I want to write about a TV show. Not because it's important, but because it isn't. Taskmaster is one of the funniest things I watch, and it's one of the easiest ways I know to take some stress off.
I stumbled on it on YouTube. I didn't know any of the comedians and had no idea what was going on. A few minutes in I was laughing, and I've been watching ever since. New episodes come out on Thursdays on the official Taskmaster YouTube channel, and it's free with ads.
What is Taskmaster?
It's a British comedy show. Five comedians compete in a series of tasks. Greg Davies is the Taskmaster. He judges everything and hands out the points. Alex Horne is his assistant. He sets the tasks and watches, usually with a straight face, while the contestants fall apart.
The tasks sound simple. Make something, move something, get something from one side of the room to the other. Sometimes they do them alone and sometimes as a team. Then everyone watches the videos back in the studio and Greg decides who did best.
The points don't mean anything. Greg can give them out for whatever reason he wants, and the rules feel made up half the time. That's the point. It's all done for a laugh.
You don't need to know the contestants. As an American I miss a reference here and there, but most of the time it doesn't matter. Funny is funny.
Ridiculous tasks
The best part is watching normal stuff turn into a competition. A task that should take thirty seconds turns into twenty minutes of someone arguing with Alex about what one word in the instructions means.
Every contestant gets the same task, and they all go at it differently. Some rush. Some overthink it and make it way harder than it needs to be. And every so often someone finds a clever loophole in the wording and wins without doing the hard part at all. Those are some of my favorite moments.
The funniest one for me is from series 14. Dara Ó Briain, Fern Brady and John Kearns had to fill a shopping trolley with sand as a team. What Dara and Fern didn't know was that John had been secretly told to sabotage them. Watching him quietly spill sand and knock things over while his teammates worked their hardest was great.
There's something in the overthinking part I can relate to. Sometimes the simple answer is right in front of you and you walk right past it.
The contestants make it
Every series has a new group, and each one has a different mix of personalities. Some are loud, some are quiet, some are way too competitive. The way they play off each other, and off Greg and Alex, is where a lot of the best moments come from.
Watching them fail is half the fun. Nobody's trying to look cool. They get things wrong, they get embarrassed, and they laugh at themselves. Then Greg roasts them for it in the studio and they have to sit there and take it.
A break from everyday stress
Running a business, there's always something. Calls, tickets, bills, problems. By the end of a rough day my head is still going.
Taskmaster shuts that off. It doesn't ask anything of me. I don't have to follow a story or worry about what happens to anyone. I just watch and laugh, and after a good laugh the day doesn't feel as heavy.
I think making time for something that's just fun matters. Not everything has to be productive.
Watching with family
My family and I usually watch it together on Thursday nights when the new episode comes out. It's become something I look forward to all week.
We laugh at the same parts, and sometimes at different parts, and then we talk about it. Who should have won. Who had the dumbest idea. Which contestant we want to see again.
It's just a TV show, but it's a good excuse to sit down together and laugh at the end of the week.
Why it works
It's creative, it's unpredictable, and it's funny. You never know what the next task will be or how someone is going to mess it up.
It hasn't always been perfect. The series made during COVID were hard to watch. Without the live audience, it lost something. But the show recovered, and after a lot of series it still hasn't gotten old for me.
It also rewards thinking differently. The person who wins a task is often the one who looked at it from an angle nobody else did.
And it shows entertainment doesn't have to be complicated. Five comedians, a house, and a weird task in an envelope is enough.
Sometimes laughter is enough
Taskmaster has become part of my week. It's where I unwind, and it's time with my family. I don't need a deeper reason than that to like it.
Not everything in life needs to be productive, meaningful, or serious. Sometimes watching five people attempt completely ridiculous tasks while Greg Davies judges them is more than enough.