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1[[header:[[center:''Series/{{Taskmaster}}'' [[Series/{{Taskmaster}} tropes index]]\
2[-[[Taskmaster/TropesAToF A to F]] | [[Taskmaster/TropesGToQ G to Q]] ('''Loophole Abuse''') | [[Taskmaster/TropesRToZ R to Z]] ([[ShoutOut/{{Taskmaster}} Shout Out]])-]]]]]
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4[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loopholeabusetaskmaster.png]]
5[[caption-width-right:250:How do you get a cricket ball into a hole without carrying it? Move the whole hole, of course!]]
6
7A LoopholeAbuse examples list from the British TV Show ''Series/{{Taskmaster}}'', a list so big we had to give it its own page. This is down to the nature of the show and how it involves lateral thinking, which makes its celebrity contestants think of ways to [[ExactWords abuse the wording of a task]], [[CuttingTheKnot bypass a task requirement entirely]], question the AmbiguousSyntax tasks are often given, or, well, they employ LoopholeAbuse.
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9As intended, this happens pretty often, and Greg will allow the behavior if it's sufficiently funny, clever, or entertaining [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs (or all three)]], but he is not afraid to disqualify contestants who obviously break the rules of the Tasks, or who slip from this trope into [[CheatersNeverProsper outright cheating]].
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11There is also an unspoken assumption that the contestant will at least try to complete the task in a way which is in keeping with the spirit of both what the task is asking for and the show overall; they're there to be entertaining, funny and silly, and the show isn't just a venue for contestants to show off how good they are at finding loopholes. Accordingly, just because a contestant finds a clever loophole in the task does not always guarantee them victory.
12----
13
14!!Taskmaster UK
15!!!In General
16* There are attempts by contestants to not read the last sentence of the task ("Your time starts now") that is almost always at the end of the task letter, usually so they can formulate a plan or to understand the task better without running down the clock. In "A Coquettish Fascinator", the first part of the "50 unique items in the bin challenge" changes the letter at the end to read "Your time starts when Alex touches you on the shoulder", which makes all but two of the contestants flee from Alex to avoid him touching him, leading to a brief moment of tag between Alex and few of the contestants. "Friendship is truth" has contestants start the task when they next blink, leading to a staring competition with Alex/the camera. Hugh just tries to look away from Alex.
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18[[foldercontrol]]
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20[[folder:Series One]]
21* In "The Pie Whisperer", a task requires the contestants to work out what is in each of 5 pies, without "breaching" them. Roisin and Tim simply ask Alex to punch, eat or generally open the pies in some fashion (the task specifies '''they''' can't breach the pies, Alex or anyone else are free to breach them). Roisin amusingly, ''looks away'' at Alex while he's testing the pies, and "creates her own hurdles" as Greg puts it, and she admits that ten minutes after finishing the task, she realized she could've just asked Alex to smash the pies open. [[spoiler:Tim gets first and Roisin gets second place.]]
22* In "The Poet and the Egg", one task is to throw a teabag into a mug from the furthest distance. Frank uses a thin cardboard box put up against a wall to guide wet teabags into the cup, Roisin exploits the ExactWords of the task, and drops the teabags into the cup at height with a ladder (the task never said the teabags had to be thrown horizontally). Like Frank, Tim uses a catcher to guide the teabag into the mug, and opts for tarpaulin, and he uses a ball catcher to throw a teabag wrapped onto a tennis ball, and throws it into the mug. Josh however, attempting to broaden his target, says that he would define "mug" as "a receptacle larger than a cup, that you drink tea out of." He proceeds to pull the wheelbarrow out of the shed and promises to drink tea out of it by the end of the task. [[spoiler: Tim comes first, Frank second, Romesh third, and Roisin fourth. Greg disqualifies Josh, though (he claims) not because he used a wheelbarrow, but because [[FelonyMisdemeanor Josh put the milk in first.]]]]
23* In "Down an Octave"
24** A task is to make a block of ice disappear. Tim decides to dump it into the River Thames so it can melt. It leads to some back and forth between Tim and Alex, with Tim asking Alex to stop the clock repeatedly, and Alex ''refusing to do so'' until he can't see it anymore. He does stop the clock eventually. [[spoiler:Tim comes last, despite his "creative" solution]].
25** Another task from the same episode is to collect as many tears as possible. Josh and Romesh use food to produce tears, the former an onion, the latter hot chili sauce. Frank however, uses some of the production team, and collects their tears too (the task specified to collect tears, it didn't have to be ''only'' Frank's tears.)[[spoiler: Frank collects 12 tears, and wins the task]].
26* In "Little Denim Shorts":
27** Tim tries to get out of a task requiring him to grow out a nail by getting a ''written excuse'' from the director of the play he was appearing in (his character was a compulsive nail biter). It doesn't work, as Frank Skinner points out that Tim could have grown out a toenail.
28** One task is to make a Swedish person blush as much as possible. Most of the contestants understand this as trying to embarrass Frederik the Swede by getting into his personal space, asking intimate questions, and outright flirting. Roisin tries this method first and then she asks him to stand with his head between his legs to get the blood flowing to his head. [[spoiler:Roisin wins the task]].
29[[/folder]]
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31[[folder:Series Two]]
32* In "Fear of Failure", the contestants are ordered to "place these three exercise balls on the yoga mat on top of that hill." While everyone else interprets this as getting the balls up the hill and does so (with varying degrees of competency), Richard instead brings the yoga mat down from the hill and places the balls on it at the bottom, reasoning that the task simply says that the yoga mat in question ''is currently'' on top of the hill, not that it must stay there or the balls must join it there. This one ultimately required the producers to get in touch with Susie Dent, the prominent lexicographer who notably appears on ''Series/{{Countdown}}'', to judge whether Richard had interpreted the task reasonably. [[spoiler: Susie concurs with Richard's reading as being valid, enabling Richard to win the task.]] Ed Gamble suggests on the Taskmaster podcast that this moment, and Richard's getting away with it, was the very moment Taskmaster came to be defined by its lateral-thinking LoopholeAbuse.
33* The prize task for "Welcome to Rico Face" is to bring in the "coolest blue thing". Doc, Kathrine, and Richard all bring in items that are the color blue. Jon and Joe being from Northern England, however, take "blue" to mean "filth"[[note]]"Blue" has been used as a slang term for "filth" in the UK and Europe since at least the early 1800s[[/note]]. Joe brings in a vintage smut novel, and Jon brings in a fridge magnet with some sexually explicit cartoons. [[spoiler:They place second and first, respectively, in the task]].
34* In "There's Strength in Arches":
35** A task is to get some objects from one side of a water stream to another, into a shopping trolley. While everyone uses bridges, wades through the stream, or throws the items into the shopping trolley, only Richard throws the trolley ''to the items'', so transporting would be easier (the task only specifies the items have to be ''in the trolley'', there are no rules about not moving the trolley. It is worth noting that others attempted to ''push'' the trolley, but found that its wheels were locked).
36** During the same task, Richard Osman pumps up an air-bed before reading the task out loud, as foresight from other tasks has taught him that most tasks end with "Your time starts now". Ironically, this turns out to be completely unnecessary to complete the task.
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39[[folder:Series Three]]
40* In "Pea in a Haystack", a task requires contestants to propel a pea onto a red rug. However, the verb "propel" is quite vague, although most interpret it as throwing. Rob gets a score of 414.53 meters, by placing a pea in a wheelbarrow, moving it around the garden, then placing it onto the rug. In the video, Rob also has the foresight to provide the definition and explain his rationale in case Greg tries to make a rebuttal. Greg did lampshade this. [[spoiler: Rob comes second]]. Amazingly, Al abuses ExactWords even more, as he places the pea onto the rug, rolls up the rug, then carries it in a taxi for '''18 miles''', [[spoiler: winning the task comfortably]], while also burning £150 for a taxi ride to Slough for the sakes of the task.
41* In "Little Polythene Grief Cave":
42** All the contestants have to collect as much sweat as they could in 20 minutes to fill an eggcup. To avoid Frank Skinner's workaround for tears in Series 1 being repeated, the task specifies it has to be the contestant's own sweat. Sara takes a different approach as to what "own sweat" could refer to, and ''buys sweat'' off of the sound man, paying him £2 for 8 drops of sweat. Greg approves of her actions, and at the end of the task [[spoiler:she is awarded second place]].
43** The "make a flag meal" task features a rare example of Alex and Greg pointing out a loophole to the benefit of a contestant. The task has them make a meal that resembles a flag. Paul attempts to recreate the Mexican flag and comes nowhere close, but Alex points out that his meal actually bears a decent resemblance to the Mali flag. Greg then notes that they had to make a meal that looks like '''a''' flag, not necessarily the flag they were going for. [[spoiler:Greg decides to give Paul second place as a result]].
44* In "The F.I.P":
45** A task requires two teams to play charades, over a river....while wearing foam hands. One person from each team goes on one side, the other one/two to the other side of the river. They have to guess as many movies, TV Shows and Music singles as possible. Paul and Al try guessing what Dave is doing, until Dave realises he can get someone else to shout out the titles[[note]]Dave asked [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Fogle Ben Fogle]], who happened to be at the same spot doing a photo shoot[[/note]], as he isn't allowed to. [[spoiler:They win the task]].
46** Another task has the contestants try to transfer as much water as they can between two buckets placed far apart with only laughably ineffective materials to help them. They also can not move either bucket. Al Murray gets around this last part by paying Alex to move the bucket for him -- after all, the task's instructions didn't say that ''Alex'' couldn't move the buckets. This one causes a bit of controversy, however, since Sara Pascoe had ''also'' asked Alex if he could move the buckets without offering any money, with Alex refusing in a way which suggested that it would be against the rules for him to do so, and Sara ended up being disadvantaged. Instead of punishing Al (who had no idea about this), Greg instead gives Sara an extra point and punishes ''Alex'' by making him give the money to charity.
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49[[folder:Series Four]]
50* In "A fat bald white man", one task is draw an accurate picture of a person sitting behind a curtain, whom the contestants are not allowed to look at (but are allowed to ask yes or no questions to). Hugh Dennis gets a mirror out of the house, places it opposite the curtain, and, while looking in the mirror, lifts the curtain several times. He defends this to Alex by saying that looking in a mirror is looking at an ''image'' of a person, not the '''actual''' person. Greg isn't so convinced, but says that if his drawing is good enough, he'll allow it. [[spoiler: This point ends up being moot, since Greg considers his drawing to be ''[[https://imgur.com/a/YgTyLHN by far the worst]]'', and he comes stone dead last]].
51** There was a bonus point given to contestants that could find out the person's name. Hugh simply hands her a piece of paper and asks her to write it down.
52* In "Look at Me":
53** All the contestants have to draw a painting of Greg on an easel several feet away surrounded by a red mat, with only paint or paintbrushes being allowed to touch the canvas or the mat. Joe and Lolly take the task at face value and stick a paintbrush onto a long stick. Hugh puts two mats down to reach the canvas without touching the mat himself, not realising that on this occasion the wording closes that loophole. Mel and Noel decide to roll up a portion of the red mat with a paintbrush to stand next to the canvas. [[spoiler:Hugh gets disqualified, Lolly comes fourth, Mel comes third, Joe comes second, and Noel comes first]].
54** The contestants are tasked with keeping a basketball on a running treadmill without touching the ball or the treadmill. Hugh realizes that he can simply unplug the treadmill, and wins by a margin of ''months''. (It's possible that this was looked on more kindly because he only did it as the coup de grâce after using a more conventional method to keep the ball on the treadmill for significantly longer than anyone else.)
55* In "Meat":
56** A task involves putting on a wetsuit in the fastest time. Several of the competitors give up partway through, for instance after getting their legs in but before they've got their arms in and zipped it up, arguing that this counts as 'on' and that the task didn't specify 'completely on'. Noel goes further, asserting that folding up the wetsuit and placing it on his head counts as putting it on. [[spoiler:Noel gets disqualified, but the other contestants are judged to have completed the task sufficiently.]]
57** For the live task, the contestants are told to make the longest continuous noise. Hugh realised that he didn't need to use his voice and swung his belt around so that it made a whooshing noise. Although he ended up coming in second, Greg gave him a bonus point for creativity.
58* In "Spatchcock It":
59** One task is to get a stuffed camel through the smallest gap possible. Most of the contestants try to shove the camel, either whole or cut up, through small spaces. Mel, however, takes off in a taxi, and runs around with the camel in a ''"Baby GAP" store'' (the smallest of the GAP clothing brand stores). [[spoiler: Greg awards her first place for her ingenuity]].
60** In the same episode, one of the tasks involves working out what's inside a zipped up sleeping bag. The contestants are not allowed to look inside the bag or take anything out. Hugh unzips the bag, and then lifts it upside down so the contents fall out, and in the studio he argues that he hadn't physically taken anything out. [[spoiler: Greg disqualifies him.]]
61* In "No Stars for Naughty Boys," there is a three-way tie between Hugh Dennis, Joe Lycett and Lolly Adefope at the end of the episode. The tiebreaker task is to open a jar of mayo the quickest with Vaseline slathered all over it. Lolly proceeds to open it with just her hands. Hugh grabs a tea towel from the kitchen and drops it on the floor. Before reading the task, Joe asks Alex if he can complete the task without opening the task envelope if he thinks he knows what the task is, grabs a pair of gloves, and opens the jar before opening the envelope. [[spoiler:Joe wins the tiebreaker with a time of 0 seconds.]]
62* In "Tony Three Pies", the final task is for everyone to draw the median duck (the third-biggest duck). Joe Lycett simply draws a small duck and titles the picture "The Median Duck". [[spoiler:Greg rules that he wrote it rather than drawing it, although this may have been influenced by the drawing being so small that it was barely visible from where Greg was sitting.]]
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65[[folder:Series Five]]
66* In "Phoenix", one of the tasks is to remove a ball from a tube without moving the tube. Aisling Bea takes the tray the tube is attached to and it turns it upside down. [[spoiler: Sadly, she is promptly disqualified, as the tube clearly moves while she is turning it upside down.]]
67* In "A wind-dried puffin", a task requires the contestants to stack cans from a shopping trolley onto a table, while also saying "Hi, I'm from X" (X being a country) and shaking Alex's hand every 10 seconds. At the start, Alex had asked them to tie themselves to the table via a noose before reading the task out, and Bob notices that the task doesn't say he needs to ''remain'' tied up, while the others presume the opposite. [[spoiler: Bob and Mark come first, Nish comes third, Sally fourth, and Aisling last]]
68* In "Their water's so delicious", both Sally and Mark abuse the [[ExactWords wording of a task]] that wouldn't let them touch the floor, or another object that they'd been previously stood on, in order to get a coconut as far away from the Taskmaster house as possible. Mark ''piggybacks'' one of the boom operators (the task stated '''Mark''' couldn't touch the ground, not anyone else that he happens to be riding on). [[spoiler: Mark gets disqualified for immediately touching the ground when dismounting from the boom operator]]. Sally stays on a table, while Alex posts a coconut to ''the Prime Minister of Fiji''. [[spoiler:Sally comes first, as the coconut made it nearly two miles away to the post office, although posting restrictions (and presumably the 20 minute time limit) prevent it from actually being shipped any further]].
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71[[folder:Series Six]]
72* In "Tarpeters", one team task is to keep Alex as dry as possible while he's sitting under a shower. Russell and Alice first try to block the showerhead with a wheelbarrow, then realize they can simply move the showerhead away from Alex's seat. For good measure, they disconnect the hose from the shower. They then give him a dry martini, which he drinks as they are blowdrying him with hair dryers. [[spoiler:They win the task.]]
73* In "The Old Soft-Curved Padlock," there is one task where the contestants are asked to build the tallest tower using the provided lemons in a bowl and a knife. The knife can only be wielded a maximum of five times. Alice uses ExactWords to her advantage and grabs several knives from the kitchen to cut up the lemons, and in doing so, she's the only one who finds out that one of the lemons at the bottom of the bowl contains toothpicks. Russell also tries to argue that his "tower" of lemons leaning along the inside of the bowl is legitimate, supported by the dictionary definition. [[spoiler:Russell takes first place, and Alice second.]]
74* For the live task in "One Warm Prawn", the contestants were to catch the most socks to place inside their basket and avoid touching pants. Russell immediately takes off his shoes and puts ''his'' socks into the basket and although his lead was completely negated when he got "double pant-ed", he won the task.
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77[[folder:Series Seven]]
78* The team task in "My Eyes Are Circles" is to paint the best still-life portrait. One team member is blindfolded and completing the painting, while the remaining team members remain seated and direct the painter using only a given set of words. With the boys' team, Rhod decides that he and Phil would grab James's hand and guide his brush, which isn't explicitly forbidden in the rules of the task. [[spoiler:Despite protest from Jessica and Kerry that the boys veered into cheating, Greg awards the boys with 3 points and the girls with 2]].
79* In "Twelve Blush Majesty Two", one of the tasks has the contestants get a cricket ball into a golf hole on the other side of the garden. Phil uses brooms and sticks to guide the ball into the hole, Jessica does a similar thing but with pipes, which in her case, ''actively hamper her progress'', James relies on his own actual skill (and misses a par, much to his anger and frustration), and Kerry also relies on her own skill. Rhod however, manages to ''dig up the golf hole'', places it on top of the mat that was above it, drags the mat to the ball, reassembles the hole near the ball, places a pipe leading to the hole, and shoots to get a hole in one. [[spoiler: He wins the full 5 points, simply because of how outside the box his approach was.]]
80* In "OLLIE", the tie-break task is to achieve the longest flight with a paper aeroplane made from toilet paper. Rhod notices that the task doesn't specify any restrictions on propulsion, and keeps his aeroplane in the air for 20 metres by chasing it with a leafblower. [[spoiler:Greg awards him the point and the episode.]]
81* "A Coquettish Fascinator" features an instance of Greg and Alex helping out a contestant with a loophole abuse in the wording of the task (similar to the flag meal example from Series Three). Phil successfully fits all ten pairs of glasses in the box he selected, but in the process of stacking them, one of the glasses breaks. [[PetTheDog In a rare show of leniency to Phil]], Greg notes that the task requirement is not to break a ''pair'' of glasses, so his attempt is allowed to stand [[spoiler:and Phil wins this task]].
82* In "The Pendulum Draws the Eye", the contestants are tasked to discover which of 50 socks has a satsuma in it. Rhod finds a satsuma in the kitchen, puts it in a randomly-selected sock, and presents it to Alex. [[spoiler:Despite the energetic protests of the others, Greg rules this an acceptable solution, though he does give Rhod only 4 points and a tie for first place instead of giving him outright victory with 5 points, with the stated reason to "avoid all this shit" in response to accusations of bias and favouritism.]]
83* In "I Can Hear It Gooping", the contestants have to tie themselves up, with the scores being determined by how long it takes Alex to free them. Rhod thinks for a moment and realizes that there's nothing in the wording that prevents him from tying Alex up before he ties himself up. [[spoiler:Rhod wins the task by securing Alex tightly enough that Alex can't free himself and has to wait for Rhod to come back and untie him.]]
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86[[folder:Series Eight]]
87* From the episode "A Novel About Russian Gulags":
88** A task is to run as far as possible while continuously making a noise. Iain interprets this as him beatboxing while running. [[spoiler: He gets last place, as there were gaps between his beats]].
89** There is a task to transport the most rice from the lab to a bottle in the living room, which they're not allowed to move out of the living room. [[spoiler:Paul Sinha]] points out that there's no rule against actually ''moving'' the bottle closer to the lab, and he just takes it from the living room to the lab. [[spoiler:This places Paul last, because, as Greg and Alex point out in the studio, while you can indeed ''move'' the bottle, you can't however, take the bottle ''out of the living room!''. Cue FacePalm by Paul, and a disqualification, but he does end up getting a point for admitting his mistake]].
90* In "The Barrel Dad", a task requires contestants to get a loo roll through a toilet seat hanging up from a wire above them. Iain completely fails to spot the hanging toilet seat, and instead uses the house's toilet. He then decides to unravel the toilet paper so that only the cardboard tube remains. He then passes it through the house's toilet seat, and finishes the task. [[spoiler:His interpretation of the rules is welcomed by Greg, and he gets 5 points for being the quickest]].
91* In "Rock 'n' Roll Umlaut", a task is to score a soccer goal from the greatest distance. Iain notices that the instructions don't require the goal to be scored in the goal net provided, and finds a wider practice goal for his attempt, allowing him to shoot with confidence from farther back. [[spoiler:Greg allows this, but Iain scores 0 points anyway because his distance proves to be overconfident and he misses the goal.]]
92* The first task of "I've Been a Bit Ill" is to propel the first ball you touch into a wastepaper bin, with the most bounces winning from first release.
93** Lou and Sian are unlucky enough to "select" their respective balls (a whiffle ball and a rubber band ball, respectively, neither of which are particularly bouncy) before reading the task out loud. After several attempts, Sian bounces her ball by putting it in a fishnet and bouncing it on the pavement. Meanwhile, Lou ties a piece of string to her ball and uses it as a lead to bounce her ball. [[spoiler:Lou wins the task, and Sian comes second]]
94** Iain affords himself some time to select his balls first by tipping over the drum upon which they were sitting and then by picking them up with books to test their bounciness. He ends up selecting the appropriately-named bouncy ball.
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97[[folder:Series Nine]]
98* In "Quisps", the task is to first pick a letter at random, and then put as many things in the house starting with that letter on the tray. David Baddiel mistakenly picks "Q" before he realizes the purpose of the task, then attempts to get around the rule by claiming he has a speech impediment and pronouncing the name of each thing he put on the tray as if it started with a Q (quock, quamera, etc.). Greg does not buy it, only allowing "quoffee" because, as David himself noted in his attempt, it sounds like a New York pronunciation of "coffee". [[spoiler:A wasted opportunity too, as it turns out, because production had filled the house with several Q items in anticipation of someone picking it.]]
99* In "Another Spoon," the contestants are tasked with lassoing Alex from behind a line (marked by masking tape) right at the doorstep of the Taskmaster house. As most of the contestants find, there is not much room from where they are standing to swing the rope around to lasso Alex. However, Ed, Jo and Rose realise that they can move the line all the way to Alex and then lasso him from the shortened distance. [[spoiler:Jo completes the task in 80 seconds and receives the 5 points. Rose takes 1 minute before she moves the line and another minute and 20 seconds to successfully lasso Alex and receives 4 points. Amusingly, Ed takes over 9 minutes to complete the task (longer than Katy, who took over 7 minutes without moving the line) because it takes him so long to come to that conclusion and receives 2 points]].
100* In "A Cuddle," the first pre-recorded task is to score the highest amount of points by throwing an entire egg into the "metal things," with any unbroken eggs doubling the score. The egg must be released from the starting chair and that chair and those metal things could not be moved around. David, after trying the straightforward approach of tossing eggs at the metal receptacles, uses ExactWords and cracks one of his eggs while sitting on his chair ("releasing" his egg) and then emptied the contents into one of the metal things. [[spoiler:Greg rules that David's is a valid interpretation of the word "release" and David scores three points.]]
101* In "Shaqinahat", the contestants have to throw something into a pedal bin from the furthest distance with the caveat that the bin's lid must be closed when the object is thrown. While Rose and Katy come up with rickety contraptions to press the pedal from a distance, Jo simply gets a crew member to open the lid for her. Ed, meanwhile, uses ExactWords by kicking out the ''bottom'' of the bin and flipping it upside down so that the lid itself is never opened while he completes the task.
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104[[folder:Series Ten]]
105* In "God's Haemorrhoid":
106** Katherine and Daisy ''think'' they're doing this when tasked with knocking a coconut off a pole. Instead of using the balls provided, they run up and use their hands and each receive a giant teddy bear as a prize. However, their elation soon fades when it turned out [[BaitAndSwitch that there's a follow-up task]].
107** In the follow-up task, Katherine tries to get around the condition that she's not allowed to walk on the grass while holding drinks by "tippy-toe running" on the grass while holding drinks. [[spoiler:Her argument is all for naught, because she spills her drinks, disqualifying her from the task anyway.]]
108* In "Hippopotamus":
109** The contestants have to create cocktails, with the caveat being that they have to throw out their efforts if they make any noise exceeding 60 decibels. After numerous failed attempts, Mawaan realizes that he now has a bin full of mixed ingredients and decides to pour some in a glass (along with bits of muck and hair that had been in the bin as well) for Alex to sample.
110** One task requires the contestants to draw a picture of "the animal that is watching you" while looking into a two-way mirror at all times, with the added clue that the animal is wearing a hat. The intended solution is for the contestants to work out that there's a statue of a duck wearing a fez on the other side of the mirror. Johnny, however, happens to be wearing a hat as part of his outfit, and since he reasons that he's technically an animal and is technically watching himself by looking into the mirror, he simply draws a self-portrait. After some convincing from Johnny and Alex, Greg concedes that this tactic is allowed by the ExactWords of the task [[spoiler:and declares Johnny the winner (as it's also a good self-portrait).]]
111** The next task requires the contestants to move water from Barrel A to Barrel B within 10 minutes, while not being allowed to move the barrels until 5 minutes have passed, with Barrel A continuously emptying throughout the task. Mawaan readies a garden hose, and when the 5 minutes have passed he lifts Barrel A above Barrel B and sprays the hose into it, causing the water to then pour into Barrel B. [[spoiler:This technique comfortably wins him the task, even though he had lost most of the water originally in Barrel A.]]
112* In "Moments of Silence," the task is to extract and then drink a tablespoon of coconut water. The task takes place in the lab and each contestant is provided two whole coconuts and several implements on the table. There is a caveat that if two or more contestants choose the same extraction method, they would each be disqualified. Katherine, after pondering all the items, takes another look at the task, then walks out of the lab into the kitchen and grabs a coconut water drink. [[spoiler:Despite being the slowest, Katherine wins the task because the other contestants were all either disqualified, or used similar but non identical methods to each other.]]
113* In "Dog Meat Trifle", the contestants are tasked to neatly put clothes on a clothes rack about 8 feet away, but must not ''step'' outside of the small square they are standing in. The contestants use the hangers, the clothes and mannequin provided to hook the rack and drag it to them, but Katherine is the only one who thinks to lie down with her feet inside the square to do so. Since she never stepped outside, Richard is perfectly willing to argue in favour of her strategy with Greg.
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116[[folder:New Year Treat 2020]]
117* The task is to fit the largest item through the hole of a donut without breaking the donut itself. All of the contestants come up with fairly Loophole-y solutions to the task, to varying degrees of success:
118** Krishnan uses a long rope to tie multiple items together, arguing that once tied they qualify as "one item". [[spoiler:Greg allows it, though he only gets third.]]
119** Shirley uses a knife to cut out the center of one of the donuts, expanding the size of the hole she has to work with and allowing her to get a large pipe through the donut hole. [[spoiler:Greg allows it, and she gets second.]]
120** John tries several different approaches before realizing he could use liquid and pours a large amount of tea through the donut. [[spoiler:It's allowed, but the revelation comes late enough in the task that he only gets enough tea through to qualify for fourth place.]]
121** Nicola puts the donut on the tip of a cactus, arguing that because part of the cactus did go through the hole, the whole cactus should count as her item. [[spoiler:Greg ''does not'' allow it, saying that the only thing she got through the hole was a small chunk of cactus. Nicola finishes last.]]
122** Rylan uses a camera and some ForcedPerspective trickery to make it appear like he got a life-size plastic cow through the hole of the donut. [[spoiler:Greg allows it, specifically because "[[LampshadeHanging it will piss off a bunch of people on the internet]]". Rylan wins the task.]]
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124
125[[folder:Series Eleven]]
126* In "Premature Conker," one of the tasks is to get a sheet of toilet paper as far away from its original location as possible without tearing the toilet paper, letting it touch the ground, or taking it off the inner tube. Jamali and Lee both note that nothing in the instructions say they can't detach the toilet roll holder from the wall while still keeping the toilet paper on its inner tube at all times. [[spoiler:Jamali wins the task, but Lee gets disqualified after it's shown that he briefly removed the toilet paper from the inner tube to make it easier to detach the roll holder from the wall.]]
127* In "An Orderly Species", the first task is to continuously say "metronome" between every tick of a metronome while performing three smaller tasks: blowing a balloon bigger than your head, neatly gift-wrapping the balloon and eating three whole poppadoms. Jamali does the first two tasks but realizes he can't do the last one without slipping up, so he records himself on his phone saying "metronome" a bunch of times then plays it back while he eats. [[spoiler:This earns him second place alongside Lee with three mistakes since Mike manages to do the whole thing with only one mistake.]]
128[[/folder]]
129
130[[folder:Series Twelve]]
131* In "Croissants is Croissants", the task is to prevent Alex from scoring a goal: Alex must kick the ball from a red dot, and the contestants must be at least 12 yards away from the dot while Alex is attempting to score:
132** While the other contestants created barriers to block the goalpost, Guz instead moves the dot and ball inside the house, covering it with furniture and taping the doors closed for good measure. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Alex turns it around on him]], as nothing in the rules state the ball couldn’t be recovered and moved back to its original position. Furthermore, because of the aforementioned "12 yard distance" rule, Guz can't move the ball again. Because of the 3 minutes it took Alex to recover the ball and 2 and a half minutes of goalkeeping the old-fashioned way, his attempt earned him third place.]]
133** Alex makes use of his own loopholes against Morgana and Alan, who both tip the goal over so that the opening is facing the opposite direction from where Alex is kicking from: there's no rule saying that Alex can't prop the goal back up before taking his shot, and in Morgana's case, there's no rule that Alex can't just grab a pair of scissors to cut a hole in the netting and shoot the ball through that. In this case, though, the effort required still delays him long enough that Morgana and Alan take first and second place, respectively.
134* In "A Chair in a Sweet", one of the tasks is to sit in the red chair in the secret tower. Victoria [[FailedASpotCheck fails to see the red chair]] and reasons that if she sits on one of the red circles provided to her as part of the task, it counts as sitting in a red chair under the definition of a chair being something you can sit on. [[spoiler:Greg allows Victoria's definition of "red chair" to stand since she already had to live with the public embarrassment of wondering out loud if the chair could be inside a tiny sweet, but she still comes in last on the task.]]
135* In "Nothing Matters", Alan, Guz, and Victoria all struggle on the "get goosebumps" task and ultimately go for creative interpretations of what constitutes goosebumps. Alan presents a frozen chicken with bumps on it, Guz brings in a plastic chicken that he claims had contracted goosebumps (the "bump" being an apple he had placed under its tail), and Victoria draws goosebumps on her arm with a marker. [[spoiler:Greg allows Alan's interpretation to get points, but not Guz or Victoria's.]]
136* In "Caring Uncle Minpict", the contestants have to drink a pint of Ribena with the caveat that their mouths have to be open the whole time. While Guz, Morgana, and Victoria all gag and struggle, Alan realizes that using a straw leaves a small gap open in his lips and successfully finishes the task with little problem. Desiree, on the other hand, downs the whole thing in one go.
137[[/folder]]
138
139[[folder:Series Thirteen]]
140* In "Having a Little Chuckle", one task is to raise the water level in a tank to a specified level by adding exactly six items. Ardal's sixth item is "water", which he keeps adding until the tank is at the required level. [[spoiler:Greg allows it, and Ardal wins the task.]]
141* In "The 75th Question", one task is 'Record the highest number on this pedometer.' While the other contestants attempt various tricks to increase the pedometer count, Bridget sits on the pedometer and makes a recording on her phone of herself saying the number "eleven trillion gazillion". [[spoiler:Greg allows it (though excluding the "gazillion" as not being a real number), and Bridget wins the task.]]
142* In "You Tuper Super", the contestants are required to hold a conversation with Fred the Swede after spending fifteen minutes cramming the Swedish language. Bridget phones her brother, who speaks Swedish, and has him coach her through the conversation. [[spoiler:Alex notes that this technically fulfills the task, which says "Best demonstration of the Swedish language wins" but doesn't specify that it has to be the contestant giving the demonstration. Greg awards Bridget second place.]]
143* In "The House Queens", one task is to "Get the most ducks in Alex's basket", which is on the back of a tricycle Alex rides around during the task. Bridget pulls the basket off the back of the tricycle and carries it over to the table with the rubber ducks on, allowing her to easily transfer all the ducks into the basket within the allowed time. [[spoiler:Greg accepts this solution, which doesn't contravene the task as written, but Bridget is disqualified for a separate infraction, picking up several ducks at once despite the task clearly stating that the contestant "may only hold one duck at a time".]]
144[[/folder]]
145
146[[folder:Series Fourteen]]
147* In "Enormous Hugeness":
148** The ducks and socks task states that contestants can't touch any ducks or socks that touch the ground. To counter this, Munya places the ubiquitous bathtub at the end of the treadmill conveyor belt to catch anything he misses so he can try again. [[spoiler:Unfortunately this ends up hindering him, as just before the end of the task he falls into it trying to catch the last batch, which results in several of his items spilling out of his catch buckets.]] Dara, on the other hand, puts all the remaining ducks and socks in two separate bags before putting them on the conveyor belt which enables him to collect almost all the ducks and socks in two fell swoops.
149** During the grapes and flour task, Dara realizes that the task doesn't specify which grapes he needs to use and that there's no need to dig through the pile of flour in front of him. Instead, he runs to the kitchen to grab a package of grapes. Hilariously, he fails to spot the grapes secreted around the garage despite them being mere inches away in his line of sight.
150[[/folder]]
151
152[[folder:Series Fifteen]]
153* In "The Curse of Politeness", one of the tasks involves unravelling a ball of string. Printed on the other side of the task sheet was another task to put a neat ball of string on a provided cushion. Jenny is rolling up the ball of string again when she realises that the second task doesn't specify how big the final ball has to be, so she breaks off the string and places a tiny ball on the cushion. [[spoiler:Jenny comes second in the task.]]
154** Mae's solution shaves some time off--instead of re-wrapping their ball of string, a quick glance through the drawers behind them reveals a pre-made string ball.
155* In "How Heavy is the Water?", one of the tasks involves hitting a drum as many times as possible with a single throw of a ball. Mae gets the idea to attach a piece of string to the ball in order to continue moving it after it leaves their hand, leading to an insurmountable total. Notably, this caused some controversy in the studio over whether this constituted a single throw and should be allowed. [[spoiler:Greg allowed the attempt on the basis that it would annoy the other contestants.]]
156* In "Schrodinger's Egg", the "don't pulp the egg (while you can't see the egg)" task states that contestants are not allowed to leave their spots. Ivo realises there's nothing saying he can't ''move'' the spot as long as he stays on it, and shuffles around to retrieve the egg from its place. [[spoiler:Greg allows this interpretation, and Ivo turns the pulper wheel far more times than anyone else, handily winning the task.]]
157* In "A Show About Pedantry", the team task is to paint a set of white plastic vegetables to be the same colour as a set of real vegetables. Ivo and Frankie conclude that the wording of the task will be equally fulfilled if they paint the real vegetables the same colour as the plastic ones. [[spoiler:Greg agrees, and awards them equal points with the other team.]]
158[[/folder]]
159
160[[folder:Series Sixteen]]
161* "The Natural Friends"
162** For the "connect as many parts of yourself possible with your teammates" task, Sam Campbell comes up with the clever solution of cutting off a lock of each team member's hair and connecting those, hence forming nigh-infinite connections. [[spoiler:This turns out to be part one of a two part task, the second part being to cross a finish line, so Sam and his teammates run away (literally) with the task.]]
163** For the "get this duck into the lake without touching the boundaries, the pineapples or the flamingos" task, Sue Perkins realises she can spread the boundaries wider and move the pineapples and flamingos out of the way[[note]]although she takes so long doing so that she only comes third[[/note]]. Notably, Lucy Beaumont reacts with shock verging on outrage in the studio, having [[GenreBlind not realised they could do that]].
164* "I'm Off to Find a Robin"
165** In the 'balance these tees on the shelf' task, Sam Campbell balances some tees on the task envelope and hangs it off the shelf, and then places the entire bowl of tees on the shelf. Meanwhile, Sue Perkins sticks the pointy end of the tees into the shelf. [[spoiler:Greg allows the tees Sam hangs off the shelf in the envelope, and appears initially to allow his bowl of tees as well, but eventually disallows both that and Sue's effort. It also ends up being completely moot as both Sam and Sue get disqualified for hitting the disqualification switch anyway.]]
166* From "Never Packed A Boot":
167** In the fortune trail task, Sue interprets 'toss five heads in a row' as allowing her to somehow 'toss her own head', which in her mind means lying down on the ground in the push-up position and circling her head around. [[spoiler:Greg disallows her reading of the task, as it specified a standard coin toss. Sue failed to convince him that somewhere in the world, that could well be standard.]]
168** In the 'convince this child you're asleep' task, Sam doesn't even try to make it look like he's sleeping, just placing a plastic flamingo in the bed instead. However, he has the flamingo open its eyes and talk to Flossie, promising her £100 if she claims he's asleep - effectively bribing her into giving him the win. [[spoiler:This works, and Greg allows him five points.]]
169* Throughout the season, the contestants used their lack of competitiveness to break ''many'' of the studio tasks with collaboration.
170** "Skateboard Division" had a live task where a contestant would be disqualified if they moved past the line to retrieve the drink they needed to drink. Nothing stopped a contestant from reaching past the line for another comedian's drink instead. [[note]]This was originally suggested as a way for a contestant who had already lost to help, but Sue sacrificed her valid finish to help Julian.[[/note]]
171** In "Brother Alex," the comedians were told to pass three pineapples amongst themselves so that Greg could guess which three competitors had the pineapples at the end of it. It took exactly one round for Julian to realize that nothing said that there had to be one pineapple per person, and two for the Sues and Sam to realize that nothing said that the comedians had to stay on stage or ''keep'' their pineapples.[[note]]In the second round, Lucy made Julian hold two of the three pineapples. In the third, Sue and Susan each left the stage to hide one and Sam took his to hide behind the Taskmaster.[[/note]]
172** When the rules for the live task of "I'm Off To Find A Robin" were read, requiring the comedians to use grabbers to toss balls into their hats, Sue immediately asked if they were allowed to help each other. Naturally, all five had a much easier time than intended using their grabbers to place balls into their neighbors' hats, with all working together to make sure Sue got all three in within the time limit despite a guaranteed last place.
173[[/folder]]
174
175[[folder:Champion of Champions III]]
176* In the task to 'be the best waiter', the contestants have to first find Alex, then serve him his food without spilling it. Sophie finds Alex but gets around the problem of spilling by forcing Alex to come with her back to where the food is, rather than carrying it to him. Kiell, on the other hand, never finds Alex at all, but instead claims one of the decoy Alex mannequins to be an 'Alex', citing the task from Series 15 where Mae Martin successfully argued that pictures of pineapples counted as pineapples. [[spoiler:Greg allows Sophie's reading of the rules, and she wins the task, but Kiell gets disqualified.]]
177[[/folder]]
178
179!!International Taskmasters
180!!!Taskmaster Denmark (aka Stormester)
181* One task is "lav det højeste tårn", translated "make the tallest tower". In regular danish, "lav" means "make", but colloquially it can also be used to mean "fix", meaning that "repair the tallest tower" is an unusual but acceptable reading. Rather than building a tower, Heino Hansen drives all the way to repair a crack in Rundetårn with tape.
182
183!!!Taskmaster Finland (aka Suurmestari)
184* During the Finnish version of the "collect the most tears" task, Mikko Leppilampi hits upon the idea of filling the cup with tear-shaped crystals from the Suurmestari House's chandelier and then using a bottle of artificial tears. In this case, his reading of the rules is disallowed.
185
186!!!Taskmaster Sweden (aka Bäst i test)
187* The contestants are given the task to make a train honk. Marko "Markoolio" Lehtosalo first tries going to a train station to ask the conductors to honk while they're stopped but has no luck finding anyone willing to do so. Then he comes to the realisation (complete with a "ding" sound effect added) that a train can also be a procession of people. So he organises the bystanders around the station into a human train with himself in the lead, then [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud goes "Honk, honk, honk!" himself]]. The semantics expert the show consults judges his interpretation as legit, and he wins the task.
188* For the Swedish version of the "Move Water From Bucket A to Bucket B" task, [[spoiler:Clara Henry]] realizes that the task prevents contestants from moving the buckets, but doesn't prevent David from doing so. In this instance, it's far less controversial than what occurred in the UK original as David simply agrees to help -- rather than caving into bribery despite insisting he won't help anyone like Alex did in Series 3.
189* The contestants had to gather a number of balloons in a yard without being seen by David, who would be hiding in a shed and intermittently come out and look around for them. One contestant noticed that there was a deadbolt on the outside of the door and, while David was inside, snuck up and locked it. Since he couldn't get out, he couldn't spot her, so she was free to gather the balloons unbothered. It was just gutsy enough to be allowed.
190
191!!!Taskmaster Spain (aka Dicho y hecho)
192* The first task of the first episode is a classic one: “Make a portrait of a horse while on top of another horse”. Pablo Carbonell makes a painting, and then realises the rules don’t imply the necessity of paint or a frame, opting finally for making a portrait... with his phone camera.
193* One episode features a task previously seen in Series 4 of the original version: to fell a series of arranged rubber ducks, using a series of implements, but standing always behind a red rope, getting in front of it only to prepare the objects that were going to be used. Actress Goizalde Nuñez decides to move the rope and fell the ducks with her own hands, since the rules don't specify that the rope couldn't be moved.
194
195!!!Taskmaster Australia
196* In "Foot Juice", one of the tasks is to fill a glass of orange juice. Next to the glass is a bucket of oranges, but the contestants can only touch the oranges with the items on the bench that range from a weight to a pair of Crocs. Julia ignores the oranges and the items on the bench and simply gets a carton of orange juice from the kitchen to pour into the glass, since nothing in the task said the contestants couldn't use or touch items that were not on the bench. [[spoiler:She wins the task.]]
197* In "Cricketmaster", given the task to "fly this thong[[note]]that is, [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage a flip-flop]][[/note]] the furthest distance", Julia opts to stick the thong in the fly of her pants and run with it, 'flying' it that way. [[spoiler:The Taskmaster accepts this interpretation, and Julia runs away with the task, running over 200 metres before the thong falls out, whereas the next furthest distance was only about 40 metres.]]
198* In "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM", the contestants are given the task to sink a bowling ball with the twist that the bowling ball floats in water. Most of the contestants submerge the ball underneath water by making it heavier or putting it underneath something heavy, but Luke instead just puts the ball into a kitchen sink. [[spoiler:His interpretation gets three points.]]
199* In "Don't ask me what a JC is", Luke says that he's discovered a loophole in the "make a miniature version of yourself" task and, instead of all the other contestants who make doll-like versions of themselves with food, balloons, and other materials, just takes a photo of himself and repeatedly shrinks it on the tablet until it's barely visible on the tablet screen. [[spoiler:He comes in last as Tom Gleeson points out that the task was to make the ''best'' miniature of yourself, not the smallest.]]
200
201!!!Taskmaster Norway (aka Kongen befaler)
202* Season 4: In "Tuja be continued", the contestants must count to the highest number in a given time which leads all but one frantically saying numbers as fast as possible from one. Amir took a different approach by counting by the millions and then billions since the task didn't specify ''how'' to count to the highest number. He ended up with a number of ''forty billion'' and first place, beating the second-highest number of 139 in a landslide.
203
204* Season 5:
205** When given the task of bouncing something the highest in "Something bomb-y", Kristine gets a helium balloon and bounces it off a trampoline which then proceeds to float away. Since she argues the balloon will eventually come down, just that the bounce would have a much longer hangtime, Atle and Ollie accepts the interpretation and awards her first place
206** In "Inflatable Armchair", one task was to attach the most stickers on your face without going over the time limit. While the other contestants individually peel off the stickers from the given sticker sheets, Kristine stuck an entire sticker sheet to her face and was thus able to stick a lot of stickers on at once which granted her first place.
207
208* Season 7
209** One of the tasks featured is the Norwegian version of "hold the milk cartons above the microwaves for as long as possible". Like the original version of the task, Olli discourages the contestants from opening the task sheet immediately. Hani Hussein ignores Olli, and she ends up in fourth place with a time of 4 minutes and 13 seconds. The next task shown involves the contestants doing something better; and Hani decides to re-do her attempt for the microwaves task, this time just walking out of the lab without ever opening the task sheet. [[spoiler:Hani not only wins the improvement task, but she is also retroactively moved from fourth to first place for the microwaves task.]]
210** The live task for "You had me at school bun" had the contestants have to stack a teacup-and-saucer tower and go underneath a bar with it in hand without falling over with the rule that it must have the same number of teacups and saucers. The contestants chose to alternatively stack the teacups and saucers, making them not easy to hold and very likely to fall. Hani, however, stacks her tower with the saucers at the bottom and teacups on top making it more stable and Ollie accepts her interpretation as the task only stated the number but not the arrangement, winning the live task as a result.
211
212!!Other Taskmaster-related content
213* The first "[=HomeTasking=]" challenge given online to viewers was to submit a video of them throwing a piece of paper into a bin in some spectacular way. One of the entries has the participant, after their first throw causes the paper to land outside the bin, throw a second bin on top of the paper so that their paper is now technically into a bin after the initial throw. It gets 7th place.

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