In the podcast Alex said he was really worried since it was the first episode that the live task wouldn't go down well, so he was genuinely concerned and angry on the stage when he was shouting "YOU'RE NOT IN IT" at them. Obviously later on he learned that whatever they do is gonna be funny so he becomes a lot more hands off and chill. XD
One of my favourite bits of trivia about this episode is that before this debut episode, literally 50+ comedians had turned down appearing on the show. Alex Horne was really concerned that it wouldn't work. The common thread was, "You want me to do a show, and there's no script, and I make a fool of myself? No thanks! I think it will ruin my career aspirations". Then Frank Skinner said yes. Alex says that being able to say "Frank Skinner is involved" suddenly got them agents taking them seriously and lo and behold, the show was made! Frank is literally the reason the show exists. It was on the cutting room floor before he signed up.
It's brilliant that you're coming back to these earlier episodes, look forward to seeing more. As for this episode, something I've commented before is Romesh striding in and absolutely obliterating the melon on the floor is when taskmaster really became taskmaster in my mind.
Sure, you were in heaven for a few weeks when binge watching all the TM. But look at you now; shaking with withdrawal symptoms waiting for the next fix. So deeply have you fallen that you desperately revisits the old episodes, trying to find that elusive high. No, seriously - Great idea! It's so long since I watched this, it almost feels new. Keep it up.
Tim Key said on the Taskmaster Podcast that he wished he knew Champion of Champions would be a thing. The competitive side of Taskmaster wasnt a thing yet and with panel shows up to this point it didnt really matter to win. Hence the more casual attitudes to the show.
One thing that always stood out to me about Series 1 were how insane the prize tasks were. There seemed to always be at least one prize that was an actual prize, and not just a joke item.
Roisin is one of my favourite contestants I find her attitude hilarious. I don't think this show needs to be taken competitvely seriously by everyone and it's better when it isn't.
Same. I love Roisin and found her hilarious to watch. You can tell Neil really cares about how to perform a task, and about the points. That is part of the show, and it's fun to think about how you'd do a task or how you'd give points but it's definitely not the only thing to watch for. You can see he gets annoyed sometimes when people mess up a task especially badly, but it doesn't bother me at all. I'm a big fan of series 1.
I think the thing with them not taking it massively seriously is that this wasn’t a national sensation yet, let alone an international one, it was a trial thing based off of a show Alex did at Edinburgh Fringe and nobody knew how it would go on television. It’s long before they got moved to channel 4 and got the big budget, and tbh I think Roisin is mostly there because she’s good friends with Greg and he was like “hey mate, wanna come on this weird new show with me lol” Nowadays, comedians are big fans of the show already before they start filming so they’re really pumped to win, and COC is a thing they really want to do
In series 2, Katherine Ryan refused to eat the egg. She sipped a little, then gave up, saying she won't eat the egg. Also, in series 12, episode 10, Victoria - kinda - refused proposing to Alex, because she loves her husband so much.
So happy you are re-reacting to the older seasons. Always love your Taskmaster videos. I've re-rewatched all of the seasons so many times by now, it's still hilarious.
I'm up for you rewatching the older series, just to see a renewed take on it all. I've been getting my friends to watch the show for the first time and it's been fun going through the older stuff again. We're up to Series 4, and for me personally, I'm just like, 'Oh! This is when the caravan becomes a regular location!'
You'll notice during these older seasons that they show more reactions during the tasks from the contestants. I think it's a big mistake getting rid of that to the extent they have in later seasons.
Tim Key and Alex Horne have basically been best mates for the last 20yrs (and now he contributes to/tests new tasks) so although I'm sure he wasn't aware what the tasks would be in advance I do think he'd have been aware of what Alex would want/need as a producer e.g. people to try hard, including pushing the rules and even cheating/have on stage banter and character performance throughout/breaking the fourth wall. Also whilst the others are predominantly stand ups and comedy writers (who do some acting, mostly in their own stuff) Tim is a performance poet who acts in various things, often as the straight guy and regularly with improv/ensemble geniuses like Steve Coogan as Partridge shiz so in a way what Taskmaster is or became is his exactly schtick.
I could watch taskmaster over and over again. Please continue this rewatch. Rosin is good friends with Greg so I think she is just there as a favor. Also, I get the feeling that her comic persona is the dumb blonde, but I also get the feeling that she is more intelligent than she let's on
Tim was the breakout star of this series for me. I already knew of all of these guys, but Tim was the one I knew the least. I have since watched a lot of his output, in particular the RUclips series 'No More Jockeys' that he does with Alex Horne and Mark Watson, which is basically a parlour game, but also an opportunity for the three of them to riff off each other. I also got a couple of books that he wrote during lockdown, with are a glorious mixture of poetry and conversations, based on reality but very surreal and abstract. Not to everyone's taste I'm sure, but it's right in the wheelhouse of my sense of humour.
I’ve just seen Alex Horne and the Horne Section at the Just for Laughs London Festival and he got two members of the audience up to do the “change into a onesie in a tent” game. Taskmaster fans were very happy!
Tim was a bit of a cheeky cheater in the first series. Having said that, I find it quite interesting that starting with the show's second series, he is credited as a "Task Consultant." So, he now helps Alex create the tasks. This may explain why some of the tasks are extra sneaky!
I’m just an Aussie without the full context for this so I don’t know the ‘right way’ to say this, but Frank Skinner was one of the guys who wrote the Three Lions (footballs coming home song) alongside David Baddiel! Also, I still think sometimes about Romesh’s melon slam is just so perfect. It might still be the MOST perfect moment of the show. Also there’s definitely been other task refusals but they maybe don’t stand out as such. Instead of it being like “I’m scared of horses, I WONT DO IT,” it’s more often like, “im obviously meant to get dirty doing this but I’m just gonna stay clean and do a bad job coz I don’t feel like getting dirty”
I love the fact that Tim Keys now helps devise the tasks. I think he’s been doing so since season 2? I just love the thought that he enjoyed it so much as contestant that he was calling Alex for weeks and months after saying “how about this as a task…” and then launching into a ridiculous complicated idea. 😂🤣
Neil love that you’re going back doing these. You have such an interesting perspective and love it that you take things so seriously! Btw- not sure if this will matter if you’ve already recorded these by the time this is posted but the ‘s’ in Roisin should be an ‘sh’, so it’s Roh-sheen.
Always happy to watch this show either a reaction, or indeed re-reaction. I love Taskmaster, especially series 1-3. I have watched them many times, i began watching early in the second series and binge-watched the full first series the next day on the catch-up channel for Dave (the channel which broadcast it at the time)..
Have you seen Greg's sitcom Man Down? It's him playing a fictional Drama teacher (which is what he did before taking up comedy) If not it's well worth it, lots of familiar faces from Taskmaster and some special guests.
Heres a interesting statistic to keep in mind while rewatching Taskmaster. “Gregs role has moved from ranking to scoring.” In the early taskmaster seasons, Alex instructed Greg to always score 1-2-3-4-5 and never anything else. Team tasks always had to be 5 points split in two (so 3-2, 4-1, or 5-0). No other scoring was allowed (including no multiple people with the same score). In S1, Greg broke this rule only twice (see if you can spot them). As time went on, Greg started to ignore these rules and just give points how he wants (so he turned from ranking to scoring). The biggest offender is S8, almost 40% of the tasks are scored breaking these rules.
The original channel for taskmaster (Dave) is known primarily for repeats. This was one of their first original shows. Possibly that impacted how seriously it was taken.
Yes..keep rewatching Frank is the master..considered the quickest wit in comedy and the big house hold name the show needed to get it going. Tim is Alex's friend and had already done the live version of taskmaster..think he acts up to help though show..though he is really odd...he's still in the credits as a task consultant...he admits that just involves going for a pint with Alex
They are a lot more competitive now because the show is huge, in series one they had no clue if anyone would see it. Not only was it unknown, but it was on Dave, which in 2015 was a punchline on Mock the Week for a channel that only ran reruns of Mock the Week. Now that it is an international success and on Channel 4, people actually want to win or at least perform well (however you define that) because it will massively help new comic's careers and be a decent boost for the older ones. And they get to go on Champion of Champions as well. In series 14, Fern was probably the audience favourite, and she completely sold out her tour, her book is selling like crazy and there are talks of film/tv rights, and she's on every show and podcast under the sun. There's a decent chance the awareness of her has increased 10x.
The biggest laugh i got from any Taskmaster episode was when Mike Wozniak had a colonic issue, lol. Made all the funnier by knowing how serious his character was in Man Down, alongside both Greg Davies and Roisin Conaty.
I would call this experiement a success that was a fun re-reaction to watch. Taskmaster is a show which is very easy and surprisingly satisfying to watch. Series 1 is a little tense due to Greg unsure how harsh and decisive he should be and Alex nervous (understandably) about whether the show his dream will succeed. Great bunch of contestants helps though. Even when you roughly know what happens there are always nuances in the reactions and details it is fun to revist like rereading a treasured book. Hope you do all the series again (:
Also, I personally found it impressive that so many of the design elements were in place right from the first episode. Almost like the show itself had confidence in its fully-formed character even before the players did. I agree a little about Roisin, although since she's firm friends with Greg, there is some good banter with him, and I don't think any intimidation by him would ever work on her! Personally I love Tim Key in this series. The original Taskmaster brat, and the reason that the show even exists. Ftr, his anti-authoritarian persona seems pretty authentic. He refuses to play by anyone's rules but his own in No More Jockeys as well! His disrespect for both hosts remains hilarious through this whole series. I still believe this show and this series were really strong starts, and I *love* that the culture of cheating started off so strong..... 🤣🤣
Technically he's been in every full season. After his antics in season 1 he was taken on as a task consultant to help word the tasks so contestants can't find loopholes every time like he did
If you want Tim key (and you’re not already familiar), may I suggest no more jockeys - start with episode 1 you will get some classic Key in the first few episodes.
Hooray! So glad you decided to go back. As a recent Taskmaster fan, it all still feels fresh to me. Almost all the series are worth several revisits 🥰🥰
Love you re-reacting to these , please continue, I have watched the earlier seasons many many times, I do feel that in the earlier seasons the bring something on round are far superior to the more recent ones
Alex made Tim Key a "Task Consultant" for 2 reasons. They have known each other for decades and are great friends AND Tim played the game in the spirit it was intended. Try to bend the rules as much as possible. This isn't the Olympics, it's a comedy show.
I agree, I prefer when people don't take it as seriously or mess around as long as the cheating is done with good comedy spirit, didn't find it as funny when Dave Gorman did as he wouldn't admit it, just didn't come across as funny to me. But it's what separates the spirit of the show from an actual game show imo
Re: Roisin & the Horse. She's obviously not comfortable with the idea of riding. Cautionary tales like Roy Kinnear & Christopher Reeve may play through her head. Alex OFFERS her "Plan B" and makes no mention of a potential penalty. While the editing doesn't let us know how much time passes to set up "Plan B", I have to believe the team had already thought of it, as sourcing a mechanical horse would take some time. Roisin gave up the fight too early. I'd have argued to be dropped only one spot. And she DEFINITELY didn't deserve Greg's initial reaction of disqualification.
Tim Key is probs my fave contestant in the first series, he certainly earned his appearance fee. Good to hear the Australian version is on your schedule, it’s certainly worth checking out.
I've done a lot of siphoning of water out of a rain barrel with a broken tap on the bottom. There is no need to suck water at all. Completely submerge the pipe and ensure that there are no air bubbles, stick your thumb over the end and pull it out. You only need to suck for petrol because you can't get your wrist into the fuel tank. Very sloppy work from both of them.
I remember watching this episode of Taskmaster when it was very first broadcast. Have to confess, while watching Joss Widdicombe eating his melon during the first task I was thinking, well this doesn't work - it's going to be cancelled after a single series. Fortunately when Roisin was ambling around trying to find a knife I started to laugh, and Taskmaster has been making me laugh ever since. Neil - I'm so glad you are revisiting these. There is no need to explain yourself to us when giving us an excuse to re-watch!
Tim Key became a task adviser on later series so I wonder, looking back at it now, if he was something of a plant to push boundaries and give something for Greg and Alex to work with as they certainly would not know how the contestants would react and respond to the format.
He almost certainly was the only contestant on the first series who already understood the show in advance. He was involved in the origins of the show where Alex set a series of challenges for his comedian mates at the Edinburgh Festival when he couldn't attend due to having a newborn.
'You can react to something more than once'. Oh indeed, and it becomes a totally different thing each time. Ref. (for instance) the podcasts 'Till Death Do Us Blart' where a group of friends (including Guy Montgomery from TM NZ) watch 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2' on the same day every year - currently on year 8. Or, more amazing, 'The Worst Idea Of All Time' - again featuring Guy Montgomery, with his friend Tim Batt, who watch the same film every week, for a year. Reacting is an art form ;)
This will be my 4th time going through the show. One of my favourite seasons is I think 4. The one with Hugh Dennis. I've loved his work since I was a kid in his sitcoms and panel shows and all sorts and just think he is such an underrated contestant. Also love that Neil pronounces Romesh like its pronounced Roh mesh not Rom esh, reminds me of in Romesh's show the Ranganation there's a man in that called Lord Dave who proudly called home Rohme esh
More than happy to watch it again, even though I'm not up to date on the rest of your taskmaster 🤷♂️😂 I think part of the reason Roisin put such little into this,not only is it sort of her thing,but also, her and Greg are close mates,that combined with it being the first series...🤔🤷♂️😂💜
Roisin was in 'Man Down' with Greg and if you watch that you will see she is genuinely being Roisin Conaty ...lol Yes you are being harsh as the show was developing as you now know but fun to rewatch these episodes and its worth watching as many as you can .....I enjoyed your reactions and watching again.....Taskmaster Australia is excellent so far after 4 eps .....Keep going cheers.
Have just started a rewatch myself so great to see you reacting. Would love for you to react to Ghosts, a lot of the cast has been on TM and you could do a comparison between the UK and the US versions
Hey Mate! I hear you are the Taskmaster Reaction Master on youtube! I just reacted to this episode on my channel out of sheer curiosity (and the numbers did way more than I was expecting) So my question to you sir, is what version do you recommend I watch? Currently I plan on watching the pilot for every different version before I make a decision. Cheers mate! Keep up the god work
Welcome down the rabbit hole, sir! Taskmaster is such a fun ride. Don't do the first ep of every season, I don't think that will serve you best. Pick a single season from the original (Taskmaster UK, as it were) and watch it all. They're all great (2, 5, 7, 9, 12 in particular are excellent; 10 might be the weakest, but is still a solid 7/10). Maybe just pick a series that has a comedian or two that you're already familiar with? That being said, I didn't know any of the contestants for most series, and lost nothing in the viewing experience. Once you've done a handful of series from the original, check out some of the international versions too. Kongen Befaler (Norway) is great fun, New Zealand is excellent (Series 2 in particular), and I'm currently in the middle of the first series of Australia and having a blast. Hope this helps. N
I think the proof that Roisin met many horses is her information in 8o10cdc where she claimed there is an occupation specialized specifically on cleaning horses' willies :D
It's a first reaction , even if not your first viewing and it's worth doing . Remembering Taskmaster was made for a freeview channel Dave which mainly shows repeats of old episodes of comedy shows this was one of their first new programmes . It became a big hit , The big name was Frank Skinner who has a long career in tv . Not to say the others weren't but it was a big leap into the unknown and it's surprising how much they got right from the first .Gregg and Alex have refined their abusive relationship act over the years but it was there at the start . Glad you are doing this Taskmaster is always worth a second watch .
There recently was a series where Alex Brooker got to stay places after the doors close and invited a couple of comedian friends. One was Alton Towers (theme park in the UK) and he had Josh and Roisin. She was scared to do anything. Would not go on any of the rides. Would be fun to see you react to those now you know a lot of the comedians. It was called One Night In…
5 very well might be my favorite too, but i got completely hooked when my first ever episode was season 4 episode 1, and that season will always be my sentimental favorite... plus the season was a great one
Series one amazingly feels really similar to me compared to the the current ones. I wish we had more contestants like Tim and Romesh though. Tim with his cheating, Romesh with his grumpy attitude. It’s gotten a bit too wholesome, perhaps because the show has become such an institute and contestants don’t want to antagonise too much? Edit: I also wouldn’t get on a horse btw. I’ve seen people kicked and thrown off.. and I have busted up shoulders, a drop could land me in surgery.
You call it the pilot episode, but arguably the whole series was really the pilot, since a whole series-worth of tasks had to have been filmed before shooting the studio parts. What it did mean is they could load some of the best tasks in the early episodes to try and get the audience hooked on the whole premise. One thing I find interesting is how the studio filming and editing is different in this first series - the camera angles aren't optimum because of them being in a real theatre, so sometimes shots are blocked by other stuff, and you see slight crash zooms on shots etc. Also, we see reactions from the contestants in the studio during the viewing of the tasks, which is something they dropped later on (I actually quite like seeing their reactions sometimes during a task!) But, on the whole, not much has really changed format-wise since that first series.
I don't think you need to lower the expectations because that's not 1st time watch; nothing bad with it. i'm really happy you decided to revisit earier seasons and hopefully you will keep reacting to them :) I think for the 1 season contestants it was a bit unknown territory, and the real competition began later, so I would give them some slack regarding that :D
I still think every international version should do the bathtub task for cultural comparison. It was striking how much better the Norwegians were at siphoning
Frank is remarkably witty. And the lore is that the show really got off the ground when he agreed to be on it. That's what got the other comedians on board and got the show green lit.
I'm fine with watching your reactions to earlier series. I am looking forward to you seeing NZ series 1, as I think it's a bit underrated. As for myself I'm getting my way through Taskmaster Norway, nearly finished series 5, and they're all pretty great. Taskmaster Australia is okay so far, despite filming at the NZ location, it's not a patch on that series.
Roisin could have been cast in the most recent series, with the whole history of the show behind her, and she'd STILL perform like she doesn't give a shiate, barely tries, and uses zero brainpower to try and figure out a task.
I have more sympathy for Roisin about the Horse. Some people have a phobia. The last two times I went horse riding I ended up with the biggest horse they had and I'm scared of heights, so I spent the whole ride terrified and being whacked in the face by every tree branch. Hahaha. I might turn around and say I'm never going to ride a horse again, but we all know how important it is to get back on the horse. Anyway, she didn't annoy because of that task, but the live task she did really annoy me. It's like when you organize some fun games for kids and you always have some moody teenager who refuses to join in even though they would really enjoy it. Roisin is really pathetic on 8oo10cdc, but I feel like all the comedians who go on there don't bother trying at the numbers round specifically.
I think it would be interesting to see a compilation of Greg's reactions to bad art challenge results. I don't think he's ever reacted as viscerally as he did on this very first show, even when the art is 3000% more awful.
No there’s teams from the beginning. Tim and frank are together and then the “youngsters” are a team. But there’s only like 3 tasks this series. The make a bed mentioned above, winning points, and the home movie blooper thing are the ones I can remember.
I am very allergic to horses, so i couldn't even go near one but like you say, you would expect that to be covered by the production team before starting the shows.
You'd think but they've given non vegan tasks to multiple vegan contestants, I think they're more careful now since Lee Mack brought it up but I know Romesh still regrets participating in those tasks
@Neil Talks I have a double of a cool Rick and Morty 'collectable' I thought you would appreciate, given the collection behind you. If you ever have somewhere I can send it, it's yours. Love that new? Luke Skywalker you have hanging from the shelf. Very cool.
@@friendlyneighbourhoodsteve4087 Thanks so much for thinking of me! If you can send me a quick e-mail at neiltalksnow@gmail.com, I'll send you my shipping address. Cheers! (and yeah, I love my new Luke - easily his best look, period.)
I think the lack of competitive attitude is that it is the first series, and nobody knows the show yet. They had no idea if it was just a vapid embarrassing celebrities show, or a semi-serious competition. They didn't even know if the show would get any viewers. Why embarrass yourself to win a competition that nobody will even watch or care about?
I don't think he's refusing, but I think viewers said it just wasn't as good so not to prioritise it. And he put up a poll of what taskmaster to do next on Patreon and s1 UK won by a lot.
In the podcast Alex said he was really worried since it was the first episode that the live task wouldn't go down well, so he was genuinely concerned and angry on the stage when he was shouting "YOU'RE NOT IN IT" at them. Obviously later on he learned that whatever they do is gonna be funny so he becomes a lot more hands off and chill. XD
Taskmaster is equally as funny second, third, or even anytime around. Looking forward to revisiting this again with you.
One of my favourite bits of trivia about this episode is that before this debut episode, literally 50+ comedians had turned down appearing on the show. Alex Horne was really concerned that it wouldn't work. The common thread was, "You want me to do a show, and there's no script, and I make a fool of myself? No thanks! I think it will ruin my career aspirations".
Then Frank Skinner said yes. Alex says that being able to say "Frank Skinner is involved" suddenly got them agents taking them seriously and lo and behold, the show was made! Frank is literally the reason the show exists. It was on the cutting room floor before he signed up.
I'm so happy about this. Just go through all the seasons.
Btw. Roisin beeing a bit clueless, funny and a bit lazy that's her brand.
It's brilliant that you're coming back to these earlier episodes, look forward to seeing more. As for this episode, something I've commented before is Romesh striding in and absolutely obliterating the melon on the floor is when taskmaster really became taskmaster in my mind.
Sure, you were in heaven for a few weeks when binge watching all the TM.
But look at you now; shaking with withdrawal symptoms waiting for the next fix. So deeply have you fallen that you desperately revisits the old episodes, trying to find that elusive high.
No, seriously - Great idea! It's so long since I watched this, it almost feels new. Keep it up.
Tim Key said on the Taskmaster Podcast that he wished he knew Champion of Champions would be a thing. The competitive side of Taskmaster wasnt a thing yet and with panel shows up to this point it didnt really matter to win. Hence the more casual attitudes to the show.
One thing that always stood out to me about Series 1 were how insane the prize tasks were. There seemed to always be at least one prize that was an actual prize, and not just a joke item.
Roisin is one of my favourite contestants I find her attitude hilarious. I don't think this show needs to be taken competitvely seriously by everyone and it's better when it isn't.
Same. I love Roisin and found her hilarious to watch.
You can tell Neil really cares about how to perform a task, and about the points. That is part of the show, and it's fun to think about how you'd do a task or how you'd give points but it's definitely not the only thing to watch for.
You can see he gets annoyed sometimes when people mess up a task especially badly, but it doesn't bother me at all. I'm a big fan of series 1.
I think the thing with them not taking it massively seriously is that this wasn’t a national sensation yet, let alone an international one, it was a trial thing based off of a show Alex did at Edinburgh Fringe and nobody knew how it would go on television. It’s long before they got moved to channel 4 and got the big budget, and tbh I think Roisin is mostly there because she’s good friends with Greg and he was like “hey mate, wanna come on this weird new show with me lol” Nowadays, comedians are big fans of the show already before they start filming so they’re really pumped to win, and COC is a thing they really want to do
In series 2, Katherine Ryan refused to eat the egg. She sipped a little, then gave up, saying she won't eat the egg. Also, in series 12, episode 10, Victoria - kinda - refused proposing to Alex, because she loves her husband so much.
I forgot about that with Victoria, that was probably the sweetest moment there's been on taskmaster tbf🤷♂️💜
So happy you are re-reacting to the older seasons. Always love your Taskmaster videos. I've re-rewatched all of the seasons so many times by now, it's still hilarious.
I'm up for you rewatching the older series, just to see a renewed take on it all. I've been getting my friends to watch the show for the first time and it's been fun going through the older stuff again. We're up to Series 4, and for me personally, I'm just like, 'Oh! This is when the caravan becomes a regular location!'
You'll notice during these older seasons that they show more reactions during the tasks from the contestants. I think it's a big mistake getting rid of that to the extent they have in later seasons.
I think that’s one of their few mistakes they’ve made throughout the show, I loved the cuts to them watching the clips.
The pie whisperer has the best contestant argument -- definitely my favourite part of all the shows is the studio breakdown of what happened.
I love Taskmaster and happily watch episodes again and again.
Tim Key and Alex Horne have basically been best mates for the last 20yrs (and now he contributes to/tests new tasks) so although I'm sure he wasn't aware what the tasks would be in advance I do think he'd have been aware of what Alex would want/need as a producer e.g. people to try hard, including pushing the rules and even cheating/have on stage banter and character performance throughout/breaking the fourth wall. Also whilst the others are predominantly stand ups and comedy writers (who do some acting, mostly in their own stuff) Tim is a performance poet who acts in various things, often as the straight guy and regularly with improv/ensemble geniuses like Steve Coogan as Partridge shiz so in a way what Taskmaster is or became is his exactly schtick.
Loving you going back to these. Always worth a second look.
I could watch taskmaster over and over again. Please continue this rewatch. Rosin is good friends with Greg so I think she is just there as a favor. Also, I get the feeling that her comic persona is the dumb blonde, but I also get the feeling that she is more intelligent than she let's on
Had the same thought. Roisin is good friends with Greg, Tim with Alex. Feels like they are both there to support their friends..
Tim was the breakout star of this series for me. I already knew of all of these guys, but Tim was the one I knew the least. I have since watched a lot of his output, in particular the RUclips series 'No More Jockeys' that he does with Alex Horne and Mark Watson, which is basically a parlour game, but also an opportunity for the three of them to riff off each other. I also got a couple of books that he wrote during lockdown, with are a glorious mixture of poetry and conversations, based on reality but very surreal and abstract. Not to everyone's taste I'm sure, but it's right in the wheelhouse of my sense of humour.
He’s great on podcasts as well.. Taskmaster podcast, Tim Buxton’s, Off Menu (legendary) and RHLSTP.
Same here, I have all his books now and he's absolutely one of my favourite comedians/poets.
I love re-watching taskmaster, you don’t have to apologize.
I’ve just seen Alex Horne and the Horne Section at the Just for Laughs London Festival and he got two members of the audience up to do the “change into a onesie in a tent” game. Taskmaster fans were very happy!
Tim was a bit of a cheeky cheater in the first series. Having said that, I find it quite interesting that starting with the show's second series, he is credited as a "Task Consultant." So, he now helps Alex create the tasks. This may explain why some of the tasks are extra sneaky!
I’m just an Aussie without the full context for this so I don’t know the ‘right way’ to say this, but Frank Skinner was one of the guys who wrote the Three Lions (footballs coming home song) alongside David Baddiel!
Also, I still think sometimes about Romesh’s melon slam is just so perfect. It might still be the MOST perfect moment of the show.
Also there’s definitely been other task refusals but they maybe don’t stand out as such. Instead of it being like “I’m scared of horses, I WONT DO IT,” it’s more often like, “im obviously meant to get dirty doing this but I’m just gonna stay clean and do a bad job coz I don’t feel like getting dirty”
I continually re watch old episodes of TM, please continue your re watch reactions
I love the fact that Tim Keys now helps devise the tasks. I think he’s been doing so since season 2? I just love the thought that he enjoyed it so much as contestant that he was calling Alex for weeks and months after saying “how about this as a task…” and then launching into a ridiculous complicated idea. 😂🤣
Looking forward to you revisiting the older seasons
Neil love that you’re going back doing these. You have such an interesting perspective and love it that you take things so seriously!
Btw- not sure if this will matter if you’ve already recorded these by the time this is posted but the ‘s’ in Roisin should be an ‘sh’, so it’s Roh-sheen.
Always happy to watch this show either a reaction, or indeed re-reaction. I love Taskmaster, especially series 1-3. I have watched them many times, i began watching early in the second series and binge-watched the full first series the next day on the catch-up channel for Dave (the channel which broadcast it at the time)..
Been waiting for the re-watch on here, thanks Neil looking forward to the rest.
Great to see you rewatching these. I’m sure with your face blindness, you’ll still have a lot of surprises in there.
Have you seen Greg's sitcom Man Down? It's him playing a fictional Drama teacher (which is what he did before taking up comedy) If not it's well worth it, lots of familiar faces from Taskmaster and some special guests.
Heres a interesting statistic to keep in mind while rewatching Taskmaster.
“Gregs role has moved from ranking to scoring.”
In the early taskmaster seasons, Alex instructed Greg to always score 1-2-3-4-5 and never anything else. Team tasks always had to be 5 points split in two (so 3-2, 4-1, or 5-0). No other scoring was allowed (including no multiple people with the same score).
In S1, Greg broke this rule only twice (see if you can spot them). As time went on, Greg started to ignore these rules and just give points how he wants (so he turned from ranking to scoring).
The biggest offender is S8, almost 40% of the tasks are scored breaking these rules.
I love how much Alex hates it as well, and how much it's messed up the taskmaster statistics, Greg dgaf 😂
The original channel for taskmaster (Dave) is known primarily for repeats. This was one of their first original shows. Possibly that impacted how seriously it was taken.
Yes..keep rewatching
Frank is the master..considered the quickest wit in comedy and the big house hold name the show needed to get it going.
Tim is Alex's friend and had already done the live version of taskmaster..think he acts up to help though show..though he is really odd...he's still in the credits as a task consultant...he admits that just involves going for a pint with Alex
I don't care whether you've seen it before or not, I just enjoy watching you enjoy watching something I enjoy watching.
They are a lot more competitive now because the show is huge, in series one they had no clue if anyone would see it. Not only was it unknown, but it was on Dave, which in 2015 was a punchline on Mock the Week for a channel that only ran reruns of Mock the Week. Now that it is an international success and on Channel 4, people actually want to win or at least perform well (however you define that) because it will massively help new comic's careers and be a decent boost for the older ones. And they get to go on Champion of Champions as well.
In series 14, Fern was probably the audience favourite, and she completely sold out her tour, her book is selling like crazy and there are talks of film/tv rights, and she's on every show and podcast under the sun. There's a decent chance the awareness of her has increased 10x.
Hope you get the viewing numbers to keep going for all the series! I’m very much enjoying your half-recollections and erroneous predictions.
The biggest laugh i got from any Taskmaster episode was when Mike Wozniak had a colonic issue, lol. Made all the funnier by knowing how serious his character was in Man Down, alongside both Greg Davies and Roisin Conaty.
I'm so glad to see the Re-reactions to Taskmaster begin on YT! I've just finished off my 2nd watch thru of the UK show. Amazing timing Neil!
Yessss. Please keep re-watching Taskmaster! Also.. Did you get a new camera? It looks great!
I would call this experiement a success that was a fun re-reaction to watch. Taskmaster is a show which is very easy and surprisingly satisfying to watch. Series 1 is a little tense due to Greg unsure how harsh and decisive he should be and Alex nervous (understandably) about whether the show his dream will succeed.
Great bunch of contestants helps though. Even when you roughly know what happens there are always nuances in the reactions and details it is fun to revist like rereading a treasured book.
Hope you do all the series again (:
Also, I personally found it impressive that so many of the design elements were in place right from the first episode. Almost like the show itself had confidence in its fully-formed character even before the players did. I agree a little about Roisin, although since she's firm friends with Greg, there is some good banter with him, and I don't think any intimidation by him would ever work on her!
Personally I love Tim Key in this series. The original Taskmaster brat, and the reason that the show even exists. Ftr, his anti-authoritarian persona seems pretty authentic. He refuses to play by anyone's rules but his own in No More Jockeys as well! His disrespect for both hosts remains hilarious through this whole series.
I still believe this show and this series were really strong starts, and I *love* that the culture of cheating started off so strong..... 🤣🤣
Tim Key is the OG for sure, love how different yet similar he is to Alex and how they play off each other.
this is a great idea. i hate that Tim isnt on a full series, his humour and methods are so far up my street hes in my front door
Technically he's been in every full season. After his antics in season 1 he was taken on as a task consultant to help word the tasks so contestants can't find loopholes every time like he did
If you want Tim key (and you’re not already familiar), may I suggest no more jockeys - start with episode 1 you will get some classic Key in the first few episodes.
Hooray! So glad you decided to go back. As a recent Taskmaster fan, it all still feels fresh to me. Almost all the series are worth several revisits 🥰🥰
Love you re-reacting to these , please continue, I have watched the earlier seasons many many times, I do feel that in the earlier seasons the bring something on round are far superior to the more recent ones
Alex made Tim Key a "Task Consultant" for 2 reasons. They have known each other for decades and are great friends AND Tim played the game in the spirit it was intended. Try to bend the rules as much as possible. This isn't the Olympics, it's a comedy show.
I agree, I prefer when people don't take it as seriously or mess around as long as the cheating is done with good comedy spirit, didn't find it as funny when Dave Gorman did as he wouldn't admit it, just didn't come across as funny to me. But it's what separates the spirit of the show from an actual game show imo
Exactly, Tim Key immediately admitted to cheating, while Dave Gorman is still denying it. Tim brought the fun.
Re: Roisin & the Horse. She's obviously not comfortable with the idea of riding. Cautionary tales like Roy Kinnear & Christopher Reeve may play through her head. Alex OFFERS her "Plan B" and makes no mention of a potential penalty. While the editing doesn't let us know how much time passes to set up "Plan B", I have to believe the team had already thought of it, as sourcing a mechanical horse would take some time.
Roisin gave up the fight too early. I'd have argued to be dropped only one spot. And she DEFINITELY didn't deserve Greg's initial reaction of disqualification.
There's never enough Taskmaster and I would enjoy watching you re-reaction to all the series if that's what you choose to do.
I love Roisin, still sad that she can't be on again
Amazing, new season of Swedish Taskmaster to watch AND being able to revisit the beginning of Taskmaster UK with you!
Tim Key is probs my fave contestant in the first series, he certainly earned his appearance fee.
Good to hear the Australian version is on your schedule, it’s certainly worth checking out.
I've done a lot of siphoning of water out of a rain barrel with a broken tap on the bottom. There is no need to suck water at all. Completely submerge the pipe and ensure that there are no air bubbles, stick your thumb over the end and pull it out. You only need to suck for petrol because you can't get your wrist into the fuel tank. Very sloppy work from both of them.
I remember watching this episode of Taskmaster when it was very first broadcast. Have to confess, while watching Joss Widdicombe eating his melon during the first task I was thinking, well this doesn't work - it's going to be cancelled after a single series. Fortunately when Roisin was ambling around trying to find a knife I started to laugh, and Taskmaster has been making me laugh ever since. Neil - I'm so glad you are revisiting these. There is no need to explain yourself to us when giving us an excuse to re-watch!
Tim Key became a task adviser on later series so I wonder, looking back at it now, if he was something of a plant to push boundaries and give something for Greg and Alex to work with as they certainly would not know how the contestants would react and respond to the format.
He almost certainly was the only contestant on the first series who already understood the show in advance. He was involved in the origins of the show where Alex set a series of challenges for his comedian mates at the Edinburgh Festival when he couldn't attend due to having a newborn.
'You can react to something more than once'. Oh indeed, and it becomes a totally different thing each time. Ref. (for instance) the podcasts 'Till Death Do Us Blart' where a group of friends (including Guy Montgomery from TM NZ) watch 'Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2' on the same day every year - currently on year 8. Or, more amazing, 'The Worst Idea Of All Time' - again featuring Guy Montgomery, with his friend Tim Batt, who watch the same film every week, for a year. Reacting is an art form ;)
Best season in my opinion, most seasons are great, but season 1 is amazing.
This will be my 4th time going through the show. One of my favourite seasons is I think 4. The one with Hugh Dennis. I've loved his work since I was a kid in his sitcoms and panel shows and all sorts and just think he is such an underrated contestant. Also love that Neil pronounces Romesh like its pronounced Roh mesh not Rom esh, reminds me of in Romesh's show the Ranganation there's a man in that called Lord Dave who proudly called home Rohme esh
More than happy to watch it again, even though I'm not up to date on the rest of your taskmaster 🤷♂️😂
I think part of the reason Roisin put such little into this,not only is it sort of her thing,but also, her and Greg are close mates,that combined with it being the first series...🤔🤷♂️😂💜
Roisin was in 'Man Down' with Greg and if you watch that you will see she is genuinely being Roisin Conaty ...lol
Yes you are being harsh as the show was developing as you now know but fun to rewatch these episodes
and its worth watching as many as you can .....I enjoyed your reactions and watching again.....Taskmaster
Australia is excellent so far after 4 eps .....Keep going cheers.
Have just started a rewatch myself so great to see you reacting. Would love for you to react to Ghosts, a lot of the cast has been on TM and you could do a comparison between the UK and the US versions
Hey Mate! I hear you are the Taskmaster Reaction Master on youtube!
I just reacted to this episode on my channel out of sheer curiosity (and the numbers did way more than I was expecting)
So my question to you sir, is what version do you recommend I watch?
Currently I plan on watching the pilot for every different version before I make a decision.
Cheers mate! Keep up the god work
Welcome down the rabbit hole, sir! Taskmaster is such a fun ride. Don't do the first ep of every season, I don't think that will serve you best. Pick a single season from the original (Taskmaster UK, as it were) and watch it all. They're all great (2, 5, 7, 9, 12 in particular are excellent; 10 might be the weakest, but is still a solid 7/10). Maybe just pick a series that has a comedian or two that you're already familiar with? That being said, I didn't know any of the contestants for most series, and lost nothing in the viewing experience. Once you've done a handful of series from the original, check out some of the international versions too. Kongen Befaler (Norway) is great fun, New Zealand is excellent (Series 2 in particular), and I'm currently in the middle of the first series of Australia and having a blast. Hope this helps. N
KEEP GOING ALL THE WAY!!!
You taking that first bite of melon with Frank Skinner showed me how invested you were in the competition! 😲🤭😄
Oh you know we want it.
Thank you! Great to rewatch with you
My pleasure!
6:00 if you are in a rush.
I think the proof that Roisin met many horses is her information in 8o10cdc where she claimed there is an occupation specialized specifically on cleaning horses' willies :D
A re-reaction of UK Taskmaster gets the highest views of the month. Shows how popular it is 😀
Technically Tim Key won because he still works on the show as a task consultant 🏆
at least you're honest, I know you've seen it already because I watched your original reaction when you uploaded it back then, but I enjoy it!
It's a first reaction , even if not your first viewing and it's worth doing . Remembering Taskmaster was made for a freeview channel Dave which mainly shows repeats of old episodes of comedy shows this was one of their first new programmes . It became a big hit , The big name was Frank Skinner who has a long career in tv . Not to say the others weren't but it was a big leap into the unknown and it's surprising how much they got right from the first .Gregg and Alex have refined their abusive relationship act over the years but it was there at the start . Glad you are doing this Taskmaster is always worth a second watch .
I miss the reactions during the VTs.
Do you plan on doing the newest series of would I lie to you that’s just ended?
There recently was a series where Alex Brooker got to stay places after the doors close and invited a couple of comedian friends. One was Alton Towers (theme park in the UK) and he had Josh and Roisin. She was scared to do anything. Would not go on any of the rides. Would be fun to see you react to those now you know a lot of the comedians. It was called One Night In…
Any chance you'll do a reaction of The Horne Section TV Show?
Oh I hope your experiment keeps you going to season 5 and beyond... (Season 5 is my absolute favourite!!!)
5 very well might be my favorite too, but i got completely hooked when my first ever episode was season 4 episode 1, and that season will always be my sentimental favorite... plus the season was a great one
Series 5 is definitely top 3 for me also. However I think the first series is still easily my favourite, And then either series 2 or 4.
@@cullendonnelly8173 4 might have been the first series I started watching too. I really enjoy all of them, but 5 is the perfect "cast" for me.
the first real competitive person was in series 2, Katherine Ryan.
Back to the beginning... Yes, yes and YES 💜 -x-
The show hasn’t really changed at all but has evolved so much.
Series one amazingly feels really similar to me compared to the the current ones. I wish we had more contestants like Tim and Romesh though. Tim with his cheating, Romesh with his grumpy attitude. It’s gotten a bit too wholesome, perhaps because the show has become such an institute and contestants don’t want to antagonise too much?
Edit: I also wouldn’t get on a horse btw. I’ve seen people kicked and thrown off.. and I have busted up shoulders, a drop could land me in surgery.
You call it the pilot episode, but arguably the whole series was really the pilot, since a whole series-worth of tasks had to have been filmed before shooting the studio parts. What it did mean is they could load some of the best tasks in the early episodes to try and get the audience hooked on the whole premise. One thing I find interesting is how the studio filming and editing is different in this first series - the camera angles aren't optimum because of them being in a real theatre, so sometimes shots are blocked by other stuff, and you see slight crash zooms on shots etc. Also, we see reactions from the contestants in the studio during the viewing of the tasks, which is something they dropped later on (I actually quite like seeing their reactions sometimes during a task!) But, on the whole, not much has really changed format-wise since that first series.
I don't think you need to lower the expectations because that's not 1st time watch; nothing bad with it. i'm really happy you decided to revisit earier seasons and hopefully you will keep reacting to them :) I think for the 1 season contestants it was a bit unknown territory, and the real competition began later, so I would give them some slack regarding that :D
I still think every international version should do the bathtub task for cultural comparison. It was striking how much better the Norwegians were at siphoning
Frank is remarkably witty. And the lore is that the show really got off the ground when he agreed to be on it. That's what got the other comedians on board and got the show green lit.
I'm fine with watching your reactions to earlier series. I am looking forward to you seeing NZ series 1, as I think it's a bit underrated.
As for myself I'm getting my way through Taskmaster Norway, nearly finished series 5, and they're all pretty great.
Taskmaster Australia is okay so far, despite filming at the NZ location, it's not a patch on that series.
before Little Alex Horne was Little Alex Horne
Katherine Ryan also refused to do a task in series 2. I don’t remember if there are more than that
Was that the one about doing up a bowtie? She had a valid point about that, with which Greg agreed and a compromise was agreed.
@@johnboy2562 no the „Eat the egg“ task. She did do the tie one after the compromise
@@TheWalrusWasPaul23
Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the egg task; can't say I blame her, I wouldn't eat one raw🥚😵💫
They had the fake horse for them all to ride. They had to train on that horse first before they then put them on the real horse.
Roisin could have been cast in the most recent series, with the whole history of the show behind her, and she'd STILL perform like she doesn't give a shiate, barely tries, and uses zero brainpower to try and figure out a task.
I have more sympathy for Roisin about the Horse. Some people have a phobia.
The last two times I went horse riding I ended up with the biggest horse they had and I'm scared of heights, so I spent the whole ride terrified and being whacked in the face by every tree branch. Hahaha. I might turn around and say I'm never going to ride a horse again, but we all know how important it is to get back on the horse.
Anyway, she didn't annoy because of that task, but the live task she did really annoy me. It's like when you organize some fun games for kids and you always have some moody teenager who refuses to join in even though they would really enjoy it.
Roisin is really pathetic on 8oo10cdc, but I feel like all the comedians who go on there don't bother trying at the numbers round specifically.
✨sooo excited for this, neil!✨🍉🍉🍉
I think it would be interesting to see a compilation of Greg's reactions to bad art challenge results. I don't think he's ever reacted as viscerally as he did on this very first show, even when the art is 3000% more awful.
You are correct that the team tasks didn't start until later. I don't remember if it was series 2 or 3.
Pretty sure it was 2. They brought Josh back so there'd be the same number of players in each team.
@Jean Lafayette you are right. As soon as you said about Josh I remembered. Thanks
isn't the task were they have to make the bed holding hands in series 1? pretty sure it was this gang...
I remember the task. It might be series 1 or 2. For some reason I remember frank and Tim doing it. It's all good. It's just fun to watch it all again
No there’s teams from the beginning. Tim and frank are together and then the “youngsters” are a team. But there’s only like 3 tasks this series. The make a bed mentioned above, winning points, and the home movie blooper thing are the ones I can remember.
I am very allergic to horses, so i couldn't even go near one but like you say, you would expect that to be covered by the production team before starting the shows.
You'd think but they've given non vegan tasks to multiple vegan contestants, I think they're more careful now since Lee Mack brought it up but I know Romesh still regrets participating in those tasks
When Are you going to watch kongen befaler season 2
Neil, do you have a P.O. box?
Also, I re-watch any Taskmaster I can, any opportunity I get. So have-at-it!
I can't say that I have a PO Box - not much demand up to this point. Thanks for supporting the re-reaction!
@Neil Talks I have a double of a cool Rick and Morty 'collectable' I thought you would appreciate, given the collection behind you. If you ever have somewhere I can send it, it's yours.
Love that new? Luke Skywalker you have hanging from the shelf. Very cool.
@@friendlyneighbourhoodsteve4087 Thanks so much for thinking of me! If you can send me a quick e-mail at neiltalksnow@gmail.com, I'll send you my shipping address. Cheers! (and yeah, I love my new Luke - easily his best look, period.)
I think the lack of competitive attitude is that it is the first series, and nobody knows the show yet. They had no idea if it was just a vapid embarrassing celebrities show, or a semi-serious competition. They didn't even know if the show would get any viewers. Why embarrass yourself to win a competition that nobody will even watch or care about?
Still confused as to why you refuse to watch series 1 of Task Master New Zealand? it's great
I don't think he's refusing, but I think viewers said it just wasn't as good so not to prioritise it. And he put up a poll of what taskmaster to do next on Patreon and s1 UK won by a lot.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!