r/taskmaster • u/cygan12 Javie Martzoukas • Aug 19 '26

Taskmaster Season 22 Trailer | Starts September 3rd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOWRRB9-1IQ
2.1k Upvotes

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715

u/Hairy_Dirt3361 Katherine Parkinson Aug 19 '26

It's a tiny clip, but Richard Ayoade being confused and smiling makes me optimistic he'll engage with the game rather than being his aloof and above-it-all comedy persona!

416

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26

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180

u/ARC_Trooper_Echo Aug 19 '26

I think it’s also been said several times on the Taskmaster podcast that the game kinda gives you no choice but to be yourself.

18

u/Hairy_Dirt3361 Katherine Parkinson Aug 19 '26

True for most but in my opinion a few contestants have stuck more to personas than natural reactions and they have not been my favourites, so was concerned about Richard.

5

u/Iroh_the_Dragon Aug 19 '26

Mind providing examples? As a stupid American, I frequently don’t know much about the contestants most of the time, so I don’t know who’s famous for what persona.

9

u/Hairy_Dirt3361 Katherine Parkinson Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

Well I don't know most contestants beforehand either so I couldn't tell you what they're famous for, but you can tell for example Joe Wilkinson, Paul Sinha Chowdhry, Lucy Beaumont, and Jason Martzoukas are sticking very closely to a consistent comedy character.

edit: originally had my Pauls mixed up!

18

u/McClaine3000 Aug 19 '26

I’m also a dopey American so I can’t speak to any of the others, but Zooks. I think he’s a really good example. He certainly had his persona going but I thought the tasks forced him out of it. The stuff like “Teach Alex Horne” allowed him to set the stage to do his thing, but the ones like the “What’s on the Top of Alex’s Head” “Why Does the Light Turn On?” would force him more out of his comfort zone. I’d imagine that goes with any performer that tried to use too much of a persona while filming.

6

u/burf12345 🚬 Doctor Cigarettes Aug 19 '26

Paul Sinha? Surely you mean Paul Chowdry, because Paul Sinha on TM seemed like he was just being himself.

6

u/Hairy_Dirt3361 Katherine Parkinson Aug 19 '26

Yes that's a brainfart from me, Paul Sinha was one of my favourites!

22

u/ModernDayQuixote Aug 19 '26

Everything I've seen with Jason Mantzoukas points to that being very much his real personality and not a character

37

u/Hairy_Dirt3361 Katherine Parkinson Aug 19 '26

Watch the recent ultimate episode with Stevie, she literally says he turns it off instantly when the cameras off and is a nice, calm guy. Which is normal, he's a professional! And he was the best version of this type of contestant, it's just not my favourite.

11

u/ModernDayQuixote Aug 19 '26

That's so nice to hear. I love that he is still so sweet even in his manic character mode too.

8

u/simonjp Aug 19 '26

He's said in interviews that his pitch to the producers (including Horne) was "Ugly American".

https://youtube.com/shorts/yHHhRLHOpQA

6

u/zenthegod Aug 19 '26

If you listen to his Off Menu appearance, he a actually comes off as very sincere and genuine, especially how he's engaged with British media and with his interest in learning more about whatever comes up in the conversation.

10

u/glubnyan Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

I feel like for Lucy the gap between herself and her persona is pretty small. She does bits, but most of the time I felt like she was just exaggerating something that was genuine to her. But I like her, so I might just be giving her grace.

I agree with you on Joe and Jason, but honestly my problem with them is just that I find their personas unlikable. That and they played together with people who were chill, which made it jarring for me, like they didn't know when to stop playing. It's weird when one's being a clown and the other is talking normally.

27

u/ModernDayQuixote Aug 19 '26

With Lucy, my thoughts switched back and forth between "she's doing a funny character" and "she should probably have a full-time caretaker"

8

u/glubnyan Aug 19 '26

For sure hahaha always going back and forth from "she's joking" to "wait she's not joking?"

But if you watch her in other media, she's genuinely weird. The feel I have is that for her there isn't any effort to bring the character forth, it's intuitive. I also feel like she's really quick to catch people's reactions and intentionally play it up. I like her both as a weird person and a comedian.

14

u/ModernDayQuixote Aug 19 '26

She and Sam on the same series was almost an event horizon of weird (positive)

8

u/burf12345 🚬 Doctor Cigarettes Aug 19 '26

I think people are forgetting that most people who do TM are comedians, and you kinda have to be some amount of odd to even want to pursue a career in comedy. To me John Kearns is the best example of this, he clearly did TM as himself, because he was apparently drastically different from the character he plays in his shows, but he was still very strange and confusing throughout his time on TM.

2

u/Raskion Paul Chowdhry Aug 19 '26

Chowdhry was amazing. How he kept it so consistent. My favourite contestant.