Rolling UK Comedy Thread - "Ricky Don't Lose Larry David's Number

I think Clary in the blindfold saying "I expect you're enjoying this, aren't you Alex?" while Horne cracks up was my favourite moment from any series

Sue's "portcullis" thing was also glorious a couple of weeks ago. She's such a delightful opposite to Julian Clary (and I agree, his general air of disdain and distance is a brilliant fit)

Also Susan is great fun. She reminds me very much of Katy Wix as a contestant. Completely off her trolley without seemingly trying too hard to be all "look at how wacky I am".

'distance' is a good word for it, feel like usually a contestant conspicuously not entering into the spirit of the show wouldn't work, but he pulls it off

I'm at the total opposite end of the scale. I don't like him, so I don't think he pulls it off. oo-er, etc. I think his sense of humour is old-fashioned, and not in a charming way. It was really cemented for me when he was on that reboot of Friday Night Live recently, and he took the piss out of some woman in the crowd because of how she was dressed. Unless he knew her (and even then, we didn't know if he knew her or not) it was completely uncool and is just not how the good comedians do it these days. But I guess that's personal taste for you.

Perhaps if I'd seen that I may feel differently, but I'm literally only going on this which is the first time I've seen him on anything for over a decade. I wasn't a huge fan back in the day, but his demeanour is pleasingly at odds with the others and doesn't seem mean-spirited. I bet he's a total bitch next week now.

I seen him on tv for years either, but the format of the show means that the only person he really has an opportunity to be mean to on Taskmaster is Alex, which feels fair enough given that Alex is the one making them play these annoying games, maybe I'd find it less enjoyable on a different show

It's very easy to carry baggage and expectations though, but I like it when people change them by being on Taskmaster. I mean, Lucy Beaumont irritates me hugely elsewhere with her "what is this... [perfectly normal thing] *giggle* " schtick which might not even be a schtick, she might actually be that ditsy all the time, but ditsy people doing Taskmaster is fun, so it's ok in a way that watching her baffled by the concept of words and numbers on Countdown just isn't.

I only have indirect dislike of Beaumont because of her horrible husband but I realise this is unfair and sexist.

this week's taskmaster started terribly but was saved by contestants in the second half

i sometimes wonder if the pre-recorded tasks for a given episode can be chosen to dictate the winner (although Greg is too unpredictable with his scoring and the bookend tasks are live so...) but i think they may be chosen to mix the dull tasks with the more successful ones. and i guess there could be tasks that just don't make it.

AIUI there are a fair number of tasks that don’t make it, plus there are the tie-break mini-tasks and occasionally if one of those is super-funny they’ll promote it to a main task.

yeah how do they film the tie breakers? they're pre-recorded but as koogs says the final results are up in the air, so do they just film a bunch of them with every contestant and then apply as needed? if so, they must be sitting on mountains of outtakes that a reasonably ravenous fanbase would probably pay for...

they do manipulate the results at least a little so that every contestant gets to win at least once (think there's an exception to this but can't remember who).

romesh (s1) didn't win an episode (6 episodes)

wilkinson (s2) " (5 episodes)

pasco (s3) " (5 episodes)

aisling, nish (s5) (8 episodes)

wang (s7) (10 episodes)

judi (s13) (10 episodes)

frankie (s15) (10 episodes)

i absolutely fucking hate lucy beaumont

Only a couple of eps in to this series but I've found her very funny - classic Taskie-washing effect of the show rendering funny and likeable the very people I generally find tedious.

Probably the weakest lineup of recent years. I found Sam Campbell funny at first but got sick of him fairly quickly. Susan Wokoma is likable enough. Don't mind Clary, but he's not exactly hilarious.

i found lucy beaumont's act pretty funny and well suited to the show, clary had a few good moments but he was, unsurprisingly perhaps, too aloof.

yeah it's a weak season

qi xl last night. the alex edelman guy, i think i saw him doing 15 minutes at a josie long black heart gig a while ago, like 5 years easily, talking trash about Neil Armstrong. something obviously stuck with me that i remember that.

we didn't talk about Lenny on Christmas taskmaster. brave choice, really, given his age and his circumstance but i don't think there was ever going to be any other winner.

and great to see all the winners again, and kyell, in the third champion of champions.

also been watching Significant Other on itv. comedy drama = no jokes. but ok.

Christmas (New Year) Taskmaster was great, and Kojey Radical really should get a promotion to the main series.

He was very funny. NY Taskmaster for me was very much him, Deborah, and Lenny. The other two were also there.

Haha, I genuinely had to look it up to remember who the other two were, and it was only on about a fortnight ago

They seemed to be more focused on not making tits of themselves than on winning, which is not how you play Taskmaster.

Yeah Kojey was great, seems like a lovely bloke as well.

Steve Pemberton and Nick Mohammed are the only two of the new contestants I particularly know, both of whom I can imagine being good (better Pemberton than Shearsmith anyway). John Robbins rings a vague bell, could just be his generic name though.

I only know him from his radio show with Ellis James. Seems nice enough but not sure if he's funny or not. Big fan of prog and post rock, but also a Queen uber-fan to a worrying degree. Apparently infamy comes from both him and Sara Pascoe doing shows about their breakup and her getting the panel show career despite his winning the awards.

The other two are best known as writers I think?

Sophie Willan wrote Alma's Not Normal which is the epitome of critically acclaimed though I don't know anyone who has actually watched it. Joanne McNally does a podcast with Vogue Williams. I've got reasonable faith in the Taskmaster casting team that they'll be fine.

i saw and enjoyed Alma

is Outsiders the second thing to make the jump from Dave to proper tv? (after Taskmaster). didn't watch series 1 when it when it was on dave so good to catch up. Jessica Knappett (born "1983/84" according to wikipedia) has grown on me, quoting wilfred owen etc.

("Greg Davies Live – Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog" was apparently a (one-off) Dave original, as seen recently on ch4)

Big crush on Jessica Knappett, she was great on Taskmaster too.

she was a massive factor in the very enjoyable/chucklesome CH4 Drifters before Taskmaster.

outsiders, and maybe taskmaster before it, makes me think i don't ever want to cross ed gamble.

Alma's Not Normal gets a repeat from monday (ahead of her taskmaster appearance)

I don't entirely like Ed Gamble but this may be because he went to the private school in the area where I grew up and all those kids were dicks

i enjoy ed gamble on taskmaster because he gets really intense about the tasks. his recent meltdown on a champion of champions task was pretty funny.
i don't know if i'd want to be best friends with him but listening to the off menu podcast helped humanize him for me somewhat.

If you're not allergic to podcasts Adam Buxton's chat with Jessica Knappett is very charming and quite revealing in how much she views Drifters as a kind of lost opportunity (while still being proud of it).

First ep of that Noel Fiedling show was very meh, wish there was more cool popcult about highwaymen aside from the song "Highwayman" by the band the Highwaymen.

tim key’s “poetry programme” is back (not actually a poetry programme)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001xdnb

E2 of this season is genuinely brilliant imo.. the kind of thing you can only do with audio

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b03pn5pl

Mandy is back. it is nonsense, but it's also short.

was struck by the scope of the first episode, it felt expensive, but probably wasn't

and the second episode was worth watching for the reveal at the end

I really like Mandy, I like that it's short enough to just be as daft as it wants

as an aside, Whitstable Pearl is a crime thing on Drama starring comedian Kerry Godliman and is quite poor, but i like her and she just about saves it (3 seasons according to imdb, i guess Drama is behind)

New Taskmaster is also ok. needs to bed in a bit more, i think. still surprises me we don't have a dedicated taskmaster thread.

Surely this is the dedicated Taskmaster thread.

Still not finished the previous season, which is more due to our 9yo currently cycling through all previous seasons (and us not then wanting to watch more Taskmaster after she goes to bed) than any comment on the series. Watched the penultimate one over the weekend and it was hilarious. Also, after watching his sublime appearance on WILTY recently, am ready to shave my eyebrows and join Sam Campbell's cult. Watched his special Companion over the weekend, and he is so very funny. Not necessarily consistent enough for an hour, but had us laughing constantly.

Two eps into the new series, not screaming classic lineup so far

As individuals they all seem ok, but it's not exactly up there with the best line-ups, though looking back there have only been a couple of straight-up gold and a couple of clunkers so perhaps I rose-tint this a bit, every series has had some gold in it (I think perhaps the Lou Sanders series was the worst with little redemption even though most of the participants are absolutely fine in their own right)

I don't think I've ever seen Steve Pemberton be himself before, but he's my instant favourite, he just seems naturally amusing.

He does too many* dad jokes.

*There can never be too many dad jokes

Just having an instant dad joke for everything is good in my book.

Maybe he gets a better edit than some people who try and land jokes at every opportunity and end up surrounded by tumbleweed before the odd one actually raises a giggle. I like him. He doesn't seem like he's trying too hard.

Obvs John Robins was wearing a HMHB t-shirt on this week's show, so he gets a free pass.

I love Taskmaster, it’s my favorite TV show, but as an American I often don’t know who most of the contestants are so all of my conceptions of them come just from Taskmaster. I agree this batch seems weak, though I’ve only seen the first ep. It feels odd that in season 17 they still get contestants who don’t seem to understand the show and what makes an entertaining guest.

My favorites are the genuine weirdos. Sam Campbell and Lucy Beaumont were both incredible last series and now they have a podcast together. Susan Wokoma was delightful too.

I don't think I've ever seen Steve Pemberton be himself before, but he's my instant favourite, he just seems naturally amusing.

I like him a fair bit in his other endeavours, but in this he's a bit Dara O'Brien style 'I'm probably going to win' smug for me.

Nick is very likeable, but hardly hilarious.

Lucy Beaumont absolutely does my head in. I can't fathom how someone can be that ditzy and yet get herself together enough to fashion a career out of her ditziness. Career weirdos just baffle me (see also Sam Campbell and Mike Wozniak, for example).

Absolutely *loved* Susan Wokoma, up there with Katy Wix in terms of people I only knew through acting roles before Taskmaster and now absolutely adore.

And yeah, my previous encounters with Nick have been in his magician persona on Catsdown, and acting roles which don't count. Based on the former I thought I'd hate him, but he's ok. Amiable and silly are good Taskmaster traits, but the series needs someone to root for, and I can't summon much enthusiasm for any of them.