend to either state the obvious, irritatingly point out any shortcomings or errors in a contestant's attempt, given unhelpful advice along the lines of a MathematiciansAnswer or an unhelpful recitation of "everything is in the task", or comment on the contestant's attempt in a way that strongly hints they've made a mistake somewhere but he's neither willing nor able to point out what it is. One could be forgiven for thinking that he's doing so deliberately to wind them up and put them off-guard for entertainment purposes.
--->'''Alex:''' All the information is on the task.\\
'''Jo:''' You always say that! It's so annoying.
* GagCensor: The trophy for the Champion of Champions special, to complement the usual golden head, is a golden headless body -- naked, with a Taskmaster seal pasted over the groin region.
* GagEcho: In "Mr. Octopus and Pottyhands", the second task is to build a tower to topple a yoghurt onto a scoreboard drawn on the ground. At the start of Sarah's attempt, Alex notes that she hasn't built anything yet.
-->'''Alex:''' When do you think you might start building?\\
'''Sarah:''' Look, mate, give me four hours to chop down a tree, and I'll spend three hours sharpening the blade.\\
''[later, during Lee's attempt]''\\
'''Lee:''' Abraham Lincoln said, "If I had four hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first three hours sharpening my axe."
* GagPenis: Pops up on many an occasion:
** Liza's dot-to-dot picture made with heels in "What Kind of Pictures?" is instantly recognisable as "cock and balls" even without the numbers being joined together. [[spoiler:She received 4 points for this drawing.]]
** Katy's offering for the prize task in "Five Miles Per Day" ("weirdest wooden thing") is a wooden phallus given to her by a friend's dad. [[spoiler:She received 4 points for the prize round.]]
** Ed's prize for "Quisps" ("best thing to celebrate with on a stage") is a "Confetti Cannon Party Pants" (a confetti cannon attached to the crotch of some pants). Cue jokes about ejaculation.
* GameShowHost: Greg Davies, the "Taskmaster".
* {{Gasshole}}: Sarah Kendall expressed some annoyance that the "first to fart" task in "Absolute Casserole" was a trick task only for Mike, since she's "always got one in the tank".
* GeniusDitz:
** Roisin in Series 1 comes off as one on occasion. Greg even calls her "uncharacteristically competent" in "Down an Octave".
** Lolly tends to have amazing ideas, but her one flaw is that she tends to do them as fast as possible, often without thinking the action through. Greg lampshades this in "Spatchcock it" when she tries to fit a camel through a small gap.
** Jess in Series 7. At one point she jokingly pretends she's going to fall off the stage during a live task, only to then ACTUALLY fall of the stage immediately after.
** Mawaan in Series 10 establishes himself as this in his first episode. Using forced perspective for his vanishing trick: genuinely clever, and impressed Greg. Trying to inflate an egg with helium: an act of idiocy which Greg mocked as unsurpassable for the rest of the series.
* GenkiGirl: Mel definitely counts. She approaches all the tasks with huge enthusiasm, and has a positive, cheerful attitude in general. It's for this reason that Alex tries to do a BreakTheCutie on her; see that and ButtMonkey above for details.
* GenreMashup: The series combines the celebrity panel show, variety entertainment, reality television and even a hint of episodic soap opera and sitcoms, as a key part of the show's appeal is a group of celebrities engaged in unusual tasks, bantering about them and developing ongoing minor conflicts, rivalries, "plot-lines" and {{Running Gag}}s.
* GenreSavvy:
** [[spoiler:Bob Mortimer]] shows his familiarity with the show in the Champion of Champion special's task to find a briefcase combination. Rather than do the tricky methods on the blackboard in the room, he just looks for the number Alex hid elsewhere in the room in plain sight.
** James Acaster was a fan before he appeared on the show, so he was familiar with its conventions. He'd know to go find tools in the kitchen and shed and regularly held off on reading out "Your time starts now" to give himself a few moments to think, to varying results. He got genuinely angry during team challenges when Rhod Gilbert, who wasn't familiar with the show, rushed through reading tasks and cost them precious seconds.
** Morgana Robinson wordlessly reveals she's watched the show in "The End of the Franchise", and specifically has seen the episode in series 2 when the contestants have to build a bridge over a river on a model of the Taskmaster House only to discover in-studio that there were building supplies hidden in the room. When faced with a similar task in this episode, after being instructed to build a sand bridge, alone of the other contestants she immediately begins looking for hidden supplies (though Alex ends up having to nudge her in the right direction when she discovers a clue but fails to identify what it means).
** By the end of each series, the contestants usually cotton onto the fact that if their attempt is being shown last, it's either genius or idiotic.
* GetYourMindOutOfTheGutter:
** The prize task for "Little Polythene Grief Cave" had the contestants bring in battery operated items. Cue a portion of the audience laughing in anticipation. Greg does lambaste the audience for their dirty minds:
--->'''Greg:''' So, It's going to be that kind of crowd...
** For the prize task of "Air Horn Andy" in Series 10, Mawaan brings in a travel pillow which sports a smaller hole. Richard Herring jokes that [[ADateWithRosiePalms the hole serves a different purpose]], to which Mawaan (and Greg) accuses all the "old perverts" in the room of ruining his favourite pillow forever.
* GilliganCut: A staple of the show's humour. When discussing a task, Greg or Alex will discuss how no one could ''possibly'' be stupid/insane/reckless/etc enough to [try and solve challenge with X impractical/illogical/outright stupid etc. solution], it always ends with Alex asking "Would you like to see [contestant] do the task?" Often times including a shot of said contestant [[GenreSavvy cringing in embarrassment]] [[ThisIsGonnaSuck with a mortified look]] in the studio.
* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Illustrated quite effectively, if perhaps inadvertently, in Series 4's "Spatchcock It". The task required the contestants to fit a stuffed camel through the smallest gap as possible. The male contestants instantly took scissors or whatever sharp objects they could find (including a ''blender'') to chop the camel up as small as possible to fit it through increasingly small gaps, while the female contestants managed to find a way to do complete the task in a way that kept the camel intact. At the end, it was revealed that the contestants were allowed to take their stuffed camels home with them, so while Mel and Lolly got to take home a nearly-brand-new stuffed animal, the male contestants were forced to take home some mangled abominations that had been restored as best they could.
* 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.]]
* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: Frank's gift to Greg in a task from "The Poet and the Egg" were a pair of sunglasses with rear view mirrors.
* GoldColoredSuperiority: For the Champion of Champions specials, the front door of the house is adorned with a golden arch. The wax seals that feature in the title sequence and the scoreboard are also gold instead of the usual red.
* GoodSamaritan: In "Hollowing Out A Baguette," the task to transfer as much water from one fishbowl to another had a provision hidden on the back of the envelope that if any of the provided chocolate were eaten, then that contestant would be docked 5 points. Joe, who had moved the most water but had also eaten some of the chocolate, had a net score of 0 points. Mel, who moved the least amount of water and had also eaten chocolate (with a net score of -4 points) offers to take on Joe's 5 points for docking (which would have left her at a net score of -9 points for the task), but Greg quickly quashes that idea, referencing this trope.
* GoofySuit:
** A task that was filmed in Series 1 was one where the cast is wearing a giant parrot costume and need to persuade as many people in a shopping centre to sign a slip of paper. It was cut from the final show since Alex and the production decided that it felt tonally like a hidden camera prank show, which was not what they wanted for ''Taskmaster''.
** "Stuck in a Mammal Groove" contains a task where the cast need to guess what Alex (who is seated in the adjoining train compartment) is wearing. They are only allowed to ask yes or no questions, and Alex can only respond by honking a horn. [[spoiler:He is wearing a parrot costume.]]
** A task in "This Is Trevor" had contestants choose costumes for each other for a future task. The choices were: A Santa costume (with gloves and beard), A Pirate costume (complete with hook-hand and eyepatch), A chef outfit (complete with oven gloves and hat), A Convict (complete with Cuffs), and a Boxing outfit (with Boxing gloves). The task in question was to wear the complete costume and taste test crisps. The common theme with all of these costumes, of course, was that their hands were obfuscated by something, to make the task harder.
* GracefulLoser: In "A Novel About Russian Gulags", a task was to move rice from a table in one room to a bottle in the living room, all without touching the rice grains, not move the bottle from the living room, and they could only use items that were placed in a shopping basket. [[spoiler:Paul Sinha]] gets disqualified from the task for not sticking to the '''"Do not move the bottle"''' part of the task. At the point tallying stage, the contestant acknowledges their error and dissuades Greg from giving them any points. While the contestant is in fact disqualified, Greg does award them a single bonus point due to their honesty and amiable acceptance of the situation.
* GratuitousLatin: In the banter section at the beginning of "Five Miles Per Day", Alex says that he's adopted a new personal mantra in Latin. After resisting several attempts by Greg to get him to explain what it actually means, he admits it's the Latin translation of the slogan from a BMW ad.
* GroinAttack:
** In "Pea in a Haystack", the first task was to take as few steps as possible to get to a microwave in the middle of a running track. Dave tried to leap over a metal fence, and hit his groin area. The other contestants winced as much as he did.
** Avoided in "Shaqinahat." For the peddle bin task, Katy asks Alex to prop up the bin and open it at her call as she throws her items, most of which strikes Alex's groin area. Katy's hardhat ends up being used as an impromptu guard.
** Rhod Gilbert admits to targeting the groin area of the volunteers he pelts with tennis balls for his ''Space Invaders'' recreation.
* TheGrotesque: Al Murray's snowman that he created in "Pea in a Haystack." Greg describes it as looking like a creature in pain.
* GroundhogDayLoop:
** Invoked in the second part of the "Have Fun!" task in the episode [="BMXing"=]. The first part required the teams to have fun, and the second part required them to recreate what they did as accurately as possible. Russell and Alice played keepy-uppeys with a football and sat in a bathtub with some sherry respectively, while Tim, Liza and Asim did Hula hooping on roller skates, Asim used ukulele's to throw tennis balls in the air, and Liza did [=BMXing=][[note]]"What's the best fun you can ever have?, [=BMX-ing!=] - Greg and Alex after the challenge was shown off, there's the title![[/note]] and immediately giving up, and they moved onto throwing hoops over themselves, then throwing balls into the hoops (or at least, trying to), then moving the picket fence off the ground, ''then'' messing up the cushions in the caravan while Asim put a cake tray over his head. [[spoiler:Seven points were awarded to Russell and Alice overall (5 for the quality of their recreation, 2 for the quality of their fun), with the other three getting eight points overall (5 for the recreation, 3 for the fun).]]
** The team task in "Butter in the Microwave" is a series of mini-tasks around the Taskmaster's House and garden in the style of a ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure''-game, with the key to ending the entire task being [[spoiler:to say the word "demeaning"]]. There was at least one "wrong turn" that forced the players back to the starting bench, and failing one part of a task would also send everyone back to the start (e.g. making a big mess in the living room or if a kitchen implement you are wearing falls down). David and Jo took their sweet time (over 36 minutes - David was under the impression that they were not in a race against the other team, but Jo did know but didn't give a fuck), but completed the task in 9 passes without having to repeat a mini-task more than once. Ed, Katy and Rose, however, rushed through the tasks, made some mistakes and wrong turns and had to restart ''twice''. Despite winning this task, they completed the task in 24 passes, walked a total distance of over 600 metres, and took a little over 29 minutes in total.
* GrumpyBear: On the whole, things are fairly light-hearted, but there have been a few contestants who, whether for reasons of humour or just their natural personalities, have gone through the show behaving like someone was offscreen forcing them to compete at gunpoint. Notable sourpusses include:
** Romesh Ranganathan in Series 1, who became TheComicallySerious at points due to acting like he was contributing under constant threat of torture. Coupled with the fact that on occasions where he tried to act sweet to butter Greg up for points, the effect was usually either disturbing or at least unconvincing.
** Both Iain Stirling and Joe Thomas in Series 8 for different reasons; Joe because at times he seemed to be suffering a mild depression, and Iain because, due to his over-competitiveness, he could launch into grouchy yelling at the drop of a hat if he thought things were going badly for him.
** Jo Brand in Series 9 made no bones about how ridiculous and over-convoluted she thought many of the tasks were.
* HairTriggerTemper: The live tasks in series 2 often brought this out in Joe Wilkinson and Doc Brown. Iain Stirling also demonstrated an extremely quick temper throughout Series 8. Nish Kumar plays with this a bit in Series 5, since he's mostly pretty light-hearted, but he does get pretty frustrated from time to time to the point where "''Shit and piss''!" almost becomes his catchphrase. Ed Gamble in Series 9 was also prone to SuddenlyShouting when he became frustrated and had his buttons pushed, but like Nish was also mostly light-hearted.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: The tendency of contestants to use ExactWords and LoopholeAbuse frequently means that someone who completes an arduous task according to a close and/or literal interpretation of the rules faces losing out simply because someone else exploited an easy "cheat", which can at times seem rather unfair even if the second person is still technically within the rules. This was the subject of Joe Thomas's RageBreakingPoint in Series 8, when he exploded after his lengthy and exhaustive efforts to "erase an eraser" would end up being for naught after pretty much all the other contestants lazily flushed the intact eraser down the nearest toilet, despite the eraser technically still being functional and this just being a "wanky work-around" that required no effort or cleverness whatsoever to come up with. Although this particular example ended up being a subversion; while Joe technically did come last in the task, in recognition of his hard work (and the fact that he had a point about the unjust nature of the situation) Greg ended up giving him three bonus points.
* HardWorkMontage: Pre-recorded tasks will sometimes feature montages of the contestants planning and preparing their solution. A notable example is Joe's construction of his 'tremendous legs' in "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man", which Greg compares to something out of ''Series/TheATeam''.
* HatesBeingTouched:
** 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 RunningGag for the episode, resulting with Romesh touching Greg's nose back.
** According to Greg, Alex dislikes physical contact, despite approaching each contestant for a cuddle in "[[TitleDrop A Cuddle]]" to sneakily stick a ring on each contestant's back. The task was to retrieve as many golden rings in the room and put them on a drumstick Jo and Katy both spotted a golden ring on Alex's finger and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything proceed to use their mouths to pull the ring off]], whilst Alex smiled and looked incredibly uncomfortable.
* HeadCam:
** One studio task in Series 9 has the contestants wearing headcams and mirrors while attempting to build a tower of bricks on a table behind them.
** Because the entirety of Series 12 was filmed in lockdown conditions, the contestants will usually be wearing headcams for high-activity or outdoorsy tasks to avoid having the camera crew too close.
* HeavyMetalUmlaut: Parodied in "Rock'n'Roll Umlaut". The team task was to create a music album cover. Joe and Sian formed the band Shoe with the title track It's Too Big, and they used a total of three gratuitous umlauts, two of which went over ''consonants''.
* HeelRealization: Iain Stirling tended to get rather over-competitive, single-minded and short-tempered in Series 8. While this was fair enough when he was completing tasks alone, as the only person really suffering from it was himself, during the team tasks his tunnel-vision obsession with winning tended to translate into him acting rather unpleasantly towards his teammates, with a particular tendency to stomp around rudely barking orders at them, act rather inconsiderately and dismissively towards their attempts to contribute, and generally being rather insufferable. From his reactions in the studio, he was clearly rather mortified and ashamed to have to watch his poor conduct rather bluntly exposed by the cameras and played back to the viewing public for their amusement.
* HeightAngst:
** Greg has marked down prize entries that he feels emphasizes how large he is compared to everyone else (e.g. Mel Giedroyc's best chair for the episode "No Stars For Naughty Boys" was taken from her childhood dollhouse and Katy Wix's best thing(s) from a shed were tools taken from a dollhouse shed).
** On the other end of the spectrum, Sian Gibson (who is 5'-0") expresses her unhappiness with some of the tasks in "Stay Humble" for being heightist, namely the task where the competitors have their wrists through a loop that is attached to a bucket suspended in the air and they have to get as much sand from that bucket to a second bucket.
* HeroicSacrifice: "Hollowing Out a Baguette" has a task to transfer water from one fishbowl to another. Joe Lycett absolutely smashed the task (transferring 97% of the water and accidentally swallowing the remaining 3%) and apparently receives the full 5 points-- until Alex reveals that there was a requirement sneakily written on the back of the task which stated if any of the provided chocolate were eaten, then that person would be docked 5 points. Both Joe and Mel ate the chocolate. Mel, who had transferred the least amount of water and had a net score of -4 points in that task, attempts to intervene this way on Joe's behalf by taking on Joe's 5 points for docking. However, Greg quickly shuts down this proposal. Had it been allowed, Mel would have been the first person to score negative points in an entire episode at -2-- as of Series 10, her 3 points at the end of the episode is the lowest score of any contestant in a single episode.
-->'''Greg:''' It doesn't work like that-- this isn't the Good Samaritan. ''We'' make the rule, Sausage Gloves!"
* HiddenDepths:
** Creator/NoelFielding surprised everyone with his displays of athleticism during physical tasks (while wearing cowboy boots, no less) because he's better known for absurdist comedy that plays with the mind.
** Greg and Alex have also said in interviews that Noel Fielding was taken aback when the latter realised how competitive he was in the show.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emz6GVWvJlo&t=159s Nish and Mark's song]] for Rosalind in "Their Water's So Delicious" took everyone by surprise, both because they had struggled throughout the series, and because no one expected both of them to actually be quite competent musicians.
** Alex and Greg have stated that it is a trend in the show for the well-educated comedians with relatively intellectual reputations (they cite David Baddiel and Mark Watson as examples) to do surprisingly badly. Greg hypothesised in a Radio Times interview it's because in the improvisational nature of Taskmaster these comedians cannot plan and maintain their comedia "persona".
* HiddenInPlainSight:
** Done on various tasks, hiding the solution, helpful materials or useful information in relatively obvious locations, but due to panic and time pressure, the contestants miss them. For example in "Strength in Arches," there are building supplies hidden under the table and multiple clues to get lead the contestants to them. Jon Richardson both flips a switch that lights up a sign on the other side of the table, AND reads the boat with "debajo de la mesa" (under the table in Spanish, which he says during the live show) on the side. Despite this none of the contestants ever check under the table.
** A common variant of the above is to hide additional information about the task on the task letter itself, often in very small font on the back. A surprising number of contestants don't actually bother simply looking on the other side of the page.
** The Prize task for "Friendship is truth" had contestants bring in surprising photos of themselves. Hugh had brought in a facemask of himself, supposedly because it stops [[MundaneUtility people from recognising him when he's out shopping]] (the logic being hiding yourself underneath a mask of yourself makes you [[PerceptionFilter looks weird enough for people to ignore you)]]. [[spoiler:He comes last]].
* HiddenPurposeTest: Several tasks over the course of the series have had a second part that is only revealed after the first part is completed, and are usually set up so that doing well in the first part will be a handicap for the true task.
** In "Tony Three Pies", a task begins with the contestants being instructed to make an exotic sandwich, but the real task turns out to be [[spoiler:"Eat your exotic sandwich. Fastest wins." Between choosing bizarre ingredients and going for a more-is-more approach, not one contestant completes the eating task]].
** In "Roadkill Doused in Syrup", the team task begins with one team member being instructed to write a list of obscure animals, only to learn once it's complete that the real task is a game of charades in which the other team members have to guess the animals on the list. [[spoiler:Both teams do surprisingly well, each getting over half their list -- particularly impressive for Asim's team, as his list consists of made-up animals like "anorexic elephant" and "laser-beam turtle".]]
** In "Butter in the Microwave", the team task involves following a complicated series of instructions spread out over multiple envelopes, each of which can only be opened after the previous instruction has been carried out. The final envelope eventually reveals that the win condition is [[spoiler:simply to be the first team to say the word "demeaning"]]. In retrospect, several of the subtasks were designed to nudge the teams in the direction of winning the task inadvertantly; in the event, [[spoiler:however, neither team completed the task before reading the final envelope]].
* HiroshimaAsAUnitOfMeasure: Whenever the task results involve quantitative measurements, Alex will give the measurement in normal units first, then offer a completely obscure or nonsensical alternative .
-->'''Alex:''' Lolly slid 3,2 metres, that's the same height as Kylie Minogue standing on a horse; Joe, 5,80, Vince Vaughan on Owen Wilson on Ben Stiller on an unlit barbeque.
* HilariousOuttakes: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVBgaN6u-jk This compilation reel for Series 10]]. Other series' have clips on the official Taskmaster Youtube channel.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard:
** In "Spoony Neeson", a task required the comedians to get a birthday candle in a muffin from the lab to the caravan. Nish shouting the phrase "You Bubbly Fuck!" towards Alex was perhaps not the best course of action...as that blew out the candle!
** In "Slap and Tong", Alex's opening gag has him bring out a snack consisting of chocolate, biscuit, butter, salami, and ganache. Greg declines to try it and makes Alex eat the entire thing before he will start the show.
* HollywoodWebcam: Averted in "Meat", as a task required contestants to look at Frederick the Swede as they get dressed into a swimsuit. The cameras used on the webcams are the ones that came with the laptops, and the footage shown in the studio are actual screen captures of the attempts.
* HomoeroticSubtext:
** Greg and Alex's comments during studio segments not-so-subtly hint at a dom-sub relationship. Alex is the show's ButtMonkey constantly insulted or mocked by Greg, Greg frequently puts his hand on Alex's, and both offhandedly mention things Alex is or isn't allowed to do by order of the Taskmaster.
** Frederick the Swede seems to attract this.
*** Greg [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this in "Little Denim Shorts" after watching back the [=VTs=] of the contestants trying to make Fred blush.
*** 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", Joe Lycett outright flirts with him, although that's more like actual text.
** David Baddiel asks Alex to take off his shirt as part of the "most striking water feature" task and then takes his own shirt off "in solidarity." Greg opines that it appears to be two men telling their wives that they are [[UnusualEuphemism building a water feature]] together to engage in an openly homoerotic relationship à la ''Film/BrokebackMountain''.
* HostileWeather: This trope is downplayed in ''Taskmaster'' -- the contestants film based on their availability and are thus at the mercy of the weather. Some contestants are unlucky enough to be filming in bad weather that can affect their performance (or at the very least their demeanor):
** In "The Poet and the Egg," Tim Key filmed his GPS drawing in a rainstorm. After attempting to draw a key poorly, he abandoned his attempted and went for a run in the rain and wind.
** In "The F.I.P.," freezing weather, compounded by lack of sleep due to taking care of his newborn, hampered Rob Beckett and caused him to break wind (hence the episode title - Farty Ice Pop).
** Contributing to Nish Kumar's RageQuit in "Phoenix" at the beach were blazing hot temperatures and members of the public openly laughing as he continued to miss the bucket.
** In the episode "It's Not Your Fault," despite being soaked to the bone in a heavy downpour and by a large hangar in the middle of a large empty airfield, Mike Wozniak still maintained a pleasant, almost apologetic demeanor and remained friendly with Alex and the production crew.
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Sian Gibson from Series 8, who is 5'0". At one point during the studio segment, she and the 6'8" tall Greg stand next to each other for a side hug, and the height difference is staggering. Sian names them as "the modern-day Krankies."
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** In Season 1, Romesh Ranganathan objected in-studio to the "golfing with eggs" task by pointing out that as a vegan, he wasn't sure whether competing in such a task was ethical. It was immediately pointed out to him that this didn't stop him competing on the day, and indeed he went on to destroy more eggs than anyone else.
** 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 penalized 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.]]
** In Season 4, in the "Work Out What's In The Sleeping Bag Without Removing Any Objects" task, Noel Fielding objected to Joe Lycett receiving points after he guessed that one of the objects was a "carrot skipping rope" (one of the objects was a skipping rope, but Joe had mistaken what was forming the handles) on the grounds that there's clearly no such thing and he was just making things up. Greg rather snarkily pointed out that it was a bit rich for a member of Series/TheMightyBoosh, whose comedy is largely if not exclusively focussed on whimsical flights of absurdity, to complain about someone being rewarded for just making up something absurd and unlikely.
--->'''Greg:''' Right, [[TakeThat and you don't like flights of fancy]], [[Series/TheMightyBoosh Noel]], do you?
** In Season 7, episode "My Eyes Are Circles", Rhod's submission for the "draw the biggest circle" task is to get a map of Europe and trace a circle around as much of the continent as possible. This, naturally, creates some debate regarding whether it counts as the "biggest" circle (it's the largest when relative scale is taken into account, but clearly much smaller than the other attempts in practical terms). At one point James Acaster tries to chime in against Rhod... and considering his own failure to even accurately understand the task requirements led to a nonsensical effort wherein he tried to find as many circles as possible, he's quickly shut down by Greg.
--->'''James:''' If-if-if I just said "Oh, I've just walked across the West Indies"--\\
'''Greg:''' ''[interrupting]'' I mean, how ''dare'' you even speak.
** In the Series 7 episode “The Mean Bean”, contestants are tasked with finding the circumference of the caravan in baked beans. When Greg makes fun of them for physically measuring the length of the caravan with the beans, Rhod challenges him to come up with a better idea. Greg sheepishly claims he’d use “a different way”, prompting immediate ridicule from Rhod.
--->'''Greg:''' I’d work out the length of a bean, and then I’d use, uh, a different way of working out the circumference --\\
'''Rhod:''' ''[sarcastically]'' Oh, the old ''different way'' method! Oh, didn’t think of that!
** In Series 8, Iain Stirling was very easy to irritate whenever his attempt at a task was questioned on a technicality, or when it seemed like a judgement was going to go against him. However, when Joe Thomas challenged several contestants making an eraser "disappear" simply by flushing it down a toilet, Iain demanded to know "where the fuck this was coming from" in response.
** In Series 10, Daisy and Richard have to convince a security guard to look in their bag instead of the one carried by the other. Daisy employs moralism as a tool, arguing that the contents of Richard's bag are scandalous and that, as a married man, he shouldn't look inside due to how perverted it would make him seem. Then, when they parted ways, Daisy kissed his hand and cheek. Greg immediately called her out on the naked hypocrisy of adopting a self-righteous tone to make her case only then try and "get off" with the guy once she'd finished.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Greg often mocks the oldest contestant in any given series despite he himself often being very close to the same age. A particularly egregious example is how he calls Rhod "grandad" throughout series 7 even though Rhod is 5 months younger than Greg.
** In "My Eyes Are Circles", James pads out an anecdote with plot points from ''Film/ForrestGump'', and pretends innocence when Greg calls him out. When the next contestant, Kerry, describes one event in her own story as being "like ''[[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka]]''", James tells her sternly that plagiarism is not cool.
* ICantLookGesture: Occasionally done when contestants remember that a particularly embarrassing task is about to be shown, such as Rob Beckett's attempts at various accents.
* IResembleThatRemark: During the ball-throwing task in "The Perfect Stuff", Alex and Rhod have an argument about whether Alex's umpire chair is included in the task description's prohibition on ladders, which mostly consists of Alex repeating that it is and Rhod repeating that it's not. In the studio afterward, Greg remarks that it's like every conversation he's ever had with Rhod. Rhod replies, "It's not."
* ImTakingHerHomeWithMe:
** When Joe Wilkinson has his EurekaMoment in "There's Strength in Arches," Jon tells him that he would just adopt him with the look that Joe makes.
** The task in "Rock 'N Roll Umlaut" is to completely conceal yourself inside a phone box. Paul Sinha fails spectacularly and is caught clearly looking into the camera. Greg describes Paul as a lost little boy whom he would like to scoop into his arms.
** Greg notes, "I found Guz Khan absolutely adorable for one beat" during the introduction of the task of painting a portrait of The Taskmaster with the canvas set at either six inches or six feet away. "He became a 10-year-old boy and I wanted to hold him." Alex helpfully isolates the beat.
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine:
** Several of the contestants are this to Greg:
*** Series one has Roisin, who co-starred with Greg in ''Series/ManDown''.
*** Rhod in series seven. Aside from being long-term friends, Greg also appeared as a team captain in Rhod's panel show ''Ask Rhod Gilbert''.
*** Greg's former ''Series/TheInbetweeners'' co-star Joe Thomas as a contestant in Series 8.
*** Ed Gamble (Series 9) is also a long-time friend of Greg's, and co-wrote his sitcom ''Man Down''.
*** Mike Wozniak from series 11 also co-starred with Greg in ''Series/ManDown''.
** Alex as well:
*** Alex used to co-host ''We Need Answers'' with Tim (series one) and Mark (series five). Mark and Alex's friendship is also touched on in several episodes.
*** The musicians who provided the music for the final task in "Hollowing Out A Baguette" are Joe Auckland and Mark Brown. They are both members of Alex's band The Horne Section.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The episodes titles are unusual phrases spoken in the episode, taken out of context.
* IdiotBall: Anytime Greg prefaces task attempt(s) with ''"Now these are intelligent people..."'', you know people have been a bit stupid. This in turn gets [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] quite a bit, like this exchange from "The Dong and the Gong":
-->'''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]]?
** In "Pork Is a Sausage", the live task had the contestants put potatoes into a wicker basket, using only comically massive chopsticks (snooker cues with balls on the end). Everyone picked up the potatoes as you'd expect, with the ends of the chopsticks. Richard however, used his hands to place them onto the chopsticks, then transported them to the wicker basket, not realising the task specified that he couldn't use his hands ''at all'' during the process. [[spoiler:He gets disqualified in this round.]]
** In "A Novel About Russian Gulags", a task was to move rice from a table in one room to a bottle in the living room, all without touching the rice grains, not move the bottle from the living room, and they could only use items that were placed in a shopping basket. [[spoiler:Paul Sinha]] initially gets disqualified for moving the bottle, despite the task explicitly saying that you couldn't move it from the living room. Greg does give them a bonus point as they were a GracefulLoser, and admitted the wrongdoing.
* ImmediateSelfContradiction: In "Toshwash", the team task involves the contestants each putting an item inside their bag without their teammates finding out, and then they have to convince a security guard to look inside their bag. Richard Herring tells the security guard that the content of his bag involves nudity, so Daisy argues that the guard would look like a pervert if he chose Richard's bag. She also makes a point that the guard is married, so his wife wouldn't be impressed. Then, as the team are leaving, Daisy kisses his hand and cheek, and says goodbye to him in an endearing manner. As Greg put it:
-->'''Greg:''' Initially, [Daisy] suggested that Richard's disgusting for offering up lascivious goods [...] then you try and guilt Richard the security guard for going to his bubbling cauldron of filth that's Richard's bag, because he's got a wife. Daisy took a moral high ground, and then, let's say it as it is, tried to get off with him.
* 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.
* InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike: Mel and Hugh's trailer for ''Taskmaster: the Movie'' is a NordicNoir called ''Tugtemester'', which prompted [[ADateWithRosiePalms a few jokes]] in the studio.
* InSeriesNickname:
** Greg often calls Alex "little Alex Horne".
** Asim twice addresses Greg as "Papa G," which Greg finds endearing.
* InitialismTitle: The last episode of series three is called "The F.I.P". It stands for Farty Ice Pop, a nickname given to Rob as he broke wind when doing his take because he was cold.
* InstantlyProvenWrong:
** For the prize task in "Hollowing Out a Baguette", Mel announces that she is offering up a subscription to a magazine called ''Moving On''; a moment later, an issue of the magazine is shown on the big screen, revealing that its title is actually ''Moving Ahead''. Greg notes dryly that she's clearly a big fan of the magazine.
** In "Legit Glass", the stage task was to make noises of something written on the card and the Taskmaster had to guess what it was. Daisy May Cooper tried to do an elephant impression, which was mocked in the studio by everyone, and when Daisy asks Greg to do a better impression, he tries, and everyone immedietely starts laughing as it was only ''marginally'' better.
* InsistentTerminology: During "Hippopotamus", Richard Herring at one point offhandedly refers to the "moving water from one butt to another" task as a "game". Alex seems to get slightly annoyed and immediately corrects him that what he's doing is a ''task'', not a game. Greg approvingly notes this in the studio after watching the playback.
* 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).
* IronicEchoCut: A staple of the show's humour, as the editors like to show a couple of contestants' attempts at once, and then contrast them. This often leads to one of the cast dismissing an idea as ridiculous, then the program shows another contestant enthusiastically trying the idea. A classic example happens in a challenge where the contestants need to throw a tea bag into a mug from the furthest distance:
-->'''Frank:''' Someone'll take the first 45 minutes realizing the teabags are better wet.\\
''[cut to Romesh, with dry teabags by his feet]''\\
'''Romesh:''' Just realized I should probably wet them.
* {{Irony}}:
** The Edinburgh TV Festival episode has TV executives, and a task had them try to name as many TV shows and films as possible, in alphabetical order. You'd think, being TV executives, they'd be able to name quite a few TV Shows. Apparently not.
** In "Quisps", David Baddiel initially struggles to fully understand the nuances of the "Throw Your Thing Far -- But Not ''Too'' Far" live task, leading Ed Gamble to confidently (and perhaps a wee bit patronisingly) explain it back to him. Ed is consequently the first contestant to take his go... and immediately screws it up and disqualifies himself on the first throw by bouncing a rubber egg off the stage. David is greatly amused by this, Ed much less so.
* ItMakesSenseInContext:
** The title sequence is made up of intentionally bizarre clips of random task attempts that will happen in a given series. Of course, as soon as you see an episode of the show, you will have ''some'' context for why, say, Doc Brown is catching a fish that was flung off-camera[[labelnote:*]]The task was to create a nursery rhyme video, and he made a nursery rap as part of the attempt, which involved fish and other objects being thrown at him[[/labelnote]]
** Some of, though certainly not all, the episode titles. Generally, it's named after a memorable quote or joke said in the given episode. Unlike the US version, we can't list them here as there's ''so many of them!''
** Referenced by Greg in "Down an Octave", where both Frank and Josh were trying to melt ice as quickly as possible, and they use such techniques like putting ice in a bathtub and running hot water over it, and putting ice ''in the oven.'' Greg then points out that, when played in isolation, the clips would look like Frank and Josh were having a mental breakdown.
* ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: For all but the team tasks, the contestants film their tasks in isolation and are sworn to secrecy until the studio shows. They do not know how well they have completed a task in comparison to their competitors, so it is a common occurence for contestants who are self-assured of a victory to cringe at their own attempts while watching them back.
-->'''Katherine Parkinson:''' ''[after watching back her team's karaoke music video in horror, with hands over her face]''\\
'''Mawaan:''' Katherine, you should be really proud of that.\\
'''Katherine:''' It felt better when we were doing it--\\
'''Johnny:''' On the day.
* ItsBeenDone: In "My Eyes Are Circles", one task involves writing a story exactly ten words long. In the studio, Greg invites the contestants to flesh out their stories with extra backstory and motivation, and James Acaster's attempt comes out remarkably similar to part of ''Film/ForrestGump'', a fact he pretends to be surprised by when Greg points it out.
* {{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]].
* KnowWhenToFoldEm: In the last episode of Series 1, Romesh, Josh and Roisin initially make a spirited effort to defend their submission for "make the best blooper video" task... until Greg thoroughly deconstructs exactly how bad it was, at which point Romesh and Josh see no point in holding back their true feelings (though Roisin seems determined to go down with the ship, perhaps because she was the one filming and so has the bulk of the blame for how it turned out):
-->'''Romesh:''' See, you think the ''cake'' is the blooper, right, and you think "Oh God, that was bloody funny! That's probably the best thing I've ever seen -- OH SHIT! PADDLING POOL! Out of nowhere! Oh my days, that's such a surprising and entertaining blooper! And if anything, they're almost ''too'' method in the way that they carried that out! I thought it was brilliant!" ''[does jazz hands]'' That's what I think about that.\\
'''Roisin:''' That should be your reaction!\\
'''Greg:''' I would have probably got to those layers, but I was too busy with "Oh, there's this really bad acting, oh, they're not doing it themselves, oh, they've ''missed the actual accident''."\\
'''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.\\
'''Josh:''' I agree with Romesh.
* KubrickStare: During Jon Richardson's creepy music video of "Three Blind Mice" in "Pork Is a Sausage," he gives this look to the camera as the piano player (accompanied with a downward tilted camera angle) and as the winking farmer's wife at the end with a mouse tail in her mouth.
-->'''Greg:''' I've written down "nightmareish, creepy" and then "strangely attractive."
* LamePunReaction:
** A fairly substantial amount of Alex's introductions, segues and attempts at banter involve some kind of hideously tortured pun, often reached by mangling the names of contestants together. This tends to exasperate Greg, who is clearly not fond of puns as a tool for getting laughs.
--->'''Alex:''' Last up, I need to warn you that she might make the noise of a mourning dove and a happy cat at the same time -- yes, Daisy may coo-purr!\\
'''Greg:''' ''[wincing]'' God, I hate you.
** Two instances from "The Poet and the Egg":
*** When tasked to bring in the "most meaningful" item for the prize task, Roisin chose a ''dictionary''. The entire studio let out an anguished groan when realization set in.
*** Ahead of one of the AdBumpers, Greg reads one off of the teleprompters:
---->'''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.
** Paul Chowdhry made a couple of these in "The F.I.P." to the blank reactions of Greg, Alex, the cast and the audience ("He's gong mad" and "Rob Bucket").
** During the prize task of "Spatchcock It" in which the cast must bring in the best "sheep-related item," Alex makes several sheep-related puns to Greg's dismay. ("It's up to ''ewe'', Greg Davies, to decide who brought in the best sheep-related items, ''baa'' none. If you notice anyone being ''sheep''ish, feel free to ''lamb''aste them."
** In "He Was a Different Man", Tim's pun about Music/{{Sting}} gets an "oh, come on!" from Asim and a {{facepalm}} from Greg.
** Also in "He Was a Different Man", Alex's introduction to Russell Howard's attempt at the candle task attempts to crowbar Russell's surname into a pun on the phrase "How hard can it be?". Notably, ''everybody'' groans -- even the audience doesn't laugh.
** Alex calls a task winner-to-be a "'Tache-master" in a segue to see who made the most unexpected moustache in the episode "A Novel About Russian Gulags". Cue audience groan, and Iain and Greg's ''very visible'' annoyed reaction to the pun.
** When introducing the first batch of [=VTs=] for a task in "Five Miles Per Day", Alex wishes that everyone will learn something from the next video because it is "Ed-Jo-Katy"-nal. Greg promptly shouts at Alex to GetOut.
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers:
** Occasionally, Alex will show four of the contestants' efforts together, meaning that whoever was singled out had approached the task in a different manner. Lampshades are often hung by Greg:
--->'''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.'''''
** Deliberately done in "Lotta Soup", when what appeared to be a solo task was actually a special team task. Four of the contestants were working together, and [[spoiler:Phil]] was on his own.
* LateToTheRealization: Jon, able to read Spanish, was the only contestant who realised the name of the model boat in the bridge building task translated in English to "Under the Table", but thought nothing of it at the time. It wasn't until sometime after he completed the challenge that he realised how strange a name for a boat "Under the Table" was, and correctly guessed that there had 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 as the trope usually indicates and more frustrated by the fact that during the task, he hadn't even thought twice about the hint.
* LeftItIn: In "A Novel About Russian Gulags", while brainstorming solutions to a task, Lou comes out with an off-colour suggestion and immediately adds, "Please don't put that in the show."
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: After his AntiClimax Coke-and-Mentos volcano, Iain's only response when asked what his thoughts were was that he genuinely didn't want to talk about it. Greg sympathetically agreed not to.
* LimitedWardrobe: Starting from series two, all the contestants wear only one set of clothes for the pre-recorded challenges. In the first series, the contestants altered between two sets of clothes for the pre-recorded challenges, although Tim kept his wardrobe consistent by wearing red sportswear and a white headband. In the studio, he wore the same suit for all six episodes.
* LiteralMinded:
** In "The Leprechaun and the Lesbian," Sally's prize for the "hippest item of headwear" is a balaclava with a pair of hips attached to resemble wings and a beret. In his notes, Alex had called it "[[PunnyName Hip Hip Beret]]."
** Aisling's water cooler moment in "A Wind-Dried Puffin" was a literal interpretation of the phrase "fishing for a moment." Sitting in a small boat on the Taskmaster House driveway with ice strewn around, she used a fishing rod to "fish" for "moments" (actually some Galaxy bars), but accidentally knocks over her water cooler and mug of tea in the process.
** In "We Met At Mealtime", the contestants were tasked to make a big announcement. Tim Vine's approach was to write the word 'announcement' in big letters. [[spoiler:However, the police came and stopped him because he made his attempt next to an airport.]]
** A series 7 team task involved making the best soap opera cliffhanger. James, Phil, and Rhod make a segment that features a soapy bath (as well as common soap opera tropes). During the studio segment, Phil points this out as a reason why his team should win.
** In "A Novel About Russian Gulags", Alex claims in the banter segment that he's never used any of the machines at the gym because they have signs saying you have to read the instructions first, which he's interpreted as hunting down and reading the machines' operating manuals. From cover to cover. Including the bits in other languages.
** The task in "Don't Like Them Go Bang" is to deliver Alex a set of instructions as discreetly as possible - Ed's instructions to Alex prompt the latter to stand up and shout at the top of his voice "'''LOUD!'''". Ed's instructions? [[spoiler:STAND UP AND SHOUT LOUD.]]
* LiteralistSnarking: In "Stay Humble", the equipment for the herding task includes, for reasons that remain opaque to most of the contestants, a single basketball. Lou asks Alex if it's a red herring; Alex replies that, no, it's a basketball.
* TheLoad: James Acaster leaves us in no doubt as to what he thought of Rhod Gilbert (who rushes through reading tasks and generally interprets them in creative ways) by the end of the series.
* LoopholeAbuse: [[LoopholeAbuse/{{Taskmaster}} Has its own page!]]
* LovelyAssistant:
** '''"...It's Lil' Alex Horne!"''
** In "[=BMXing!=]" only, Alex hires his own lovely assistant named Little Ian. After Little Ian is introduced, Greg orders Alex to get rid of him immediately.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M - Q]]
* MadScienceFair: A task in "Stuck in a Mammal Groove" has contestants build a science fair volcano. They had 10 minutes to plan what they'd use, and 20 minutes to build the volcano. Iain and Joe both used cola and Mentos to get their volcano to erupt, the former used '''lots of Mentos''', the latter using about seven overall to both make their eruptions. Sian made a pre-erupted volcano, and added sparklers to the top of it to mimic it erupting, Paul basically attached a bicycle pump to a tube and added in a reactant to cola (we never find out) and forces the bubbly lava through a tiny hole at the top of his volcano. Lou made a clay volcano, set various sweets and pills on fire, and stood back. [[spoiler:Despite his best efforts, Iain and Sian get 2 points, Paul gets 3 points, with Joe and Lou getting 5 points each]].
* MakingASpectacleOfYourself: James Acaster in Series 7 has a pair of yellow shutter shades as part of his outfit for some of his pre-recorded challenges.
%% Zero-context example * MaliciousMisnaming: Alex Horne uses this to make segues when presenting a video of a task to be shown.
* TheManInFrontOfTheMan: On a meta-level. Alex is the show's creator and develops the tasks, but on the show he takes the part of "assistant" and Greg takes on the ego trip of sitting in the big chair, the job of judging points for the tasks and determining whether a competitor's attempts at LoopholeAbuse are valid, and the pleasure of [[BeleagueredAssistant bullying Alex]].
* ManekiNeko: They appear in parts of series 8, as it had an Asiatic theme.
* ManipulativeEditing: Is often joked about in the online outtakes, in which Greg will often make a comment along the lines of "That's not making it in [to the final broadcast edit of the show]". This is usually for entirely valid reasons (a lengthy tangent that would bump up the run-time without really adding anything, or some off-colour jokes that would probably create some difficulties regarding broadcast guidelines, etc.), but on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHqQb1knF3M one occasion]] Alex claimed he'd informed the contestants of a task penalty, only for Joe Lycett to claim he ''hadn't'' and start denouncing the show as "a scam!":
-->'''Greg:''' Imagine that sentence. But now, imagine it on the editing room floor.\\
'''Joe:''' [[DoomedMoralVictor These people know the truth!]]
* MeetCute: The very awkward greeting and the subsequent interactions between Sian and Joe at the start of a team task in "A Novel About Russian Gulags".
* MercyKill: In "Tarpeters," the contestants were tasked with taking a little man (a wind-up toy of a man on a bicycle) on a spectacular journey. Liza Tarbuck has her little man travel across a parking lot with moving cars and bikes. A car eventually runs over the toy, and despite the toy being relatively intact, she decides to put it out of its misery by stomping on it. [[spoiler:She placed second.]]
* {{Metalhead}}: Ed Gamble is a proud one. In "Bready Bready Bready," he composes a metal anthem to serenade himself with, and later in "A Cuddle" he considers his love of metal important enough to include (in the form of Music/OzzyOsbourne's head) in his own version of Mount Rushmore.
* MetaphorIsMyMiddleName: In "Mother Honks Her Horn", Alex claims that Detail is his middle name.
* MindOverMatter: Joked about in "Join Our Cult." David tries to conceal one aubergine by Sello taping it to the portrait of Greg in the living room (which depicts Greg composed of many vegetables). When Alex points to that aubergine, it immediately falls off the portrait. In the studio, he claims to have avoided pointing at anything else so as not to activate his magic powers.
* {{Misblamed}}: Discussed and lampshaded; at one point, Greg dryly notes that despite the fact that Alex is the creator and runner of the show and is responsible for writing and organising all the tasks, he has somehow managed to arrange things so that ''Greg'' is the one who gets blamed for them and subsequently has to put up with the frustration and ire of the contestants when they do things wrong.
* MobileShrubbery: In "Don't Like Them Go Bang," the task is to deliver a 5-word set of instructions to Alex as discreetly as possible - Rose opts to hide in a fake rock and approaches Alex that way.
* MonaLisaSmile: Alice recreates Art/TheMonaLisa with squirty cream in a task from the episode "[=BMXing!=]." [[spoiler:Alice got second place.]]
* MonkeyMoralityPose: A task in "A Pistachio Eclair" had two teams comprising Josh, Richard, and Jon, versus Doc Brown, Joe and Katherine. The task preface required one of each team member to wear either a blindfold, a pair of headphones, and one couldn't speak. The people wearing headphones and couldn't speak were not allowed to leave a bandstand. Their task was to get a vegetable from the blind contestant to the one who couldn't speak. [[spoiler:Jon and Richard won]]
* MonsterClown: Paul dresses up as one ("Brown Clown") to surprise Alex in the first task of "The Dong and the Gong". He sat in a box and jumped out of it, much like windup clown box.
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Pops up occasionally with the more creative responses to a task. For example, in the Champion of Champions Special, the contestants were required to "make a mess and then clean it up." The male contestants all interpreted it literally, throwing trash around and then physically tidying it up. [[spoiler:Katherine Ryan]], on the other hand, called up multiple family members and lied to them to stir up drama, then called back to say that it was a mistake. Similarly, in Series 8, in a task that required the contestants to be mean to Alex and then apologise, [[spoiler:Lou]] signed Alex up to receive calls from a bunch of telemarketers and fraudsters with his real-life mobile number, while [[spoiler:Sian]] used his phone to text Greg a photoshopped nude photo of Alex. The other contestants picked things that were relatively nicer and easier to fix (like pieing him in the face).
* MundaneMadeAwesome: In the Series 8 episode "I've Been a Bit Ill," the team task jumps between Lou, Iain, and Paul's frantic dysfunction and Joe and Sian calmly preparing as they make polite chitchat about the dentist. Viewers have commented, in a show about comedians having breakdowns as they compete in absurd and arbitrary tasks, how soothing they find the sheer normality of Joe and Sian's conversation.
* 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.
** Greg opens the penultimate episode of Series 9 by announcing that he is joined by a group of veteran competitors who have learned that failure is often followed by success -- "and also David Baddiel". (David was the lowest scorer of the series and had never won an episode up to that point.)
* {{Nepotism}}: In the penultimate episode of Series 7, James Acaster accuses Greg of scoring good old friend Rhod Gilbert much more generously than he does everyone else, when he's usually stricter about scoring [[LoopholeAbuse creative interpretation]] and BitingTheHandHumor.
* 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.]]
* NoOshaCompliance: Defied in "Friendship is Truth." In the task in which the contestants had to make the "biggest splash," Hugh climbed on the power line structure but was prohibited by the production team from climbing too high. In the studio, Hugh points out that while they were quick to prevent him from climbing too high, ''they allowed Mel to climb the structure and use the hose to spray water next to active power lines''.
* NoSenseOfDirection: Done twice so far, though both times had the contestants be blindfolded:
** 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.]]
* NonIndicativeName:
** [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Every. Single. Episode. Title.]] We're not kidding. The title for each episode is a phrase/ amusing word said in that episode.
** "Little" Alex Horne is in fact 6'2, which is a couple of inches taller than the average male height in the UK[[note]]5'10[[/note]]. He just appears little next to the 6'8 Greg Davies. This forms a RunningGag throughout the show, wherein Alex will attempt to correct or assert his correct height only for Greg to bluntly steamroller him.
* NoodleImplements: While introducing the aubergine task in "Join Our Cult", Alex claims that three aubergines regularly feature in Greg's bedtime routine, without elaborating on how.
* NoodleIncident: Greg mentions that he once had a bad personal experience with Brut in "The Old Soft, Curved Padlock". When pressed for further (presumably embarrassing) details by Russell Howard, he bluntly shuts it down by pointing out that he's in charge and that's ''not'' going to be happening.
* NordicNoir: The team task in "Hollowing Out a Baguette" required each team to create a trailer for Taskmaster. Mel and Hugh end up crafting a trailer (''Tugtemester'') in this style, complete with AsLongAsItSoundsForeign dialogue.
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer:
** Greg often uses the word "genuinely" on the show, normally to enforce that he doesn't know the outcomes of the show, or what the contestants have done.
** In the "Edinburgh does Taskmaster" special, an answer Jeff gave for a task that had him listing TV shows was ''Series/{{Baretta}}'', a lesser-known cop drama from the 1980's.
** In "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man", Greg cut up Alex's trousers before the show started, apparently for no reason other [[InUniverseCatharsis it felt good to do]]. Alex was...not pleased.
** While preparing for the task to drop a water balloon from the tallest height without it splattering ("Toshwash"), Daisy mentions shallow diving in the United States, and immediately upon seeing Alex's dismissive reaction, she has to defend its validity. Greg is equally dismissive in the studio.
** When Katherine reveals a dead wasp as her prize entry in "Moments of Silence." Daisy notes that wasps are able to identify landmarks and find their way home if they were to travel on a train for a few stops. Greg initially dismisses it as a fantasy, but then Alex does a search and found studies confirming Daisy's statement.
* NotSoAboveItAll: In the Season 7 outtakes, after the lengthy and genuinely heated argument over Rhod's "finding" a satsuma in a sock and the accusations of judicial corruption and collaboration that followed, James grudgingly admits that even he was nevertheless pretty impressed by Rhod's ingenuity.
* NutritionalNightmare:
** In Series 3 episode "Little Polythene Grief Cave," Sara's flag meal was made in the shape of the Canadian flag, which consisted of strawberries, red licorice, and frosting, and which she described as being only 15,000 calories.
** In Series 4 episode "Tony Three Pies," Mel's "exotic sandwich" was a tower of bread with an assortment of sweets and chocolates as fillings.
* ObviousRulePatch:
** Series 4 episode "Look at Me" has a task where the contestants must paint a portrait of the Taskmaster on a canvas on an easel in the middle of a red mat, and only the paint and paint brush could touch the mat, canvas and easel. Contrast this with the potato-in-the-hole task from Series 2 episode "Fear of Failure," which only specified that the contestants could not touch the "red green." [[spoiler:Hugh]] from Series 4 ends up being disqualified in that round [[spoiler:when he placed rugs on the red mat to reach the easel]] while [[spoiler:Richard]] from Series 2 placed second when using the same method.
** "Dignity Intact" has a task where the contestants must throw a basketball into a hoop without using their hands. The contestants are not allowed to wear gloves or "anything that could reasonably be construed as gloves". Earlier tasks with similar goals had contestants use things that ''could'' be reasonably construed as gloves.
** "Their Water's So Delicious" has a 'get the item as far as possible' task where they're explicitly not allowed to use a car; similar previous tasks included people getting in a taxi or Alex's van.
* OffTheRails: The studio task for "It's Not Your Fault", which required the contestants to stack buckets higher than themselves and place a beanbag on top, descended into this as just about everyone abandoned their own attempt in a bid to sabotage their opponents.
* OhCrap:
** 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"]].
** How ''every'' contestant reacts in series six's "Tarpeters" when they realise that Alex is going to show the [[EpicFail darts task]].
** In the series five "Give Alex a Special Cuddle" task, after reading the task, Sally asks if Alex will do anything she asks ("Yes") and if he has a change of clothes ("What do you want me to wear?"). She says nothing as she cheerily leaves the room, and the camera moves to Alex, who gives a wide-eyed AsideGlance.
** Alex has this reaction in Series 7 when James Acaster calls Greg a "pussy" in the studio and Greg immediately stands up aggressively. Alex can be seen trying to pull Greg back into his chair to try and prevent a public confrontation.
* OminousMusicBoxTune: The sinister-sounding hurdy-gurdy music that links in between the games. slightly discordant and rather unsettling.
* OnceASeason:
** So far, each series has at least one contestant carrying out tasks that nobody else does. See ButtMonkey above for specific details.
** The first three series each featured a task where the contestants buy a gift for Greg for £20. It stopped with series four.
** Each series has at least one task which involves an outsider like the task to cheer up a former traffic warden in series seven ("Lotta Soup"), identify what a pensioner used to do for a living in series three ("A Very Nuanced Character"), and to write a song about a stranger ("Their Water's So Delicious").
* OnceForYesTwiceForNo: One task in the episode "Stuck in a Mammal Groove" takes place in a train car and the competitors have to deduce what Alex, who is seated behind them in the adjacent compartment, is wearing. Alex is not allowed to speak and can only communicate with a toot horn. Most of the competitors ask him to toot once for yes and twice for no. Lou, for some reason, decides to use the inverse as her system (two toots for yes, one for no). Joe only devises a system for yes responses (one toot), but didn't have a system for "no" or "ambiguous" - Alex tooted the horn three times as a response to some questions. [[spoiler:Alex is wearing a parrot costume.]]
* OncePerEpisode:
** Starting from Series 2, Greg ending each episode with "So what have we learned today?", which recounts the episode's events.
** Greg will, more often than not, call Alex: "Lil' Alex Horne" at the start of each episode, or at some point during its runtime.
** Each episode in series two has at least one task involving potatoes.
** Coconuts feature in each episode of series five.
** Phil Wang makes the same joke in Series 7 (except Episode 5 and 8) about haggling for a given item for the prize task. He haggles for a lower price, then the shopkeeper he buys it from stands his ground, he tries again, same price is said, then he reveals he bought it at the listed price. During recorded tasks, he also wore the same tracksuit in each episode, which makes his genitals' shape leave little to the imagination.
* OneHeadTaller:
** Josh Widdicombe (5'7") compared to Greg Davies (6'8").
** The team tasks in series two has Richard Osman (6'6") compared to Jon Richardson (5'7") [[spoiler:and Josh Widdicombe]].
* OneSteveLimit: Zigzagged. There's never been multiple contestants in the same series with the same first or last name. However, overall there have been two Tims (Key and Vine); two Pauls (Chowdhry and Sinha); three Joes (Wilkinson, Lycett, and Thomas) and a Jo (Brand); two Richards (Osman and Herring); and two Katherines (Ryan and Parkinson) and a Katy (Wix) competing in the show. There have also been a Sara (Pascoe) and a Sarah (Kendall). There have also been two similar family names (albeit with different spellings) from two non-related contestants; (Paul) Chowdhry and (Asim) Chaudhry. Alan Davies, appearing in Series 12, shares a surname with the Taskmaster himself, although the two are unrelated.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: "Moments of Silence" has a task where the cast members each have to learn at least two acting roles out of the six characters[[note]]Richard Herring, meanwhile, is asked to learn ''all'' five roles[[/note]] in 10 minutes, with each role having a different background and accent[[note]]Sam the lonely Australian fisherman, Nicky the excitable Scottish police officer with a cold, Boss the ruthless businessperson from South Wales, Dr. Buckley the mysterious and menacing Geordie doctor, and Parker the ex-American football player[[/note]]. The accents vary in range from "consistent" (Mawaan's Aussie and Johnny's Scottish) to "all over the place" to NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent (Katherine Parkinson for both her parts).
* OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope:
** Paul Sinha's piggy bank ventriloquist dummy (Ham the Celebrity Pig himself) has two claims to fame -- taking down both David Cameron[[note]]who's been accused of putting his gentials in the mouth of a dead pig as part of an Oxford initiation ceremony[[/note]] and Ed Miliband[[note]]who was photographed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Miliband_bacon_sandwich_photograph eating a bacon sandwich]] and received mockery from all side for the sheer awkwardness of the image[[/note]]... allegedly.
** For her prize in "Join Our Cult," Rose brings in a cassette tape that has been unspooled and [[WhoShotJFK allegedly contains the identity of the murderer of]] [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy US President John F. Kennedy]]. Jo suggests that Peter Andre may have murdered JFK, to which David suggested that Greg should add a disclaimer. Greg happily refuses, and repeats to the camera "Peter Andre murdered JFK." (For what it's worth, Peter Andre was born about ten years after Kennedy's assassination, so Greg's defiance is fairly understandable.)
* OutOfGenreExperience: Deliberately invoked with the 2021 New Year Treat, which featured five non-comedians (respectively, two actors (one admittedly best known for a sitcom role), a television presenter, a newsreader and a reality TV judge) as contestants.
* OverlyLongGag: Rhod Gilbert brought in the same photograph of Greg "looking fat" for all but four of the prize task rounds of Series 7 (and even three of the exceptions were still calculated to cause maximum embarrassment for him). The audience naturally lapped it up, but while Greg himself was willing to grit his teeth and play along at first (albeit taking every opportunity to grade Rhod down for the prize rounds) the joke had clearly worn thin by the end of the series. This was lampshaded in episode 9 after it had happened again:
-->'''Greg:''' Right, [Rhod] can have one point for a start.\\
'''Rhod:''' ''[protesting]'' Oh come on --\\
'''Greg:''' You've had your money's worth out of that picture, you prick.
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative:
** In "Wiley Giraffe Blower", Alex's lead-in to one of Josh's tasks refers to him as "one of Devon's top 30 comedians".
** In "A Novel About Russian Gulags", Alex refers to the two contestants whose attempt is about to be shown as "two of my top five contestants this year".
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Ed and his podcast guests who have previously competed in Taskmaster frequently note that while it never feels good to find out in the studio recordings that you have done very poorly against your fellow contestants, it is even worse when you come away from a task thinking that you have nailed it only to be upstaged by a better approach in the studio record. One such example is how Ed felt about his attempt at the abnormally long body part (with the three kneed left leg), which was upstaged by Rose's extended legs.
* PainfulBodyWaxing:
** Ed Gamble's submission for the prize task ("smoothest and most desirable thing") in "Don't Like Them Go Bang" is a voucher for the winner to wax Ed's chest on stage after the show during the credits.
** When tasked to do something unusual with £20 in Series 10 episode "I Hate Your Trainers," Johnny Vegas opts to have the letters TM waxed from his chest. For some reason, he also had his armpit hair waxed as well.
* PainfulRhyme: In "Tarpeters", remarking on the team task "Keep Alex dry. Driest Alex wins", Alex says, "I was only a little bit wet, quite upset", and Greg admonishes him for trying to get a "cheeky, slick little rhyme in". Alex follows up with another:
-->'''Alex:''' Up next: they're Russell and Alice. They're cool kids, and this is what they did...s.
* ParentalFavouritism: In "He Was a Different Man," Tim Vine shows his love for Greg by dressing up as his mother appearing on the red carpet and telling "reporters" how much she loves him. Greg's takeaway is that Tim's declaration of love confirmed his belief that he is his mother's favourite child and sticks it to his sister.
* PercussiveTherapy: The first task in "A fat bald white man" was to smash a cake in a beautiful way. Mel at the time had just left as a host on ''Series/TheGreatBritishBakeOff'' (and was replaced by Sandi Toksvig). The first thing she did after reading the task was to turn the cake upside down, press it down even further, then remove the tray and leave, considering the task done. Safe to say, it probably felt quite cathartic.
* PetTheDog:
** In the fourth series, Greg repeatedly put Hugh Dennis last or second last in all the prize tasks. The exception was when the prize category was "Best Chair", and Hugh showed a picture of his son as a child from many years ago, on what he called his "best chair" - sitting on his father's shoulders. Greg seemed legitimately moved and awarded him first place.
** In the finale for Series Six, Greg is especially encouraging toward Asim and doesn't make and grades him leniently while avoiding disparaging remarks. Instead, he kept saying that this episode could be one where Asim finally wins. [[spoiler:Asim did.]]
** Throughout the eighth series, Greg treats Paul Sinha with a degree of respect, more than most other contestants, and has largely not made fun of him. In "Stay Humble", Paul mentions offhand in the prize task that he went from over 14 stone to 11 and a half stone, which prompted the audience to clap at his weight loss. Later in the same segment, Paul (indirectly) insults him by Gregs mother telling Paul's agent that Greg should get weight loss tips from Paul, which prompted Greg be a little annoyed, but nothing more. Paul then makes a YourMom joke at his face (comparing him to a blobfish) a bit later on, and doesn't seem fazed by it. It even extends to the other contestants. In the Live Task for "Stuck in a Mammal Groove", Paul had issues getting into his sleeping bag (He'd fractured his arm prior to coming onto the show, which made arm movements hard for him), which prompted his team mates to help him get into it so he could finish the task.
** Alex points towards the end of series 9 that David requests his help in most of his tasks, and Alex agrees because David needs it. It's shown right after Alex helps David inflate balloons for one task, while refusing to help a competitor do the same.
* PhraseCatcher: Of course, the Taskmaster's Assistant shall now and forevermore be known as...
-->''[High pitched squeak]'' "Li'l Alex Horne!"
* PieInTheFace:
** The cake variant happens in the "best blooper" team task in "The Last Supper," in which the team of three use this as part of their humiliation of Alex. Romesh distracts Alex by arguing with him about how to count hundreds and thousands on a cake when Josh slaps Alex in the bum, pushing his face down into the cake, and when Roisin attempts to apologize, Alex slips and falls into a kiddie pool. Though this ends up backfiring on them when Greg points out that, in addition to the blooper being poorly filmed, the bulk of the "blooper" revolves around humiliating a third party rather than one of the team-members experiencing a misfortune, as the task specified.
** Aisling's offering for the prize task in "A Wind-Dried Puffin" ("best high-octane item") is a [[RakeTake rake]] with a custard pie attached to the end of the handle, with the implication of this trope happening.
** Iain pies Alex for his "best apology for the worst action" task in "Stuck in a Mammal Groove" and apologizes with an impromptu guitar-based song.
* PlumbersCrack:
** During Mel's choreography of a ringtone dance in "Friendship is Truth," this happens to Alex and it is captured by the overhead camera. In the studio replay, Noel comments that he's imagining a miniature Mel and Alex also dancing in Alex's back alley.
** Nish's buttcrack pops out when he is getting Alex to shore in "Dignity Intact." Alex shields him from the camera with his notepad.
--->'''Nish:''' I can feel the wind on my buttcrack.\\
'''Alex:''' I can see the wind on your buttcrack.
** Downplayed with Mark. During the flick book task in "Boing Boing," Sally comments that his underwear always seems to get exposed in every task (because his trousers slide down), but otherwise no visible crack appears.
** Richard Herring's butt pops out while reaching for exercise balls in a task where he was confined to a wheeled lifeboat and had to get the exercise balls into hoops in "A Documentary About Despots." In the studio, Greg compares the image of Richard's bum ("Old Fella") unfavorably to the iconic image of Michael Jordan's Jumpman pose.
* ThePointsMeanNothing: Played with, but usually averted. Unlike most British panel shows, the contestants on ''Taskmaster'' actually do compete for prizes -- the items brought in for the prize round at the beginning are taken home by the contestant who earns the most points in the episode[[note]]or at least, they ''can'' be -- according to Alex Horne, it is contractually stated that the winner of the episode is entitled to claim anything that is brought in as part of the prize round, but in practical terms the winner ultimately has the choice whether they claim it or not, meaning that they can decide to return it to the original owner or simply not bother taking it home with them[[/note]], and the series winner receives the coveted Taskmaster Trophy (a golden likeness of Greg Davies). However, this trope is often still present in spirit; the prize rounds often ask the contestants to bring in unusual or trivial items, and contestants frequently interpret this as humourously or strangely as possible -- so while the points mean something, the prizes those points win often ''don't''. For example, one episode sees the contestants competing over who wins a collection of vegetables signed by various celebrities, while another sees them battle for the right to take home various shoeboxes filled with heavy items like concrete, paving stones, [[DoubleMeaning a biography of Hitler and Stalin]] [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and watermelon]]. As summed up by Greg in the latter episode ("The Dong and the Gong"):
-->'''Greg:''' [[spoiler:Rob Beckett]] is the winner of five luxury shoeboxes, a prize that he told me in the break he thought was rubbish!
* {{Portmanteau}}: Nish comes up with the team name "Wumar" (Mark '''W'''atson and Nish K'''umar''') in "Residue Around The Hoof".
* POVCam: A task in "Spoony Neeson" required contestants to attach a portable cameras to them, and had 10 minutes to think of something to do with the camera, and 10 minutes to actually do said thing. The most interesting footage won. Mark showed footage of an interesting bike ride (in actuality, he watched a [=YouTube=] video of someone on a dirt bike from their [=POV=]). Aisling made a Liam Neeson-esque HostageSituation action thriller parody...with spoons and a missing child (which also birthed the episode title). Bob made a very odd video [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext involving him making zombie noises, digging a face buried in cheesy puffs out, covering said face back up, lifting the box to reveal no face, and then leaving]]. Nish's is footage of him [[BlatantLies "completing"]] a Sudoku page, of all things, which prompted Greg to privately talk to him about his seriousness of winning the competition. Sally made a very graphic birthing video, with Alex being the baby, organs and all, which prompted a standing ovation after the video had finished, while Greg was absolutely horrified at what he just saw. [[spoiler:Sally came first with 5 points, Aisling, Mark and Bob came joint second with 4 points each, and Nish was last with 1 point]].
* ThePratfall: In series 11, Lee makes a blindfolded Mike tumble head-over-heels in a golf bunker by giving him poorly worded instructions.
* PrecisionFStrike:
** Doc Brown does this for his version of the nursery rhyme One, Two, Three, Four, Five in "Pork is a Sausage."
** Mel is noted as hardly ever swearing, with the worst thing she says in her ordeal of hiding a beach ball being "heck." However, during the live task of the finale "Tony Three Pies," after the task ("draw the median duck - the most median duck wins") is read out, she drops an F bomb:
--->'''Mel:''' But I don't know what fucking size everybody else is going to draw!
** Greg and Alex are in shock when they finally hear Tim Vine swear during the task to blow and pop the biggest bubble with his nose in "The Bubble Brothers." Tim's swearing? "Son of a bitch!" Prior to that, the worst thing he had said was "[[GoshDarnItToHeck fiddlesticks]]!"
** A silent version occurs in the second New Year's Treat episode after Alex, with a surprising reveal of his bitchy side, quips that Lady Leshurr's basketball portrait of Claudia Winkleman is at least accurate in one respect in that "it ''is'' orange." Claudia doesn't say it out loud, but she is visibly mouthing the words "Fuck you!" to Alex while giving him the middle finger.
* {{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.]]
* PrisonersDilemma:
** Two examples occur in "Boing Boing":
*** 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.]]
*** The very next task is also similar: the contestants must vote for who they want to win the task. They can vote for themselves, but if they do so and fail to win the most votes, they will lose points.
** 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.]]
** "Moments of Silence" has a task that takes place in the lab with two coconuts and several implements on the table. The task is to drink a tablespoon of coconut water the quickest, with the caveat being that if two or more contestants choose the same "extraction" method, they would be disqualified. [[spoiler:Daisy and Mawaan both used a hammer to smash a coconut open and collected some coconut water on a spoon and are both disqualified. Johnny and Richard both used screwdriver and hammer to open the coconut, but are able to successfully argue themselves out of disqualification in that their extractions were different (Johnny drunk straight from a coconut with a straw and Richard collected the coconut water in a spoon). Katherine, meanwhile, went to the refrigerator and grabbed a coconut water drink and took the longest to complete the task. Despite that, Katherine got the 5 points for her unique extraction method while Richard and Johnny received 4 and 3 points, respectively.]]
* ProductPlacement: The show [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFcnFA6zAzA had a Google ad-spot]] during its 100th episode starring recurring guest and former contestant Al Murray, as well as Series 12 contestant Desiree Burch. It had the two contestants trying to talk to a teacher to make a paper boat using Google Translate on a phone.
* PunBasedTitle: The stop-motion films that each team created in "There's Strength in Arches" (starring a potato) were called ''[[Film/TwentyEightDaysLater 28 Days Tater]]'' and ''[[Film/{{Spectre}} Spectater]]''. Other potato-based names were thrown around such as ''[[Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968 Night of the Living Spud]]'', ''Mash in the Attic''[[note]]A pun on ''Cash in the Attic'', a long-running daytime TV show where members of the public who need cash invite antique experts to their homes to see if they have any antiques that can be auctioned off[[/note]], and ''[[Film/TheHatefulEight Hateful Potato]]''.
* PunctuationChangesTheMeaning: In the final stage task in Series 2, the instructions went: "Put on a pair of food-handling gloves, eat a whole banana, correctly put on a tie, and clap as many times as possible." After Katherine Ryan, the only female contestant that series, objected to "correctly put on a tie", the comma was moved after "correctly" to make: "Put on a pair of food-handling gloves, eat a whole banana correctly, put on a tie, and clap as many times as possible" so she wouldn't be at a disadvantage.
* PungeonMaster: Tim Vine, so ''very'' much, to the point where a solo task in "The Bubble Brothers" had Tim Vine tasked with making an outfit using only materials he'd purchased from a stationery store. Both Greg and Alex ''knew'' Tim would make a pun at the end of the task. The other contestants would win a bonus point if they could guess the PunnyName Tim gave his outfit. His outfit was made up of pictures of trains, as well as paper and other stationery equipment. Sadly, no one got it right; Tim made [[spoiler:a tracksuit.]]
* PunnyName:
** Frank's meal in "The Last Supper" has pun-based names, from the meal as a whole to its individual courses. Examples include "[[Literature/WatershipDown Watercress Down]]" and "Beef au Van"[[note]]zucchini slices were used as garnish on a steak to make it resemble a van[[/note]]
** Richard and Jon form a team in series 2, on the basis that Jon is Richard's son.
** [[PungeonMaster Tim Vine]] in series six sometimes does this. In "[=BMXing!=]", his squirty cream art was a picture of the words ER written on the ground, and he titled it 'Her Majesty the Cream'. In "H", he named his snooker trick shot 'the lesser-potted giraffe', as the shot in question involves the ball hitting a squeaky toy giraffe. The other contestants were even able to win a bonus point if they correctly guessed what pun he'd come up with at the end of one task.
** The spy task in "Don't Like Them Go Bang" features a surveillance post inside a van with "S. P. O'Nage Plumbing" on the side.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:R - S]]
* RaceAgainstTheClock:
** Most of the challenges are done with a fixed time limit to complete in, e.g. in "There's Strength In Arches", one of the tasks involves constructing the highest bridge to support a potato within 20 minutes.
** Starting with Series 6, some timed tasks have additional stipulations that make the task ''more'' difficult where the contestants aren't allowed to see any clock and must work out the running time based on intuition. Examples include getting to the Taskmaster House and kissing the Taskmaster portrait ''as close'' to 30 minutes as possible[[note]]both Asim and Tim misunderstood that part of the task as racing to the Taskmaster house and kissing the portrait as quickly as possible, and placed last and second-last respectively[[/note]] ("The Old, Soft-Curved Padlock") and inflating as many balloons as you can and popping them all in under 10 minutes, with any balloons remaining unpopped past the 10-minute mark disqualifying a contestant[[note]]Jo and Katy were both disqualified in this round because Jo had one leftover unpopped balloon that she missed and Katy hadn't started popping any balloons until just after the 10-minute mark[[/note]] ("Don't Like Them Go Bang").
* RageBreakingPoint:
** In Series 7's "The Pendulum Draws The Eye", Rhod Gilbert completed the "find the sock with the satsuma" task by finding a satsuma in the kitchen and stuffing it into a sock at random. When it looked like he was going to win the task due to LoopholeAbuse, James Acaster -- who was already seething a little bit due to a previous task wherein his attempt at demonstrating improvement with the hula-hoop was strictly judged and marked down due his choking his first attempt -- snapped and launched into a rather angry tirade heavily suggesting that Greg was going easy on Rhod due to the long-standing friendship the two had outside of the show. A rather lengthy argument ensued, and while Greg ultimately decreed that there would be no official winner of the task as a result, there was a notably hostile, bitter and on-edge feel in the studio for several minutes afterwards.
** After spending the entire series being rather mild and polite about things, with little to show for it, in the final episode of Series 8 Joe Thomas reaches this when his lengthy and exhaustive effort to dispose of an eraser turns out to be for naught after other contestants exploit ExactWords and just lazily flush the eraser down the toilet. He's rather forceful when arguing that this technically doesn't count as "erasing" the eraser (since it's still intact and could, if someone was particularly determined, be retrieved and used as an eraser), but it's when Iain Stirling -- who, let us note, [[{{Hypocrite}} hasn't exactly been shy about chucking a bit of a wobbly when tasks haven't gone his way throughout the series]] -- demands to know "where the fuck this is coming from" that he just snaps:
--->'''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.
** In "Don't Like Them Go Bang," the competitors are split into teams for the live task, with David and Ed facing Jo, Katy and Rose. The task is for the person at the back of each queue to pass along a drawing by tracing the drawing on the back of the person in front of them, with the person out front putting the drawing to paper. In the first round, Ed is passing a drawing to David, who ''holds'' Ed's finger in one place! [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHu_QhQx9CU And it builds up from there]].
** Ed Gamble, normally very cheerful, became furious over the final taped task of Series 9 and went on an epic rant when it seemed as if he'd be penalized for following the rules on a task that was actually several mini-tasks designed to be frustrating if opened in the wrong order with a condition that the whole thing would be reset if a single mistake was made. He essentially did the whole thing twice due to making a mistake towards the end, but David, Jo, and Katy didn't bother restarting and Greg began wondering if he should show leniency in his judging. When Ed's anger reached a crescendo, Greg gave the camera sly AsideGlance to show he'd goaded Ed into getting angry.
** Daisy May Cooper has two in the episode "Hippopotamus," one during a pre-recorded task and one during the live task.
*** The quiet cocktail-making task was particularly trying. She had to yell at the drinks trolley and pace around the lab to calm down after being forced to repeatedly start over for being too loud.
*** In an echo of Ed Gamble's outrage towards David Baddiel, Daisy has an incredibly difficult time with getting her team partner, Richard, to guess her animal drawing correctly and really lays it into him for not recognizing the titular hippo.
* RageQuit:
** Joe Wilkinson gives up the final task of Series 2's first episode in a state of high dudgeon after his attempt to fit a large pinata into a small suitcase results in a lot of the sweets inside spilling over the stage. When Alex points out that the task technically requires the sweets to go in the case as well, Joe's response is to angrily ''kick the pinata off the stage''.
** After Rob wins the live task of the Series 3 finale, Paul Chowdhry knocks over his donut stand and splatters donut across the stage.
** Nish in "Their Water's So Delicious" after he tries to throw a coconut over a hedge, only for it to come back to him. Alex only realises that he did a Rage Quit ''after'' watching it back, as Nish could have just picked up the coconut and thrown it again.
** Iain Stirling in "Stay Humble" - touches the sand he's not allowed to touch, moves the bucket he's not allowed to move, re-reads the task and sees the only other instruction is 'you may not leave the room'. He instantly leaves the room, swearing and cursing at himself.
** In the episode "Bready, Bready, Bready," one task was to get a watermelon up a slide and into the caravan, the catch being that the slide cannot be adjusted in any manner, you can only use breadsticks to move the watermelon, and only breadsticks can touch the watermelon. David's watermelon fell off the slide onto the ground and he spends the majority of his time struggling to use breadsticks and other implements to get the watermelon back onto the slide. At the end, he uses a croquet mallet to smash his watermelon to pieces.
** 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.]]
* RakeTake: The prize task in "A Wind-Dried Puffin" was to bring in the "best high-octane item." Aisling's offering is a rake with [[PieInTheFace a pie]] attached at the end of the handle.
* ARareSentence:
** "Mel's done very well, if she can juice a lime with a shoe."
** "If only I had sharper scissors, I could've put more of the camel through the gap."
** "Great pea throwing!"
** "How much does water weigh?"
** "You've got 19 sniffs left."
* RealFakeDoor: Starting with Series Six, a door was added to the side of the Taskmaster House by the shed. It wasn't clear whether it was a real door or not until "Butter in the Microwave" when David and Jo attempted to use it as a shortcut to the kitchen, revealing that there is only a greenscreen behind the door. The greenscreen portal has since only been used in the ad breaks for "Bready, Bready, Bready."
* RealityShowGenreBlindness:
** Applies any time a contestant tries to outright cheat at a task, after several series made it abundantly clear that any attempt to do so will be caught on camera and result in their immediate disqualification.
** One would think, with the amount of physical activity involved in some of the tasks, contestants would realize it's a good idea to dress practically for shooting. Yet Noel Fielding wore a pair of [[CombatStilettos high heeled boots]] during his series, which even he pointed out (in "Spatchcock It") made a task even harder for him.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
** A task in Series 4 involving shepherding dogs onto a red mat originally involved chickens. However, after Lolly Adefope had filmed the task but before anyone else could, there was an outbreak of avian flu which required the switch. Lolly was judged separately from the other contestants and was awarded bonus points given her version of the task was much harder.
** Season 10 was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic; while most of the location tasks were filmed before the pandemic, the studio sections (and some of the team tasks) were filmed afterwards, so everyone involved is socially distanced. Season 11 was also similarly impacted. So far, only one task has been so overtly modified; "I Hate Your Trainers"'s watermelon feeding task, a team task which was quite a lot harder for the team of three that consisted of Katherine Parkinson, Mawaan Rizwan and Johnny Vegas as they had to use sticks with pre-prepared cut watermelon, whereas the other two (Daisy May Cooper and Richard Herring) were not restricted by the social distancing rules. The team of three were awarded a bonus point due to the circumstances being out of their control. The socially distanced conditions were in force through Series 11 (all the studio, team tasks, and airfield hangar tasks) and 12 (the entirety of Series 12 was filmed with social distancing protocols).
* Really700YearsOld: Played for laughs with Frank in series one, as he was the oldest on the panel, as he makes self deprecating jokes claiming he's from the 1930's.
* RecurringElement: At the Taskmaster House, various props and set pieces are rotated in and out each series, while others become permanent fixtures (most notably the caravan starting with series four):
** "Patatas," the toy cat that has to be rescued in "Welcome to Rico Face," reappears in later series when contestants used it for creative tasks like the flick book film of "Boing Boing" or the best extension to the Taskmaster House in "The Perfect Stuff."
** Two props from earlier series are reused in "Toshwash." The baby head with a plant that memorably had aubergine stuffed in it and was called a "quaby" in series nine and a birdcage with knitted dolls of the series seven cast were respectively chosen by Daisy and Johnny [[spoiler:in their successful attempt to convince Richard the security guard to look in their shopping trolleys]].
* RedHerring:
** The entire Taskmaster squash task in "Down An Octave" was one big red herring. The teams were sent to a squash court, and had to score 11 points as fast as possible. They were given things to aid them such as cakes, a bucket, and squash rackets and balls, but in the end, all they had to do to score points was to [[spoiler:touch their head.]]
** Played with in "Residue Around the Hoof". The five contestants each go outside to be met with an array of objects. The task initially appears to be completely unrelated to any of them, and involves blowing up a balloon whilst blindfolded. However, when they remove the blindfold, they discover that ''that'' task was just a setup for the next task; the objects were moved around and changed whilst they were blindfolded and they now have to spot the ten differences.
* RightHandCat: In "There's Strength in Arches," the potato masher Bond villain from Doc, Joe, and Katherine's stop motion film also had a cat (Patatas) that gleefully supports the masher.
* RubeGoldbergDevice: A task in "Little Polythene Grief Cave" was delivered in this way. The Contestant pushed a ball, which pushed another ball down a piece of gutter pipe, which pushes over some loo roll, which kicks a football, which knocks over some books, which activates a scissor mechanism that let's loose two balloons, which drops a payload onto some domino's, which then, with the final domino plunging off the edge of the table, swipes away a cloth that was hiding the task on the table next to them all. Al in particular was impressed. The task in question was to make a domino rally.
* RuleOfFunny: The show lives and dies by this rule. Greg's willingness to allow an outside the box interpretation of a task almost always comes down to how entertaining that person's attempt was. Similarly, Greg will sometimes give questionable or unfair judging for the sake of a joke.
* RunningGag:
** The tasks always end in "Your time starts now." Lampshaded in "Hello", where a disclaimer pops up on-screen to not inhale perm lotion, with the phrase attached to the end of it.
** Alex will occasionally announce the seconds of a task completion time before the minutes, stemming from a small bit about it in Series 2.
** Greg's introductions of the five contestants in Series 1 tend to include making a recurring joke about each one based on a particular theme:
*** Frank Skinner's tended to be about his age, seeing as he was the oldest contestant;
*** Josh Widdicombe's would be about his youthful features;
*** Roisin Conaty's would tend to be an embarrassing anecdote about her that Greg revealed based on their long-term friendship;
*** Romesh Ranganathan's would be a poke at his GrumpyBear persona;
*** Tim Key's would be a bit more random, but would often be about his general lack of popular success compared to the others.
** "Pork Is A Sausage" has Doc Brown saying several times that he is "[[ItMakesSenseInContext not a [food] man]]".
** In Series 3, tax evasion is brought up, as it was quite topical at the time, with both Google and boy band "Take That" being name dropped. On more than one occasion this has lead Greg to penalize a contestant when they bring up those two tax evaders.
** Any time Joe Lycett needs to leave the house via the front door, he tends to run back to kiss the main portrait of Greg first, perhaps what is being referenced in a task in "The Old, Soft, Curved Padlock".
** Joe Lycett also seems to have a habit of [[StickyFingers stealing props]] at the end of a task. Over the course of series four he steals a bowl of lemons, some rice, a large bar of cooking chocolate, a mannequin, and a silver serving dish.
** Every pre-recorded task in Series 4 has Mel take the seal off of the task and put it into her right breast pocket, apparently to melt down later.
** Hugh [[spoiler:almost always]] losing the prize task, to the point where by "Meat" it's lampshaded by both Greg and Hugh.
** [[ItMakesSenseInContext Mark looks like a heron]].
** Almost any time Alex meets Aisling to give her the task in Series 5, the way it's framed somehow manages to make him look like an AccidentalPervert.
** In Series 6, Alice greets Alex in the pre-recorded tasks with a different pet name ("Hello, my little ferret").
** Asim Chaudhry and squirty cream appearing in his recorded tasks, which is lampshaded by Russell in "Roadkill Doused In Syrup".
** Phil's inability to haggle down the price of the objects he nominates for the prize task.
** James refusing to greet Alex at the beginning of each task. When questioned why by Alex, he says "It's not part of the task".
** Discussed in "Mother Honks Her Horn" -- After a VT shows [[ItMakesSenseInContext Rhod attempting to strip search Alex for the little blue book]], Greg remarks that there are two running gags at play throughout all the tasks: Rhod taking every opportunity to take Alex's trousers off, and Alex is always wearing pink underpants or longjohns. Alex then reveals that he is also wearing pink underpants in the studio!
** In "Stuck in a Mammal Groove", Iain makes two references to him potentially being a part of the roster for a future "Champions of Champions" special, the first was by getting miniaturised toy figurine versions of [[spoiler:Bob Mortimer, Josh Widdicombe, Katherine Ryan, Noel Fielding and Rob Beckett]] placed onto a massive self-made volcano, and him proclaiming that he hopes to join them, and the second is apologising to Alex via song for stuffing a pie in his face, and wishes to be a part of "Champions of Champions".
** In "This Is Trevor", all the tasks were related to "pink" in some way, with most tasks involving pink lady apples, and another was to use your pinky finger to do something powerful.
** In Series 9, babies are a recurring motif in Ed Gamble's recorded tasks.
** 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.
** Charlotte Ritchie's ongoing audition to become a children's TV presenter in Series 11.
** Alex announcing the weight of an object and following it with "or the same weight as [an animal]". In one challenge in Series 10, the first result was described as being the same weight as a hamster, followed by the next two being the same weight as a hamster missing one leg and the same weight as a hamster who's swallowed a C-type battery.
** One cast member will speak of a person they've met outside the show, only for another cast member to gesture to the audience and grandly announce, "And they're here tonight!"
*** In particular, Rhod jokingly did this in reference to Greg's mother, only for Greg to matter-of-factly confirm that she actually was. Rhod was mortified.[[note]]He had submitted a somewhat racy photograph of her in a bubble bath, wearing nothing but a fez, in order to annoy Greg.[[/note]]
* SadistTeacher: Played with; while the show isn't directly about a school, Greg Davies is a former teacher and clearly often finds himself lapsing back into old methods when dealing with the contestants. Accordingly, his persona in the show generally comes across as a mixture of a sadistic headmaster and a BadBoss tormenting his "students" (the contestants) and especially his employees (i.e. Alex) for his own amusement.
* SarcasticClapping: On the rare occasion when Greg is announcing the points for a contestant who did spectacularly poorly, he'll ask the audience to give that contestant one clap only:
** In the "collect as much sweat as possible" task in "Little Polythene Grief Cave," [[spoiler:Rob Beckett]] got no drops of sweat [[ButtMonkey and 12 different accents]], but managed to place fourth because [[spoiler:Al]] had been disqualified for attempting to substitute sweat with pee. Greg asks the audience to give him one clap.
** In the "camouflage yourself" task in "Hollowing Out a Baguette," [[spoiler:Mel]] "camouflaged" herself by hiding behind a flower vase inside the house. Greg allows the audience to give her one clap when she was announced as having placed last.
* SayMyName:
** 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."]]
** In "Join Our Cult," Rose Matafeo does this [[ItMakesSenseInContext while dressed as a bush]] for her dramatic entrance, yelling "[[Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire STELLAAAA]]!!!"
* SchmuckBait: Any time Alex asks a contestant if they want to see a triumphant achievement again, the correct answer is "No". It's almost always because he's about to reveal additional footage that will result in a disqualification, although once, in "Peas in a Haystack", it was [[spoiler:just to torture everyone with time lapse footage of Sara Pascoe's adorable icecream snowman -- which had drawn a spontaneous "Aw" from the studio audience -- succumbing to the heat after the task was over]].
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney:
** Played with following footage that showed Tim Key lying about filming for Comic Relief. Greg wants to put him into last place unless Tim donates some money to Comic Relief. Tim then asks how much he has to donate in order to secure first place instead, but he rejects the offer of £12,500, and settles for third place.
** Played straight with Al in "The F.I.P.". When Alex tells him he won't move a bucket full of water, Al then proceeds to lure him to move the bucket by waving cash in front of him, and ends up paying Alex £80.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Jon Richardson was so mortified by his attempt at impressing a mayor that, when the video clip was being shown in the studio, he was genuinely moved to leave the room until the clip had ended. Both Sally Phillips and Alice Levine both played this for laughs when they were faced with similarly embarrassing playbacks, but they ended up staying.
* SdrawkcabSpeech: The team task in "Legit Glass" uses this. One member of the team gets to see an object inside a safe and then they have to leave a tape recording identifying that object. The recording is played backwards for the rest of the team, and they have to decipher the message and identify the object correctly. The object is [[spoiler:a reversible sequin pillow of Greg with an alpaca]].
* SecretHandshake: A task in "No Stars for naughty boys" had this for contestants to come up with a handshake between Alex and themselves. Most of them were overly-elaborate hand gestures and moving about. Joe and Alex just rubbed each others palm with a finger for 3 minutes straight while maintaining eye contact. [[spoiler:Joe comes first]].
* SensualSpandex: Phil's pre-recorded outfit in series 7 is a ''very'' tight-fitting suit that Main/{{Homage}}s Bruce Lee's yellow and black tracksuit in Film/GameOfDeath. The revealing nature of the outfit is constantly lampshaded.
* SeparatedAtBirthCasting:
** [[invoked]] In Series 3, Greg observes that Rob and Sara share a passing resemblance and Sara notes that internet trolls often try to upset her by saying she's Rob in a wig. As a result, Rob and Sara are alternately referred to as siblings or as brother and sister when introducing team challenges.
** [[invoked]] In Series 3 episode "A Very Nuanced Character," one task asks the competitors to correctly identify what a retiree named Hugh used to do for a living (he was a former [[spoiler:anaesthetist]]) whilst only whispering and only using yes and no questions (to which Hugh can only lie by shaking his head or nodding). After reading the task aloud, Dave asks whether the other competitors would be speaking to someone "who looked like their future selves" (he and Hugh were wearing similar outfits). It is then proposed that Hugh is actually Alex's father after their resemblance is remarked upon.
* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: In "I've Sinned Again," [[spoiler:Katherine, who is Canadian]], spends precious seconds searching for a drawer in the living room, at one point looking inside the Taskmaster pineapple. When questioned about the line of thinking, [[spoiler:Katherine]] claims that because of this trope, it was possible that drawers meant pineapple to the British.
* SerenadeYourLover: ...or rather, Serenade Yourself. A task in "Bready Bready Bready" was to do exactly that. Lampshaded by David Baddiel who points out that a self-serenade sounds too much like bragging about having ADateWithRosiePalms.
* SerialEscalation: The start of "Stay Humble" has Alex play a game of "what's in his pocket?" Greg guesses (correctly, to his surprise) ''another smaller pocket''. They play again, and the smaller pocket is followed by ''another'' smaller pocket. The two play again, and Alex reveals the pocket concealed a Locket, which, when the game was modified to "What's in my locket?", it has a tiny felt pocket inside.
* 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".
* ServileSnarker: While Alex Horne is set up as "the assistant" and tends to get ButtMonkey status from most of the competitors, his soft-spoken way of winding people up with helpfully unhelpful comments can be just as cutting and snarky as anyone else's.
* SexyBacklessOutfit: A backless ''suit,'' worn by Alex for the series 11 finale. While Greg found it "disgusting," several contestants were more appreciative.
* ShaggyDogStory: A lot of tasks end up this way when the contestants are disqualified for breaking one of the rules, especially if they only discover this in the studio, several months after filming the tasks. Additionally, everyone will have been filmed completing a tiebreak task in case it is needed, but not all of the shoots will be shown unless the person has tied for first place in that episode. How well they did in the tiebreak task would essentially be moot (example: Mark Watson's impressive yoghurt kick below):
** 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.]]
** One task in "Tony Three Pies" scored the contestants based on their ability to construct an "exotic sandwich", with bonus points for how much of the sandwich they were able to subsequently eat. As it happened, the bonus points were given at exactly the inverse rate of the base points, so everybody came away with exactly 6 points, rendering the entire task moot. Except for Noel, who got an additional point for eating a bit of Alex's beard, and Mel, who got a pity point for getting an M&M stuck up her nose.
** When tasked to stack cans while introducing herself as from a different country every ten seconds, Aisling Bea failed to do the first introduction within ten seconds, but nobody filming on the day caught this, so she kept working at the task for several minutes. When this was revealed in the studio, she throttled Alex and kicked over her chair. She managed to fit in 61 introductions and stack a 10-can high tower that day (taller than what the other contestants had), but only had a one-can high tower when her task ended.
** Mark Watson was given a special task to send Greg a "cheeky text" every day for five months, which he admitted was one of his most stressful demands for that time. However, he got no points because he only sent 148 of the required 150 texts.
--->'''Mark:''' I'm devastated it was just me, and I'm ''absolutely shattered'' to get no points out of something that, if I look back over this calendar year, is genuinely one of the major things I've done with it.
** Mark Watson's impressive yoghurt kick, as seen in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBGWHWSgfu8&list=LLHr-M7F43vbXA2q1QUQt7DA&index=2300 this outtake]] for "Spoony Neeson," was recorded for a tiebreaker task. Bob and Sally were the ones who tied for first in that episode, so only their attempts were shown in the episode that was broadcast. Most spectacularly, Mark was the only person who was able to get any yoghurt onto the target at all.
** Not quite disqualified, but James Acaster's attempt at the "improve your hula-hooping" task in Series 7 ended up being something like this from his perspective. After being assigned the task on location, both he and Phil Wang were given until the studio shoot -- some eight weeks -- to improve their ability to hula-hoop, with points being awarded for demonstrating the most improvement. Unfortunately, when the studio task arrived, James choked on the first effort, which was slightly worse than his original one, despite having spent the time seriously practicing and subsequently demonstrating quite impressive skill. Despite this, Greg ruled that although he demonstrated more improvement than Phil, his first attempt had to be the one that was judged, so while he did get some points and technically 'won' the task it all ended up being for naught. James was visibly seething as the judgement was passed, and it contributed to a genuinely hostile and bitter RageBreakingPoint later in the episode when it looked like Greg was going to go generously on [[ItMakesSenseInContext Rhod Gilbert's attempt at finding a satsuma in a sock]].
* ShakyPOVCam: In Series 1, the final team task in "The Last Supper" was to film the best blooper reel. Roisin handled the camera for her team, and unfortunately due to this trope, most of the actual bloopers were hardly captured on the reel. She attempts to justify her filming by stating that she went "too method" and that she was "[[Film/TheBlairWitchProject Blair Witching]]" it.
* 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 "This Is Trevor", the prize task category is "most slippery thing". Both Sian and Paul offer up a pair of slippers on the ground that nothing could be more slipper-y than actual slippers.
* SharpDressedMan: Alex is always in a suit, although the only times he's been seen wearing a tie as well is whenever he was filming with Mel.
* ShipperOnDeck: Asim seems to ship Greg and Alex, based on the outtakes for "The Old Soft, Curved Padlock". Russell also has signs of this in "One Warm Prawn".
* ShirtlessScene:
** Greg rips Alex's shirt off at the very end of "Their Water's So Delicious".
** In [="BMXing"=], the second task of the show was to be as manly as possible with a box. Tim Vine took this to mean standing shirtless in the middle of the street while standing and posing inside of the box. Russell did one better and drew "Manly Words" onto his stomach and arms and did some [=DIY=] outside, with Alex asking questions about what to do about specific things (for example asking girls out via Tinder, which apparently requires you to roast a pig). Greg was suitably flustered. [[spoiler:Tim and Russell got 4 points.]]
** Rhod is particularly fond of doing this. The first recorded task of the first episode of Series 7 involves him directing Alex to remove his bikini top.
** In the task where the contestants must create the best water feature from "Quisps," both Ed and David use Alex in their water features and ask Alex to take off his shirt. In his attempt, David takes off his shirt "[[HomoeroticSubtext in solidarity]]" with Alex, to the amusement of everyone in the studio. Ed creates a merman with a water jet shooting out of one boob, while David creates a "Greek god" statue standing triumphantly in a bathtub. [[spoiler:Ed won the task, and David placed second.]]
** For the team task in "Quisps" ("recreate a classic board game"), David and Jo choose to recreate {{TabletopGame/Operation}}. David, stripped down to his underwear, takes on the role of Cavity Sam (with a light up buzzer on his nose that he hits if he feels the clamps on his skin), while Jo and Alex are the players. Most of the items they have to remove are biscuits, but they do also need to remove an actual kidney.
* ShmuckBait: One task involved moving a large number of coconuts, with the provision that if any two contestants used the same item to move the coconuts they would both be disqualified. One of the items provided was prominently labeled "coconut harness", and contained foam padding with a number of coconut-sized depressions. Nobody used it.
* ShoutOut: So much so it has its [[ShoutOut/{{Taskmaster}} own page]].
* ShowStopper:
** In "Welcome to Rico Face", after listing out what things Jon was [[ItMakesSenseInContext throwing at a cat to get it down from a tree]], one of the items was a [=Lacrosse=] stick. After Alex mentioned that Jon had called him a dick as he was cross, Greg immediately follows up with [="LaCross... He was LaCrosse!"=], which prompted Alex to stand up and clap, followed by everyone else.
** In "Phoenix," Sally Phillips completed one task so quickly and conclusively, Greg leapt up to hug her and brought her out to the front of the stage and take a bow as the audience gave her a standing ovation.
** Sally Phillips, again, in "Spoony Neeson" when her POVCam movie (the graphic birthing of a fully-grown Alex) is screened.
** In "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man", one task was to get rid of an eraser by erasing it, with the quickest to do so winning. The task never specified how to erase it, and so the rules were open to interpretation. In Joe's attempt, he broke his eraser up into tiny pieces and threw the dust in the garden, with Paul, Iain and Lou flushing the eraser down the toilet (Lou did this after trying ''to eat it'', but still). Joe was quite furious in the studio that Paul, Lou and Iain were employing ExactWords, and went on a rant about how his efforts in his attempt essentially go to waste when Iain and Paul go with the least creative method possible, with him also arguing it was quite possible to retrieve the eraser back from the sewers. This rant prompted Greg and Alex to stand up and clap, followed by everyone else. [[spoiler:He ''technically'' comes last in the task, but Greg gives him three bonus points for his efforts.]]
* SillyWalk: A task in "Pea in a Haystack" was to get to a microwave in as few steps as possible. Cue contestants either taking very long steps or trying to avoid traveling on their feet.
* SilverFox: In "He Was a Different Man," Greg is flattered by Asim's description of him as one ("the tall motherfucker with the ivory hair") for the latter's declaration of love.
* 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.]]
* SimpleYetAwesome: Greg repeatedly praises Kerry Godliman throughout Series 7 for her straightforward, but effective approach to tasks.
* SirSwearsALot: Daisy in series 10. This is most notable in the live task for "I Hate Your Trainers", when the contestants had to say as many unique words of a certain length without leaving a gap any longer than 2 seconds in-between each word. When they had to list four letter words, Daisy just swore, and even had one word censored.
-->'''Alex:''' ''[after Daisy had finished]'' There are no more swear words, as far as I can tell.
* SixthRanger: Frederick the Swede can be considered one, as he has so far appeared in [[OnceASeason one task each series]].
* SlaveToPR: Teased, but ultimately defied (at least when it comes to the live audience). Greg will occasionally second-guess his judgements out loud based on the live audience reaction, but ultimately sticks with his opinions. See the entry for YesMan.
-->'''Greg:''' ''[while grading the prize entries]'' Fourth... it's the Chuckle Brothers, I--\\
'''Joe:''' What?!\\
''[audience boos and groans]''\\
'''Greg:''' ''[addressing the audience]'' You shut your fucking mouths. I will put him last!
* SlipperySkid:
** The first pre-recorded task in "Meat" is to slide the furthest. Joe and Lolly construct slip-and-slide runs and slather on (variously) butter, soap, running water, and a sled. [[spoiler:Despite their preparations, they each slid the shortest distances and came bottom]]
** The prize task for "This Is Trevor" had the contestants bring in the most slippery thing. Sian brought in [[PunnyName slippers]], Iain brought in a toy alien egg (which he admits is more slimy than slippery) Lou brought in a slide with a drawing of [[Series/EastEnders "Nasty Nick"]] on it, Paul brought in a banana Peel, Ban-jelly pie, and slippers (which Sian wasn't happy with), Joe brought in... [[BoringButPractical soap.]] [[spoiler:Sian got 2 points, Iain got 3 points, Joe and Paul "Banana King" Sinha get 4 points, with Lou wining the round, and getting 5 points.]]
* SlowAndSteadyWinsTheRace: Greg has noted that it's a consistent trend that contestants who take the time at the start of a task to stop and think on how to approach it, instead of rushing off because of time limits, tend to do better.
** 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]].
* SmallNameBigEgo: Iain comes across as being this in Series 8, repeatedly talking about appearing on a future "Champion of Champions" installment and throwing fits whenever he doesn't get the points he thinks he deserves.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: In a contestant's personal life, at least; on the official podcast, Romesh Ranganathan reveals that, 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 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.
* SmugglingWithDolls: Played for laughs in the series:
** In Series 4 episode "Look At Me," the team task is to get as much dry flour onto a dartboard from their bandstand gazebo. The trio of Joe, Lolly, and Noel at one point cut open a stuffed toy fox and put as much flour as they can before tossing it onto the dartboard.
** In Series 9 episode "Join Our Cult," the first recorded task is to hide three aubergines around the living room for Alex to search. Ed treated this task similar to a prison search for contraband, and hid his last aubergine by stuffing them into the baby head figurines around the room.
* 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 with every series from the fourth onwards, which have each featured two female contestants while the ninth, twelfth, and thirteenth feature three.
** Justified in [[spoiler:the Champion of Champions special since Katherine was the only woman to have won a series at that point.]]
* SoapboxSadie: Played with; on occasion, several of the contestants (particularly the ladies) have raised objections to a task which seems to be worded in a way which is discriminatory or politically incorrect. However, while they've often framed their objections in humourous terms, the hosts are often willing to consider and acknowledge when they've got a valid point.
** For example, in the last stage task of series 2, Katherine Ryan objected to the requirement that the contestants put on a man's tie "correctly", since as a woman she'd never learned to do that, and framed her objections as an example of "top down misogyny". As it was agreed that she had a point, a compromise was reached wherein a comma was moved before 'correctly' instead of after, meaning that it was only necessary to put it on.[[note]]As it turned out, this ended up screwing over Joe Wilkinson instead; this changed the next requirement to "''correctly'' eat a banana", and as he claimed to be allergic to them he just stuffed it in his mouth without peeling it, thus failing to meet the amended requirements. Greg, however, suspected he was making it up and declined to give him any consideration.[[/note]]
--->'''Greg:''' Do you not know how to put a tie on? Is that—\\
'''Katherine:''' ''No!!'' Let's all put on a tampon, and then we'll see! ''[thunderous applause]''
** Aisling Bea was also quick to raise feminist-based critiques of the show and tasks throughout her season. However, this trope most obviously kicked in during the graph task in the final episode, when she attempted to construct a graph outlining the female representation versus male representation on the show to this point. However, as Alex pointed out, the graph was flawed because it inaccurately appeared to chart the first season as having equal representation of men and women when this wasn't the case (there had only been one woman in that season). A mortified Aisling realised that her own poor grasp of mathematics had provided an opening for two men to justifiably "mansplain" to her about representation.
** Although he plays his complaint for some laughs, Lee Mack appears [[DudeNotFunny genuinely irritated]] when a task led to him biting into an egg, when he had told the production team he's a vegan. When he brings it up in the studio, Alex is clearly embarrassed.
* SoundEffectBleep: Averted for the most part as the show runs at 9PM onwards on British Television, where swearing isn't normally censored. "Spatchcock it" is a very notable exception, where both Alex and Greg say [[CountryMatters "Mega Cunt"]] in response to Mel's refusal to swear. In "What kind of pictures?", a task was to put "something surprising" in the middle of a chocolate egg. Alice's "surprise" was apparently the PIN for Alex's bank and burglar alarm[[note]]after the video, Greg happily says 3047, much to Alex's frustration[[/note]] which got bleeped out.
* SpeakingSimlish: Sarah Kendall does this in "An Orderly Species", as the aircraft safety announcement task comes with the rule that the contestants had to speak in either a different accent to their own, or a different language. Since Sarah isn't billingual and is also unable to do accents, she decided to speak gibberish.
* SpoilerOpening: The title sequence for the regular series is made up of fast-paced clips of that series' contestants carrying out the pre-recorded tasks.
* SpotOfTea:
** Greg considers tea such SeriousBusiness, he [[DisproportionateRetribution disqualifies]] [[spoiler:Josh]] for adding milk first.
** The team task for "Think About the Spirit" is to create the best cup of tea while wearing gloves and using only the tea set where the implements are locked to the table.
* StealthExpert: Lolly in "No stars for naughty boys". A task required her to find a hiding place, and hid so well, it took almost ''40 minutes'' for Alex to find her.
* StealthPun:
** It's possible that the "make an edible mask" task from "I've sinned again" came about because switching the first two letters of "task" and "master" produces "mask taster".
** In Series 11's "Slap and Tong", a task was to make an outfit for a replica bee. The contestants all wore bee-keeping outfits, and some did sew items to the bee. This is most likely a shout out to ''Series/TheGreatBritishSewingBee'', only taken to its most literal interpretation.
* SternTeacher: Not literally, but Greg's teaching background has come in surprisingly handy for disciplining contestants on several occasions. In "Spoony Neeson", Greg takes Nish aside for a talking to about pulling his socks up and actually putting some effort into the show after his dismal POV video of him completing a sudoku puzzle (incorrectly, according to Greg), as if Nish is the class clown who has untapped potential he refuses to apply. Even more notoriously, in "Ollie" Greg's fumbling attempts to open a puzzle box brought in by Phil lead to the infamous "Just open it you pussy!" callout from James, which in turn leads to Greg taking him aside and giving him a dressing down like a teacher who's reached the limits of his patience with a troublesome student but is aware that he has to tread carefully in how to discipline him. And in "Moments of Silence", he is so unimpressed by everyone's failure to fill a cup of water suspended over the red green without touching it that he orders everyone to sit in silence for a minute while standing and glowering at them.
* StickyFingers:
** Seems to be a RunningGag with Joe Lycett, who took a bowl of lemons in "A Fat Bald White Man", a small bag of rice in "Look At Me", the mannequin in "No Stars for Naughty Boys", and a silver serving dish in "Tony Three Pies".
** Mel has a habit of pocketing the wax seal from the task envelopes.
** The prize task in Series 9 episode "A Cuddle" is the best thing ''stolen'' from somebody's house. David took one sheet of toilet paper from Buckingham Palace, Ed brought in a collection of souvenirs from the house of Greg himself, Jo brought in a ceramic phrenology tattoo head that she admits she borrowed from a personal friend, Katy brought in [[spoiler:Kerry Godliman's Taskmaster trophy]], and Rose took a pink cowboy hat from the Taskmaster house and improved it with photos of herself wearing the hat. [[spoiler:David won the task with 5 points, Katy received 4 points, Ed received 3 points, Rose received 2 points, and Jo received 1 point.]]
* TheStoic:
** Alex rarely shows any extreme reactions to what the contestants do during tasks and in the studio. One task had contestants try and raise his blood pressure, but most barely got it up beyond a negligible tick.
** Paul Chowdhry from Series 3 maintained a deadpan attitude throughout his appearances. So much so that Greg had to prod him to get a cheerful reaction in the studio.
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: This tends to happen on occasion:
** In "Pork is a Sausage", while brainstorming for the 'make a music video for a nursery rhyme' task, both Jon and Richard recall the same vulgar version of Hey Diddle Diddle, rhyming it with 'the cat did a piddle'. (Though only Jon carries on and recites the whole song.)
** The prize task in "Welcome to Rico Face" was to bring in the coolest blue item. Doc, Katherine and Richard bring in blue-coloured items, but both Joe and Jon interpret the word "blue" as meaning indecent. Joe brings in a pornographic novel called ''Sea Going Sex Pot'' and Jon brings in a novelty fridge magnet from Lanzarote of a pig with an album of its sex adventures.
** In "Pea in a Haystack", Al Murray and Dave Gorman brought in cooking appliances to the prize task for that episode, which was "flamboyant clocks". Al brought in an Oven, while Dave brought in a microwave.
** In "The Dong and the Gong", a task required the contestants to surprise Alex after an hour of him being in a shed. Both Al and Sara had the idea of taking his kids from school and bringing them to him, though Sara went further, and said she'd ''tie them up to a chair!''
** In "Hollowing out a baguette", Lolly and Noel both thought of cheese-based subscriptions, the former is a service that sends you various cheeses, the latter sends you a gourmet cheese-toastie kit.
** In "The leprechaun or the lesbian", the final task tasked the contestants in painting themselves as a vegetable, sweet treat, or toy with a canvas round their face. Stunningly, three of the five comedians painted ''a carrot'' as their choice.
** 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 round. 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.
** In "One Warm Prawn", a task involves writing and illustrating a bedtime story for adults. Both Liza and Asim make stories involving a man having a PottyEmergency after eating a meal involving spoilt prawns.
** In Series 7 episode, "The Pendulum Draws the Eye," Phil quips that the feet are the hands of one's legs, referring to the task to find the satsuma hidden amongst 49 socks and one of the allowable actions was to wear up to 11 of the socks. Three series later in "Point of Swivel," while attempting to catapult a shoe into a bathtub with only her feet, Katherine Parkinson muses that she wishes her hands were her feet.
** In "I Can Hear It Gooping", the prize task is 'magnificent stationery'. Kerry prefaces her offering by talking about her love of stationery, leading to a brief good-natured argument with Greg about which of them loves stationery more that ends with Greg suggesting that on a count of three he'll say what he considers "the king of the stationery items" while Kerry simultaneously says what she's brought in. On three, they both say "[[spoiler:A laminator]]", and Kerry wins the task.
** In "Quisps", having been instructed to construct an impressive water feature, both David and Ed decide that the centrepiece should be a statue of a mythical creature associated with the sea -- and both decide that the statue should be represented by Alex with his top off.
** In Series 11, when challenged at one point over their lengthy preparations before completing a task both Sarah Kendall and Lee Mack refer to the quote "give me six hours to chop down a tree and I'll spend four sharpening the blade", often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, as a retort.
* StrangeSecretEntrance: In the Series 6 finale ad bumpers, Alex [[Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe uses a wardrobe]] as a time machine of sorts to travel back to various challenges from Series 1 - 5.
* StrawMisogynist: Several of Greg's introductions of Alex have painted him in such a light (presumably jokingly), such as this one from the second New Year's Treat:
-->'''Greg:''' And next to me, a man who whispered his New Year's resolution to me after a few drinks at Christmas; whether he'll succeed in "bringing back the patriarchy", only time will tell.
* 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.]]
* StudioAudience: Presented as a theatre show of sorts. The audience gets to make decisions on the odd occasion.
* StunnedSilence:
** 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.]]
** Often subverted when the audience gives a polite round of applause to an unimpressive prize submission or task attempt that Greg really feels doesn't deserve it, with Greg lampshading the audience's generosity:
--->''[after Tim Vine's "join-the-dots" artwork of the wreck of the ''Titanic'' is unveiled:]''\\
'''Greg:''' We've done several series of this show. I ''genuinely'' do not know what they're applauding.
** Greg is literally speechless when Mike [[spoiler:reveals his mohawk for the Series 11 finale]].
* StupidStatementDanceMix: In the task involving transferring water between two different fishbowls in "Hollowing Out a Baguette", despite the fact that the very first line of the task is "Without moving the fishbowls", Lolly Adefope appears to not take this in. Her reading out "without moving the fishbowls" interspersed with her repeatedly moving the fishbowls was set to music.
* StylisticSuck:
** In "Pork Is a Sausage," Joe Wilkinson's nursery rhyme video consisted of him delivering the wrong lyrics to "Old [=MacDonald=] Had a Farm" in a monotone whilst standing in front of a green screen of a farm with Alex who dons various props when each animal is mentioned.
** The team task in "Hollowing Out a Baguette" is to create the best trailer for ''Taskmaster: The Movie''. The team of Joe, Lolly and Noel make one in this style - narrated by Joe, the trailer features Alex performing (and dressed) as "Huge Denis, Jo Liset, Lollly Adderfopay, Mell Gedroche, and Noell Fieldang," while overseen by Noel as "Grog Davids" and Lolly as "tiny bitch-puppet Alix Horrny."
* SubliminalSeduction: The team task in "Rock 'n' Roll Umlaut" had Sian and Joe parody this with them manually rewinding the vinyl that Alex had specially made to read the task out, with them dubbing over it:
-->'''Joe:''' ''Satan is your best friend in the world.''
* SuddenDeath: If two or more contestants are tied in first place at the end of an episode, then a tiebreaker happens. It is currently unknown whether a tiebreaker procedure occurs if there is a ''series''-wide tie for first. All tie breakers are pre-recorded tasks, with the exception of the tie-breakers in "The Poet and the Egg", "My Eyes Are Circles", and "Dog Meat Trifle". So far, this has happened in nineteen episodes:
** "Melon Buffet" involves a game of hide and seek played to determine whether Frank or Romesh won. [[spoiler:Frank won.]]
** "The Poet And The Egg" sees Alex ask Romesh and Josh in the studio to guess how old Frank was in minutes. [[spoiler:Josh won.]]
** "Hollowing Out a Baguette" has a tiebreaker between Noel and Joe. The task is to decant as much wine as possible in one minute while seated in an umpire chair. [[spoiler:Joe won.]]
** "Meat" has a tie breaker between Mel and Hugh. The task is to eat as many peas as possible in one minute. [[spoiler:Hugh won.]]
** "No stars for naughty boys" has a three-way tie between Hugh, Lolly, and Joe. They are tasked with opening a Vaseline-covered mayonnaise jar. [[spoiler:Joe won by figuring out the task, completing it, and ''then'' opening the task sheet to start his time.]]
** "Residue round the Hoof" has a tie between Mark and Aisling. They have to sit in a chair and throw a picture of Fred the Swede into a bin behind them within the least amount of attempts. [[spoiler:Aisling took 66 attempts whilst Mark took 15, meaning that he won overall.]]
** "Spoony Neeson" has a tie between Bob and Sally. The task is to kick a pot of yoghurt at a shooting target, and the winner was whoever got the most yoghurt nearest to the bullseye. [[spoiler:Sally won. Bob missed the target completely, while Sally kicked the container into the target, but no actual yoghurt got onto the target. Greg asked an audience member who he thought should win the task and picked the one that the audience member didn't choose.]]
** "The Old, Soft, Curved Padlock" has a tie between Russell and Alice. That task is to spin as many times as possible, then to kick a football at a caravan. [[spoiler:Alice won.]]
** "What Kind of Pictures?" has a tie between Russell and Liza. The winner is determined by whoever received a text the fastest. [[spoiler:Russell won.]]
** "My Eyes Are Circles" has a tie between Kerry and Jessica. In the studio, they have to guess the number on Alex's arm. [[spoiler:Kerry won.]]
** "OLLIE." has a tie between Rhod and James. They have to create a paper plane using toilet roll and get it to travel the farthest. [[spoiler:Rhod won.]]
** "Hello" had a tie between Iain and Lou, who have to peel a banana with only their feet, with the fastest winning. [[spoiler:Iain won.]]
** "The Barrel Dad" has a three-way-tie between Sian, Lou and Joe. They have to whip a bottle off of a barrel from a distance, with the fastest time to do so winning. [[spoiler:Sian won.]]
** "Think About the Spirit" has a tie between Ed and Rose. They have to make a pop-up toy pause for the longest amount of time using one of the provided food spreads. [[spoiler:Despite both using peanut butter, Ed won by a longshot with a time of just under an hour and a half.]]
** "A Documentary About Despots" has a tie between Katherine and Richard. They have to select a wind-up dinosaur toy and have it travel the furthest distance without the toy falling off a table. [[spoiler:Despite her toy traveling a miniscule distance, Katherine won by default because Richard's toy fell off the table.]]
** "Legit Glass" has a tie between Johnny and Mawaan. They are given 30 seconds to guess the number of individual sheets on a toilet roll. [[spoiler:Johnny won.]]
** "Dog Meat Trifle" has a tie between Richard and Mawaan. They have to guess the number of green eggs underneath Greg's chair. Richard guessed 6 eggs and Mawaan guessed 8. [[spoiler:Richard won, as there were only 2 eggs.]]
** "Absolute Casserole" has a tie between Jamali and Mike. They have to flick as many rubber bands into a bum bag which Alex is wearing under a time limit. [[spoiler:Jamali won by flicking 7 rubber bands to Mike's 1.]]
** "A Couple of Ethels" has a tie between Alan and Guz. They have to blow a feather across and off a table using only their noses the quickest. [[spoiler:Alan wins by a mile.]]
* SurpriseCreepy: The introduction to "A Fat Bald White Man"'s ''Felling Ducks'' task has the typical visual showcase of the task with the typical music being cut into a few times with discordant shots of the aftermath of the task, making it look like a horrific rubber duck massacre.
* SurpriseIncest: For the "create the best soap opera cliffhanger" task in "A Coquettish Fascinator," Jessica and Kerry devise a show called "Cul-de-Sac" and they play Donna and Donna who fight over their lover (played by Alex). Donna (played by Jessica) dramatically announces that Donna (played by Kerry) is actually the mother of Alex's character, which causes Donna (played by Kerry) [[VomitIndiscretionShot to vomit]].
* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage:
** Sally's flick book film in "Boing Boing" is narrated in fluent French. Justified since it had been pointed out in an earlier episode that Sally did study modern languages at university.
** In the fourth series, there is a team task that requires the contestants to not speak English while completing it. Hugh and Mel are on the same team and both know a fair amount of French, so it's not a problem for them. On the other team, Lolly and Joe have decent enough German to communicate quite well too.
* 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 recognizable 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]]

[[folder:T - Z]]
* TableclothYank: In "H.", Asim, Tim, Russell, Alice and Liza all succeed in getting 10 eggs off of a piece of cloth without breaking any eggs. Greg is a little annoyed by this.
* TakeThat:
** Sara Pascoe and Greg got in a couple of jabs against the ''group'' Music/TakeThatBand and the members' tax avoidance scandal in "Little Polythene Grief Cave". This continued in the next episode, "A Very Nuanced Character".
** Happens in "Spatchcock It":
--->'''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?
** In The Edinburgh TV Festival episode, A task required the contestants (who are TV Executives) to pitch an original TV show to Alex. After they read the task out, they cut back to the stage, and it was revealed that Alex ''wasn't listening'' to the contestants at all, and was instead booking a restaurant for the Taskmaster. Alex goes on to point out that some of the words the contestants used were Technobabble, and that's what made him bored. He didn't even edit down the footage for the live show, and says it's such as shame that the concepts they came up with will never be seen by anyone. They immediately cut to the final task. This is an obvious jab at TV executives that deny original show ideas when someone pitches them.
* TakeThatAudience:
** Occasionally, Greg will take a swipe at the studio audience based on their reactions.
--->'''Greg:''' You know your way around a boiled egg don't you?\\
'''Rose:''' I do.\\
'''Greg:''' I'll tell you why, it's because that noise - that "Oohhhh" - is the sound of a room full of adults... being excited by a boiled egg.
** At the start of Series 10, Greg announced that he'd be strictly enforcing the rules due to viewer complaints. This led to [[spoiler:the entire cast being disqualified for two tasks and the lowest scores in the show's history]].
** In Series 12, Greg essentially told the home audience to bring it on.
--->'''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!!!''
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat:
** In "Quisps", 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.
** In "Lotta Soup", Rhod makes a random dig at Greg's weight during the preparation for the final task. Immediately Alex produces a note from his pocket proving that Greg had anticipated him doing exactly that.
* TastesLikePurple: In "This is Trevor", a task was to guess the flavor of crisps while wearing a silly costume. Iain thought that the Gin and Tonic crisps tasted like purple.
* TemporarySubstitute: Katy Wix missed the studio recordings for two episodes of Series 9 due to illness, and was replaced by former contestants Kerry Godliman and Katherine Ryan (both champions of their respective series, but presumably primarily chosen because they kept the gender balance the same, and kept everyone in the same seat[[note]]contestants are seated in alphebetical order by given name[[/note]]). This left the substitutes in the position of having to justify somebody else's performance, apparently without having seen the tasks in advance.
-->'''Greg:''' ''[addressing Kerry during the prize round for "Another Spoon"]'' What did Katy bring in and can you fill a minute talking about it?
* TemptingFate: Happens on occasion:
** 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).]]
** Lou in Series 8 is wearing a bright pink high visibility jacket with the words "Taskmaster Winner Series 8" written on the back, despite the fact that the points for each task are (mostly) decided in the studio, not on the day the task is recorded. At the end of Series 8 [[spoiler:Lou wins and gets 164 points!]]
** 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.]]
** In the live task for "The Perfect Stuff", Greg reassures Kerry Godliman that she's not likely to fall off the stage while performing the task, which involves attempting to hit a drum after doing a magnificent walk for exactly 9.58 seconds (Kerry was confused because the competitors have to wear blindfolds during the others' attempts, but not during their own). Shortly after, Jessica Knappett falls off the stage during her attempt.
* TestosteronePoisoning: Russell Howard's contribution to the "Do the Most Masculine Thing" challenge in Series 6 is to take his shirt off to reveal "tattoos" of various manly interests (such as beards and ''Series/TopGear''), repeatedly saw the same bit of wood, rant about his ex-wife and bellow life advice at his "son" (Alex), most of which revolves around going on a using a hammer on animals at an abattoir and cooking the spoils on an open fire to attract a mate. His one regret is forgetting to also put a tie on.
* ThanksForTheMammary: In "No stars for naughty boys", one of the tasks is a game of hide and seek. Mel hides in a wardrobe, using a hanging shirt to cover herself. When Alex reaches into the wardrobe, he unintentionally brushes his hand across Mel's chest and is mortified.
-->'''Mel:''' It was fine! It was- you saw there was a little bit of awkwardness.\\
'''Alex:'''Yeah, I found you after two and a half minutes, then felt embarrassed for three days.
* ThatCameOutWrong:
** When Greg interrogates Mel on how she got a rubber duck into a courier's box:
--->'''Mel:''' I made him look away and then slipped it into his box. ''[realizes what she says and grimaces]''
** Bob reading out the live task in "The Leprechaun or the Lesbian":
--->'''Bob:''' ''With your head placed firmly in your hole''[[note]]a canvas which they are wearing around their necks[[/note]] -- ''[stops to laugh]''
** In the simply-titled episode "H." of Series 6, Greg makes two innuendos about his...sexual prowess (for context, he was judging "sturdy items" that would survive his weight when he gets dropped onto them)
--->'''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]''\\
'''Greg:''' So until I distribute myself across Alice's Mum's Poly Tunnel.
* 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-me-ter", ''not'' [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable "Surprise-ometer"]].)
* ThoseTwoGuys:
** Romesh and Tim in series one, referred to by Greg as "the two psychopaths". They both approached the challenges much more brashly than the other contestants, and had a habit of attempting to hinder each others' progress in the live tasks by fighting each other.
** "Brad" and "Jeff" from Frank and Tim's blooper reel in "The Last Supper." Every year, they have high hopes for huge plans, and every year something goes awry.
** Mark and Nish have this vibe in series five. Not only do they form a team together, their efforts are usually shown together as well (partly because they both tended to do poorly), and if one does particularly badly they often physically comfort each other. Nish even [[LampshadeHanging points this out]] in "The Leprechaun or the Lesbian" after watching his and Mark's attempts in the bread slicing task.
--->'''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."
* TickleTorture: In "Welcome to Rico Face", Richard and Jon build a "Taskmaster Tie-up Tickle Station" as part of their hostage video/tent infomercial to the Taskmaster. Alex is tied with gaffer tape and seated in front of Richard, both wearing the top of a tent. Jon threatens (in a Colombian accent) to tickle Alex, which Richard does.
* 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 provided by the crew. [[spoiler:Although her painting was initially judged as the third-best painting, she was penalised for not actually riding a horse and was awarded last place / 1 point.]]
** Lolly does this for the prize task in "Tony Three Pies". The winner was whoever bought in the most cash, so Lolly decided to put in the pot a cheque with a value of 1 pence more than the amount of whoever had bought in the most cash. Greg points out that they're looking for bank notes and coins, so Lolly opts for her backup plan--[[WhamLine an envelope containing £2,000 in cash]]. In comparison, Joe Lycett took second place by bringing in £250.
* TitleDrop: Most episode names are taken from a line spoken during the show. The exception thus far is the Series 1 finale "The Last Supper." As there's too many to list here, examples can be found on each series' [[Recap/{{Taskmaster}} Recap page]].
** For each season, Alex and the producers try to use quotes as evenly as possible between Alex, Greg, and that season’s 5 guests. The only exception is Series 11, where Mike Wozniak named over half of the episodes, due to his use of [[UnusualEuphemism unusual euphemisms]], ARareSentence and other hilariously bizarre phrases. Sarah Kendall was the only other contestant to name an episode, but only once.
* ToiletHumour: Numerous jokes about urine, faeces, farts, and genitalia pop up in nearly every episode of ''Taskmaster''. Highlights include such examples as Bob Mortimer's story (from the episode "Spoony Neeson") about his... unique toilet habits due to a high anus.
* TokenMinority:
** Every series up to Series 12 has had exactly one contestant who was not white. They also had exactly one woman for the first three series.
** Although all six are UK-based comics, Katherine Ryan from Series 2, Aisling Bea and Ardal O'Hanlon from Series 5 and 13, Rose Matafeo from Series 9, Sarah Kendall from Series 11, and Desiree Burch from Series 12 are the token Canadian, Irish, New Zealander, Australian, and American of their respective series. Creator/NicolaCoughlan from the New Year's Treat is also from Ireland but based in London.
** A handful of other contestants are foreign-born but grew up mainly in the UK (Sally Phillips, David Baddiel, Mawaan Rizwan, and Morgana Robinson were born in Hong Kong, the US, Pakistan, and Australia, respectively).
* TooCleverByHalf:
** Tim is capable of thinking outside the box to win a task, but this creativity often veers into outright cheating which costs him on more than a few occasions.
** Dave shows signs of this at times, and ends up being disqualified for [[spoiler:cheating twice]] in the third series.
** Hugh has shades of this in series four. Most of the time, he has been disqualified for it.
** Rylan Clark-Neal in the New Year Treat 2020 special clearly wanted to win the episode and looked for creative solutions, with mixed results.
--->'''Alex:''' Is there anything you are looking for in particular?\\
'''Rylan:''' Not really. I'm trying to work out how I can cheat.
* TooMuchInformation: In "Spoony Neeson", a task wherein the contestants are given a Go-Pro and asked to record a POV film leads to Bob Mortimer giving Greg, Alex, his fellow contestants, the in-studio audience and the TV audience rather more information than they expected or may have needed regarding his method of using the toilet.
* TrailOfBreadcrumbs: The first task in "Boing Boing" features the contestants being led blindfolded to the same point in the middle of a field and told to walk, still blindfolded, in any given direction for three minutes before finding their way back to the starting point. In a clear homage to ''Literature/HanselAndGretel'', each contestant was given a slice of bread, with the clear (but unspoken) implication that they were to use it in some way to find their way back. Incredibly, only Bob Mortimer realised the reference straight away; both Aisling Bea and Mark Watson only figured out what the bread was for a little distance into their walk, whereas Sally Phillips and Nish Kumar never picked up on it and ended up wandering around aimlessly. Perhaps not surprisingly, Bob won the round.
* TrueArtIsAngsty: [[invoked]]Paul Chowdhry's "[[https://youtu.be/33wuaNWB4yo?t=497 Snow Bear]]"[[note]]a toy rabbit with some ice on it, with some blue slush puppy as colouring and as "tears"[[/note]] creation for the "make the best snowman" task in "Pea in a Haystack," which is both dark and hilarious at the same time.
-->'''Paul:''' The expression and the tears reflect what I'm going through on the inside. ''[sad ambient piano]'' [[MoodWhiplash Bastard's crying, innit]]?
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: [[invoked]]
** Parodied by Joe in "This Is Trevor", where he had to do something powerful with his pinky finger. He attached a lit match to his pinky finger, and burnt some string to unveil an art piece, which is just a spray painted word "Recycle" onto a wall in the taskmaster's garden, and framed it. He then exits the shot with a powerful and confident sashay.
** From the same "do the most powerful thing with your pinky" task in "This is Trevor," Lou's attempt is a "performance art" piece about pollution that involved pushing a brick (originally a bowling ball complete with words like "[=VEGAN?=]" written on sticky notes attached) off of an oil drum into a bowl of water filled with rubber ducks and baby dolls.
* TwoFirstNames: In Series 6, Alex jokes about Russell Howard's name by saying "Russell, Howard, and Alice" when grouping Russell and Alice Levine together for a task.
* UnexpectedSuccessor: Discussed in the first episode; in his introduction for Tim Key, Greg sarcastically quips that Tim is a future Poet Laureate "if there's some sort of massive poet disaster".
* UnfazedEveryman: Jo Brand was bemused by the tasks set for her, did things at her own pace despite the ticking clock, and non-chalantly dismissed tasks she knew she wouldn't win. [[https://youtu.be/R-dy12Q9Ys8?t=240 In episode 3 of the official Taskmaster podcast]], Jo said that this behaviour of hers is a remnant of her time as a psychiatric nurse, and that she used to have to deal with truly pressing situations on a regular basis, so the tasks and the show's stakes didn't raise any real sense of urgency from her.
* UnfortunateImplications: Accidentally invoked and discussed in "A Very Nuanced Character". When the team task comes up, the conversation turns to the fact that Rob Beckett and Sara Pascoe, who were in the same team that season, look very similar, with a joke arising that they are in fact siblings who were accidentally separated at birth. When time comes to watch their submission for the team task, it turns out to be a video... in which they are playing a married couple. The SurpriseIncest [[IncestSubtext Subtext]] that this creates does not go without notice:
-->'''Dave Gorman:''' Introducing them as "brother and sister"'s taken on a sinister twist, hasn't it...\\
'''Rob Beckett:''' [[ItMakesSenseInContext Shoes]] are the ''least'' of our worries.
* UnitConfusion: When Alex describes the size of something for a task, he will often use utterly bizarre measurements, such as referring to a bubble blown by Tim Vine as "1/2 of a Creator/DannyDeVito". Subverted in that he also gives imperial/metric measurements as well.
* TheUnsmile: Romesh in series 1, on those rare occasions where he tried to play the game outside of his usual "grouchy killjoy" persona. Naked attempts at emotionally manipulating Greg for points would often be matched with an incredibly forced saccharine smile that just came off as unsettling, as many of his fellow contestants would note.
* VisualPun: One or two ocassionally make their way into the setup of a task:
** The premise of Series 4's "get this stuffed camel through the smallest gap possible" is possibly inspired by the [[AsTheGoodBookSays Biblical saying]] "it is easier for a camel to through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
** For Series 8's "create a ventriloquist dummy" task, a bottle of beer was sitting on the table next to the task envelope. Joe Thomas was the only contestant to pick up on why this was: "bottle of beer" is one of the hardest things for a ventriloquist to say without moving their lips.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Rhod and Greg in series 7, to the point that Greg correctly predicted when Rhod would make a fat joke about him.
* VomitDiscretionShot: During the "get to the microwave in as few steps as possible" task in "Pea in a Haystack" Rob's method of getting to the microwave was to roll on his side, which makes him dizzy and causes him to retch several times because he had a large coffee ahead of the shoot. The vomit is concealed by the microwave and table.
* VomitIndiscretionShot:
** For the "eat the most watermelon task" in "Melon Buffet," when Alex blew the whistle signaling the end of the task, Romesh immediately retches and throws up some of the watermelon.
** For the "soap opera cliffhanger" task in "A Coquettish Fascinator," Kerry (as Donna) pukes when she finds out that [[SurpriseIncest her lover (played by Alex) is also her son]].
* WackyMarriageProposal: A task in "Caring Uncle Minpict" involves the contestants making the most irresistable proposal to the Taskmaster's Assistant.
* WalkingSpoiler: Any of the contestants in the "Champions of Champions" series, which are made up of the winners of the past 5 series. There's a ''good'' reason the names of certain people are spoiler tagged on this page when talking about Champions-of-Champions-related tasks, otherwise, it would ruin at least 5 series of television.
* WashyWatchy: When challenged to destroy a cake as beautifully as possible, Noel Fielding opted to put it, plate and all, into a washing machine. Greg admitted that he could happily watch it spin for hours.
* WaterTorture:
** As part of her "special hug" with Alex, Sally brings in a platter of food and smears it on him while sitting atop him, ending with pouring a bottle of water on his face as time runs out. Greg points out that she waterboarded Alex.
** Katy's egg timer in "Another Spoon" amounted to the Chinese water torture variant - her instructions to Alex were to hang a bag of water above his head, poke a hole and allow the water to drip out onto his head until empty.
* WaxingLyrical: Happens in series 2 whenever Doc Brown (a comedian/ actor/ rapper) talks to Greg.
* WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: In "Wiley Giraffe Blower", after the first round of the final task the contestants discover the markers they have been given are '''permanent markers''', instead of whiteboard markers. The show unceremoniously cuts to a little later with whiteboard markers having been handed out.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether:
** Normally the team tasks require and demonstrate a certain amount of cooperation, but this trope came fully into play in Series 4's "Meat", when one such task required giving each participant different instructions regarding a bath without (initially) telling the others what these were; to illustrate, in one team Joe Lycett was told to cover the bath with clingfilm, Lolly Adefope had to fill the bath with as many objects as possible, while Noel Fielding had to fill it with water. As none of them seemed to realise this was a team effort, this quickly degenerated into outright chaos with Joe and Lolly ending up not just undoing but outright ''sabotaging'' each other's efforts while Noel just watched the bath fill up with a hose and didn't lift a finger to intervene. Conversely, Hugh Dennis and Mel Giedroyc, when given the same task (minus the water requirement) quickly realised that they were supposed to complete both tasks at the same time, with Hugh ending up helping Mel with hers once he'd finished his.
** Played fairly straight in Series 7's team tasks. James Acaster grew very frustrated with Rhod Gilbert's lack of familiarity with the show's conventions and at-times unhelpful and uncooperative attitude, while Phil Wang awkwardly stood off to the side. Reached a nadir in the "construct the best extension to the house in thirty minutes" task when, after standing around thinking intensely for a few minutes without helping, Rhod ended up wandering around looking for a truck to use as an extension before eventually sticking some cardboard on the garage door and spray-painting "This Is An Extension" on it. Much to James's incredulity and frustration, he ended up roping Phil into helping ''him'', leaving James to work on a more serious (if admittedly not much better) attempt at completing the task all by himself. It was also revealed that Rhod had discovered that the garage was open and stocked with all manner of potentially useful items, but not only didn't use any of them but didn't bother to inform the others that they were there. When judging the task, Greg decided that as James had essentially been abandoned by his team he'd get an extra point, with Rhod being punished for his unhelpfulness and Phil for his "spinelessness" in enabling Rhod by only getting one point each. In comparison, Kerry Godliman and Jessica Knappett got on quite well together.
** Also played a bit straighter in Series 8, when owing to a combination of intense competitiveness, stubbornness and some clashing domineering personalities, Lou Sanders and Iain Stirling seemed to spend a substantial amount of their team tasks together shouting at each other while Paul Sinha tried to unobtrusively work in the background. The definitive example of this happening would be the team task in "Barrel Dad" ("put as many things into this hammock - heaviest hammock wins, and if an item falls out, the team is disqualified"). On the other team, while Joe Thomas and Sian Gibson didn't really seem to "click" together, they at least proved more cooperative and less inclined to argue.
* WelcomeToCorneria:
** In "Hollowing out a baguette", a task required contestants to move water from one fish bowl to another without moving the fishbowl, while only using items found on the table. They also had to speak in third person to themselves. Lolly got shown first, and ''immediately'' broke one of the rules (don't move the fish bowl), which got edited in the final video as Lolly saying ''"Without moving the fishbowl"'' interspersed with footage of her doing exactly that. [[spoiler:Not surprisingly, Lolly was disqualified.]]
** In "Hello", Paul Sinha says "Hello!" a lot into a baby monitor in order to find the ''other'' baby monitor his one was connected to. According to Alex, he said it '''64''' times.
** In "Spoony Neeson", during a task where a candle had to be carried through numerous obstacles to light another candle in the caravan, Mark Watson was given the additional hurdle that he wasn't allowed to say any word which contained any of the letters in the word "Taskmaster" at the same time. This was presumably intended to be a frustrating impediment to communication for him, but in practice he just ended up being largely silent except muttering the word "fiddly" every so often. Which, as Mark noted in his defence, was largely because the task was "bloody fiddly".
* WhamLine:
** Any time a contestant really goes above and beyond for a task (this is especially common in prize tasks). For example, Romesh putting up his wedding ring.
** From the "buy the Taskmaster a gift for £20" task in Series 1:
--->'''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.''
** Any two-part task. Contestants never know that there's a second part to a task until they've completed the first part. It's especially common to make the second part of the task harder the better you did at the first part. This includes things like eating "exotic" sandwiches they were tasked with making, or using charades to get the other members of their team to figure out obscure animals they'd made a list of.
** Jon gave one of these during Series 2 when he cracked the code on the "Build a Bridge" challenge too late:
--->'''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]]''
** In "Premature Conker", Sarah Kendall realising [[spoiler:the bag of "salt" is actually sugar]].
* 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]].
* WhatTheHellHero:
** James delivers one to Rhod in "The Perfect Stuff", after watching back that episode's team task.
** In "Another Spoon", Katy Wix's water-torture egg timer, which required Alex to sit for over six minutes having cold water dripped onto his head, is compared to David Baddiel's rudimentary hourglass as they worked on a similar principle. Alex made a crack that Katy's was "slightly better executed", since her timer got closer to a perfect egg. Annoyed, David retorts that this isn't a very nice thing to say considering that his attempt didn't require Alex to be literally ''tortured''.
** Greg has this reaction when Katy Wix brought in [[spoiler:Kerry Godliman's Taskmaster trophy]] and becomes even more irate when Katy reveals that [[spoiler:Kerry had tossed it away in a grungey garage and doesn't even know it's missing]].
* WhatWereYouThinking: Greg might occasionally ask a contestant what their line of thinking was if their attempt at a task leads to an EpicFail and it's not immediately clear how they thought it would work. In "The Mean Bean", James Acaster's attempt at the "build a cardboard box tower" task is so bizarre that Kerry beats him to the punch:
-->'''Kerry:''' What -- what was he ''doing''?\\
'''Greg:''' Oh, trust me -- we're ''coming on to that.''
* WhenSheSmiles: In Series 3, Paul Chowdhry plays up his comedic persona by being grouchy throughout the live and recorded parts of the show, and even (jokingly) pipettes blue tears onto a snowman he built to show his pain inside. But when he finds out that he is winning in one episode despite consistently performing awfully, he breaks into a wide grin in disbelief.
* WhileRomeBurns: Invoked by Greg in "Meat", who quips this verbatim as a description of the cooperation Noel, Lolly, and Joe had in a team task: fill a bathtub (Noel and Lolly's job), then cover in clingfilm (Joe's job). Noel just got a hose and filled it with water, Lolly tried putting a table into the bathtub, while Joe kept taking the table out.
* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: Often after a task is described, Greg and Alex will casually discuss how the most obvious approach would definitely not work, and the competitors should be smart enough to realize this and come up with an alternative solution, which almost always leads to a GilliganCut showing at least one competitor following exactly the method described.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Noel wears a dress at his [[spoiler:wedding to]] the duck.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Josh Widdicombe is terrified of balloons, as is Mark Watson. Mark is unable to complete a task that involves stuffing objects in it and blowing it up, and has to ask one of the crew to do it for him.
* WhyDidntIThinkOfThat: Often crops up, complete with FacePalm, given that the contestants are watching their efforts back weeks or months after struggling through a task they might not have had ample time to prepare for and are surrounded by snarky comedians also watching it back.
** In "Friendship is Truth," the envelope for "the highest splash" task was posted on the side of a caravan and a telescope had been set up pointing towards it. Most of the contestants struggled to read it through the telescope (Noel complained about the sun's glare and Hugh took a photo of the envelope ''through'' the telescope lens). In the studio, Greg tells everyone that nobody had asked them to read the task through the telescope.
** For the "stacking the tallest tower of cans" task in "A Wind-Dried Puffin," Alex asks the contestants to stand inside a rope hoop around their waist that was tied to the table on which they were to stack their tin can tower before giving them the task envelope. Only Bob questioned whether keeping the rope hoop on was allowed, re-read the task, and then took off the rope hoop, which made completing the task so much simpler for him.
** For the "don't blink" task in "The Perfect Stuff," Phil shut his eyes for 5 seconds before the whistle was blown. In the studio recording, Alex notes that if he had kept them shut, there wouldn't have been a blink (to the dismay of all the contestants). Alex also notes that his 7-year old came up with that solution. In fairness to all the contestants, they were only allowed 10 seconds to prepare before the whistle was blown and the clock started.
** In the "hide in a red phone-box task" in "Rock 'N' Roll Umlaut", we see Paul Sinha struggle to cover the windows of the phone-box with newspapers only for them to keep blowing away in the heavy breeze. The very first thing Greg points out once the clip is complete is that Paul could have put them up on the ''inside'' of the phone-box rather than the outside.
** In the same episode, in the "memorise the cards and tell Alex the order they appear in" task Iain had been getting particularly frustrated by the apparent lack of a pen in the room to allow him to note down the order of cards. He claims that Alex had a pen that he was taunting Iain with by refusing to give it to him; Alex denies this (though it was shown that a pen had been concealed on the table the contestants had been sitting at)... but then points out that the iPad he was holding has a camera setting. The contestants could at any time have asked to borrow it, or indeed any of the numerous other cameras in that room being used to record the events, and photograph all the cards had it occurred to them. This does not help with Iain's frustrations.
* WillfullyWeak: On occasion, some contestants will essentially kneecap themselves by either (a) identifying a loophole in the task wording that they can exploit but for some reason failing to exploit it all the way, or (b) inexplicably adding a complication or unwritten rule to the task that hampers them more than even the original task intended:
** In the "guess what's in these pies" task in "The Pie Whisperer", Roisin realises that while she cannot "breach" the pastry of the pies, there's nothing in the rules stating that Alex cannot. However, she inexplicably ''turns her back'' while Alex does so and tries to guess what's in the pies from his taste reactions, thus making the task even harder for herself.
** Katherine Ryan quickly realised that the "red green" surrounding the golf hole in the "throw a potato into a golf hole" task in "Fear of Failure" was just a carpet, and she could avoid stepping on it by rolling it up. However, as Greg pointed out in the studio, she for some reason decided not to roll it up the whole way (meaning she could essentially just walk up to the hole and easily drop it in) and instead decided it would be more profitable to tie a piece of string to the potato so that she could retrieve it without stepping on the red green. Katherine claimed that she had been trying to respect the spirit of the game, but considering the surprisingly emotional speech she delivered immediately after about how much she hated sports and couldn't figure them out, it's equally likely that [[WhyDidntIThinkOfThat she just didn't think of it at the time]].
** Richard Osman accidentally does this to himself in the task where the contestants have to acquire facts from Fred, a Swedish person who has been prohibited from speaking in English. When asking about Fred's greatest fear, Richard hits on the idea of getting Fred to spell it out by going through the letters of the alphabet one by one -- but forgets to clarify that Fred should spell the word out in ''English''. This means that they end up getting halfway through the Swedish word "misslyckande" before Richard realises what's happening. He's consequently rather dryly amused to note the irony when the fear Fred was spelling out in Swedish turns out to be "failure".
** Lolly's attempt in the "felling ducks" task in "A Fat Bald White Man." She chooses to use a hose to knock the ducks off of the wooden fences, but also realises that there is not enough water pressure from where she is standing behind the velvet rope. She enlists Alex and the crew to move the fences closer to her, but as Greg notes, the fences were not moved very close. In Lolly's case, she justifies if as not wanting to fell any ducks in the process of moving the fences (the task rules state that the contestants must be standing behind the velvet rope while felling their ducks).
** Not exactly a task, but in "Friendship is Truth" a task is attached to the wall of the caravan, with a telescope set up by the front door pointing at it. Every contestant struggles to read the task through the telescope, with Hugh Dennis particularly indignant about how poor it was. In the studio, however, it was noted that at no point were the contestants asked or told to use the telescope to read the task, and they could have simply walked up to the caravan to read the task normally at any point.
** In "The Leprechaun and the Lesbian", Mark Watson is the only contestant who realises that the rules for the "paint the best rainbow in a pitch-black room" task don't preclude him from switching on the light to do his painting. However, while his end result is accurate in terms of colour, for reasons known only to himself he inexplicably decided to paint a "flat" rainbow, resulting in his incredulous competitors noting that it somehow ended up less accurate than the attempts they made while painting in the dark.
** In the "make the best portrait of the Taskmaster out of fifty random items you have previously collected" task in "A Coquettish Fascinator", not until she is in the studio weeks after her disastrous attempt does Jessica Knappett ruefully note that she alone of all the contestants had gathered paints and art supplies among her items, and so could have tried to paint the Taskmaster instead of just using them to represent his hair.
** In the same episode, another task requires the contestants to choose a box in which to collect "pairs of glasses" (referring to drinking glasses, not spectacles as they might have expected) before they leave the caravan. Seconds after reading the task, Rhod Gilbert rushes out of the caravan to see the glasses in order to help him determine the size of the box he'll need. While this is bad enough in itself, as it's an automatic disqualification, in the studio a bewildered Alex notes that even ''despite'' this knowledge Rhod still inexplicably decided to choose an incredibly small box that could never fit all the glasses.
** In "Rock and Roll Umlaut"'s "score a goal from the furthest distance" task, everyone except Sian Gibson elects to take a kick from a distance that would be difficult for even a professional soccer player to score from. However, it's noted that Joe Thomas, for reasons known only to himself, elects to add a further challenge on top of that by positioning the ball at an acute angle to the goal, meaning that to score he would have to curve the ball in rather than kicking it straight.
** "Clumpy Swayey Clumsy Man's" task to 'design the most tremendous legs' was already hard enough, but Iain Stirling made his life even harder by taking it upon himself to design substitute arms for himself as well, to the point where he admitted in studio that he got too carried away and ended up treating the legs as an afterthought. The result was that not only were his legs less than tremendous, but he could barely move without either falling over or 'breaking' his new limbs.
** Subverted in "Quisps". The tape of Rose's attempt to fill a tray with things beginning with P shows her handicapping herself by refusing (unlike most of her rivals) to push her luck with arguable items, deciding not to try passing a tube off as a pipe and discarding a stack of newspapers because she's not sure they'll be accepted as 'paper', and she ends the task with a visibly less heaped tray than anyone else. However, Alex reveals afterward that thanks to one of the things she did put in the tray -- a bag of frozen peas which she emptied out so that each pea would count as a separate object -- she collected more objects than anyone else, and won the task.
** In "Another Spoon," Rose realises that she can move the line (marked by a piece of tape) closer to Alex in order lasso him. However, she initially folds up the carpet and doesn't move the line very close. Eventually, she does move the line immediately in front of Alex just like Jo and Ed do but, as Greg incredulously notes in the studio, more than half of her time spend completing the task was used after her first line-move.
** Ed Gamble initially comes up with a very cunning plan to secretly get a five word message to Alex in "Don't Like Them Go Bang" by recruiting a crew member to dress up in a very noticeable boiler suit and walk around conspicuously, clearly planning to distract Alex into thinking this is Ed making a poor attempt at subtlety. However, he ends up completely shooting himself in the foot by loudly charging over the field and basically throwing the message at Alex before his decoy has even reached the area, completely undermining his own attempt at distraction.
** 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 often 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 the boots on a six-legged table in the room. The spider she was ''supposed'' to use was, of course, outside.
* WithCatLikeTread:
** In "No stars for naughty boys", Hugh tries to hide by changing locations within the house, and peeking outside to see where he was. He gets caught in just over a minute, as Hugh had been peeking at the wrong person (a cameraman). Greg calls him "as stealthy as a cow". The next person to try their luck was Noel, who, as Greg graciously points out, was wearing a yellow boiler suit. Noel got spotted by Alex in ''sixteen seconds'' after he tries hiding behind the caravan. [[spoiler:Noel comes last, while Hugh comes third]].
** In "Rock 'n' Roll Umlaut", a task was to hide in a red London phone box, but they had to cover themselves up so no part of them or their clothing was visible from the outside the phone box. Once done, they had to shout "I'm invisible!" to denote that they've stopped. The fastest who was also fully covered up wins. Joe used red bubblewrap to cover up the windows, Sian wrapped herself head to toe in three bin bags, Iain made a mattress fort inside the phone box with some mattresses, Lou concealed herself in a grey blanket, while Paul got people to stand around the phone box and used mattresses to cover the windows (he tried using newspapers to cover the windows initially, but they blew away). [[spoiler:Paul came last, and Lou came second. Iain came first, with Joe and Sian failing the task at joint fourth.]]
** There is a task in "Don't Like Them Go Bang" where the contestants need to deliver Alex a set of 5-word instructions in the most spy-like manner. Ed Gamble recruits one of the production staff to walk up to Alex dressed conspicuously in a boiler suit with a decoy set of instructions. While this is a good idea in theory, it's completely undercut when Ed (in Greg's words) "thunder[s] across an open field" and throws the instructions at Alex before the decoy even reaches him. [[spoiler:He places joint fourth with Rose, who disguised herself as a walking boulder.]]
* WordSaladTitle: The episode "Twelve Blush Majesty Two", which turns out to be the least successful result from the lip-reading live task: "Phil Wang's tool sacks twelve blush majesty two."[[note]]The actual sentence was "Phil Wang's shoe size is twelve plus two minus two."[[/note]]
* WritingAroundTrademarks: In "What Kind of Pictures?", one task is "Put something genuinely surprising inside a chocolate egg." The phrase 'Kinder Surprise' is carefully never mentioned, even though it's obviously the inspiration for the challenge and the chocolate egg provided is recognisably a hollowed-out Kinder Surprise egg.
* WrongGenreSavvy:
** In one task in Series Two, on encountering a collection of groceries including an airbed next to a canal, having clearly learnt his lesson about being prepared Richard Osman decided to inflate the airbed before opening the task just in case it was necessary to do so. On actually reading the task, he ruefully noted that it said nothing about the airbed, meaning he might as well have not bothered.
** Rhod Gilbert didn't realize that the competition was real and thought that it was all about getting the biggest laughs. Because of this, he spent each prize task needling Greg and getting placed last.
** A task-specific variation occurs in "Think About the Spirit" where the teams need to make the best cup of tea where all the tea-making implements are locked or sealed to the table. Ed was certain that Alex had the key that would unlock the implements hidden (much like the task from Series 3 episode "The Dong and the Gong") and spent a good 5 minutes searching Alex's person for a key while his teammates worked on the tea. He didn't have one, and they didn't need it anyway since Ed was able to forcefully pull one of the mugs off the table.
** In the first team task of Series 11 (which was also apparently the first team task overall), Jamali Maddix and Sarah Kendall meet each other at a park, where they are required to stand on two boxes with the task resting on a third, identical one. They immediately seem to assume that acquiring the task is ''part'' of the task, and immediately start brainstorming ideas for how they can get it... apparently not stopping to consider the possibility that they might simply ''have a third teammate who hasn't arrived yet''. Naturally, when Charlotte Ritchie -- said third teammate -- finally shows up, they've reached the point where they're stripping belts and shoelaces to tie together to form a rope.
* YeahShot: Greg and Alex do this during the credits of "I've Sinned Again" after the Champion of Champions is crowned. Amusingly, everyone else is still moving.
* YesMan:
** The comic dynamic between Greg and Alex tends to be characterised by homoerotically-charged fawning towards Greg on Alex's part, with a bit of Stockholm Syndrome mixed in thanks to Greg's constant bullying.
** In several tasks, particularly prize tasks or those which require doing something specifically for the Taskmaster, the contestants have tried making overt attempts at flattering Greg, such as getting a tattoo of his name on their foot (Josh Widdicombe) or buying a piece of land that entitles him to use the title "Lord" (Katherine Ryan). Though it's played with: while Greg is far from immune to flattery and frequently makes a SelfDeprecatingHumor RunningGag about how needy he is for positive attention, he often doesn't seem particularly impressed by overtly obvious or insincere attempts at sucking up. He generally seems more willing to reward people who apply creativity or a sincere attempt to find out something about him and what he likes rather than just shameless flattery. For example, in a "Buy The Taskmaster A Gift" task in season 3, he rewards Rob Beckett, who bought him a comfortable foot-cushion for the throne he uses the in the series, fewer points than Dave Gorman, who bought him some memorabilia from his hometown of Wem, because Dave's contribution showed some effort to find out something about who Greg was and where he came from.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: Sally is diagnosed with this by Greg at the end of Series Five after a collection of responses to tasks which have included, in order, a weirdly sensual food-based "special hug", a one-night-stand with a water-cooler, the birth of a fully-grown Alex-baby, and finally a graph charting how much sex she wants versus how much sex she gets over time.
* YouSayTomato:
** The cast of series nine get a lot of mileage out of making fun of Rose's Kiwi accent and her pronunciation of certain words like "mayor" (sounding like MEER) or "shed" (sounding like SHEED).
** In "God's Haemorrhoid," Greg objects to Alex's pronunciation of the words "room" (with the same vowel sound of the word "book") and "tissue" (as in [=TIS-you=]).
* YourMom: A variation appears in "A Pistacho Eclair" after Doc Brown's dinner party guest[[note]]The Last Skeptic, a rapper[[/note]] is subject to mockery from the other contestants due to his rather rough-looking appearance.
-->'''Doc:''' It was a toss of the coin for me between the Last Skeptic and my mum, and now I'm so glad. Because you lot would have just cussed my mum out for like ten minutes.\\
'''Greg:''' I would never have cussed your mum unless she looked like a common criminal.\\
'''Doc:''' ... You lot would have just cussed my mum for ten minutes.
[[/folder]]

Full episodes can be viewed on [[https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/taskmaster/watch-online UKTV Play]] and [[https://www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmaster All4]] (both UK only). The official [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT5C7yaO3RVuOgwP8JVAujQ/featured Taskmaster YouTube channel]] also features every episode broadcast so far (albeit currently region-blocked in some parts), along with clips and compilations. The first episode of the Finnish version of the show, ''Suurmestari'', is available on the channel as well.

%% Note to editors: Please take some time to resort the tropes alphabetically if you have a chance

** Nell the toddler in "The Barrel Dad" on the grounds of being a toddler. Nell often got distracted by other things in the room, before Alex pointed her to the item the other contestants had to make for them.

** Series Eight has a very distinct Japanese/Asian theme, reflect in the font of the Taskmaster logo, the music, and the art style (including the anime-style portrait of Greg).

--> '''Iain''': I genuinely don't want to talk about it.