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No Comedian Is Prepared to Be on Taskmaster | Good One Podcast

Vulture

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This week on 'Good One', Greg Davies and Alex Horne join us for a conversation about YouTube's biggest British comedy show 'Taskmaster'.

00:00 Intro
01:58 The funniest thing that happened this week
04:35 Why the US Tour surprised Greg and Alex
06:38 The 2018 US adaptation vs. YouTube success
10:44 Jesse gives a task
14:11 The psychology of the contestant
16:53 Casting Greg Davies
18:32 Show Zero: Learning not to be a "pantomime villain"
19:35 Alex and Greg: Personas vs. Real Life
24:40 How a Taskmaster lineup is built
28:13 Casting Kumail Nanjiani
31:53 The benefit of wide age ranges and gender balance
44:27 Greg’s judging instinct
51:58 The Taskmaster Fandom
56:00 Fan Question: Objective vs. Subjective tasks
58:37 Jason Mantzoukas on "Playing the Game" vs. Winning
01:01:08 Reddit Questions
01:03:25 Health & Safety
01:04:49 Loopholes and solving tasks in "ingenious" ways
01:06:07 The YouTube Deal: Why the show is free globally
01:08:23 Production Design
01:11:33 Why Taskmaster survived the "Panel Show" decline
01:13:37 The Laughing Round

20 Comments

@houddythequeen 7 months ago

I will forever be grateful to the person who made the decision to put Taskmaster on youtube. To say it changed my life isn't that much of an exaggeration considering that I watch the show every weekday. It is my lunch treat. This go round, I decided to do my own scoring which has been fun.

@Birdinanest-e5h 7 months ago

I will never forget Nish Kumar and Mark Watson's song for a stranger.

'I try my best but it's never... good enough'

@twinsocks 6 months ago

The REAL reason neurodivergent people love this show so much: we spend our whole life finding functional adaptations to confusing and tedious tasks, but in this utopia, doing it differently from everyone else is validated, even celebrated, often it even wins! A dream experience

@strafeson 7 months ago

I think Greg and Alex both understate (or perhaps don't realize) how much their presence contributes to what makes Taskmaster so enjoyable. Their dynamic and how they play off of the contestants enhances the show so much.

@rmhartman 6 months ago

The best Jason Manzoukis bit was when he got Nish Kumar to be a doppelgänger for him.

@grassfolk 7 months ago

Rhod was funny is his own right, but the relationship between him and Greg really amplified it

@hollycandlerhiggins 7 months ago

This is a really nice interview. It’s rare to get such uninterrupted length of guys we love talking about the project that brought them together. I appreciated that the interviewer is clearly a big fan and wanted to do right by other fans, but also didn’t shy away from certain questions others might be less direct about.

@SecondTakeYT 7 months ago

I knew from the first episode when Romesh entered the lab and annihilated that melon, that I was gonna love this show.

@thexbigxgreen 7 months ago

The move that they made uploading full seasons of TM online internationally has to be the biggest New Media coup that a traditional TV show has ever pulled off.

@buickspacewagon2181 7 months ago

"What's gonna happen when we graduate?"

@TheArborphiliac 4 months ago

I think TM has some of the best cinematography and direction ever. The establishing shots where the camera will be looking through a colander with a fisheye lens, or some obscure perspective looking down at the house, the colors and lights and filters, all of it is amazing and exactly what I love about visual media like this.

@faaa999 6 months ago

I was in the Chicago audience front rows and they genuinely looked mortified when we all stood to cheer! 😂😂❤❤. It was a glorious live show! I hope they come back!!

@jjlonsdale5971 7 months ago

22:45 Greg “bullying” Alex is only funny - and it is so very very funny - because we know it’s ultimately Alex’s show. It creates a freedom to be really ridiculously horrible to him.

@livthomas1312 7 months ago

God I had never considered getting the casts of early series (seasons) back together to complete ten episodes each but now I desperately want that

@greggjocoy7459 7 months ago

For the last two series my daughter and I watched the show at the same time and exchanged text messages during the show. It is so nice to have that time together. Thanks Alex.

@teeshadiiteeshadal2651 7 months ago

SAM REICH???? He really is gunning for president of the taskmaster fanclub huh

@alangreenway6695 7 months ago

Taskmaster is about the sort of games you make up for bored kids in the school holidays, where all you have to use is what’s in the shed and you can’t really go that much further than the house and the garden and maybe the park down the road.

@nathanhartono91 6 months ago

This podcast rly made me appreciate how clearly Alex Horne explains comedy. It can be such an abstract concept, but he communicates it so effectively

@NamuWilliams 7 months ago (edited)

As an American who has watched Taskmaster since 2019, I'm hella glad to see it's still killing it and I loved this interview.

@Keraos 7 months ago

"I'm writing 'Jason Mantzoukas is breaking my equipment'". I feel like Alex is going to be writing that for the rest of his life, just out of a traumatized instinct.