Television Taskmaster | Series 18 starts tonight

Excellent first episode I loved all the contestants this time round. The best thing too is they are all at the same level of competency at the tasks with no body boring us like Mae or John Robbins looking for loopholes every task.

This should be a good season
 
Really good start. Love that they’ve got Rosie Jones on. She’s great. Really tough to listen to sometimes, and it makes me feel bad for even saying it. You have to reprogram what you think about comedic timing as she can’t spit out a rapid line. But the girl is funny. Having seen her perform stand up live has helped a little bit.

The rest of the cast are great. Emma throwing shit ruined me. The yoga ball missing absolutely everything just sent me. As did Jack pulling a string and pulling none of them over.
 
Definitely a strong start to the series. Liked all the contestants and the in studio interactions were very good.

"I didn't learn throwing at school, I'm a comedian" :lol:
 
I still applaud them for being exclusive but at the same time they've just made it unwatchable really.

You can't have such big gaps where the comedian spends ages (inaudibly at times) getting out a simple comment. They're having to laugh track those moments as if they're long building jokes coming to a punchline. It's all a bit patronising.
 
Yeah I'm hesitant to agree, mostly because I'm sure there's enough people complaining about it and probably being horrible about it. But I do find it breaks the flow quite a bit. It doesn't help that what she says isn't really that funny to me (e.g. the belly button scrape was just gross).
 
Smores said:
I still applaud them for being exclusive but at the same time they've just made it unwatchable really.

You can't have such big gaps where the comedian spends ages (inaudibly at times) getting out a simple comment. They're having to laugh track those moments as if they're long building jokes coming to a punchline. It's all a bit patronising.
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:lol:
 
Smores said:
I still applaud them for being exclusive but at the same time they've just made it unwatchable really.

You can't have such big gaps where the comedian spends ages (inaudibly at times) getting out a simple comment. They're having to laugh track those moments as if they're long building jokes coming to a punchline. It's all a bit patronising.
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It’s not patronising, it’s accomodating. If the Taskmaster audience can’t accept that 20% of the series content requires them to listen a little harder, and adjust how their idea of joke timing and cadence works for one fifth of the show… what chance does the average person with her condition have in regular life?

Rosie Jones is filthy and funny. She writes great jokes, and has done for many of the great shows that everyone else enjoys. It’s just her speed of speech. That’s it.

Of course I wouldn’t watch the show if it was five people with cerebral palsy. It would be too tough for me. I don’t particularly like what that says about me. But allowing myself to try a little, for one people out of five? Not that big a deal.

I’d also far rather Rosie Jones than the likes of Katherine Ryan or David Baddiel, plus a whole host of others. I also found the lockdown episodes far more off putting that the slight adjustments they’ve made in studio timings this time around.

Kind of hope that people get all of their ‘the world must deliver the exact kind of thing I like, in the most unchallenging manner to me’ comments out of the way in the first week. Anyone bleating about it for ten weeks shouldn’t be watching this series.
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
It’s not patronising, it’s accomodating. If the Taskmaster audience can’t accept that 20% of the series content requires them to listen a little harder, and adjust how their idea of joke timing and cadence works for one fifth of the show… what chance does the average person with her condition have in regular life?

Rosie Jones is filthy and funny. She writes great jokes, and has done for many of the great shows that everyone else enjoys. It’s just her speed of speech. That’s it.

Of course I wouldn’t watch the show if it was five people with cerebral palsy. It would be too tough for me. I don’t particularly like what that says about me. But allowing myself to try a little, for one people out of five? Not that big a deal.

I’d also far rather Rosie Jones than the likes of Katherine Ryan or David Baddiel, plus a whole host of others. I also found the lockdown episodes far more off putting that the slight adjustments they’ve made in studio timings this time around.

Kind of hope that people get all of their ‘the world must deliver the exact kind of thing I like, in the most unchallenging manner to me’ comments out of the way in the first week. Anyone bleating about it for ten weeks shouldn’t be watching this series.
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You can't accommodate with humour though, it's an impulsive reaction. Asking people to adjust how they find something funny is impossible, no matter the patronising laugh track.

There's plenty of comedians out there who are great writers or excellent stand up comedians who don't excel at unscripted television for numerous reasons. Rosie Jones reasons might be different but it's the same situation.

If people find her funny in this format than great for them. Comedy is personnel after all, she certainly isn't the first comedian that has ruined a series of taskmaster for me.
 
Smores said:
You can't accommodate with humour though, it's an impulsive reaction. Asking people to adjust how they find something funny is impossible, no matter the patronising laugh track.

There's plenty of comedians out there who are great writers or excellent stand up comedians who don't excel at unscripted television for numerous reasons. Rosie Jones reasons might be different but it's the same situation.

If people find her funny in this format than great for them. Comedy is personnel after all, she certainly isn't the first comedian that has ruined a series of taskmaster for me.
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YOU don’t think you can accomodate with her humour. Fair go. I struggle. It’s not easy, and the trying sometimes leaves me not laughing. But I’m not going to grumble about it in the face of the show only being slightly less of what I want. I think it was a really strong opener.

Most already do accomodate with humour though. See someone like John Kearns or Sam Campbell do their stage show and you have to feel around for where the laugh is supposed to live.

It’s hard with Rosie as people seem to think she’s thick, with the reality being her mouth doesn’t move fast enough for her to vocalise the way we’re used to. That’s it. She doesn’t have any less brain function than you or I with regards to intelligence.

Appreciate that you’re not taking her apart as a human, only your enjoyment of comedy. But I’m really pleased she’s got a spot on the show.
 
It would have been interesting to know the clue in the last game and whether they all got the same one.
 
Has anyone got tickets for the live experience? we're doing it in january.

Need to catch up on the latest season
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
It’s hard with Rosie as people seem to think she’s thick, with the reality being her mouth doesn’t move fast enough for her to vocalise the way we’re used to. That’s it. She doesn’t have any less brain function than you or I with regards to intelligence.
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Do people, outside from online trolls and the anti-woke mob, think so? I haven't seen anyone here questioning her intelligence.

Personally I don't find her funny at all — I've seen a fair share of shows with her and only laughed once or twice at something that she has said. The thing about her having to smile all the time otherwise people think that she's dead from this episode was at least (somewhat positively) rememberable, but that's it.

The delivery issue doesn't help, I'm not going to lie, especially since all of her jokes take, understandably, a much larger amount of time to actually tell... which makes it so much worse when they don't land. If it's a one-off similarly unfunny remark from any other comic that literally takes a second it's easier to ignore it, but when you've just spent 10-15 seconds hyperfocusing (I'm not a native speaker, so I have to actually stop anything else that I'm doing in order to properly understand her) on what's being said, you tend to subconsciously judge it by completely different standards.

Perhaps she's a better writer than a stand up comedian, I don't know. It's hard to say when you don't know what exactly she wrote for the shows that she has worked for — for example the WILTY that I really love. I assume that the writers on there are the ones responsible for the hypothetical scenarios? But during live TV (from my experience) she usually does basic sex jokes that just aren't funny. Maybe you know something of hers that is and can recommend it?

Not sure why I've wrote such a lengthy response about basically nothing. Probably because I'm a bit torn on the Rosie Jones phenomena as I do believe that inclusivity is a great thing and genuinely admire her for creating a successful career in a sphere where her disabilities give her such drastic disadvantages... but I can't understand what is it that makes her funny. I wouldn't laugh at most of her jokes even if another comedian performed them or if I were to read them somewhere.

Although she's far from the worst contender that the Taskmaster has ever had (at least so far). The charisma-vacuum Mae were certainly more flow-disturbing from the recent seasons, at least Rosie seems to enjoy herself and doesn't collide with the show's overall attitude.
 
harms said:
Do people, outside from online trolls and the anti-woke mob, think so? I haven't seen anyone here questioning her intelligence.

Personally I don't find her funny at all — I've seen a fair share of shows with her and only laughed once or twice at something that she has said. The thing about her having to smile all the time otherwise people think that she's dead from this episode was at least (somewhat positively) rememberable, but that's it.

The delivery issue doesn't help, I'm not going to lie, especially since all of her jokes take, understandably, a much larger amount of time to actually tell... which makes it so much worse when they don't land. If it's a one-off similarly unfunny remark from any other comic that literally takes a second it's easier to ignore it, but when you've just spent 10-15 seconds hyperfocusing (I'm not a native speaker, so I have to actually stop anything else that I'm doing in order to properly understand her) on what's being said, you tend to subconsciously judge it by completely different standards.

Perhaps she's a better writer than a stand up comedian, I don't know. It's hard to say when you don't know what exactly she wrote for the shows that she has worked for — for example the WILTY that I really love. I assume that the writers on there are the ones responsible for the hypothetical scenarios? But during live TV (from my experience) she usually does basic sex jokes that just aren't funny. Maybe you know something of hers that is and can recommend it?

Not sure why I've wrote such a lengthy response about basically nothing. Probably because I'm a bit torn on the Rosie Jones phenomena as I do believe that inclusivity is a great thing and genuinely admire her for creating a successful career in a sphere where her disabilities give her such drastic disadvantages... but I can't understand what is it that makes her funny. I wouldn't laugh at most of her jokes even if another comedian performed them or if I were to read them somewhere.

Although she's far from the worst contender that the Taskmaster has ever had (at least so far). The charisma-vacuum Mae were certainly more flow-disturbing from the recent seasons, at least Rosie seems to enjoy herself and doesn't collide with the show's overall attitude.
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That raises the question, who is the worst TM contestant? Or least memorable would be better since some of the officially worst contestants have been the most entertaining.

Looking through the contestants on the TM wiki and Lolly Adefope (boring) Russell Howard (don't like him) and Iain Stirling (annoying) are the only ones I didn't warm to in any way.
 
harms said:
Do people, outside from online trolls and the anti-woke mob, think so? I haven't seen anyone here questioning her intelligence.

Personally I don't find her funny at all — I've seen a fair share of shows with her and only laughed once or twice at something that she has said. The thing about her having to smile all the time otherwise people think that she's dead from this episode was at least (somewhat positively) rememberable, but that's it.

The delivery issue doesn't help, I'm not going to lie, especially since all of her jokes take, understandably, a much larger amount of time to actually tell... which makes it so much worse when they don't land. If it's a one-off similarly unfunny remark from any other comic that literally takes a second it's easier to ignore it, but when you've just spent 10-15 seconds hyperfocusing (I'm not a native speaker, so I have to actually stop anything else that I'm doing in order to properly understand her) on what's being said, you tend to subconsciously judge it by completely different standards.

Perhaps she's a better writer than a stand up comedian, I don't know. It's hard to say when you don't know what exactly she wrote for the shows that she has worked for — for example the WILTY that I really love. I assume that the writers on there are the ones responsible for the hypothetical scenarios? But during live TV (from my experience) she usually does basic sex jokes that just aren't funny. Maybe you know something of hers that is and can recommend it?

Not sure why I've wrote such a lengthy response about basically nothing. Probably because I'm a bit torn on the Rosie Jones phenomena as I do believe that inclusivity is a great thing and genuinely admire her for creating a successful career in a sphere where her disabilities give her such drastic disadvantages... but I can't understand what is it that makes her funny. I wouldn't laugh at most of her jokes even if another comedian performed them or if I were to read them somewhere.

Although she's far from the worst contender that the Taskmaster has ever had (at least so far). The charisma-vacuum Mae were certainly more flow-disturbing from the recent seasons, at least Rosie seems to enjoy herself and doesn't collide with the show's overall attitude.
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Pretty much agree with this.
Disability or no disability, I don't find her material particularly funny. I
 
hobbers said:
Up to 50% of people with that kind of cerebral palsy have an intellectual disability so it's not an unreasonable thought.

The level of her writing/jokes and some of her mannerisms that arent disability-related make me think she could have something mild.
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Stop.
 
hobbers said:
Worst 5 is easy - Nish Kumar, Daisy May Cooper, Sarah Kendall, Mae Martin and Ian Stirling. 2 irritants, 2 personality vacuums and an arse hole.
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Nish was brilliant gave us bubbly feck, how do you like them apples when he knew he had totally failed the basketball task and the greatest song yet doing cool stuff.

I agree with them others and would add in John Robins who was as boring as Mae always looking under the tables etc and just wanting to win too much
 
hobbers said:
Worst 5 is easy - Nish Kumar, Daisy May Cooper, Sarah Kendall, Mae Martin and Ian Stirling. 2 irritants, 2 personality vacuums and an arse hole.
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I would replace Iain Stirling with Lou Sanders. At least Iain knew he was and asshole and tried to change himself. Also as pointed out, John for Nish.
 
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hobbers said:
That's what I think whenever she randomly starts laughing at nothing.
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The level of how you wrote that ‘joke’ and some of your other posts that arent disability-related make me think you wrap moderately sized dildos in sandpaper and stuff them up your bum. ‘Up to’ 50% of people do that, so I’m on firm ground here.

Honestly, stop. Just dislike her and leave it there.

Rosie Jones is an accomplished stand up, a writer who has written for; Harry Hill, Would I Lie To You, 8 out of ten cats does countdown, a whole episode of of Sex Education for Netflix. She’s had a bunch of Channel 4 solo shows. She appears on panel shows, has had success month long runs at Edinburgh fringe, a podcast, a comedy special, she tours and sells tickets, she writes for several publications, and has written children’s books.

She also made a whole documentary entitled ‘Am I a R*tard’ which confronts the sheer volume and awfulness of online comments towards her.

By casually suggesting she’s mentally not all there… puts you in the Cnuty group. Just don’t do it. All the facts are there, documentaries are available, interviews, written content. All to explain what Cerebral Palsy is to you, and how it affects her life. But no ‘She laughs when I don’t expect it, so I’ll suggest she’s stupid’.

Just stop.
 
lsd said:
Nish was brilliant gave us bubbly feck, how do you like them apples when he knew he had totally failed the basketball task and the greatest song yet doing cool stuff.

I agree with them others and would add in John Robins who was as boring as Mae always looking under the tables etc and just wanting to win too much
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Agreed. I really liked Nish on it. Plenty of laughs and that song he did with Mark Watson was a series highlight.
 
UnrelatedPsuedo said:
The level of how you wrote that ‘joke’ and some of your other posts that arent disability-related make me think you wrap moderately sized dildos in sandpaper and stuff them up your bum. ‘Up to’ 50% of people do that, so I’m on firm ground here.

Honestly, stop. Just dislike her and leave it there.

Rosie Jones is an accomplished stand up, a writer who has written for; Harry Hill, Would I Lie To You, 8 out of ten cats does countdown, a whole episode of of Sex Education for Netflix. She’s had a bunch of Channel 4 solo shows. She appears on panel shows, has had success month long runs at Edinburgh fringe, a podcast, a comedy special, she tours and sells tickets, she writes for several publications, and has written children’s books.

She also made a whole documentary entitled ‘Am I a R*tard’ which confronts the sheer volume and awfulness of online comments towards her.

By casually suggesting she’s mentally not all there… puts you in the Cnuty group. Just don’t do it. All the facts are there, documentaries are available, interviews, written content. All to explain what Cerebral Palsy is to you, and how it affects her life. But no ‘She laughs when I don’t expect it, so I’ll suggest she’s stupid’.

Just stop.
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Great post.
 
I recently got recommended this on youtube with clips, watched a few then discovered all episodes are on there for free. Working my way through and currently on season 9 episode 8. Loving it tbh although in all seasons so far Iain from season 8 is the only one i've actively hated, insufferable prick.
 
Josh Widdicombe was also an early contender for most annoying.
 
Forget bottom 5, what's top 5?

I'd go

1. Bob Mortimer
2. Mike Wozniak
3. John Kearns
4. Rhod Gilbert

My top 4 is basically nailed on, then it's a toss up between Sally Philips, Mel Giedroyc, James Acaster, and Joe Wilkinson (for the potato scene alone).
 
Massive Spanner said:
Forget bottom 5, what's top 5?

I'd go

1. Bob Mortimer
2. Mike Wozniak
3. John Kearns
4. Rhod Gilbert

My top 4 is basically nailed on, then it's a toss up between Sally Philips, Mel Giedroyc, James Acaster, and Joe Wilkinson (for the potato scene alone).
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I'd sub Kearns for Fern Brady and add Sam Campbell or James Acaster as my fifth choice.
 
Bridget Christie has a shout.
 
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