Even though they say there's no punchline, my favourite takeaway from Alex's banter about his earliest memory being eating ham with his wife is that it heavily implies that he doesn't even remember _marrying his wife._

Bit of a call-back to Greg's Chris Eubank impressions on Cats Does Countdown with "competatative dad" there.🤣🥊

Subbuteo.... his part of many British boys childhood. It's a green felt mat about 4ft by 3ft resembling a football pitch, with plastic players that you flick to play a game of football/soccer. Surprisingly quite skilful. There are leagues (less common now) and some people even build mini stadiums. This was absolutely huge in the 70s and 80s but has had a mini revival recently.

I don't know why but the way fearn said "Do you like Banana?" "Yes.." "Catch them in your mouth." Just cracked me up

Apparently, like Al Murray before him, Dara lives close to the Taskmaster House and so was able to quickly get the hurling stick!

The Channel 4 subtitles for John’s pleasure task made sure to read “groans in displeasure” when he was crawling through the tube.

Most surprising thing for me was how well John took Munyas weight when he wasn't expecting it. That could of ended awkwardly lol

There aren’t many shows that make me laugh so much I can’t breathe, but Taskmaster does it to me so often. John’s ‘V!!!’ had me a dangerous purple colour.

Throwing out a possible answer to the women leaning towards humiliating Alex.....maybe its just my circle, but we ladies don't often get the chance to do those types of gross 'prank' things, so maybe taskmaster gives them permission to get that mischievous side out and poor Alex just cops it. It's also been known to get a good reaction from Greg.

I absolutely adore Fern, she's just so curiously hilarious and chaotic. Totally bonkers and stupidly adorable.

The funny thing about Alex being abused is that he is the real power behind the show. He created it and produces it. He is routinely abused on this show. If he didn't allow it, it wouldn't happen. He plays Greg's lackey but in reality he's the boss.

You need to look up Subbuteo to understand John’s prize task entry.

Johns suspicion over the trolley video had me worried about a reveal aka Joe Wilkinson

Munya and John were hilarious in that last task on the stage

What makes Taskmaster so great is that when the task is objective, Greg grades it objectively, but when it is subjective, he has just the right amount of arbitrary vindictiveness

It would be huge if they’d actually stacked John’s rubbish at the front of the season and he actually just continually gets better and better from here and comes late for Dara’s spot.

don't forget with the final task, it's easy to say you know the alphabet when you're sitting at home watching, but they're against the clock in front of an audience, it's easy to slip up here and there

Subbuteo where do I start ? - in the pre computer era it was the ultimate football ( not soccer) game for UK kids . It involved flicking players on weighted bases on a carpet sized green basis pitch , I I'mt was so popular and accessories were made including floodlights , tv gantry etc... to find a streaker set is both a suspected wind up and a genuine delight to see . Genius John . This was a super episode , some really good tasks and I enjoyed it a lot . I had hoped for Fern , but you couldn't deny John deserved this one . I'm sure there will be lots of other people enlightening you about Noel Edmonds .

Can you imagine Daisy May Cooper and Richard Herring having to do that live task?

I feel Fern's cat harness should've won, because it was more expensive

Noel Edmonds is/was (mostly was) a television presenter who was at one point enormously successful, and therefore quite ubiquitous, but is also a bit of an oddball with a sort of lack of self awareness. Huge in the 80's/90's, and well known in the 00's for hosting our version of Deal or no Deal (quite different from other international versions). Bad dress sense, flowery shirts, weird beard. His show, Noel's House Party was the origins of Mr Blobby, who you may have come across, but if not I struggle to explain him, a sort of monstrous terrorising mascot, who is either very funny, or very frightening, or both...your mileage may vary.

It's a pinard stethoscope - not a worm trumpet, very useful for midwives and obstetricians

I think one of the main things we can take from this particular episode is that Fern genuinely, genuinely 'Hates' Alex and his passive aggressiveness which she counters with the Scottish equivalent which appears to be 'Active Aggressiveness' 🥰

Tbh I was surprised to see Munya in last place!😱 Noel Edmonds used to host 'Noels house party' back in the 90s, then he done the original 'Deal or No Deal' And subbuteo is a table football game where you flick those lil figures at the ball... My dog I had throughout my teens was the same as your cat,she never wandered far and would just sit and wait for me 👌💜

Always watch everything with subtitles, and on channel 4,throughout John's Whole task,they said "groans with displeasure"....👀🤦🏻‍♂️😂😂😂

I watched this episode just 2 hours ago and have continued to hysterically cry laugh rewatching “VEEEEE” since. Fern’s reaction makes me laugh even more. One for the taskmaster history books

No question that Dara was getting a little bit deliberately marked down - his joy, of the three sports boys, was way up there.

Subbuteo is a kids/adult game where you ping 2 teams of little model football players with your fingers into a small football to score goals.

Such a fun live task!

That animal guessing game was the best task in the season.

I appreciate you said it's art, because it definitely is. Just imagine that grandchildren of our generation may have Alex Horne in the same textbook with Shakespeare :D

Noel Edmonds is five foot seven or eight depending on the source, so John bowled his trolley somewhere from 105-108 feet. I doubt I could manage the same, but maybe you could. I actually wound up scoring the prize task exactly the same as Greg, save for his willingness to overlook Munya's cheapskatedness. Rare for that similar of an alignment, but if you grade those four strictly by uselessness, it lines up quite easily. Also, it might have just been the camera angle, but I have never seen a mandolin like that before. My idea for the chute task would have been pretty poor - attempting to mimic something resembling a roller massage. I think Fern seemed to have earned the fiver, honestly. You're probably right about Sarah's dress being a backup in case of damage, but given how dramatically different Alex's build is to hers, it surprises me that it was such a good fit. The very first thing I noticed in the team task was actually "they said routine, they did not say dance". A lot of it seemed to come down to interpretations of what the music seemed to sound like, where ot seemed to fit. Only other thing worth noting is that Brandy Alexander is a really clever stage name for an actress (I don't drink). On the subject of John Kearns's competence or lack thereof, sometimes there are contestants that are extremely feast-or-famine. First place or last and basically never in-between. Last series had such a contestant - Bridget Cheistie. The difference is that when John fails, he REALLY fails. And he does so much more often.

"Oooooh nooooooooooooo"!

Subbuteo is a table top game, where on a model stadium or football pitch, you basically play a game of football by flicking miniature players around. You probably know Foosball (Table Football), Shirley and Jeff played it in Community. Subbuteo is a more nerdy version of that.

Greg seems to be favoring John beyond his weird capriciousness.

I feel like Dara was so far ahead that in the last two episodes they've been scoring him low to level the playing field a bit. And he's still ahead by 12.

The mandolin is a classic. My wife actually has that exact model of mandolin, and it is very good - as long as you use the finger guard. Every time I see a mandolin on a TV cooking show, I get concerned, because they almost never use the guard. It's really not worth it - it's a great tool, and I use mine a lot, but I alwasy tell people USE THE GUARD. Use it every time, no exceptions, even if you're just using it for one thing. USE. THE. GUARD. I realise this is not a funny comment, it's just one of those things that wind me up. They provide a thing called a 'guard' and people think it's just for show - it really isn't. It's to protect you from the razor-sharp blade that you are waving your hand close to. USE THE GUARD.

One of my favorite episodes so far! All the tasks were great and everyone seemed on their A game for each one. Laughed almost the entire show!

"You're shopping in the wrong places, Fern" - Do you really think her judgement would be better if she shopped at different places? 😆

In regards to the women abusing Alex, are you really sure women do it more? I seem to remember a lot of male contestants making Alex get naked. Hugh or Rod did it a lot (or maybe it was Hugh and Rod, as I can't tell them apart). But there were others. And what about Munya the other week making Alex throw a ball OVER THE HOUSE repeatedly. I mean, that's got to hurt your arm if you can even do it. Alex deserved points for that task. It doesn't pop up all that often, on camera, but remember the hide the body task on the NZ Season 3 of taskmaster? Remember how some of the contestants trailed Paul through the house repeating "all the information is in the task?" I think the contestants do develop a good deal of annoyance at the TA for repeating that phrase over and over. I've heard people gripe at Alex about it. I think it's a general TA problem, as the TA is the one administering the tasks. When I see someone abusing Alex on Taskmaster, as it does happen reasonably often, I do remind myself that Alex designed the entire program, owns the IP, and chooses to be the TA. He also decides how much he's willing to participate in things. He can say no. He's said no in the past. He can stop any time he wants. And he could hire someone else to be the TA if he wanted. For whatever reason, he doesn't want that (the guy has got to be a masochist at some level). I know thus far on the NZ version, Paul Williams has refused to drop his pants/remove his pants. Or rather, he wears a pair of pants under his pants, so that he can remove one pair, and still be wearing pants, much to the disappointment of the contestants. He seems to be refusing to do nudity, though his refusal is done in a funny way, so at least the contestant gets a laugh out of their bit.

In fairness to John, it's hard to howl and say V at the same time...

Great commentary Neil

No, British people are too polite to point out real passive aggression on public TV. It's because Alex is a genuinely nice bloke, who definitely doesn't hate primary school teachers, that it is amusing to accuse him of all sorts of etiquette misdemeanours and unacceptable views, because they're clearly not true (and thus it is harmless fun to tease him).

As a woman I like Alex, but as a contestant I might feel differently. He can be a little condescending at times. Also, he is a little stand-offish because he doesn't like the physical contact. But generally it is just fun to mess with him. I love that Sarah had him wear a copy of her dress.

subbuteo is a game of soccer where you flick the players towards the ball and goal. its abit like tabletop soccer (fuseball) but with fingers

Daras hurling was great. How can he justify giving Dara 2 point's. Dara was 🔥

Any parents of children of a certain age will get the "Chip Biffington" reference. I am still not sure if it was a series of books or a fever dream.

The Scalpel Please font is Cooper Black, not Cupertino :) There might be a modern copy called Cupertino, but the original design is from the 1920s and designed by Oswald Cooper. Its an absolute classic. :)

They all have a spare outfit for the reason you thought; if it gets messy or damaged. Someone tweeted Victoria Coren-Mitchell to ask where she got her dress from because she wanted one. Victoria arranged to send her the spare one.

The contestants I associate most with abusing Alex are Sally Phillips (who was never annoyed at him), Ed Gamble (a man), and Rhod Gilbert (another man).

"Competitive" It's good to hear Greg's Chris Eubank impression again. It's been a while.

31:58 I feel a little bad for people who live near LAX or YVR, but PER definitely provides opportunities for airport bowling, and people around are always ready to join in :)

An important part of British cultural references is definitely a Noel Edmonds. And by association, Mr Blobby. 😂

Sarah and Munya would probably have won the final task if Munya had chosen their animals. I bet he would have chosen from the Zimbabwean fauna, like rhinos, cheetahs, hyenas and zebras.

Everyone says when there's an "Everyone gets five points" result, it's a wash. But I do think it matters to the overall series score. Even though everyone goes up by the same amount, the leader maintains their lead without anyone else closing in.

John’s win this episode felt more organic than his first win, of course of order of the tasks per episode is predetermined but it just seemed like it wasn’t handed to him. I wonder if there wasn’t a tiebreak for the studio task due to time constraints, maybe they were coming to end of filming slot when the task came up.

Agree with you on the final task, it was fun, but as soon as it was split into teams Fearn who was closest to John in points had no chance to win the episode. And I wanted her to win!!!

Noel Edmunds is a kids TV presenter who was very big in the 90s, he had his own show called Noel's House Party that was prime time Saturday night entertainment in the 90s here. If you've ever seen Mr Blobby, he's Noel Edmunds' fault... (on that front, look up the video called "Jack Whitehall is Terrified of Mr Blobby - The Big Fat Quiz Of The '90s") He's fronted Top Of The Pops, Top Gear back in the day, and loads of other smaller shows. Since then he's probably most famous for being the host of Deal Or No Deal in the UK.

Subbuteo was a table top football/soccer game with little figures you flicked across a little pitch. Like Warhammer for jocks.

Abusing Alex has historically been good for getting points. I also think that people enjoy seeing how far they can push him knowing that he's the one who devised the tasks that are pushing them.

They don’t matter but I love being a nerd about all the stats and points

Who is Noel Edmonds? Boy that's a rabbit hole right there. Blobby Blobby Blobby!

I don't know if it would have helped but I probably would have tried swinging the trolleys from the pointy end rather than the handles

The girls had the right one for the pleasure.

There was no rule in the trolley push that said they had to stay behind the line, you could have won by putting the red trolley at the other end of the terminal and walking down with a trolley and pushing it into it.

B,, b , B... Bee Bee, BEE BEEEE Carp? That was one of the funniest things I've seen on this show! 🤣

"Who is Noel Edmunds" Pff, tourist. I jest. He was a big name in family entertainment in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Noel's House Party drew in record numbers of viewers on a Saturday night for years. He also introduced Mr Blobby.

a recommendation...Running Man. it's a Korean variety show. the games they play are awesome.

I think both teams miming simultaneously would've been chaos, not fun for the audience, and impossible for Alex to referee on his own. It would also have ended in a draw anyway. It doesn't matter that both teams drew. They might not've done - that's the chance factor.

I love that Fern called out Alex's passive-aggressiveness. Yes, he's servile as f***, but he clearly enjoys his upper hand. "All the information is on the task" is what we've heard the most in that category. I disagree that women humiliate Alex more often than male contestants. Rhod Gilbert comes to mind as having been particularly vile. I read that Fern has been diagnosed with autism. It is great for us weirdos to see her unfiltered whinging. The tasks are stupid, which is what makes them fun of course, but her reactions I think are absolutely warranted.

Dara was a bit hard done by on the first task. Overall this series has been a great one for live tasks.

Subuteo is a football games. You have 11 footballers each on a large green cloth marked out with a soccer pitch. And you flick the small model footballers to move the ball into the net. If you miss the ball the other team flick their players and try and score in the other net. Posh editions came with floodlights and stands to place around the pitch. So why would you needa streaker to invade the pitch, chased by policemen?

On Noel Edmonds, people of Greg's age would've known him as a kids' TV presenter in the 1970s on "The Multicoloured Swap Shop" live Saturday morning television, so we've kind of grown up knowing him. Though he seemed less of a berk then (see also Philip Scofield).

Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

3:07 Greg should have engaged in this one. He could've said, "So she was already your wife when you ate the ham, meaning you're announcing on national television that you don't remember your wedding? Your wife will be happy to hear that."

Veeeeee

John is starting to pick up steam!

Fern brady is gorgeous

Lots of women like Alex, he must be doing something right

About the abuse Alex gets from women, I think that men aren't used to getting patronizing comments from other men, but women get a lot of patronizing passive-aggressive comments like "that's great, for a woman" (not saying that Alex does this, but that women might be pricklier about patronizing comments coming from a man.) I think men would be more likely to react by getting more competitive "I'll show you" where women will be quicker to just go to "screw you". I think that Alex does this to be provocative, as in he's trying to provoke reactions, and that a lot of it is edited out - he's there to get the response out of the contestants, so it's understandable that him pushing or provoking contestants a bit isn't shown. Another aspect of this is that Alex has been shown to get awkward when women get in his space, or make sexual comments or just get pushy with him, and that Greg loves this, so if you are at all familiar with the show, it's something you can take advantage of

I mean, there were rhod's "fairly structured torture" and ed scotch taping over alex's chest hair. Girls mostly just want to rub foodstuffs on him. I've seen the guy eat shower gel ffs - not even on taskmaster, just kinda... recreationally. He really is up for anything, and i think it tickles both male and female comedians.

Alex has admitted on the podcast that he treats the female contestants differently. You can see with Sally Philips as the main example he helps her with a lot. But he said he’d only do it when he knows it wouldn’t be the difference between them winning or not. I think he does think he’s being nice but is received as patronising with women younger than Sally Philips.

Noel Edmonds is someone who got far too much time on TV presenting various shows. From stuff with a character called Mr Blobby (needs to be seen really) to hosting Deal or No Deal. He also owned a hackney cab (specific type of taxi) and would drive around in it with a blow up doll dressed in clothes in a passengers seat so he could use taxi lanes but not need to pick up anyone.

I get the impression that Alex is genuinely afraid of Fearne

People (and in particular women) abuse men who they perceive as weak, simple as that. See also how John is treated. Depends on the circumstances though. Like e.g. an ex once told me about visiting a former partner in the hospital every day as he died of kidney failure: "What would people have said otherwise?" And the circumstances here on this show simply allow people to be abusive without social repercussions - in fact, it might often be appreciated.

Maybe the women, who have spent much of their lives facing passive aggression from men who don't think they deserve to be where they are, finally snap when they're given the opportunity to do so without the fear of consequences. Maybe it's not that deep and they just enjoy torturing Alex lol

Though the scoring may be disappointing on individual episodes, don’t forget that all the scores are accumulated to decide the overall series winner. So even if it felt that the scoring of the final task didn’t matter because it didn’t help towards deciding the episode winner, it may still have bearing on who wins Greg’s head.

Greg's introductory insinuations are going a long way to convincing some folk that Alex hates women and women are reasonably more inclined to take umbrage. Subbuteo is a table football game with little players on hemispheres that are flicked with the finger to move the ball. Like Lego you can now get all sorts of unnecessary but amusing extras, hebce the streaker and two policemen pack. A Hurling 'stick' is called a Hurley.

Same about the ketchup. I loathe ketchup and would not be able to do that.

They matter! Especially now that Dara is out of a job on mock the week.

You might like to see this YT vid 'Subbuteo Ad 1977'

Subbeteo; already commented on. Noel Edmonds lol. I mean where do you start. Mr Blobby… 🙃😜 ✌️❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧🏳️‍🌈

The luggage trolley task was good...but, tasks like that I feel can be unfair to the female contestants as while technique matters, so does raw strength. I would have 100 percent tried turning the trolley around to see if that would make much difference aiming (more awkward to push for sure)

there should have been a tie-break in my opinion

Not touching that one.

I'd love to have a go at the luggage trolley task!