Your Time Starts Now: The Fandom of Taskmaster

A British game show where comics hunt rubber ducks under UV lights, pitch “treasures” found in the trash, and win a golden head sounds unhinged—until you realize it’s the smartest comfort TV around. We invited our friend Mark, a devoted Taskmaster fan, to help us unpack the alchemy: absurd tasks that reward lateral thinking, razor-sharp banter, and the deliciously lopsided relationship between Taskmaster Greg Davies and creator/assistant Alex Horne.

We trace the show’s structure from the opening prize task to the pre-recorded challenges and the live studio finale, showing how each stage blends problem-solving with performance. 

You’ll get practical entry points, fan-favorite podcasts, and the show’s real career impact on comedians. We also debate judging styles, dream up fantasy casts, and test whether the format would survive without Greg or Alex. Spoiler: Alex is the connective tissue, the quiet saboteur, and maybe the funniest man in the room.

Ready to binge? Every series streams free on YouTube, which means your next great comfort watch is one click away. If you had to pitch a prize task item tomorrow, what would you bring—and how would you sell it to Greg? Subscribe, share with a friend who loves British comedy, and leave us a quick review to keep this nerdy spaceship flying.

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Transcript

Late Night Banter & Guest Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:01

All right, gentlemen, we are back for another episode. And we have a very special guest, our college friend, Bark Maley. We should probably introduce him by his real name at some point.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Mark Bailey.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Mark Bailey. We're so glad he's here hanging out with us today. So it's gonna be a fun episode. And uh once again, we're we're recording late at night. Probably a little slap happy too, right? I think it's just a little bit, just a little bit. Yep. But it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Perfectly fine. I don't know what you guys, what your problem is.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

Uh Michael and I both have young children. I know, I know, I know. Excuses. Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Speaking of, how's Mia sleeping these days? You know, there's these nights. Yes, these nights. There has been a bit of a regression. Uh for a long time she was just an amazing sleeper, just like her mom. But uh yeah, like we had a couple weeks where she was waking up six to nine times every night. Now it's only a few. Um, so you know, it's getting a little bit better. But yep, just taking it a day at a time. So Ben, how are you sleeping?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Oh, I'm great, man. Like I said, I before we start recording, like they're complaining about how late it is. It's like 11. Is it even 11? No, it's 10.30. It's 10. I'm usually up till at least midnight, maybe one most nights. So I'm good. I'm but I and I sleep fine. So but I also don't have kids, so it depends.

Sleep Talk And Life Updates

SPEAKER_04 1:24

It is the weekend, so I can stay up a little late. My wife said so. So that's good. Uh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Well, for those who don't know, uh well, from most of you, Mark is visiting from South Korea, so where he has been the past decade. Yeah. Yeah. Ten years. In August. That's crazy. But yeah, we're glad to have you and join us for this little thing we do.

Mark’s Life In South Korea

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Thanks for having me. Yeah. So just a quick fun trivia fact, because you know I love trivia and I'm kind of the trivia master in this group. Obviously. I'm sorry. Isn't one of us host a trivia contest for a while? I'm retired right now.

Music Trivia And College Band

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Uh the intro and outro music to our podcast was written by Mark Bailey and then Ben Wong and myself. And uh, we wrote it and recorded it in uh during our college years. Um we'll maybe in the link in the show notes, we'll put our band band Facebook page or something. And uh don't link that.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

It's not been touched in 10 years. O last one was like, hey, we're gonna work on recording more songs, and then we never did. So let's not link there.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Yeah, but anyway, but that's uh yeah, so the the intro song to our podcast is is the one that we wrote. So we on the least drag.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

Yeah, I took it and uh took out some of the vocals and made it into a loop. Now we got yeah, sorry. We have not paid Mark any royalty. That's really the reason why.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I mean, he gets one percent of what we make. I didn't want zero.

SPEAKER_04 2:53

I just didn't want to be sued by Mark, you know, because I used his voice without his permission.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

So all the way from South Korea in BCDU.

What Taskmaster Is

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Uh anyway, uh let's go ahead and want to introduce the episode, get get this all official started. Except for we're not using our our usual because today we're gonna be talking about uh a pretty awesome show. So let's go ahead and introduce this. Uh hello and welcome to Fandom of Fandoms, the show where every single episode we are diving into worlds that fans love most. And tonight we are gonna be talking about the show Taskmaster with our friend Mark, and we are just it's gonna be a fun conversation, and we're just happy that we've got this time to spend together and hang out. So thanks for being here, and let's go ahead and kick this off.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Yeah, definitely. Well, we usually kind of start with everyone's background on the topic, so Taskmaster. Uh Nick, what is your background on the TV show?

SPEAKER_04 3:46

I up until today had seen some clips of it. Um, I was vaguely aware of kind of, you know, I knew who Greg Davies is uh and and what he had been in previous to this show. Um, but outside of that, I didn't really know the basis of how the show worked. I had just seen like certain tasks that they had completed um and was always intrigued. Like I always wanted to watch an entire episode, so I was glad to to get to do that today. But before today, I had never seen a full episode. What about you, Ben?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Um, probably about a year ago, maybe a little over. Like I'd like you was getting fed a lot of the shorts on Facebook or Instagram or something, and got intrigued enough that I looked it up on YouTube. And one of the great things about this show is that all the episodes are available for free on YouTube, so you can watch the entire thing. And so I got I went down a rabbit hole and binged most of them. Maybe about half.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

About half, I would say. But yeah, I watched a good amount of them. Michael, you said nothing for you.

First Impressions And Cast Dynamics

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah, so I you know, I feel like I'm the one in this group that just never has background on stuff. I feel like we're here to introduce you to things. Yeah, you guys have exposed me to just so much. Um, yeah, so I I have no no background on the TV show. I do know Greg Davies. I recognized him when we started watching an episode. Um, but yeah, we watched an episode right before we hit record, and uh, we were all dying laughing. So I definitely enjoyed my my first exposure to it.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

It's a funny show, very funny. I there's a lot of a lot of good laughing moments for sure. And uh all of them, I think what was it? All the the main characters or or the main people in the show. Contestants. Yeah, contestants. That's a better word. Contestants, characters, the main characters, yeah. Yeah, I got it. There are some characters. Yeah, there are. Are they are they mostly comics then? Or are they all comics? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Or comedic actors at the very least.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Mostly. There are a few like MCs, although they do New Year's specials. Oh, okay. With normies. Yeah. Not the peasants, but yeah, just uh non-comedic uh celebrities.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Well, before we kind of ask Mark about his background with the show, why don't I give a quick, you know, intro and summary of the show? Um let's see here. So Taskmaster, it's a British comedy panel show where comedians compete in absurd, creative, and often ridiculous challenges designed to test ingenuity, lateral thinking, stubbornness, and comedic chaos rather than just traditional skill. So contestants earn points based on how well they complete tasks with the winner crown Taskmaster champion of the series. So it's the same, it's the same um contestants throughout the whole series series. Yeah, it's not like just one episode you have different contestants. So the uh show is created by comedian Alex Horn, who originally invented the concept as a live comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2010. Um but then obviously I got picked up as a as a TV show. So um but anyway, uh yeah, Mark, what is your uh yeah, what's your background with the show?

SPEAKER_01 6:50

How'd you get into it? Uh well I got into it during COVID times or towards the end of COVID times uh in 2021. They were doing series 12, and one of my friends had sent me a link to a specific game that they thought I would like or task. And uh after that, uh I just started getting all kinds of clips and I was like, alright, well I'm gonna decide I'm gonna watch this. Um that series wasn't finished, so I just decided to go back to the beginning because by the time I got to that series it would be finished. And then I have since watched every series more than once. And I always say I always see things that I've never seen before, like tasks I don't remember having watched before as well. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

And there have been 20 series so far.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

So far, yeah. And they recently announced uh the cast for series 21.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah. So that means that there have been about a hundred contestants, not including the New Year's stuff or the yeah, because five five series.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Yeah, that's crazy. Wow. I didn't know there were a hundred comedians in in Great Britain.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

This guy's got jokes. Yeah. Well done. You could be a a comedian in Great Britain. That'd be.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

No, no one would want that. Uh well well, Mark, what um what keeps pulling you back to Taskmaster? Because I know you said you re-watch it a lot. So like what what keeps you coming back to it?

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Uh well for me, because I was watching it during COVID times, it was a bit of a comfort show, so I do find it very comforting. But also, um, as you know, I'm a very sarcastic man. And a lot of the British humor so like the British humor really uh suits my tastes quite well. And then also I love a good challenge like puzzles and like thinking of ways to do things, so it's like very thick thought-provoking.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah. One of my favorite things on this uh the show is when one of the contestants finds a loophole in the rules that Alex sets up and completely like does whatever it is in like five seconds as opposed to like ten minutes it's supposed to take because they've just found a loophole and yeah, good times. Just again, and sometimes they lock into it, but sometimes they've really thought about it. So yeah. Uh man. Uh what what do you think makes it stand out from other sort of panel shows, British or otherwise?

Prize Task Explained

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Um I I I think probably it's just the ridiculousness of it. It's completely for pure fun, but there is an element of competition as well. And they always release two versions, like the uncensored version and then a family-friendly version. So yeah, like families can watch it with kids as well. Um there's even actually there's a junior taskmaster. Oh yeah. Where they had kids do it. Yeah. So I think, yeah, it's just like the ridiculousness, and then also people love to think, oh, what would I do? Because we're all really self-involved.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

So I guess this is I I I don't know if if you know the answer to this question or not, but obviously it's gotta be pretty popular in Britain if they're if they're putting out a junior taskmaster and stuff like that. Is it is it pretty what like is it like prime time TV in in that area? Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 10:09

I I don't know what time it airs. I was curious. Um it did get picked up by is it TV four, TV or something like that. It was originally on a lesser known. I think it was lesser known, but it's on like one of the big channels now.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

Here's the other thing that I was just thinking. Like, you know, you you were talking about the panel TV shows. Do we like in the United States really have panel TV shows other than like talking head news nonsense? Like and maybe some sports shows. I can think of like some panel, you know, pardon the interruption or whatever, like those sorts of things. But I can't really think of that many panel TV shows in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Well, there used to be Whose Line Is It Anyway? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Oh, I mean, with squares. I just introduced you to uh dropout TV with game changer, glorious, uh make some noise and stuff like that. So there's there's some things out there, but not quite to the level of which I think it is over in England. I'm not knowing.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

But England's got several. I mean, that's you know, because we were talking about earlier the the eight out of ten cats, like those are you know, other panel shows and stuff like that they do there and some other stuff. I mean, I'm sure I'm sure they exist, but I just don't think that they're they're prime time TV, like they're getting spots on you know the the main channels in the United States.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Yeah, the funny thing is I I don't really know the last time I watched just like primetime TV. Like I don't think I even have TV channels. Yeah. Uh okay. Streaming only over there at the Grenier. Our listeners out there, if anyone has a Roku, do you do you just get channels? Like, I don't know. I have no clue, you know. Like we kind of just use our streaming services to watch old movies and shows. We and like that's all we watch.

Hosts’ Chemistry: Greg And Alex

SPEAKER_04 11:58

So it sadly has been more of a dying medium of like the those experiences that we can all have together. Right. So as we've talked about previously, or well, I have talked about. I guess I don't know if you guys have agreed with me or not, but a lot of it going on. Like, there's just not a lot of shared experiences that we all like, oh, everybody's watching this same show or whatever. So I don't know. Maybe that'd be something I I I'm intrigued by panel TV shows, like when you do see it. I think of I mean, I get like I feel like most of the shows in um you know Great Britain are are like these these comedy, they've got so many panel TV shows. I think the what is the Graham Norton show, that's also another panel show. Yeah. Um so I don't know, they just do it a lot over there. Are they just better at the the panel TV show than the Americans? I guess they've mastered it.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

I mean, I guess James Corden when he had a talk show, would do the same thing where you'd have multiple guests on at the same time. So but he was also from England. So uh well, Mark, um why don't we break down a little bit of an episode? Just like for those who may not know anything about Taskmaster. So uh again, it's five contestants, five comedians from mostly England, some other ones, but just again, that sort of sense of humor. Um, and they start off with a prize task. Why don't you tell us a little bit about a prize task?

Pre‑Recorded Tasks And Live Challenge

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Alright, so well, for context, um each uh each of the contestants do tasks at a house that are prerecorded, and then they come in for studio sessions where they watch those tasks and then they're analyzed and either rated by how they did or just by how the taskmaster wants to do it. But there are two in studio tasks, uh the first being the prize task, where they are given a prompt of like what kind of prize to bring, like the best shiny thing, um, or something like that, and then uh everyone brings it in, they pitch it, and then Greg votes on them, like on gives points based on what he thinks, how they fill the prompt, and just whether he likes it in or not. And then at the end of the episode, whoever wins that episode gets all of those prizes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Yeah. So the episode we watched, the prizes were the coolest thing you found in a trash bin. Yeah. But they call it a a skip skip. Yeah. Yeah, weird British term. Uh and so that was pretty funny. You know, they have like a bunch of random items, and you know, and them being comedians, like the way they present the items is hilarious. You know, they just know how to deliver, like, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_04 14:36

Alright, so I just thought of a question here. Do you think that they legitimately are bringing those things in, or do you think production is just saying, like, all right, here's these five items that we think would be funny, and they're just telling them, like, all right, here's what you brought, make it funny.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

They legitimately bring them in. Originally, yeah. Originally they were uh very different types of prizes. They brought in. They were actually bringing in things like from their homes that were kind of important. Oh, really? Yeah, like one guy brought in his wedding ring. Or he also had brought in a snow globe that was a gift from his sister-in-law, and it was had on the inside had like pictures of his children.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Oh my gosh. And there will still be some things like that on occasion where like I'd someone in a recent season like brought in like a portrait that a fan did of them or something like that. There's things like that. Um yeah. What is well, I mean, and then there's some contestants get really creative and will make their own thing that fits the category. And it's hard to, it's hard to explain without seeing it. But yeah, so they I think they do most like probably 90% of the time at least legitimately bring something in.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

I felt like those could have been easily like just here's an you know, the production was just like, hey, here's the funny things, and I just want you to like say something crazy about it, or what you found.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

They did feel a little contrived, like the the items they brought in, but maybe yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

I don't know. Maybe it was just natural and it just I came across us like, I don't know, maybe they were trying to be just off the cuff or dumb about it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Well, I think for that specific episode, and see this was series 12, 13, series 13, episode one. So uh I don't know if I believe Artle actually found that trophy in a skip. But yeah, you know, he just did it because he thought the story would be funny about you know trying to please daddy. And then yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, but I fully believe Bridget's story about finding the will and having it hung up with the fish. I know, so she's such an eccentric woman. Yeah, and like in the best way possible.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Um so like, yeah, and then the now classics, she probably just like found it in a drawer or something. I got it. I don't know for sure, you know. Obviously, I don't know this woman, but you know, but some of them I think they really take it seriously and they go like all out, and then sometimes it's just you know, gotta gotta get it done. Right exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

But then they only get one point. But uh so we've we've brought up Greg. Um Greg Davies is sort the taskmaster, the host of the show, uh, and who all the contestants are trying to appease. And then he's also got his little assistant, uh Alex Horn, um, who is actually the creator of the show that we mentioned, and but he like plays, I don't he plays a certain character that I don't how would you describe it, Mark?

Career Boosts And Popularity

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Uh well, first off, personal opinion, I think Alex Horn might be the funniest man alive. Like he's absolutely hysterical. And in this show, he plays, he's like an assistant.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Is he like a court jester?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

I well maybe a little, a little, yeah. Yeah, he he's an assistant and he really plays up like the subservient, like the Greg mistreated assistant, you know, the Dobby doing every yeah, yeah, doing everything to please Master to gain his approval. Yeah, exactly. But I mean, like, that's the that's a lot of the the relationship between the two on the show, because you know, it's all for laughs. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

And then all the rest of the contestants will often join in uh making fun of Alex and and yeah, bullying him a little bit, but in a fun way.

Where To Start Watching

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Like, I mean, and there have been points where fun kind of bullying, you know what I mean. Teasing and there have been points where like they'll do something to Alex and Greg will be like, I'm gonna give you a bonus point. Oh, that's funny. Um, I remember one time uh they're like, I'm gonna give you one point because you talked well of Alex and I don't like him.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Uh all right. Well, after the prize task, we get into usually what three-ish normal tasks, which have, like you said, been pre-recorded. What were some of the ones that we just saw, just for context?

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Uh so the first task of this series was they had to find ten ducks in the lab. Like fairly simple. But not so simple because it's not just little ducks that were hidden. There were there was a sound machine that made ducks hidden inside of a chicken. There were like the French word for duck like written on the wall. There was uh UV light. Yep, yeah, and then a duck on the task, and then uh Judy Love found a like a stray duck, is what they said, but it had been put there for another task that they had forgotten. That really like gave me escape room vibes.

SPEAKER_04 19:38

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

They have done actual escape room type tests for that.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Oh man. Okay, and then after is so uh after each of those, again, like they're there are points awarded. First place gets five, second four, etc. These are tallied up throughout the whole episode, and it ends with a live task.

Elevator Pitch For Taskmaster

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Yes. Oh, and this live task, like this episode's live task was a good one. Yeah. They're they're not all that exhilarating to watch, but like some of them. This one was like a counting game, but they kept adding rules like you had to pronounce certain numbers wrong, you had to do something at the same time. Like you squat when you say odd numbers, jump when you say even numbers. Yeah, you had to count a different language. Yeah, you had to pretend to be sick after a word with a single E. I'm not gonna lie, like I I would have been so bad at that game. I know, look at possible not be.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

I don't know how they got as far as they did. Yeah, but it was funny how quickly it escalated because the first set of rules, like jump on or squat on odd numbers, jump on even numbers, like when I in my head I was thinking, like, oh, that sounds pretty hard. But then when they when they did it, I was like, oh, that really wasn't anything. But then by the second set of rules, it was like insane, like impossible to follow, you know? It just it was such a drastic like change.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Yeah, there's spinning involved and multiples of three, or yeah, it was there's a lot. Uh yeah, so then at the end, like you said, all these points get tallied up, and the winner takes home all the prizes from the first round. Uh yeah, but then this is over ten episodes of series, and those points add up, and yeah, uh the overall winner gets a head of a golden head of Greg Davies. That's true. What a what a great prize.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

And then every five seasons they bring back the five champions from the previous five seasons. That's pretty cool. And they do kind of a hunger game situation. Champion of champions, yeah. Champion of champions, and they get the body, the body of Greg on top of it. So then they just have a Greg statue at their house.

Tea Break And Fandom Culture

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Okay, okay, here. Question How many of them do you think actually have that? Or it's just like one singular prop that they just award? I actually have no idea. Okay. Good question.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

But I do know it did come back in one series for a prize task. Uh, someone brought in a one of the Taskmaster trophies because she had found it just in the garage on a shelf of a Previous champions. Oh my gosh. That's funny.

SPEAKER_04 22:03

I'm just thinking about the just how absurd it is that that's the prize for this that you know that they're working towards for ten episodes and like all the I know I know it's real. I mean, let's be real, it's not about the prize, it's about the laughs. It does have like that same kind of quality we were just talking about whose line is it anyway. Like just it's goofy. It's all for the fun of it. Like, yeah, you're throwing in elements of a of a competition, but in reality, it's it's all about the laughs, it's all about the fun along the way, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Like it really is, but I mean they do get paid for doing the show. Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Yeah, and they and you know, if you're a mid medium-sized comedian, like going on a show like this is probably amazing for the exposure and done a lot for a lot of yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 22:46

Yeah, have any I mean, have some of them like exploded off of the show? Has there been like examples of you don't have to if you can't do that?

International Versions And Podcasts

SPEAKER_01 22:55

I'm trying to think of who because uh like last month after I had rewatched the entire series twice in a row. Um I was just like look I was like googling like this person, Taskmaster popularity, and a lot of them were saying, Oh, they gained significant like popularity after their performance on Taskmaster. They started like some of them will talk about oh, they started getting more gigs or more offers and things like that as well. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

Makes sense. I can see that I think that speaks to the the show's popular like it's gotta be something that's more prime time, anyways. Like you've got to have a lot of people that are watching it, a lot of eyeballs, because I mean, you know, your your social media clips are only gonna get you so far, like you're not everybody's paying attention to that enough to like go and watch the full episodes or what it might lead you to it, but like you're not usually gonna just off of the clips that the that the show produces gonna get a lot of recognition from that, I wouldn't think, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

But right. Potentially. Well, hard to say. Uh well, Mark, we've talked a little bit about now the basics of it. So if someone were to get started after hearing some of this, where would you suggest they start?

SPEAKER_01 24:05

Uh yeah, I mean that really depends on the kind of person you are. For me, I'm start at the beginning, just go straight through. But I would say there are a few seasons uh that would be really good for starting. For like the reason I chose series 13, because that one has a great cast. They're all hilarious. There's a good dynamic between them all. Season five also has a really good cast. I think for Americans, maybe series 19. Uh Jason Manzuka's. And he's not the first American on the show because in season 12. Season 12, there was Desiree Birch, who is American, but she's based in England. He is the first US-based uh taskmaster candidate. Um, yeah, I think maybe those would be the ones that I would recommend first if you're not the kind to just start at the beginning.

SPEAKER_04 24:58

I think if if I'm being real, like the first season that I want to watch is the one with Jason on it because it is he's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

He's hilarious. He so he will explicitly he has said that his goal was to dismantle, disrupt, and demolish everything, like set on fire, engulfing flames. That's the word the phrase used. Engulf in flames.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

You said he was series five? No, he was series 19.

Would You Rather: Taskmaster Edition

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Yeah, okay, gotcha. So a fairly recent one. Yeah. And um, let's see, it's 21. One of the people they've announced is Kumel Nunjani. Yes. So um he's he's really big. You would know him if you saw him. I think I know who he is. Yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah, you would you would recognize him. I think he was wasn't he in Marvel recently as one of the um blanking. He's an Indian guy, right? Yeah. Okay, yeah. Um what was the superhero movie? Like it's a squad of uh it's a fair movie. Give me one second. The Eternals. Eternals. The Eternals. I was thinking like Invincibles. I was like, that's not it. Eternals, yeah. He was one of the Eternals. Yeah. He was in uh Kenobi, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

Yes, he was. Yeah, he was the fake Jedi. Oh, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_04 26:04

Yeah, he was really funny in that. So I'd I'd be interested in watching him. He's a pretty funny guy.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

Yeah, I do. As much as I dis despise Kenobi and fired. Here we go. I do love him as an actor. He is really entertaining. He's like he was in he was in uh Only Murr's in the building, too. He was one of the neighbors. Oh yeah, I enjoyed him in that too.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

He's got a very interesting like delivery style too. He's got a the the straight man kind of just very stone faced and delivering ridiculous lines.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

He reminds me of Taiko Waititi, honestly. I feel like they kind of they have a similar style, like you know, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Oh gosh. Well, Mark, next up we have our elevator pitch or impassioned plea. So if you were to try to convince someone 30 seconds or so to watch it, what would you say?

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Watch it. Like just do it like you won't regret it. Um I don't know, all the cool kids do it. I don't know what I would say. Like it's like peer pressure them. That's the I don't know. I would probably just get a gun and be like, do it now. Whoa. Wow, we're going dark here. All right. Oh, my bad. I don't know. I think I would just, you know, just I would pretty much just be like, this show will make you feel better during these stressful times in which we live. You won't regret it.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Awesome. I love uh I love a good comedy show too. Like when we're thinking about the the aspects of it. That's I mean, like going back to the panel TV show kind of kind of deal, that we, you know, we've got late night television, but not uh that's not to the same cat. Like it's not quite the same. There are funny.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

I say, yeah, the point of this is pure comedy. It's there's no like through line you gotta follow. There's no character development that you're worried about, really. It's all just maybe for some of them, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

I would say maybe it's got something for everybody because the tasks are extremely varied. And then for me, I love witty banter. Yeah, there's absolutely so much witty banter.

SPEAKER_04 28:27

There's a lot of like the I'm thinking in you know, in comedy when like something is funny because of the awkwardness of it, and there's a lot of that.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

That's that's British humor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. And that's little Alex Horn. That's little Alex Horn. Yeah. Uh all right. Well, we're gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, we'll dive into some deeper questions around the rest of the culture.

Dream Casts And Celebrity Picks

SPEAKER_02 28:57

All right, I'm into this. I feel like we're on the show. All right, we are back from our break. I wanted to point out to our listeners that we normally drink you know, coke or cherry coke. Uh if you you know, if you watch on YouTube, we have our Phantom Phantom mugs. However, to stay on theme, we are drinking tea.

SPEAKER_04 29:17

And we thought add some sweetener to mine as we speak.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

Go ahead and take that. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Yeah, we uh yeah, we thought, you know, British comedy show, it'd be it'd be only appropriate to drink tea. Anyway, so we're gonna jump into our fandom culture segment. So, Mark, what are some tell us about some content um outside of the like the main show?

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Uh so outside the main show, there are lots of different types of content, actually. First, there are many um offshoots uh in different countries. There was an Amer Oh sorry, um, there was an American for one, maybe two seasons, I don't know. Um, I know the uh that Taskmaster Australia and Taskmaster New Zealand are both really popular. Uh I study Norway, Norway, Norwegian a little bit. So I watched the first episode of the Norwegian version of Taskmaster. It had the guys from Ilvis, you know, What Does the Fox Say? Uh guys. They were in the first season. That's funny. Um and then outside that, there are also two podcasts. Um there's just Taskmaster the Podcast, where they go through uh it's hosted by Ed Gamble, who was the series series nine champion, I believe. And he has a guest, usually someone else who is also a contestant, but Greg and Alex have also been on it, and they go through and analyze uh an episode like task by task. The other one is called Taskmaster the People's Podcast, uh hosted formerly by Lou Sanders, who was a oh my god, what's the word? Champion of her series of one of these series. But I think she left, and then another contestant from another series uh did it. That one they interview fans. Oh, that's kind of cool. Nice. Um, but there are also board games, there's a book, uh, a book of quotes because like so many, so many quotes from the show.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

Especially taken out of context. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Right. Actually, the title of each episode is sort of a random quote. Yeah, taken out of context. Yeah. Um actually the one we watched was called uh That's what or That's the Sound of Blue or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

I was just thinking, uh what, so Greg Davies is a big part of the show on these offshoots. I mean, who who are they getting to do the the taskmastering?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Uh they have people from their respective like comedians, like famous, funny, funny men or women. Yeah. Uh who from their respective countries. Actually, one of the podcasts um has contestants and the taskmaster, the taskmaster's assistants from the offshoots on to analyze the tasks.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Yeah, that's really cool. Nice. Well, that's great. Yeah, it's funny. I didn't realize there was so much content outside the show. I mean, you know, yeah. If you're British panel show, you wouldn't think there'd be that much, but oh, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

It's cool that it's made it into different countries. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool too. Yeah.

Judging Styles And Strategy

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Changed it into different I actually, as you know, my birthday was Monday before I was coming home, because I was gonna come home in October. I had we I had actually set up tasks because my birthday was on the lunar new year holiday in Korea. Yeah. So we were gonna travel to another city, like stay in a hotel or something. And then uh I I was gonna be a taskmaster. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

Mark, you would make a good taskmaster, honestly. I would thank you. We should do this.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Yeah, you you would actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

Did I call dibs on being the assistant?

SPEAKER_02 33:05

His tasks are gonna be like, all right, do the laundry, do the dishes, vacuum. But make it fun. Yeah, make it fun. No, that's great. Um are there any hot takes either inside the fandom or that you have yourself about the show?

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Uh well, I mean, probably. I would say on the podcasts, uh the Ed Gamble or the guests will often give their own hot takes because they often are like, I don't agree with Greg on this, or I don't agree with the fans on this. I would say for me, I know um a lot of people find the COVID seasons not as good. But I think maybe it's because that's when I started watching. Uh, those are some of my favorites. But I don't know what I would say like hot take-wise. I do often disagree with Greg, but who doesn't?

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Yeah. Oh man. That's funny.

SPEAKER_04 34:07

Well, let's go ahead. I think we're we've already talked about the the creators, right? Let's jump into our group discussion. You guys good with that?

SPEAKER_02 34:14

Yeah, can we do some would you rather? This is our favorite segment. That's my favorite segment.

Iconic Tasks And Quelf Energy

SPEAKER_04 34:17

Yeah. All right. Let's go that into some would you rather? I'm gonna thank Ben once again. He's the one that developed these questions this time. Uh Mark, would you rather go to the filming of the tasks on the site or be in the studio audience during the actual episode?

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Oh, I would rather be in the studio audience. Okay. Unless I'm the one doing the tasks. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Because you're not, because half the show is like the banter between Greg and Alex and the contestants and like their reactions, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

And there's so much that gets cut out of the broadcast, it would be so fun to like see how passionately they really argue.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah. There are bloopers too, which yeah, there's bloopers because like Greg will flub like his line reading of like introducing the next task, or something like that. And like, yeah, they're they're amusing.

SPEAKER_04 35:09

He said there was something ridiculous that he had to say in that first episode that I was like, man, the the writers, I feel like they were just because he even cracked up. Yeah. What was that? I don't know. It was something super dumb. And I thought, yeah, I think I feel like his writers are messing with him right now. Oh, yeah, 100%. Making him say something to dumb or ridiculous. Yeah. Would you rather come up with the tasks or test them out?

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Oh, I would I think I would rather come up with the tasks. Okay. Because I I love world building. That's kind of what it is, honestly, in a lot of ways.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

Uh how about this one? Would you rather take on some tasks solo or be put on a team?

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Well, you have to do both. Well, I know, but I'm just for for which would you think you'd have more fun with? A solo task or a team task?

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Oh, I think, oh, it depends on the task. I love shared experiences, but I think I'd probably get like if you're holding me back, we're gonna fight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:11

Would you rather uh make Alex or Greg unexpectedly crack up break character? Yep.

SPEAKER_02 36:21

Alex. Yeah. Alex was definitely much more stoic throughout the whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 36:25

That's like his thing, though. Like Greg openly like laughs at things, so I think if you get Alex to break character, that's that's a big deal. You earned it. Like there are compiliations of Alex breaking character because of how like ridiculous someone is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

Would you rather be remembered as a chaotic but hilarious contestant or the confident and competent one?

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Uh probably chaotic and hilarious because that's just how I live my life. That's that's what I figured you'd think.

Audience Energy And COVID Seasons

SPEAKER_00 36:57

But you know, you never know. Uh gosh. Well, that'll bring us into our broader uh discussion with some other questions that we've put together. So um let's see. Uh I'm gonna start with the very first one, which is if you had to uh assemble a fantasy team of contestants who have been on the show to make up a dream cast. You don't have to list all five, but who would be some of your top picks? Okay, a fantasy team. So can't like wizards? No, no, no, no. Of the contestants who have been on. Of the contestants who have been on, who would your dream cast be of past contestants?

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Of past contestants.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Not like a griffin, uh wizard, like you said. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Not like other comedians who haven't done it or anything. Correct, yeah. Okay. Past contestants. That was actually how I took that quite. That's a separate quote.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

We'll come back to that one.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Yeah. Um, of past contestants. I oh, that's so hard. I think I would love for Bridget Christie to come back because of how much she upsets Alex. Um there are two types of contestants that I really like. The ones who are super gung-ho and like happy about it, and then the underdog. Um, so I think if I were gonna pick five, Bridget, Christy, Nick Muhammad. Okay. Um I kind of want to go back like early, because I feel like some people in the early seasons there were fewer episodes. They started with only six episodes per season. So I'd like to give some of the early people um more of a chance. Maybe Roshin Connety from the first series. Um, it's so hard.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Don't like I said, don't have to do all five. I think that's a good list to start with.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Can I go off script here and ask the for the whole group? What would your celebrity like I'd like dream celebrity cast be? Yeah. Like if or so you're the fifth person, who are the other four people you want to put on the show?

SPEAKER_01 39:05

The other four.

SPEAKER_04 39:06

That'd be tough.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Oh, I'm just gonna be picking people I want to meet.

Favorite Prize Task Wins

SPEAKER_04 39:09

Yeah, kind of. Yeah. I'm thinking who would be like the most hysterical to to watch. Um, I really I oh man.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

I'm gonna put uh Jason Siegel on. I think he'd be a good one. That's fair. He could be genuine, but also could be ridiculous. Like I think Nick Offerman for me, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

We're just gonna pick people from our favorite sitcom. Yeah, maybe Zach Galifinakis.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Yeah, he would yeah, he would be a good host on the street.

SPEAKER_04 39:37

Oh, he would be kind of Alex Lauren. Oh my gosh, I'm I'm blanket on his name right now. He's super popular um comic. Uh did the the skid, the George Washington skid on SP. Nate Bergetzi? Yes. Nate Bergetzsi? Yeah. He would be very funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Very dry. Yeah. He'd be a he'd be a good one. I was just also thinking, um, oh my gosh, uh I'll shoot who plays Nick Peralta or Jake Peralta. Andy Sand. Andy Sandberg.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

I would love Andy Sandberg as well. That'd be a funny one. Oh get some females in there.

SPEAKER_01 40:10

I would say a Danese comedian. I cannot think of her name. It starts with an A.

SPEAKER_04 40:16

Isn't it? Ao something.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Gonna look.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

I was thinking um, oh, who is it from um uh Always Sunny? Uh DeAndre. Danny DeVito? Oh, Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito would be amazing too. No, I would I mean he's Danny DeVito, I like to see. Just throw him into anything. He's he can be funny anywhere. But yeah, maybe Paul Rudd.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Uh Atskooka.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

I don't know. Yes, that's exactly who I was thinking of when you said that.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

She's so funny. Who plays D? What's her name?

SPEAKER_04 40:50

Oh I can't remember off the top of my head. Actress that plays D. She she'd be a none of us can think of her name, but she'd be funny. That's awful.

What’s Next For Taskmaster

SPEAKER_02 40:58

Yeah. Anyway, it's late, guys.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

It's real late.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

All right, I'll jump to another question here. Um so Mark, do you prefer when Greg is harsh with his judgment or surprisingly generous?

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Honestly, I think I prefer it when he's a little harsh. Because I do feel like in the late, the more recent series he's been a bit softer. Which you know is fine. We're all stressed out, be nice, but sometimes rules is rules.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

It's also, I think, part of his character sometimes, as like the taskmaster. Like, yeah, like just come down on him real hard.

SPEAKER_04 41:39

I thought it was really funny when he picked out like something specific that one of them said, and like, I just want to highlight this thing. Yeah. And those are what make it into the quote book, usually, like, yeah. Yeah. Uh is my turn for a question. It is. All right. Is it better when the contestants come on and generally try hard to get points, or when they just let go and are goofy and just have fun with it? This is almost a would you rather too. Almost.

Closing And Next Episode Teaser

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Yeah. I think it's more fun to watch contestants who try their best, but also when they know they can't win, are willing to just make it as funny as possible because you know, that's what the show is.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

It could get real serious if that was it. Like if that was all it was and you were always everybody's gung-ho and very competitive. I think that part of the the fun of the show is if you've got somebody that's just like, all right, I'm I'm just making the joke out of this. Like I'm here to be stupid and like make this as ridiculous as possible.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

I mean, this kind of goes with the question I was gonna ask, but like, I don't like the show may not work if there weren't comedians on there who know how to do this stuff. Because otherwise, again, it is just a very odd game show where they're doing ridiculous tasks. So without the ridiculous commentary around it, yeah, it might not work. So uh that brings me so my question for Mark was going to be do you think the show works if you remove one or both of Greg and Alex? Like obviously they've spun it off other places, but do you think it works without Greg or Alex?

SPEAKER_01 43:08

I don't think I mean, yeah, it can. I think if you've watched the show up to this point, maybe not. Because I feel like I don't know when if one of them goes, I don't know that I will still be interested. But like if that's where you start, I'm sure it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Yeah. I almost felt I mean I've only seen the one episode, but I almost felt like Alex was like kind of the essence of the show in a sense. Absolutely. Yeah, granted, like obviously he created the show, so it makes sense that he, you know, has that type of impact on the show. But yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

He well, he's the link between all of it because he's there at every task with every contestant or team that's doing things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:54

He's kind of like the officiant there too. He's the timekeeper or yeah, the scorekeeper.

SPEAKER_04 43:59

I think Greg Would be the easier of the two to like if you were recasting one of them.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

Yeah, because you can find a great host, like, you know, probably easier than someone who it's like having a showrunner. Like you take the showrunner out of a sh like a really popular TV show. That's often when the TV show, like, you know, kind of tanks or whatever. We've talked about that a lot before, but yeah. Um, let's see, what are some unforgettable tasks that have been on the show?

SPEAKER_01 44:25

I like, are we basing this on like what the task is or just the results of people doing the task? Either or I would think of results, but yeah, whatever you got. Okay, so for heaven's sake. I think okay, so some of the more memorable tasks uh in the season that we were watching, there's uh one task, the shoe task. They have to there's a little chapel, a little abandoned chapel is the setting. And they there are just pairs of shoes just sitting, you know, setting up. Dozens. Yeah. They have to display the shoe that Alex is thinking of, but they don't know which one it is. They have to ask yes or no questions. Okay. Uh fewest questions. I don't know what if the time had anything to do with that as well. Like if they had the same questions, whoever did it faster might win. I don't remember. But um, so each person after they asked a question or answer or whatever, they had something different they had to do. So like Chris Ramsey always had to be like, no way. Like after every question. So we'd be like, is it a left shoo? And he'd be like, no. So no way. Bridget had to say, okay, but one more thing or something like that. Um Sophie had to become more and more exasperated by the which was natural.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

And Judy had to laugh and like just her cackle.

SPEAKER_04 45:53

Yeah. You know, I just had a a memory come just rushing back to me now of uh us playing Quelf and this has some. It's very some strong Quelf energy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Yeah, like go find a spatula and hold it in your hand for the rest of the round.

SPEAKER_04 46:11

Or there's like, I mean, in the game, if you've if you've never heard of Quelf before, it's a ridiculous game. But uh I'm I mean, one of the things is like it adds rules to the game that when this thing happens or when you do this, then you have to do, you know, this also has to happen, and there's global rules, and not it's just it is very much that type of thing. Yeah, so like just there are ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

I remember there's like ridiculous challenges of like you have five minutes to compose a song about a tea kettle or something ridiculous like that. Like, yeah, just so yeah, that definitely good comparison.

SPEAKER_04 46:42

I guess it it tracks then that we we definitely played some quelf and like the the fact that you were in that you're in this show, you're you're into this show. I think there's some comparisons there. Like there's reasons. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, it is me, isn't it? I'm sorry. See? Awkward pause. My bad. Um I think you already mentioned this, but you you've watched some of the other versions uh of the show, right? Or no?

SPEAKER_01 47:08

I have seen lots of clips of uh New Zealand and Australia. Uh, the only I've watched one and a half episodes of the Norwegian stinoff.

SPEAKER_04 47:20

How do you think that they they differ or or do they differ? Are they just trying to copy off of it? Are they their own thing?

SPEAKER_01 47:28

Well, I think sometimes they do similar tasks, but from what I've seen, the tasks are never exactly the same. Uh I don't think I don't think they're doing it. I mean, Australia and New Zealand, I would say, are largely comparable, but still they're unique in their own way. Um, Norway is the one that felt the most different, and that may have been just a language barrier because sometimes I even with subtitles or whatever Norwegian I've studied, I didn't understand his explanations for why he was rating something the way he was. Yeah. Because like what's what that care person did, I'm like, no, that's a brilliant idea. I would have done that too. And then Taskmaster. Oh, but that's also just like part of the format. Like, it's not fair. True.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

Yeah. Uh okay, what's one of the biggest unexpected competence moments in the show that you can remember? Because there are characters like Bridget Christie or some others who just seem to not fully comprehend like some of the tasks, or just like you know, they just question everything and why they're even there, sort of. At least that's the air they give off. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Um they're in series 11.

unknown 48:49

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

Series 10 or 11, I think 10 actually. Um, there is Catherine Parkinson. She was an she's an actress from the IT crowd, if you ever watched that. Um, she was quite incompetent at many tasks.

SPEAKER_02 49:05

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 49:05

But I mean, she did well, very well in some of the tasks. But there was one task in particular, she uh they had to make a marble run, and whoever could keep their marble going for the longest time would win. And uh she didn't even know what a marble run was before it started. So what she ended up doing was she sort of did like a pendulum thing where it was rolling back and forth. So everyone else was doing like a track. So like maybe not knowing what it was helped her, but she definitely like she it was beautiful to see her, like just yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

I I remember that one. Yeah, that was good. Yeah, that's great. Um, would the show work without a live studio audience? It did.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

During COVID time during COVID, yeah. Okay, like they didn't have the live studio audience, they were sitting farther apart on the stage, they moved the trophy to between Greg and Alex instead of on the other side, and they were showing to audiences after the fact on like screens.

SPEAKER_02 50:09

Okay. Okay, gotcha. I was just thinking of like, you know, this isn't a the best comparison, but like whose line is it anyway, for example, where like I feel like the audience energy, like they're a part of it. Yeah, because it kind of almost it makes the contestants more energized. Like you can tell the contestants are feeding off the audience energy. Sure. Um, you know, when they're really getting into it, and it kind of seems like obviously I've only seen the one episode, but it kind of seemed a little bit similar, you know, and the audience reacts to things and it kind of just adds to the you know the whole environment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:42

I I think I'd agree. I mean, I I don't know. I I'd have to watch more of it to know, but I I think I agree with you that I could see how it could work without the the audience being there necessarily. Like if you just piped in the laughter afterwards, like you could have convinced me that there was, you know, not an audience present there.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

So well, interestingly, I was listening to the podcast earlier today, like while I was trying to repack my stuff. And Richard Herring, who was the winner of the Catherine Parkinson series, I think it was series 10 because he was the most recent winner before the champion of champions, so it had to be series 10. Um so when they did the champion of champions, that was um with the live studio audience, but when he did his series, he didn't have the stud studio audience. So he kind of like talked about the difference before because it was like new having the people there, having the reactions um was a very different feeling. It was exciting, maybe a little overwhelming, like things like that. Yeah, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 51:45

I think we're we're about ready to close things down, right? Did my asking one more question? Yeah, sure. All right, uh, let's see. What uh what's one prize from a prize task that you'd like to take home?

SPEAKER_02 52:01

That last will and testament was pretty awesome. That was really cool.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

Um, I it would probably be one of the earlier ones because they sort of became more and more ridiculous over time and they weren't like as nice of things. Like someone put in their car once. Oh my gosh. But no, actually, you know what? In uh series 12, Desiree Birch brought in. I think gosh, I'm gonna get it. If I get the series wrong, I mean, um, Desiree Birch brought in a Chase lounge. Oh, that's it was purple, it was beautiful, and I'm like, oh, but then someone also brought a trip to Pompeii.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

Wow. Oh, yeah, I think I'd go for the trip to Pompeii. That's a good one. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Oh keep going, keep going. Like Catherine Ryan, she brought in like uh flyer miles vouchers or whatever, so she could someone could fly for free to wherever they were going. Actually, maybe that one because then you get to choose where you go. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:12

So legitimately used to be actual prizes. Yeah. And now you get a briefcase with a mystery object. From a trash can, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:19

Yeah. In my mind, inside that briefcase, it was like the light from the end of pulp fiction. Yes. Uh that might have only been a joke. Mike, Michael, have you seen pulp fiction? I'm guessing. I have not seen it, no. That's what the the whole entire thing. There's this briefcase, they open it up and they just stuck a light. You don't you only see the reaction of the of the them opening it, and there's just this light shining up into their face, and so you have to guess what's what's inside of it. So that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 53:49

Oh, very good. Well, Mark, what's the next big thing? We talked a little bit about season series, sorry, 21 coming up. Um, we we mentioned one person. Do you know any of the other people who are in the next one?

SPEAKER_01 54:01

Uh, the only one that I knew offhand was Joel Domet, okay, who is another comedian. I know him because Ed Gamble, who does the Taskmaster podcast, does like seven other podcasts. And one of them is oh, it's a really great podcast called Off Menu. Okay. Um, where they just have someone can come in and give like their ideal menu, and he was a guest on there, and he was really funny. So I did know who he was. The rest, I don't I couldn't even tell you their names right now. Oh, wait, we did talk about one of them. Yanuchi.

SPEAKER_00 54:33

Yes, they were a the creator and showrunner of Veep. Yeah, yeah. So that could be interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And do you know when that's coming out? Spring. Spring. Okay. I don't know a date yet. Yeah, it could be soon. But yeah, um, anyone who wants to go check it out, like we said, it's they're all available on YouTube for free. They have uh playlists with like a complete series and all the episodes. So, like if you want to watch it start to finish, that's a good place to go. Um yeah, anything else, Mark? Watch it. Back to our elevator pitch. Lovely. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Mark. We're so glad to hang out and talk with you. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. This is awesome. Especially last minute deciding on what we were even going to talk about, but you were very knowledgeable on it, and so I think we landed on a good one. Yeah.

unknown 55:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:27

All right.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

Well, Nick, what's next uh for the podcast?

SPEAKER_04 55:30

Yeah, we got uh another bin, not the bin that's already on the on the podcast, coming to talk to us about fantasy sports. Uh so that'll be fun. We're gonna focus mostly, I think, on basketball and football, but I'm sure there'll be some other conversations about some other fantasy sports as well. So we're uh yeah, I don't know. I guess, well, I'll save this question for later. I was gonna ask whether or not you guys are into fantasy sports, but I guess you'll have to wait and find out until after we get to the episode of the city. Oh, big teaser. Uh hey, you know, I gotta be intriguing. We gotta like that. You know, give leave some mystery for them to be wondering. So I don't want to ask one of the questions too early, you know? Yeah. But uh no, this has been fun, and uh yeah, we'll look forward to seeing you guys next time when we talk about fantasy sports later.

SPEAKER_02 56:17

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