British series:
Series: One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen
Specials: New Year Treat | New Year Treat II | New Year Treat III | New Year Treat IV
New Zealand series:
Seasons: One | Two | Three | Four
Australian Series:
Seasons: One
Al Murray
"What price glory?"note
A comedian best known for his "Pub Landlord" character.
- Big Fun: Al is clearly enjoying himself throughout the show, and leaped on the chance to help out Joe with a task in the next series.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: When tasked with moving water from one bucket to another, but prohibited from moving either buckets, Al gets Alex to do the moving for him by waving cash around.Al: You like the money, don't you? He likes the money!
- The Bus Came Back: He’s the first non-champion to return as a contestant, albeit in special Google-sponsored online-only tasks in late 2021.
- The Cameo: Has occasionally appeared on later episodes, like when a group is required. Greg notes with amusement that he won't let go of the series.
- Continuity Nod: During a Google-sponsored task, he wishes he could’ve used the technology to prove urine and sweat were the same thing, which was something he insisted was true back in Series 3.
- Home Field Advantage: He lives close to the Taskmaster House, so he knows how to quickly source rare and unusual objects from nearby, such as a gong. He's also able to appear as a cameo at short notice to assist later competitors.
- In-Series Nickname: The rest of the cast start calling Al "Moneybags Murray" for flashing his cash around to win tasks.
- Sherlock Scan: Does a decent amateur job in Episode 4, where he manages to guess anaesthetist Hugh's job in 2 minutes 8 seconds (when others took over 42 minutes). Al knew it must have been a job that didn't involve any manual labour because Hugh had soft hands.
- Those Two Guys: In the studio, you can often see Al and Dave giggling together at Paul's antics, which Al notes fondly in the podcast.
- Uncle Pennybags: A loveable guy who spent over £380 during the pre-recorded tasks.
Dave Gorman
"I did not cheat!"
"Now you're not in trouble, but I'm going to ask you directly now: did you cheat?"
— The Taskmaster
A comedian known for his stand-up series Modern Life Is Goodish.
- The Cameo: He made an appearance in "The leprechaun or the lesbian", when he helped model Aisling's Yorkshire pudding hat.note
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: He got caught trying to juke his task results twice. He only admits to one because of incontrovertible video evidence.Greg: Have you cheated?Dave: ... might have done.Alex: Well we did film it.
- Also averted. Dave admits on the podcast cheating at least once and not getting caught, when he used some saliva in the 'collect sweat in the eggcup' task.
- Did Not Think This Through: He attempted to cheat the fill-a-bucket task by pouring some tea into the bucket when no one was looking, somehow forgetting that he was shooting a segment for a TV show and surrounded by cameras.
- Fish out of Water: While not nearly as clueless to the same degree as David Baddiel or Paul Sinha, Dave's fairly routine task attempts (apart from the outright cheating incidents) surprised Greg, since Dave is known for his meticulous and well-researched stand up sets. Examples include his reading of the "fewest steps" task as being "in steps only, but as few as possible" and the task to pop as many balloons, where he dove right in and used his teeth rather than planning it out.
- Implausible Deniability: When interviewed by Ed on the Taskmaster podcast, Dave prompts Ed to stress "alleged" when discussing Dave's cheating.
- Irony: During a task to play charades and guess 20 books, shows and movies while wearing foam hands, Dave asked a nearby man (Coincidentally, TV personality Ben Fogle) to shout the answers to the other players 500 feet away. The team scored 19/20 as everyone failed to guess Dave’s own show Modern Life Is Goodish and even in the studio Alex accidentally calls it Modern Life is Rubbish, to Dave’s annoyance.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: On the podcast, Dave concedes that his cheating comes up fairly often when people discuss the show with him. He then laughs when Ed says the topic dominated the fans' emails for that episode too.
- Refuge in Audacity: In a task to create a meal that looks like a flag, Dave requests a bottle of champagne as an ingredient, then drinks it while cooking without putting it in the meal. Greg's amused enough that he doesn't penalise Dave for it.
- Those Two Guys: In the studio, you can often see Al and Dave giggling together at Paul's antics, which Al notes fondly in the podcast.
Paul Chowdhry
"Bastard's crying, innit?"
A comedian who was a regular performer on Stand Up For the Week for two series, before taking over as the host for the fifth and final series.
- Butt-Monkey: In "A Very Nuanced Character", he was set the task of having the most fun on a bouncy castle for an hour. Clips from his attempt book-ended each advert break.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: His rather odd attempts at the tasks coupled with his serious personality quickly marked him out as one of the contestants whose attempts Greg was looking forward to watching.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Began using them in the Series 3 finale “The F.I.P”.(After Rob is revealed to be winning a task where he moved water between buckets using a foam cup found nearby)Paul : That’s not fair cause... (points to Rob) Rob Bucket.(Beat)
- Not So Stoic: Paul's deadpan demeanour has limits, such as when he thought he had completed the task to guess Hugh's profession.Paul (whispering): He's a doctor.
Alex (whispering): What sort of doctor, Paul?
Paul (whispering): Oh for fuck's sake you fucking bastard. - Sad Clown: His infamous attempt at “make the best snowman” left the panel with both tears of laughter and concern for his well-being.Sara: I’m starting to think we shouldn’t be laughing at Paul.Greg: I have so many questions I wanna ask you. My first question is... “Is everything alright?”
- The Stoic: He always speaks in a deadpan tone and his facial expressions are hidden by his beard. Greg actually had to prod him for a happy reaction in one episode.
- Verbal Tic: Ends most questions with “innit?”Paul : Bastard’s crying, innit?
- Unreliable Narrator: When talking to Ed Gamble on the official podcast, Paul’s recollection of the show were exaggerated for laughs, but it means some of the claims he made can’t really be taken as fact unless it was backed up by someone else.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Even before finding out it was a task he was being singled out for, Paul appeared particularly flummoxed by the prompt for his Bouncy Castle task.Paul: (reading the card) "Have the most fun on this bouncy castle. You have one hour!" (to Alex) One hour?!
Rob Beckett
"The edit of this could end my career."
"I thought I saw your teeth visibly growing, you were so pleased."
— The Taskmaster
A comedian and team captain on 8 Out of 10 Cats.
- Butt-Monkey:
- Scheduling was not his friend, as he had to perform several physical tasks outdoors in unusually cold weather. He was also in bad condition on those days, because his wife had just given birth and he was getting little sleep.
- In "Little Polythene Grief Cave", all the contestants had to collect as much sweat as they could in 20 minutes to fill an eggcup. Rob was given the extra rule that he was not allowed to speak in his natural accent during the task, despite the fact that he apparently can't imitate any other existing accents.
- Genius Ditz: Rob is very up-front in the studio that he doesn't put much thought into his approach to tasks. Nonetheless, he is statistically one of the the most successful contestants across the show's history, having had the highest percentage of his maximum potential score, which he held until being surpassed by Series 13's Sophie Duker.Rob: It's not normal that I use words to my advantage.
- In-Series Nickname: Greg dubbed him and Sara Pascoe "The Aryan Twins".
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: For the collect-the-most-sweat task, he was forced to speak in different accents precisely because he's known to be incapable of imitating any. Although he tried many different accents, it's anyone's guess as to which accents he was going for.
Sara Pascoe
"Anyone else want a go of throwing a pea? It's pretty fun."
A comedian and actress who had supporting roles in Twenty Twelve and W1A.
- Achievements in Ignorance: While playing Charades in "The FIP", Sara simply began yelling out guesses and managed to give three correct answers even without Rob miming anything. Then a passerby randomly suggested another correct answer.
- Comedic Sociopathy: When tasked with surprising Alex, her first idea was to kidnap his children and tie them to a chair (because kids wriggle around). She then decided to pretend she had killed a crew member, and Alex thought for a second she might have actually hurt someone.
- Cuteness Proximity: While playing a timed game of Charades, she becomes distracted by a dog that happened to be passing by and pauses to pet and praise it, to the annoyance of Rob.
- Sara was also quite taken with her adorable little snowman Scoopy, despite the fact he was made out of ice cream.
- Exact Words: When tasked with filling an eggcup with her 'own sweat' (obviously phrased to avoid contestants collecting sweat from the crew, as Frank did with tears in Series 1), Sara bought sweat off a cameraman for £2, which she could use as she now owned it.
- Hidden Depths: Sara is surprisingly athletic (particularly for her profession, which Al on the podcast lampshades), allowing her to do things like cartwheel across a track.
- In-Series Nickname: Greg dubbed her and Rob Beckett "The Aryan Twins".
- Stepford Smiler: Deliberately gives off this vibe when she cheerfully talks about how she managed to avoid killing herself after Take That (Band) split up
- Take That!: She delivers a couple against Take That (Band). Although she's a long-time fan, she was supremely disappointed to learn of the members' tax-avoidance scandal.
- The Smurfette Principle: Sara was the only woman in her series, just like her two female predecessors, Roisin Conaty and Katherine Ryan.
