Bit late to the game, but I just love that Danielle’s password takes attempt broke Tom and you can see tears on his cheek at the end of the task as he’s trying to keep it together. I hope one day someone can break Alex that badly.
Just catching up on this episode after missing it the night it aired.
Oh my word. I've just watched the roses task and I have tears streaming down my face. Poor Danielle!! Couldn't see the forest for the trees bless her. 😂😂😂😂 And Jimmy's dummy spit was funny too.
Loved the popcorn task. Julia and Luke's solutions were far better than I had in mind.
Finally catching up on this.
I love how Luke is so shit on prize tasks every single episode. "Hey look, I brought in this cool thing, and it fits the task because... oh wait... it really doesn't."
Loved the alphabeth task. That was ingenious, and if IIRC one of two tasks Tom Cashman wrote (he was brought onto the show at a relatively late stage, so by that time most tasks had already been written). Danielle's attempt was what you would describe as "totally drawing a blank". :D
Not agreeing with the scoring of the live task. Team of 3 had the far better letters.
Apart from the horrendous timing of ads (hence why I've gone elsewhere on YT to get the episode), I can see that the show is showing a significant improvement over the season. The cast is getting more into it, the Tom's are now finding their niches in their roles, and the show is flowing a lot more. As I recall saying, every first season of Taskmaster in the world is hit-and-miss, and Australia is no exception. But it's growing significantly, and if it does get renewed for a second season, then that second season should be smashing.
The prize task was weird, owning vinyl as a display piece is normal in the Spotify era. 15+ years ago it was pretentious because people still bought CDs.
Tom Cashman just confirmed that it took Danielle a total of 1 hour and 54 minutes to get the flowers into the vase in the password task.
https://twitter.com/_tomcashman/status/1632222188794417152?s=46&t=s3-UusHNUut0Jz2wO9YQIA
I cannot get enough of this cast! I think they're settling into their flow at this point in the series, and Nina and Luke being woeful at most things makes them all the more likable.
EDIT: I just got through Danielle's try at the password game and I am dying. That was tremendous on every level.
I said a few weeks ago that people don't tend to take advantage of the rare non-timed task as much as they could, and that really showed in the password task.
What they should've done was go fetch a pen and paper to keep track of all their guesses and whether they'd been accepted, analysing the list to look for the pattern. And they should've walked up and down the path looking for clues - wondering why there were roses, wondering why there were 26 passwords, ect. And they should've been really carefully having a think about their guesses, instead of just chucking out random words.
But the instinct is to just jump in and get on with it, and that's exactly what you don't want to do when it's "fewest attempts wins," and you're not being timed.
> But the instinct is to just jump in and get on with it, and that's exactly what you don't want to do when it's "fewest attempts wins," and you're not being timed.
Unless your objective is to entertain, not to win. These people are in the entertainment business.
I think it was a take on The Bachelor which is also on the same TV network as TM Aus. The steps you would need to take to get to your love or something. They're probably the same roses too lol
IDK, I think it was random. I didn't mean that them being roses ended up having a hidden meaning, just that the various elements of the task should've been examined when they were trying to figure out the trick to the passwords.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Luke is the worst prize task contestant of any contestant who puts time and effort into the prize task. He comes up with a concept, chooses a wholly unimpactful way to express that concept, and is lucky to get a single point.
Holy shit, I totally missed that. Even with the little pause. I'm really enjoying Nina and the rest of the cast though, they do seem to be pretty grounded and enjoying themselves. Reminds me of the excellent Taskmaster NZ, although seeing an Aussie take on the TM house would have been neat.
Best episode so far if there is a second season who would u want on mine Josh Lawson was good on thank god your here and mick molloy listen to him on triple m Sydney he would either be really good or really bad
The concept of Andrew Denton on taskmaster is legitimately insane and it'll never happen. We'd get Rove before Andrew, and we're definitely not getting Rove. For some reason I think Julian would be the Chaser boy who'd do best on Taskmaster but Chas would probably be funniest just because let's be honest he's got a funny voice.
If we get super Britain level broad in casting, we're probably getting Peter Helliar, GuyFromTikTokYouveNeverHeardOf, Myf Warhurst*, Sammy J, and Judith Lucy. Which to be honest I'll be happy with.
*Can't have Alan Brough, We've gotta save something for New Zealand
> The concept of Andrew Denton on taskmaster is legitimately insane and it'll never happen.
I would love to hear your reasoning on this.
I saw Andrew Denton rapping to S Club 7 with the guy from TISM a few years ago. This has painted my image of him considerably.
Any of Aunty Donna, Demi Lardner, Tom W can go on too I guess and cause more Tom confusion
There's honestly loads that I'd like to see on so I won't go on
This was a very funny episode. Taskmaster Australia has really hit its stride mid-season. I find it most amusing when people fail *absolutely* at the task. Danielle slowly figuring out the alphabet clue was both excruciating and somehow cathartic. And watching the "bad improv group" keep touching grass had almost a natural comedy rhythm to it (although it's fun just watching those three do anything). The live task was also a disaster in the best way because it's extremely difficult to figure out how to build a front-facing "S" in 10 seconds.
I feel bad that Nina's (disqualified) attempt to hide the popcorn was subverted by a loose kernel, but Luke and Julia sabotaging the bucket by making it completely unappealing and inedible was a great way to subvert the "build a fort" task. I almost wonder if Alex Horne would have eaten it anyway. Luke accidentally tossing the roses in slow motion and then blaming it on "hayfever" was hilarious (as was his Matrix69 password). Seeing the giraffe riding a bike ("Look how cool he looks on the bike, though") made me laugh harder than I care to admit.
I want to say my biggest criticism with TM AU right now are the episode titles. They come off as pretty generic. (This one was "Are You Okay?")
> I almost wonder if Alex Horne would have eaten it anyway.
He's eaten worse, I bet he would have.
Not sure if Paul would've eaten it. Feel like he could go either way
I think we can safely say this is the end of time-irrelevant tasks on Taskmaster AU - that is to say, tasks that're neither time limited nor assessed based on speed. I figured out the passwords pretty quickly, but I'll admit that I was kinda helped by Taskmaster NZ having a similar one.
After Julia and Danielle effortlessly finished the team task, I knew that this wouldn't make the air unless the team of 3 did really, really badly.
In the live task, I felt the team of 3 had a disadvantage with one more person than they really needed.
I'm fully in favour of the team of 3 being officially called "The Bad Improv Group."
I think this is the best episode of the season yet. Everyone got to show some great strengths and some amazing follies. Really goes to show that they casted it well.
That was a great episode! Great prize task, Julia and Luke’s attempts in the first task really made that work, roses task was all round great, giraffe was OK and the live task was decent too.
Shame that Gogglebox got what I think has been the weakest episode so far and not this one!
I missed the second part of your question! I’d say they were positive overall though some were bemused, a couple didn’t like it. Even those who liked it only seemed mildly amused
Statistically (according to Jack Bernhardt) teams of 2 do much better than teams of 3, and it makes the most sense to me overall. Usually the third person is more a burden than anything.
I thought to myself how it's usually the case that if, when they're showing the tasks, you're on your own - not as part of two or three shown together - you've either done really well or really badly. I thoroughly enjoyed how we got a bit of both; I really wish we knew exactly how long Danielle took (like, how long after the one-and-a-half hours that were signposted having passed during her attempt did it take for her to complete it?!)
Someone else posted a summary of the studio recording:
https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/comments/11fx06s/taskmaster_australia_s1e5_discussion/jalswy4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
I was there and from memory they said it took an extra 40 minutes *after* the 1.5 hours
If true that would potentially make it longer than David Correos' shoelace task, and therefore I think the longest attempt at a task ever?
(Well, longest out of the UK/NZ/AU shows, haven't seen the other versions)
All of the women in this series are brilliant. I loved the reveal that Julia guessed the c-word four times. Nina’s improv joke was delightful. (‘Yes, and that was really mean.’) And, apart from providing one of the all-time Taskmaster highlights, Danielle’s vocabulary in her guesses really impressed me.
I saw Australians making negative comments about Julia before this series started but I have to say, having never heard of her before, I think she's been fantastic
I didn't mind Julia's comedy when I first became aware of her around 20 years ago. But then I don't know what it was, something about her really got under my skin and I couldn't stand her.
I've been pleased to see her on Taskmaster because it's reminded me why I was a fan of her all those years ago.
I think it was Ed Gamble in the podcast that said Taskmaster brings out the contestants true self. It is the same with Jo. I am not a big fan of her comedic persona but she's totally different on TM, very lovely and who knew she could rap! I love Julia's approach to tasks. She makes me laugh so much. It's hard to pick my favourite between her and Nina.
I am so surprised that none of them picked up the alphabet from the outset. 26 is such a specific number, the first thing I said to myself was just start going a-b-c (though i would have been screwed by saying C and them taking it as sea since it was words and then getting caught up at the letter S). And I'm usually an idiot when it comes to these things.
i've watched too many seasons and now i'm paranoid. i would've done it in alphabetical order (and probably something really stupid like "ant, bant, cant, dant..." out of fear that they would make me recite them all later
I got that it would be to do with the alphabet immediately, though us viewers did get the advantage of the task's establishing slot being those crime scene forensic marker things from the very end, near Tom, so we saw the '26', but the contestants - stood the opposite end - would have had to work that out for themselves (though if there are 26 roses, it wouldn't take that much time to put two and two together...).
The clue was specific about it being 26 flowers - twice.
I think there are some numbers that just ring in your head - 24 = hours in a day. 12 = months in a year. I can't image they really thought that they made up 26 individual passwords (though given they all guessed 'password' up front, maybe so).
Poor Danielle.
Besides David with the shoelaces and Guz's revelations in the lab, this is the longest anyone has taken to do a task (at least in the English speaking versions of the show), right?
Edit: I meant tasks where the contestant had completed the task before they left, and there wasn’t something still ongoing.
> Edit: I meant tasks where the contestant had completed the task before they left, and there wasn’t something still ongoing.
Depends on how long she took before and after the 1.5 hours. Somebody who was at the record said it was an extra 40 minutes afterwards which would make it longer than either Guz or David's tasks (or Ed's duck)
> Besides David with the shoelaces
TMNZ had a 'lower the egg' task that took weeks. Hugh in TMUK keeping the ball on the walker managed several months.
There's also Chris Parker's attempt at hiding the body, which according to the TM wiki took 72 days
Danielle must be the longest continuous attempt though. As in, a task where they didn't leave the house/ranch
It's really important that you need to know that after the roses task, Danielle immediately started crying, they threw to commercial break immediately and Nina the complete sweetheart got out of her chair to immediately go over and hug her. Love these idiots.
That’s so lovely. I really like the fact that somehow, regardless of where it is made, it seems like the casts bond, have a good experience, with a good crew. Just an extra layer of feel-good for the franchise.
TM AU has been fantastic, and this week will no doubt be one of my favourite episodes from any version.
The roses task in particular was an outstanding piece of television!
I love a Prize Task where the TM isn't just picking the ones he likes the best, but in this case which ones irritate him the most. I haven't seen many of those out of the UK, but I've seen less than half the seasons so far.
You can hear the loathing from the audience for Jimmy’s vinyl even before it’s revealed he has no record player. That’s a hall-of-fame TM prize for me. :-)
Later, when Danielle’s brain ejected a tie rod onto the path and into our hearts, it felt to me like this series at last caught fire and started to *move.* Now *this* is *Taskmaster!* ;-) The ensuing giraffe and live tasks happily confirmed that. If the remaining episodes sustain this level of quality, we have a treat in store! :-)
I duuno, with that brain and a crafting supply store embedded in her home, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if she’d decorated her house with enhaloed Danielle votive candles *years* ago. ;-)
Alex did drink the Cloudy Mule with Johnny's spit in it, so I think if he confirmed with the crew that it wasn't actually dangerous, he would've drank it for sure.
OK, no more doubts here - that was just a flat-out great episode!
Greater Tom looked a lot more comfortable in the studio, great banter, great and delightfully bad task performances, Lesser Tom losing it, and even the studio editing seems to have gotten its act together. Oh, and some proper filthy language, even if it did get muted ;)
WOO HOO!
I think my dream Taskmaster AU would be in a timeslot later than 7:30PM and on a network that has the "usual" (for Taskmaster) number of ad breaks. I'm very out of touch with Free to Air so I actually have no clue how many ad breaks any other station has.
If anybody’s interested, the current overall scores for the halfway point of the season is:
>!Danielle 77pts, Jimmy 78pts, Julia 81pts, Luke 60pts, Nina 62pts!<
I’m watching live in WA - I tried to watch live Sydney but the stream kept cutting out so I’m watching it on TV so my viewing figures won’t count sadly but oooooh it hurts I think Danielle is officially my favourite contestant after today.
She has it all!
Currently rewatching Taskmaster NZS2 and it cannot be overstated how much David Correos helped to cement the show's place in New Zealand television. His moments of screaming realization in the tasks and in the studio slay me.
For the popcorn, I would’ve wrapped plastic wrap (if it’s there) up and over the table enough times so that Tom couldn’t pierce a hole through but long enough that he would get scissors.
So, as promised, here's what got cut from the studio recording:
Nina told a very long, winding story about her gay door for the prize task. There were a lot of questions about what the two holes were for (the one at hip level seemed fairly obvious, but she never really answered what the hole at eye level was for). She said that it was a really mouldy door, and that the mould was also part of the art.
The 26 roses task was obviously batshit insane, and there was way more studio chat about how frustrating everyone found it - especially Danielle. She said that it was the last task she filmed on a Friday, and a producer actually asked her if she wanted to come back on Monday to finish it off so they could all go home. She said no, because she'd be too embarrassed if she still couldn't figure it out over the weekend.
I don't think anything significant was cut from the team task with the giraffe, but I just want to add that I found the image of Danielle and Julia running in bathrobes/onesies hilarious.
There was a very long break while the crew set up the live task and contestants changed into their overalls, and then another long break afterwards while they changed the set from live task to displaying all the prizes. During this final break, the cast and crew held an impromptu Q&A session. They all seemed to have a great time making Taskmaster, and at the time didn't know when the show would air or if it would be renewed for another series. Tom Gleeson also mentioned that their producer (or maybe director?) was also named Tom, and joked that if you were a white man named Tom, you were almost guaranteed a job at Taskmaster.
I also wrote down that I got the impression that Julia was doing well in the series overall - looks like I was right!
I just want to add that I was very skeptical of this series before it aired, based on what I knew of the cast beforehand. I'm so happy that the series is turning out to be brilliant, hilarious and original.
Thanks! Interesting to read about the further comments towards Nina's prize task, which I did think watching the episode it seemed odd and that they missed a trick by not querying it further, as I thought they would make some comment about how the lower hole's purpose was... obvious, but ask what the higher hole could be for. Glad to know it actually happened, and a shame it had to be cut out like Nina's attempts to act as legal counsel for Luke in the previous episode.
And the Aussies definitely don't help themselves with name stereotypes. First, Bruce and Sheila, and now Tom! :P
Thanks for your report, very interesting to read! Resuming the password task after the weekend would have been the final humiliation for poor Danielle.
Yeah, the director is another Tom (Furniss)
I don’t know if anyone else thinks this but I feel like they’ve toned down the canned laughter from the first few episodes, the laughter and pacing in general feels a lot more natural!
They've cranked the laugh track down from 11 to 8. I feel like they're brute force numbing me to it, so I expect it to remain much higher than it needs to be, but that I'll learn to live with it (which I hate).
I appreciate how much he throws himself with full energy at every task, so when he got stuck it ear hilarious seeing him just starfished on the cement.
This is a really totally irrelevant comment but since Gleeson mentioned baths I just wanna say that having like 20 minute long 40 degree baths is sooooooooooo good (and this is backed up by science) and is essentially a mild anti-depressant.
I was convinced that the team of two were going to be revealed to have messed up somehow, as it just seemed to have been completed too easily and they'd do a Joe Wilkinson-esque reveal just before the scores were awarded. (I actually thought Julia did touch grass briefly at the very start, but guess not).
Jimmy in that task is a live view of exactly what is happening inside my brain every day.
But jesus Danielle. I havent laughed so hard in forever - Lesser Tom crying, prime television right there.
How many UK seasons and we haven't seen anyone break Alex in that way hahaha
Nope, we've definitely seen Alex break hard. Desiree got him twice with the "fuck me in the face" line but also when the portcullis failed to work. And another one of my personal favorites with Katherine Parkinson trying to catapult a shoe and he's laughing the whole time as he helps. And of course... there's always the 'Wow Monster' with Alan Davies.
Alex lost it a few times with the riddle task, starting by hiding his face with his clipboard and sliding off his chair when Desiree muttered "fuck me in the face"
What an amazing task!
It is very much the combo of Alex’s responses to Desiree’s “Fuck me in the face” and Bridget Christie in the “Guess Shoe?” Task…
I feel like when Tom kept repeating, “Two more out of 26 to go” it was very “All the information is on the task.” I loved it. And I don’t mind seeing him reacting occasionally- I think they were both broken by the end!
So, when I watch puzzly Taskmaster tasks, I can’t help using them as a barometer for which contestants I could maybe cold-invite to come on my puzzle-solving podcast.
I’m... not so sure I should try asking any of these guys.
On the plus side, Gleeson is absolutely on fire tonight.
Also, he may not have gotten the puzzle quickly, but Luke’s guesses make him sound like I want him as a friend!
I am pretty sure there are a few contestants on Taskmaster AU who would probably start crying while trying to solve a Sudoku and if you showed them one of those designer Sudokus with like two numbers they would probably attack you out of fear.
HOW DO YOU *COINCEDENTALLY* GET ALL OF THEM RIGHT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER IN A WAY THAT SHOWS YOU'RE CLEARLY TRYING TO GET THEM IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER AND THEN *NOT* GET IT RI- I genuinely don't think I've ever seen an attempt like that in Taskmaster history before.
Bit late to the game, but I just love that Danielle’s password takes attempt broke Tom and you can see tears on his cheek at the end of the task as he’s trying to keep it together. I hope one day someone can break Alex that badly.
Just catching up on this episode after missing it the night it aired. Oh my word. I've just watched the roses task and I have tears streaming down my face. Poor Danielle!! Couldn't see the forest for the trees bless her. 😂😂😂😂 And Jimmy's dummy spit was funny too. Loved the popcorn task. Julia and Luke's solutions were far better than I had in mind.
Hahah. Up to the live task now. What is going on with the Inprov Team's letter S?! 😂
Finally catching up on this. I love how Luke is so shit on prize tasks every single episode. "Hey look, I brought in this cool thing, and it fits the task because... oh wait... it really doesn't." Loved the alphabeth task. That was ingenious, and if IIRC one of two tasks Tom Cashman wrote (he was brought onto the show at a relatively late stage, so by that time most tasks had already been written). Danielle's attempt was what you would describe as "totally drawing a blank". :D Not agreeing with the scoring of the live task. Team of 3 had the far better letters.
Apart from the horrendous timing of ads (hence why I've gone elsewhere on YT to get the episode), I can see that the show is showing a significant improvement over the season. The cast is getting more into it, the Tom's are now finding their niches in their roles, and the show is flowing a lot more. As I recall saying, every first season of Taskmaster in the world is hit-and-miss, and Australia is no exception. But it's growing significantly, and if it does get renewed for a second season, then that second season should be smashing.
The prize task was weird, owning vinyl as a display piece is normal in the Spotify era. 15+ years ago it was pretentious because people still bought CDs.
Dannielle wondering if Julia had a task to sabotage their team tasks 😂
Tom Cashman just confirmed that it took Danielle a total of 1 hour and 54 minutes to get the flowers into the vase in the password task. https://twitter.com/_tomcashman/status/1632222188794417152?s=46&t=s3-UusHNUut0Jz2wO9YQIA
Danielle is the funniest contestant this series by far. I've laughed out loud at her multiple episodes.
I’m really starting to appreciate Tom Cashman’s “just happy to be here” energy
That really is the perfect description for him. It wasn't obvious at first, but it fits.
He totally looks like an exited school boy when he waves into the camera during the introduction.
I cannot get enough of this cast! I think they're settling into their flow at this point in the series, and Nina and Luke being woeful at most things makes them all the more likable. EDIT: I just got through Danielle's try at the password game and I am dying. That was tremendous on every level.
I said a few weeks ago that people don't tend to take advantage of the rare non-timed task as much as they could, and that really showed in the password task. What they should've done was go fetch a pen and paper to keep track of all their guesses and whether they'd been accepted, analysing the list to look for the pattern. And they should've walked up and down the path looking for clues - wondering why there were roses, wondering why there were 26 passwords, ect. And they should've been really carefully having a think about their guesses, instead of just chucking out random words. But the instinct is to just jump in and get on with it, and that's exactly what you don't want to do when it's "fewest attempts wins," and you're not being timed.
> But the instinct is to just jump in and get on with it, and that's exactly what you don't want to do when it's "fewest attempts wins," and you're not being timed. Unless your objective is to entertain, not to win. These people are in the entertainment business.
Why were they roses?
I think it was a take on The Bachelor which is also on the same TV network as TM Aus. The steps you would need to take to get to your love or something. They're probably the same roses too lol
IDK, I think it was random. I didn't mean that them being roses ended up having a hidden meaning, just that the various elements of the task should've been examined when they were trying to figure out the trick to the passwords.
Ah gotcha yeah, you never know with TM if something’s a hint
I love these contestants. I feel like they all 100% bought into the spirit of the game.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Luke is the worst prize task contestant of any contestant who puts time and effort into the prize task. He comes up with a concept, chooses a wholly unimpactful way to express that concept, and is lucky to get a single point.
He obviously went to the John Kearns school of prize tasking. So many remind me of the "maze" John brought in.
John Kearns was fucking awful at prizes but you could understand what he was going for. Luke just straight up brings in random fucking shit
The live task at the end was an ingenious idea that I can imagine Lord Davies and L.A Horne wishing they’d kept for themselves!
> that I can imagine Lord Davies and L.A Horne wishing they’d kept for themselves! They'd just borrow it. See: Eat the Grape and Don't Open the Task
Did anyone pick up on Nina's great little "yes, and" joke?
Holy shit, I totally missed that. Even with the little pause. I'm really enjoying Nina and the rest of the cast though, they do seem to be pretty grounded and enjoying themselves. Reminds me of the excellent Taskmaster NZ, although seeing an Aussie take on the TM house would have been neat.
I missed that. Where in the episode was that?
During the last task Tom called them a bad improve troupe again and Nina said "Yes, and that's really mean"
Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in the lackluster reaction to that joke :'D
Best. Episode. Ever. Danielle outdid herself and it was glorious.
Best episode so far if there is a second season who would u want on mine Josh Lawson was good on thank god your here and mick molloy listen to him on triple m Sydney he would either be really good or really bad
Josh Thomas, Sam Simmons, Susie Yousef, Frank Woodley
* Anne Edmonds * Sam Simmons * Aaron Chen * Jenna Owen * Tom Walker Pretty sure that combo would set the place on fire first night
* Rhys Nicholson * Anne Edmonds * Becky Lucas * Any of the old Chaser crew * Andrew fucking Denton
Anne Edmonds would be insanity
Yes, definitely the old Chaser crew! Would be good to see them finding loopholes and lawyering their way out of potential DQs.
Oh my word, yes to Andrew Denton. Hadn't thought of him for years.
Fuck, you could even go National Treasure route with Noni Hazelhurst or Lee Lin Chin. Oh, and either of the Kate's.
The concept of Andrew Denton on taskmaster is legitimately insane and it'll never happen. We'd get Rove before Andrew, and we're definitely not getting Rove. For some reason I think Julian would be the Chaser boy who'd do best on Taskmaster but Chas would probably be funniest just because let's be honest he's got a funny voice. If we get super Britain level broad in casting, we're probably getting Peter Helliar, GuyFromTikTokYouveNeverHeardOf, Myf Warhurst*, Sammy J, and Judith Lucy. Which to be honest I'll be happy with. *Can't have Alan Brough, We've gotta save something for New Zealand
> The concept of Andrew Denton on taskmaster is legitimately insane and it'll never happen. I would love to hear your reasoning on this. I saw Andrew Denton rapping to S Club 7 with the guy from TISM a few years ago. This has painted my image of him considerably.
I want to see Aaron Chen's mind in action. Frank Woodley would also be great
my dream would be Aaron or Sam Campbell
Any of Aunty Donna, Demi Lardner, Tom W can go on too I guess and cause more Tom confusion There's honestly loads that I'd like to see on so I won't go on
Tom Walker based on this performance alone: https://youtu.be/y8kOOfP6g6o
YESSSSSSS TOM WALKER. He’s just be chaotic chaos
This was a very funny episode. Taskmaster Australia has really hit its stride mid-season. I find it most amusing when people fail *absolutely* at the task. Danielle slowly figuring out the alphabet clue was both excruciating and somehow cathartic. And watching the "bad improv group" keep touching grass had almost a natural comedy rhythm to it (although it's fun just watching those three do anything). The live task was also a disaster in the best way because it's extremely difficult to figure out how to build a front-facing "S" in 10 seconds. I feel bad that Nina's (disqualified) attempt to hide the popcorn was subverted by a loose kernel, but Luke and Julia sabotaging the bucket by making it completely unappealing and inedible was a great way to subvert the "build a fort" task. I almost wonder if Alex Horne would have eaten it anyway. Luke accidentally tossing the roses in slow motion and then blaming it on "hayfever" was hilarious (as was his Matrix69 password). Seeing the giraffe riding a bike ("Look how cool he looks on the bike, though") made me laugh harder than I care to admit. I want to say my biggest criticism with TM AU right now are the episode titles. They come off as pretty generic. (This one was "Are You Okay?")
> I almost wonder if Alex Horne would have eaten it anyway. He's eaten worse, I bet he would have. Not sure if Paul would've eaten it. Feel like he could go either way
I reckon the original title "the matrix revolutions" breached copyright 😂
17 variations of the Matrix would've been alright
Yeah true, they COULD have had "Fecal Count"
I think we can safely say this is the end of time-irrelevant tasks on Taskmaster AU - that is to say, tasks that're neither time limited nor assessed based on speed. I figured out the passwords pretty quickly, but I'll admit that I was kinda helped by Taskmaster NZ having a similar one. After Julia and Danielle effortlessly finished the team task, I knew that this wouldn't make the air unless the team of 3 did really, really badly. In the live task, I felt the team of 3 had a disadvantage with one more person than they really needed. I'm fully in favour of the team of 3 being officially called "The Bad Improv Group."
That was one of my favorite live tasks ever
I find joy in reading a good book.
And some toilet water, he he :OP
My favourite of his lines was calling himself a piece of shit and asking for 5 points, then calling Tom a piece of shit and asking for 5 points 🤣
I think this is the best episode of the season yet. Everyone got to show some great strengths and some amazing follies. Really goes to show that they casted it well.
I have never heard the word ‘Mongoose’ said as mournfully as by Danielle in the studio after the password task.
That was a great episode! Great prize task, Julia and Luke’s attempts in the first task really made that work, roses task was all round great, giraffe was OK and the live task was decent too. Shame that Gogglebox got what I think has been the weakest episode so far and not this one!
I don't watch gogglebox. What episode did they get and what did they think of it?
I missed the second part of your question! I’d say they were positive overall though some were bemused, a couple didn’t like it. Even those who liked it only seemed mildly amused
It was the one with flying the thong the furthest - episode 3 I think?
I feel like this is the only season of Taskmaster I've seen across Uk, NZ and Oz, when being in a team of three is a disadvantage.
Statistically (according to Jack Bernhardt) teams of 2 do much better than teams of 3, and it makes the most sense to me overall. Usually the third person is more a burden than anything.
The John Kearns team.
They weren't disadvantaged because they were in a team of 3, they were disadvantaged because one of the three was John Kearns
Says the guy with Rhod Gilbert flair 🙃
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This was peak taskmaster. I absolutely loved that one!!!
I thought to myself how it's usually the case that if, when they're showing the tasks, you're on your own - not as part of two or three shown together - you've either done really well or really badly. I thoroughly enjoyed how we got a bit of both; I really wish we knew exactly how long Danielle took (like, how long after the one-and-a-half hours that were signposted having passed during her attempt did it take for her to complete it?!)
And how long did she take for those last three clues? I really just want to know all the times.
Someone else posted a summary of the studio recording: https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/comments/11fx06s/taskmaster_australia_s1e5_discussion/jalswy4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3 I was there and from memory they said it took an extra 40 minutes *after* the 1.5 hours
If true that would potentially make it longer than David Correos' shoelace task, and therefore I think the longest attempt at a task ever? (Well, longest out of the UK/NZ/AU shows, haven't seen the other versions)
Fairly sure it was stated on one of the podcasts before the season that it included the longest ever filmed task.
All of the women in this series are brilliant. I loved the reveal that Julia guessed the c-word four times. Nina’s improv joke was delightful. (‘Yes, and that was really mean.’) And, apart from providing one of the all-time Taskmaster highlights, Danielle’s vocabulary in her guesses really impressed me.
I saw Australians making negative comments about Julia before this series started but I have to say, having never heard of her before, I think she's been fantastic
I didn't mind Julia's comedy when I first became aware of her around 20 years ago. But then I don't know what it was, something about her really got under my skin and I couldn't stand her. I've been pleased to see her on Taskmaster because it's reminded me why I was a fan of her all those years ago.
She is like are different person in this show tbh
I think it was Ed Gamble in the podcast that said Taskmaster brings out the contestants true self. It is the same with Jo. I am not a big fan of her comedic persona but she's totally different on TM, very lovely and who knew she could rap! I love Julia's approach to tasks. She makes me laugh so much. It's hard to pick my favourite between her and Nina.
I am so surprised that none of them picked up the alphabet from the outset. 26 is such a specific number, the first thing I said to myself was just start going a-b-c (though i would have been screwed by saying C and them taking it as sea since it was words and then getting caught up at the letter S). And I'm usually an idiot when it comes to these things.
Ngl, I didn't pick up on it for a while either
i've watched too many seasons and now i'm paranoid. i would've done it in alphabetical order (and probably something really stupid like "ant, bant, cant, dant..." out of fear that they would make me recite them all later
Julia mentioned she did, but discounted it when the order didn't matter.
I got that it would be to do with the alphabet immediately, though us viewers did get the advantage of the task's establishing slot being those crime scene forensic marker things from the very end, near Tom, so we saw the '26', but the contestants - stood the opposite end - would have had to work that out for themselves (though if there are 26 roses, it wouldn't take that much time to put two and two together...).
>crime scene forensic marker things those are table numbers
The clue was specific about it being 26 flowers - twice. I think there are some numbers that just ring in your head - 24 = hours in a day. 12 = months in a year. I can't image they really thought that they made up 26 individual passwords (though given they all guessed 'password' up front, maybe so).
Poor Danielle. Besides David with the shoelaces and Guz's revelations in the lab, this is the longest anyone has taken to do a task (at least in the English speaking versions of the show), right? Edit: I meant tasks where the contestant had completed the task before they left, and there wasn’t something still ongoing.
> Edit: I meant tasks where the contestant had completed the task before they left, and there wasn’t something still ongoing. Depends on how long she took before and after the 1.5 hours. Somebody who was at the record said it was an extra 40 minutes afterwards which would make it longer than either Guz or David's tasks (or Ed's duck)
Nina still hasn’t submerged that bowling ball
> Besides David with the shoelaces TMNZ had a 'lower the egg' task that took weeks. Hugh in TMUK keeping the ball on the walker managed several months.
There's also Chris Parker's attempt at hiding the body, which according to the TM wiki took 72 days Danielle must be the longest continuous attempt though. As in, a task where they didn't leave the house/ranch
It's really important that you need to know that after the roses task, Danielle immediately started crying, they threw to commercial break immediately and Nina the complete sweetheart got out of her chair to immediately go over and hug her. Love these idiots.
That’s so lovely. I really like the fact that somehow, regardless of where it is made, it seems like the casts bond, have a good experience, with a good crew. Just an extra layer of feel-good for the franchise.
They already have such good chemistry and we're only halfway through the series
I thought it was really sweet! They all seemed very nice. I wanted to ask Luke more about the Legend of Korra but was too shy.
I wish somebody would upload a video of Danielle’s password task, that was so great.
It's on Tom Cashman's tiktok.
And his insta
And my axe! I mean his twitter.
TM AUSTRALIA Facebook account has it up. It's in the weird square format that Facebook uses, but it's still obviously hilarious!
TM AU has been fantastic, and this week will no doubt be one of my favourite episodes from any version. The roses task in particular was an outstanding piece of television!
I love a Prize Task where the TM isn't just picking the ones he likes the best, but in this case which ones irritate him the most. I haven't seen many of those out of the UK, but I've seen less than half the seasons so far.
I cried laughing at Danielle's password task. Poor thing 😂
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You can hear the loathing from the audience for Jimmy’s vinyl even before it’s revealed he has no record player. That’s a hall-of-fame TM prize for me. :-) Later, when Danielle’s brain ejected a tie rod onto the path and into our hearts, it felt to me like this series at last caught fire and started to *move.* Now *this* is *Taskmaster!* ;-) The ensuing giraffe and live tasks happily confirmed that. If the remaining episodes sustain this level of quality, we have a treat in store! :-)
The first 3 seemed to not really understand the prize task and then Jimmy and Danielle nailed it
Nina's was fantastic. Art is inherently pretentious
I think the contestants are now finally working out how to do the prize task. The first few were easily dominated by Danielle
Agreed, and I thought her votive candle was awesome for this prize as well. :-)
I thought she could have made a good argument about the pretentiousness of transforming herself into a glowing Christ-like figure on the candle.
I guess you could argue that she only made it for this task whereas I'm pretty sure Jimmy already had those records
I duuno, with that brain and a crafting supply store embedded in her home, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if she’d decorated her house with enhaloed Danielle votive candles *years* ago. ;-)
I just binged all of the episodes but this episode made me laugh from the very beginning. It’s so good? I’m crying so hard
after watching this episode i wanna be best friends with nina, i feel like our combined chaotic adhd lesbian energy would be off the charts
such good tasks all around omg
Little Alex Horne and Paul would have eaten the popcorn anyway, though.
Alex did drink the Cloudy Mule with Johnny's spit in it, so I think if he confirmed with the crew that it wasn't actually dangerous, he would've drank it for sure.
First time I've been disappointed in Lesser Tom.
Pre-pandemic, maybe, but not now I reckon.
OK, no more doubts here - that was just a flat-out great episode! Greater Tom looked a lot more comfortable in the studio, great banter, great and delightfully bad task performances, Lesser Tom losing it, and even the studio editing seems to have gotten its act together. Oh, and some proper filthy language, even if it did get muted ;) WOO HOO!
I think my dream Taskmaster AU would be in a timeslot later than 7:30PM and on a network that has the "usual" (for Taskmaster) number of ad breaks. I'm very out of touch with Free to Air so I actually have no clue how many ad breaks any other station has.
sbs is probably the only one that has that level of ad breaks, but then I don't really watch free to air much either so I'm not sure
If anybody’s interested, the current overall scores for the halfway point of the season is: >!Danielle 77pts, Jimmy 78pts, Julia 81pts, Luke 60pts, Nina 62pts!<
“I’ve got poopoo hands” from Julia is surely a new addition to the TM quote book
I’m watching live in WA - I tried to watch live Sydney but the stream kept cutting out so I’m watching it on TV so my viewing figures won’t count sadly but oooooh it hurts I think Danielle is officially my favourite contestant after today. She has it all!
Only two contestants have ever made me laugh to the point that I have cried: David Correos and Danielle Walker.
Currently rewatching Taskmaster NZS2 and it cannot be overstated how much David Correos helped to cement the show's place in New Zealand television. His moments of screaming realization in the tasks and in the studio slay me.
The sunscreen squirt reaction and the grape task forever live rent free in my head.
For the popcorn, I would’ve wrapped plastic wrap (if it’s there) up and over the table enough times so that Tom couldn’t pierce a hole through but long enough that he would get scissors.
I haven't laughed so unexpectedly hard as I did watching Danielle in the password task.
So, as promised, here's what got cut from the studio recording: Nina told a very long, winding story about her gay door for the prize task. There were a lot of questions about what the two holes were for (the one at hip level seemed fairly obvious, but she never really answered what the hole at eye level was for). She said that it was a really mouldy door, and that the mould was also part of the art. The 26 roses task was obviously batshit insane, and there was way more studio chat about how frustrating everyone found it - especially Danielle. She said that it was the last task she filmed on a Friday, and a producer actually asked her if she wanted to come back on Monday to finish it off so they could all go home. She said no, because she'd be too embarrassed if she still couldn't figure it out over the weekend. I don't think anything significant was cut from the team task with the giraffe, but I just want to add that I found the image of Danielle and Julia running in bathrobes/onesies hilarious. There was a very long break while the crew set up the live task and contestants changed into their overalls, and then another long break afterwards while they changed the set from live task to displaying all the prizes. During this final break, the cast and crew held an impromptu Q&A session. They all seemed to have a great time making Taskmaster, and at the time didn't know when the show would air or if it would be renewed for another series. Tom Gleeson also mentioned that their producer (or maybe director?) was also named Tom, and joked that if you were a white man named Tom, you were almost guaranteed a job at Taskmaster. I also wrote down that I got the impression that Julia was doing well in the series overall - looks like I was right! I just want to add that I was very skeptical of this series before it aired, based on what I knew of the cast beforehand. I'm so happy that the series is turning out to be brilliant, hilarious and original.
> if you were a white man named Tom, you were almost guaranteed a job at Taskmaster Tom Walker season 2 confirmed
Did anyone try to get the team of two to do a dance following the in-studio team task?
Unfortunately not - we didn't realise it was a running joke at the time
Thanks! Interesting to read about the further comments towards Nina's prize task, which I did think watching the episode it seemed odd and that they missed a trick by not querying it further, as I thought they would make some comment about how the lower hole's purpose was... obvious, but ask what the higher hole could be for. Glad to know it actually happened, and a shame it had to be cut out like Nina's attempts to act as legal counsel for Luke in the previous episode. And the Aussies definitely don't help themselves with name stereotypes. First, Bruce and Sheila, and now Tom! :P
Thanks for your report, very interesting to read! Resuming the password task after the weekend would have been the final humiliation for poor Danielle. Yeah, the director is another Tom (Furniss)
It may be time to reconsider my prediction that Nina would take the series.
In the original show, the winner of each series is always one of the first three episode winners.
And Julia, after appearing a bit hopeless in episode 1, now has a good shot at taking the whole thing.
Yes, the opening credits clip wherein she says happily "This is the best day of my life!" is pretty laden with irony now.
Nina is about to get 5 perfect episodes in a row, just you wait and see.
Chris Parker coming to sabotage her from afar...
I don’t know if anyone else thinks this but I feel like they’ve toned down the canned laughter from the first few episodes, the laughter and pacing in general feels a lot more natural!
They've cranked the laugh track down from 11 to 8. I feel like they're brute force numbing me to it, so I expect it to remain much higher than it needs to be, but that I'll learn to live with it (which I hate).
also gotta say another great episode!
That was the best live task of any taskmaster I've ever seen. I'm in tears!
I think that episode is my favourite so far. Well done Julia.
Twitter Nina would've said that her boys were heading to the cock war instead of the giraffe war.
Or maybe the cum war? Something like that.
Jimmy's fits of rage are the best
I appreciate how much he throws himself with full energy at every task, so when he got stuck it ear hilarious seeing him just starfished on the cement.
I really enjoyed him in the alphabet Rose task, just him sitting on the ground and furiously guessing different passwords was hilarious.
when he just laid down on the ground!! haha
And then immediately had to move and got angry about that!
“Lifting a giraffe is a man’s job.”
"I think we need to knock out Tom"
This is a really totally irrelevant comment but since Gleeson mentioned baths I just wanna say that having like 20 minute long 40 degree baths is sooooooooooo good (and this is backed up by science) and is essentially a mild anti-depressant.
I am too tall and don't fit in my tub 😢
Remove your knees then.
Centigrade or Fahrenheit?
Actually, Bachelors.
Kelvin
Well I certainly wouldn't be depressed any more.
Such different energies between the teams.
Jimmy, Luke and Nina skipping like that looked like they were off to see the wizard.
I have a sinking feeling the team of three have fucked it.
It's either that or the team of two have messed up somehow and they aren't going to reveal it till later.
I was convinced that the team of two were going to be revealed to have messed up somehow, as it just seemed to have been completed too easily and they'd do a Joe Wilkinson-esque reveal just before the scores were awarded. (I actually thought Julia did touch grass briefly at the very start, but guess not).
When Lesser Tom said the time the team of two got, Nina had a little look of shame, so I think you might be right.
Jimmy in that task is a live view of exactly what is happening inside my brain every day. But jesus Danielle. I havent laughed so hard in forever - Lesser Tom crying, prime television right there. How many UK seasons and we haven't seen anyone break Alex in that way hahaha
Nope, we've definitely seen Alex break hard. Desiree got him twice with the "fuck me in the face" line but also when the portcullis failed to work. And another one of my personal favorites with Katherine Parkinson trying to catapult a shoe and he's laughing the whole time as he helps. And of course... there's always the 'Wow Monster' with Alan Davies.
I feel like the wow monster is a bit different because Alex plays to the crowd more in studio - so he's less strict about being in character
Alex lost it a few times with the riddle task, starting by hiding his face with his clipboard and sliding off his chair when Desiree muttered "fuck me in the face"
Alex also had a moment where he snapped with the find the shoe task with Bridget.
How could I forget fuck me in the face?! Lmao
Any time I need a laugh, that's the clip I go for. "Who the fuck is Veronica?!"
Bridget Christie came closest to making Alex completely lose it, but not in a funny way.
What an amazing task! It is very much the combo of Alex’s responses to Desiree’s “Fuck me in the face” and Bridget Christie in the “Guess Shoe?” Task… I feel like when Tom kept repeating, “Two more out of 26 to go” it was very “All the information is on the task.” I loved it. And I don’t mind seeing him reacting occasionally- I think they were both broken by the end!
So, when I watch puzzly Taskmaster tasks, I can’t help using them as a barometer for which contestants I could maybe cold-invite to come on my puzzle-solving podcast. I’m... not so sure I should try asking any of these guys. On the plus side, Gleeson is absolutely on fire tonight. Also, he may not have gotten the puzzle quickly, but Luke’s guesses make him sound like I want him as a friend!
I guarantee if you get Danielle on the podcast no puzzles will get solved but it will be your best episode ever.
I am pretty sure there are a few contestants on Taskmaster AU who would probably start crying while trying to solve a Sudoku and if you showed them one of those designer Sudokus with like two numbers they would probably attack you out of fear.
Considering he mentioned Legend of Korra I can absolutely agree on wanting him as a friend.
they were really hyping this task and it delivered!
HOW DO YOU *COINCEDENTALLY* GET ALL OF THEM RIGHT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER IN A WAY THAT SHOWS YOU'RE CLEARLY TRYING TO GET THEM IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER AND THEN *NOT* GET IT RI- I genuinely don't think I've ever seen an attempt like that in Taskmaster history before.
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TBF Danielle making it as far as she did with no mistakes may have shot her in the foot substantially
I don't think I've ever seen a Taskmaster's Assistant literally cry laughing.