Oh Taskmaster. It’s such a wonderfully ridiculous show. Whoever decided that they should upload the episodes to YouTube for everyone* to watch should absolutely be given a shiny golden metallic head.

If you’re not familiar, go watch it right now. Each series has five different mostly British comedians competing in a number of inane tasks and being judged harshly (if humorously) by Taskmaster Greg Davis while Little Alex Horne (who actually produces the show) keeps everything more or less on track.

So, series 8. Iain Stirling is low pitched funny, Joe Thomas always seems like he’s wondering how in the world did he end up here, Lou Sanders is fiery and full of snark, Paul Sinha is … treated terribly (it turns out there’s always one), and Sian Gibson is

A few tasks I absolutely remember as being the best:

• Episode 1, Task 4: Sneak up on Alex across a trainyard. He will pop up every 10 seconds. It’s amazing to see how well (and how badly) some did at that.
• Episode 2, Task 3: Transfer rice from one room to a bottle in another. It’s problem solving like this where bending the rules really makes the show shine.
• Episode 3, Task 4: Do the worst thing, then make the best apology to Alex for it: Half the point of the show is how much they can get Alex to do. And here it is codified!
• Episode 4, Task 3: Make the best thing to engage a toddler. I have 3 young children. I’m not at all surprised at how well toy ducks and water work.
• Episode 8, Task 3: “Catch the red balls in things from the shed. Catch the yellow balls in clothing. Don’t let the green balls touch anything other than the grass. Catch the blue ball with something from the kitchen. Red balls are 1 point, yellow balls are 2 points, the blue ball is 5 points, and you lose 2 points for every green ball that touches anything other than the grass”. Yeah. Ridiculous tasks like that are fun!
• Episode 10, Task 2: Completely erase this eraser. “Bonus points for attempting to eat this eraser.” Need I say more?
• Episode 10, Task 4: Drive a buggy course blindfolded. Hilarious how badly they did.

A great start to a completely out of order watch of the show!