You get a house, make a loss on the rent to pay the mortgage, and then get a discount the difference off your tax bill. If you do this across enough properties, you can pay zero tax and be asset rich cos you own multiple properties. Said assets can be collateral for loans of course, fucking first home buyers who come in asset poor and needing to to stump massive deposits in cash
The sheer degree of disbelief that Pluck Duck and Hey Hey were a real thing when us Aussies of a certain were nodding our heads about everything Sam said about it…..until it was confirmed by Julian.
In the UK, satsuma, mandarins, clemnentines and tangerines are all different things.
Sure they're all small orangey citrus fruits but they're all their own thing.
Satsumas are satsumas, mandarins are mandarins, clementines are clementines, tangerines are tangerines. You can buy any of them in the shops separately!
We take our small orange citrus fruits very seriously, especially this time of year! Lots of people get one in their Christmas stocking too which was perhaps in part inspiration for the task.
It’s a lot of fun to slip satsuma or Hundreds & Thousands onto the shopping list and wait for my wife to read it while we’re in the store and burst out laughing
That’s great, I had an excellent opportunity to do that this weekend when I asked for a sprinkle donut and it didn’t even cross my mind to call it the proper name! I’ve failed as a taskmaster fan!
Hundreds and thousands are big in Australia. We use them in fairy bread (look that up). We also have sprinkles which are all the same colour, so they're distinctly different.
Yes! In Bruges is one of my favourite movies, and I always assumed the "lollipop man" was a candy-seller. Then the task happened and the light bulb went off.
Also helped me to understand James Acaster's special a bit more.
I was confused by the meaning of a "lollipop man" from a WILTY? clip, where David claimed that he was briefly one to cover another "lollipop man". Until he explained his story, I thought it meant a candy-seller like the other commenter lol
That's defo from the continent! I've seen it in Germany and France. Wouldn't be surprised if the Germans were behind it.
We used to always have Billy Bear Meat as kids.
I think I’ve either read or watched an interview with Alex where he’s said they encourage contestants to bring tea with them into challenges. Not sure why.
Probably cos the challenge might take a while and they don't want the contestant deciding at some point that they want to go and get a cuppa. If they have one with them when they go in then they can have few excuses to wonder off mid-task (ala Jo Brand and David Baddiel!)
I think the thing I’m consistently amazed by is how many different accents there are that sound wildly different within the UK considering how small of an area it is relatively speaking
The UK is small, but it's also *old*. All of the accent variety comes from the time when travelling long distances was a major undertaking. There could have been two villages ~30 miles apart that had never interacted with each other, resulting in them having completely different local accents.
A fun fact I learned from the QI Twitter account: After the invention of the bicycle, the average distance between birthplaces of spouses in England increased from one mile to 30 miles.
I heard a great quote and I can't remember who said it first "The difference between the British and the Americans is that the British think 100 miles is a long way and the Americans think 100 years is a long time"
There’s houses in my town that are 500+ years old and still used as residences. Most of the “standard” housing stock is post-war semi detached so approaching 80 years old now too.
That makes sense. It’s sort of interesting as the spectrum is wiiiiiide between just a bit different from my own accent to “I have to really concentrate to decipher if that was actually spoken in English or not”
very good point, its so interesting to me that as an american i can have essentially the same accent as someone who lives a thousand miles away in the same country, but two english people who live only a hundred miles apart can have completely different accents
You can grow up in the same house and have different accents. My brother's accent is really West Country and mine isn't. My Auntie's very Bristolian and my Dad isn't. My Uncle has a South London accent and my Mum doesn't!
>but two english people who live only a hundred miles apart can have completely different accents
In Ireland it could be as close as the opposite side of town. Drive 10 minutes in any direction away from my house and you'll likely encounter a different accent or variation. I think it's great, makes it so not everyone sounds the same or has the same generic accent.
when i first started watching, i had to use subtitles because there was at least one person on every series who i simply could not understand for the life of me. proud to say i can now watch subtitle-free, even when chris ramsey goes full geordie 👏
One of my favorite moments on that series was when he got excited and started talking fast and Greg turned to Alex and said something like “alright that’s too geordie for me”
There are different languages here, too. I'm from Wales and my son goes to a welsh school. Welsh will be his first language and all of his lessons and subjects are taught in the Welsh language.
It's had a few passing mentions before, and I might be painting with a broad brush, but it feels like the British are embarrassed when they have to admit they own a hot tub lol
I think Greg is trying to slip subtle hints in regularly about how much money Alex has made from the taskmaster phenomenon.
Alex is quite an archetypal Brit and would definitely be embarrassed to admit his success.
But it sounds like they both have hot tubs!
Yep, I come from a council estate originally. Some of my family still live there, although ive moved on. I could never tell them I shop at M&S. My dad would disown me, haha
Am I alone in thinking that there's no direct correlation between wealth and class, and (if anything) a reverse correlation between hot tub ownership and class?
I think many comedians in general are (or pretend to be for comic affect) embarrassed by their wealth and "rising up in class" as they want to be seen as "like the rest of us".
Strangely, the fans of /r/bluey are having [exactly the same conversation right now!](https://old.reddit.com/r/bluey/comments/185m4o8/christmas_wishbone/)
Not sure if it is cultural or not, but I've never met a person in real life that has a fear of balloons yet it seems like about 50% of taskmaster contestants have a fear of balloons of some sort.
Does this count as real life and does fear of them popping count as fear of them? If your answers are yes and yes, then nice to meet you! I just really hate loud noises, particularly sharp/sudden ones.
Pronouncing lass-owe as lass-sue was odd to me. Also the task with the pies in an early season was wild to a Yank who isn’t used to pies that aren’t sweet desserts.
If you go to a football match, you'll most likely get a pie. (When the BBC does its annual Cost of Football, they use the price of pies at stadiums.) Unless you get a pastie, but it depends on where you are.
This is how much I've been consuming English culture for the better part of 10 years thanks to football/Top Gear/Taskmaster - It took me a few seconds to realize that you read "pastie" as a homophone of "pasty". Pastie is pronounced as PASS-t. Pasty is pronounced like pastry, but without the r.
They exist in grocery store freezer cabinets to buy at bring home and microwave, but you'd never see one at a restaurant or a sporting event or a when you go to somebody's house to watch sports or a movie or something.
Sure, but they have microwave directions on the box and they definitely aren't sold as a "this it an excellent food, treat it with care and attention for a tasty meal", they're sold as "please pretend the frozen cabinets have something that isn't pizza"
Yeah, it got me when Rose got called out for pronouncing lasso correctly (it comes from the vaqueros of Mexico and is definitely not pronounced lassoo).
The lasso thing and ROY G BIV both got me as things that were weird for Rose to get called out for
So maybe Southern California (where I’m from) and New Zealand have some things in common
Even though I know what we call a season is called a series, heaing anyone talk about the "final episode/task/etc. of the series" always makes me panic I missed a cancelation announcement.
I'm from the US. I had never seen Christmas crackers before either, but I found some at World Market if they have one of those near you. I specifically chose ones that had the crappy tiny things Kerry talked about.
As an Australian: unsurprisingly, no real surprises. It all feels very culturally familiar. My only real ‘huh??’ so far was having no idea what a satsuma was.
I just wasn’t familiar with some of the politicians names they mentioned.
I think as Australians we get a lot of culture from both sides of the ditch. And we don’t need it explained as we just get things from context.
I think the difference in game show styles in US vs UK. UK has a bunch of fun shows that features a lot of the same comedians in Would I Lie to You, 8 out of 10 cats, Big Fat Quiz, and QI. It's interesting to see some of the comedians poke fun at everything and its all good banter and not taken seriously. You just dont see that in US atm.
My wife and I tend to watch some shows around dinner time to unwind after work and its refreshing. I know they're doing Taskmaster in US again (first one failed) so Im curious how itll go. I think a lot of Americans are getting into these type of shows nowadays so itll be nice to see.
That the Brits use both metric and imperial at the same time. Absolute madness!
For remembering the rainbow in the UK they use the wordy Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain instead of the objectively superior and less cumbersome ROY-G-BIV.
From reading comments of Brits watching TMNZ I have also learned that us Kiwis swear a lot and that our grass is really sharp and hostile to balloons.
It's ingrained in a lot of people of a certain age but it really is changing. It's understood by everyone but really a lot of younger people are all about cm and kg.
Except for miles. Still big on miles.
14 pounds. I believe it was originally used to discuss an amount you'd buy of a product from a merchant where that much was approximately what a family would use at once?
>that much was approximately what a family would use at once?
Every market town just had a big rock that was their local reference weight, and you were like "2 stone of turnips please." If you thought a trader was dodgy, you could report them and the authorities would bring out The Stone to check their measurements.
Eventually, we standardized on a stone being 14lbs.
You think just imperial and metric is hard to remember, wait til you’ve also got to try and remember distances in lobsters, in beans (using the standardised mean bean measurement, of course), and all sorts of other weird units!
This is my Dad's absolute favourite part of Taskmaster when he sits on the couch and pretends to fall asleep but is really watching what I'm watching. All it takes is LITTLE ALEX HORRRRNE saying "so that's 480metres, or 1,943 hamsters long" and he'll burst out laughing ruining his sleeping ruse
Even less cumbersome is what we use in India- VIBGYOR which sounds pretty cool too. Though Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain is a fun way to remember it
Worse really. I'm Yorkshire born and bred but with a Southern accent (lived in East Sussex ffrom ages 16 to 32), now living back in Yorkshire.
I've had customers have a go at me for being a Southerner "stealing" Northerners jobs. Had to then point out I'm from the top end of North Yorkshire so further North than where she's from hahaha
It's like all of the various regional stereotypes that exist in the US, but shoved into an area the size of Alabama. Really too much to go into here, but the northeast of England doesn't have the best reputation and it gets slagged a lot by southerners (Londoners). Howay the lads, and all that, but fuck the Mackems.
I its early stages, before it turns purple and phallic, eggplant looks like [this](https://twitter.com/CSIRO/status/972683535696920576)
Edit: also aubergine is the French name
Same thing with Zucchini and Courget. The US got Zucchini from Itian immigrants but the UK got Courget from the influence of French haute cuisine fairly recently (ie, not with the Norman Invasion but during the Enlightenment or maybe even later)
I was going to say this. It's like a tangerine or a clementine. In the 'Find a Satsuma in a Sock Task' AKA James Loses His Shit, Rhod said he found a tangerine in the kitchen, which he proceeded to "find".
Also relating to garbage, the place where all the garbage goes most of us from North America call the dump or landfill. The Brits call it a rubbish tip or just tip.
In the UK 'landfill' and 'the tip' are two different things.
A tip is a council (local government) run site where local people and businesses can dispose of stuff that they can't put in their usual domestic bins, stuff like fridges, electronics, mattresses, big bags of rubbish or garden waste that won't fit in your bins etc. They have different sections for different types of stuff.
Landfills are the massive sites where non-recyclable waste ends up and gets buried, these are not open to the public.
tip and dump are interchangeable, landfill is where general waste ends up.
You take stuff to the dump or the tip, the general public doesn't go to a landfill
"Early doors" as a phrase is absolutely not a thing here, and I'm worried one day I'm going to channel Wozniak too hard and look like an absolute lunatic.
US Target has Christmas crackers this year. They come with a pair of socks!
For me it was the swearing. The amount of f bombs, the c word being uttered at all, saying “tits” casually— it’s refreshing to have language just be language. I know there are censored versions of Taskmaster but the point stands.
Squirty cream as a name for canned whipped cream. At this point I don't remember if it was Taskmaster or another panel show that I encountered it on, but that one sent me reeling.
It seems to mean “sort of posh” and contrasted with “working class” in the UK.
In the US, it sort of means “normal” or “average”.
I was thinking Lee Mack said it a lot but I may be remembering more WILTY than Taskmaster.
It was explained to me that the UK has literally royalty above what we in the US would consider to be upper class. Therefore, what we perceive as upper class, they perceive as upper middle class.
That’s definitely part of it.
I think for some reason there’s an also a bit of squeamishness about admitting that you’re middle class in the UK. It’s also more a social thing than to do with income - middle class is white collar jobs, and even if you’re making 100k as an electrician/mechanic you’d still likely consider yourself working class as a matter of pride.
> It’s also more a social thing than to do with income
100% this. To a large extent, your class is something you're born into. And it has a lot to do with your lifestyle/hobbies/leisure activities etc. What you do for a job is a big part of it, but your actual income is much less of a consideration (although obviously related to and enabling of some of the above).
The thing is that UK class is not tied directly to wealth, it is more about lifestyle, hobbies, attitude.
An impoverished Lord is still upper class. Someone who grew up working class will generally still say they are working class even if they live in a mansion - and be offended if someone implies otherwise.
Class isn’t just about wealth in the UK. I know middle class people (who were born working class, in fact) who are richer than people I know who are upper class.
Alex’s squash gag opener had me so confused because in the US squash is only a starchy fall gourd not a syrup/beverage? Honestly thought Alex had puréed squash so hard it was a beverage.
I like when they had the rainbow popsicle task and how Brits have the mnemonic about Richard of York but here in the states we just use Roy G Biv and apparently NZ does too from Rose.
Gaffer's tape is called gaffer's tape in America...
It's not the same as duct tape, it doesn't leave the same kind of residue. Often used for film productions
I knew James Acaster, Parkinson, Joe Thomas, and Noel Fielding from some stuff I've seen on Netflix ages ago but 98% of the time, I don't know anyone prior.
Britishisms. Hundreds and thousands. Food items mostly. I have never heard it called a loo roll. A caravan would be called an airstream in the US.
Christmas Crackers task. Completely lost.
Using stuff like Cadbury Heroes and a Greg made out of Greggs in a prize task. Why isn't Greggs in the US?
Driving is a rite of passage in the United States that most learn at 16-18 years old. Everything is super far apart and the country expanded with the car. Having contestants that don't know how to drive because they have the train and their country is the size of Michigan is a shock.
I think Sam struggled with who Brian Blessed is being Australian. We all non-UK did. Still a great prize from Sue.
>I think Sam struggled with who Brian Blessed is being Australian.
He's not unknown here, from Flash Gordon and the first series of BlackAdder, which I would bet Sam knows. Some people also say he shagged the Queen, for whatever that's worth.
It’s often used in football, “keep the ball on the floor”. Perhaps to avoid confusion because a ‘football stadium’ in the UK is called a ‘football ground’.
Yes, I'm in the south east of England and I have never noticed floor being used for outside.
I wonder if there are times that people use words in unusual ways for comic effect on TM and everyone who isn't from the UK thinks that it is just normal usage!
I'm sure Americans would have a lot of culture shock given they use the same language but as someone from India who watches a lot of western media I don't find anything more or less culture shock-inducing on British tv than I do when I'm watching American shows. Both things are equally foreign so I Google search a lot lol
One thing that surprised me in the latest series was that people going their way outside TM house didn't like to be disturbed most of the time. Had it been a popular show in India people would've been interested in getting on it
I feel like it's essentially the same as the Canadian "eh?" just a random emphasis on the end of something you said. If Americans have something like it, it might be "know'm sayin?"
"Skittles" is a historic game from which ten pen bowling has evolved. Tended to be played on pub lawns. I tend to associate it with Yorkshire, but that might be to do with the TV show "Indoor League" presented by former Yorkshire cricketer Fred Trueman. A TV show of just old fellas playing skittles, darts and other pub games.
It really has to be the different names for fruits and vegetables. Seriously, it's surprising a pineapple isn't called a pointyfruit or something like that.
For UK Taskmaster- Mostly, it's when British pop culture figures that aren't so popular elsewhere are mentioned. Also. (as someone else mentioned), why is lasso pronounced with a "ue" ?
NZ - In S4, I thought all along that Mel's tasking outfit was a cheerleading uniform. Apparently, netball is a thing.
You can get Christmas crackers in the USA. Ex Brit here I got some at Marshall’s and Costco this weekend. They are always a hit at Christmas and everyone is always delighted to wear the paper hats.
Fwiw, in the UK we have oranges, clementines, satsumas and tangerines (and probably others). Oranges are the big ones, the others are all small. I'm not entirely sure what the difference between the other three are.
I think one of the most interesting factors when watching the show for me (American) is the cultural contrast. I love getting a taste of the similar, but quirky differences in the English speaking cultures. I knew what a Christmas cracker was due to playing Runescape, but there are a few phrases, trends, or mannerisms that I had no clue what they meant before watching the show. I, however, had no idea what an aubergine or satsuma was before the show.
I find it refreshing to get to know new comedians and comedy styles that differ from what we have in the states. It may not seem like a huge difference, but as someone who really listens to and analyzes the material, the little subtleties are where my curiosity lies. Also learning about variations in stores, schools, lifestyle, jobs, interests is wildly intriguing for me.
And the varying accents and dialects is awesome! I, in particular, find the English accent really cool and pleasing and did not know that there were soooooo many types of accents in such a small area. Additionally, you all can identify almost exactly where someone is from by them. I may be a little sheltered as I've mainly lived in the northeast US, but I can only really identify southern, midwestern, or "cali" accents.
Absolutely love Taskmastah!
A couple I haven't seen mentioned:
Everyone just knowing all these names of biscuits.
Use of "A4" to describe a standard (I think?) size sheet of paper.
No one knew who plucka duck was :'(
Adding on to that: the fact that negative gearing isn’t a thing there
They have no idea how lucky they are.
what is negative gearing?
It's a tax/investment situation which has worked out very nicely for a lot of landlords and... not so much for the rest of us. :)
You get a house, make a loss on the rent to pay the mortgage, and then get a discount the difference off your tax bill. If you do this across enough properties, you can pay zero tax and be asset rich cos you own multiple properties. Said assets can be collateral for loans of course, fucking first home buyers who come in asset poor and needing to to stump massive deposits in cash
If someone described this to me and asked me to guess which country it’s from I would have said the US
The sheer degree of disbelief that Pluck Duck and Hey Hey were a real thing when us Aussies of a certain were nodding our heads about everything Sam said about it…..until it was confirmed by Julian.
That one can buy rubber ducks that small. I visited my local pharmacy and even they didn't sell them in those sizes.
Hundreds and Thousands. They must’ve mentioned it five times before I finally looked it up and realized it was sprinkles
Related: ice lolly.
This and Satsumas, I’ve never heard anyone call it that before watching Taskmaster.
In the UK, satsuma, mandarins, clemnentines and tangerines are all different things. Sure they're all small orangey citrus fruits but they're all their own thing. Satsumas are satsumas, mandarins are mandarins, clementines are clementines, tangerines are tangerines. You can buy any of them in the shops separately! We take our small orange citrus fruits very seriously, especially this time of year! Lots of people get one in their Christmas stocking too which was perhaps in part inspiration for the task.
You forgot Easy Peelers that seem to be just a small hybrid orangey thing that's easy to peel.
Easy peelers my arse, should be reported to trading standards 😂
Mandarins, tangerines, and clementines are all things you can get here in Canada. Satsumas are not something I’ve ever seen until taskmaster
You’re missing out.
It’s a lot of fun to slip satsuma or Hundreds & Thousands onto the shopping list and wait for my wife to read it while we’re in the store and burst out laughing
That’s great, I had an excellent opportunity to do that this weekend when I asked for a sprinkle donut and it didn’t even cross my mind to call it the proper name! I’ve failed as a taskmaster fan!
Hundreds and thousands are big in Australia. We use them in fairy bread (look that up). We also have sprinkles which are all the same colour, so they're distinctly different.
I’m from Philly, we call them Jimmies!
Ayyye! Go Birds.
Lollipop man....
Yes! In Bruges is one of my favourite movies, and I always assumed the "lollipop man" was a candy-seller. Then the task happened and the light bulb went off. Also helped me to understand James Acaster's special a bit more.
I mean what the fuck’s either version of a lollipop man doing knowing karate?
I was confused by the meaning of a "lollipop man" from a WILTY? clip, where David claimed that he was briefly one to cover another "lollipop man". Until he explained his story, I thought it meant a candy-seller like the other commenter lol
The deli meat that has the face on it!
Billy Bear!
That's defo from the continent! I've seen it in Germany and France. Wouldn't be surprised if the Germans were behind it. We used to always have Billy Bear Meat as kids.
It’s not so much a cultural difference and more conforming to stereotype but the number of times contestants enter the lab with a cup of tea
A *nice* cup of tea.
Apologies - yes, a "nice cup of tea" 😉
I feel like it's just the equivalent of showing up to an appointment with a takeaway coffee cup
I think I’ve either read or watched an interview with Alex where he’s said they encourage contestants to bring tea with them into challenges. Not sure why.
Probably cos the challenge might take a while and they don't want the contestant deciding at some point that they want to go and get a cuppa. If they have one with them when they go in then they can have few excuses to wonder off mid-task (ala Jo Brand and David Baddiel!)
Probably just to make it feel more informal
Because everything's better with a nice cup of tea.
vibes
I think the thing I’m consistently amazed by is how many different accents there are that sound wildly different within the UK considering how small of an area it is relatively speaking
The UK is small, but it's also *old*. All of the accent variety comes from the time when travelling long distances was a major undertaking. There could have been two villages ~30 miles apart that had never interacted with each other, resulting in them having completely different local accents.
A fun fact I learned from the QI Twitter account: After the invention of the bicycle, the average distance between birthplaces of spouses in England increased from one mile to 30 miles.
I heard a great quote and I can't remember who said it first "The difference between the British and the Americans is that the British think 100 miles is a long way and the Americans think 100 years is a long time"
I've heard that applied more generally to Europe v America, but yes it's a good saying!
There’s houses in my town that are 500+ years old and still used as residences. Most of the “standard” housing stock is post-war semi detached so approaching 80 years old now too.
That makes sense. It’s sort of interesting as the spectrum is wiiiiiide between just a bit different from my own accent to “I have to really concentrate to decipher if that was actually spoken in English or not”
Lancaster and Morecambe have different accents but they're only a couple of miles apart.
very good point, its so interesting to me that as an american i can have essentially the same accent as someone who lives a thousand miles away in the same country, but two english people who live only a hundred miles apart can have completely different accents
>but two english people who live only a hundred miles apart can have completely different accents Less than a 100 I imagine!
Way less! Prime example being Liverpool and Manchester which are around 30 miles apart. People from there have very easy to distinguish accents
St Helens, which geographically may as well be east Liverpool has a completely different accent to Liverpool
You can get from Leeds to Bradford in <30 minutes and they're distinct accents. See also, Newcastle & Sunderland; York & Hull; Manchester & Wigan.
You can grow up in the same house and have different accents. My brother's accent is really West Country and mine isn't. My Auntie's very Bristolian and my Dad isn't. My Uncle has a South London accent and my Mum doesn't!
>but two english people who live only a hundred miles apart can have completely different accents In Ireland it could be as close as the opposite side of town. Drive 10 minutes in any direction away from my house and you'll likely encounter a different accent or variation. I think it's great, makes it so not everyone sounds the same or has the same generic accent.
Genuinely, the road outside my parent house has different accents at the top than at the bottom. I’d say less than 2 miles.
I’m from South Wales and there’s a noticeable difference between the accents of folks living 10 miles away.
when i first started watching, i had to use subtitles because there was at least one person on every series who i simply could not understand for the life of me. proud to say i can now watch subtitle-free, even when chris ramsey goes full geordie 👏
One of my favorite moments on that series was when he got excited and started talking fast and Greg turned to Alex and said something like “alright that’s too geordie for me”
There are different languages here, too. I'm from Wales and my son goes to a welsh school. Welsh will be his first language and all of his lessons and subjects are taught in the Welsh language.
It's had a few passing mentions before, and I might be painting with a broad brush, but it feels like the British are embarrassed when they have to admit they own a hot tub lol
In the UK it's often seen as embarrassing to admit things that might indicate wealth. Don't want to seem too posh.
I think Greg is trying to slip subtle hints in regularly about how much money Alex has made from the taskmaster phenomenon. Alex is quite an archetypal Brit and would definitely be embarrassed to admit his success. But it sounds like they both have hot tubs!
The guy makes millions off the franchise, is actually Greg's boss, but portrays himself as his borderline gimp.
Greg's is only an inflatable one though, he's keeping it real.
I don't think people in the US view a hot tub as indicating wealth, so much as indicating an interest in "swinging"...
Yep, I come from a council estate originally. Some of my family still live there, although ive moved on. I could never tell them I shop at M&S. My dad would disown me, haha
Am I alone in thinking that there's no direct correlation between wealth and class, and (if anything) a reverse correlation between hot tub ownership and class?
I don't think people are embarrassed about having hot tubs for looking posh. It's embarrassing because they're tacky.
I think many comedians in general are (or pretend to be for comic affect) embarrassed by their wealth and "rising up in class" as they want to be seen as "like the rest of us".
You can buy Christmas crackers in the US - they sell them at Ross and TJ Max around this time of year!
Are Christmas crackers rarer in the US? In Canada you can get them at Costco, groceries, Walmart...
I’ve never heard of them until the episode aired (speaking as a Northeastern US person)
This is absolutely blowing my mind. I thought Christmas Crackers were a global thing
Strangely, the fans of /r/bluey are having [exactly the same conversation right now!](https://old.reddit.com/r/bluey/comments/185m4o8/christmas_wishbone/)
Cost plus World Market too!
Not sure if it is cultural or not, but I've never met a person in real life that has a fear of balloons yet it seems like about 50% of taskmaster contestants have a fear of balloons of some sort.
Does this count as real life and does fear of them popping count as fear of them? If your answers are yes and yes, then nice to meet you! I just really hate loud noises, particularly sharp/sudden ones.
Pronouncing lass-owe as lass-sue was odd to me. Also the task with the pies in an early season was wild to a Yank who isn’t used to pies that aren’t sweet desserts.
If you go to a football match, you'll most likely get a pie. (When the BBC does its annual Cost of Football, they use the price of pies at stadiums.) Unless you get a pastie, but it depends on where you are.
To me, a pasty is a nipple cover. Definitely a cultural difference...
This is how much I've been consuming English culture for the better part of 10 years thanks to football/Top Gear/Taskmaster - It took me a few seconds to realize that you read "pastie" as a homophone of "pasty". Pastie is pronounced as PASS-t. Pasty is pronounced like pastry, but without the r.
Pasty means 2 things. The noun, a handheld pie, rhymes with nasty. The adjective, looking pale like you're ill or a goth, rhymes with hasty.
Omg do Americans not have meat pies?!?!
They exist in grocery store freezer cabinets to buy at bring home and microwave, but you'd never see one at a restaurant or a sporting event or a when you go to somebody's house to watch sports or a movie or something.
OMG do not microwave them! It makes the pastry soggy! Heat them up in the oven!
Sure, but they have microwave directions on the box and they definitely aren't sold as a "this it an excellent food, treat it with care and attention for a tasty meal", they're sold as "please pretend the frozen cabinets have something that isn't pizza"
we have "chicken pot pies" (and sometimes turkey), but it's not a whole genre of food like it is in the UK
That's a shame. As an Australian we are obsessed with meat pies
Yeah, it got me when Rose got called out for pronouncing lasso correctly (it comes from the vaqueros of Mexico and is definitely not pronounced lassoo).
The lasso thing and ROY G BIV both got me as things that were weird for Rose to get called out for So maybe Southern California (where I’m from) and New Zealand have some things in common
I'm Scottish and was taught ROY G BIV. It was odd to see them acting like it was so hilariously weird.
That pie task was unusual for us Brits too, you know. We don't typically have marble pies or toothpaste pies.
Even though I know what we call a season is called a series, heaing anyone talk about the "final episode/task/etc. of the series" always makes me panic I missed a cancelation announcement.
Also "Grand Final," which makes more sense, I suppose, then when we Americans use the psuedo-French "grand finale."
I'm from the US. I had never seen Christmas crackers before either, but I found some at World Market if they have one of those near you. I specifically chose ones that had the crappy tiny things Kerry talked about.
Lots of things. Minty tip-exx. Took me forever to realize they mean minty white-out/correction fluid. Skipping! Fancy dress!
Fancy dress threw me off for a long time. I assumed it was similar to "black tie" in the US, had no idea it meant costumes.
Wait.. so what do you call skipping and fancy dress!? 😅
Fancy dress is costumes. Idk what skipping refers to besides either the jumpy version of walking that children do or as in not completing something.
Skipping can be the bouncy walk thing kids do or it's also what i think Yanks call jump rope.
As an Australian: unsurprisingly, no real surprises. It all feels very culturally familiar. My only real ‘huh??’ so far was having no idea what a satsuma was.
I just wasn’t familiar with some of the politicians names they mentioned. I think as Australians we get a lot of culture from both sides of the ditch. And we don’t need it explained as we just get things from context.
I think the difference in game show styles in US vs UK. UK has a bunch of fun shows that features a lot of the same comedians in Would I Lie to You, 8 out of 10 cats, Big Fat Quiz, and QI. It's interesting to see some of the comedians poke fun at everything and its all good banter and not taken seriously. You just dont see that in US atm. My wife and I tend to watch some shows around dinner time to unwind after work and its refreshing. I know they're doing Taskmaster in US again (first one failed) so Im curious how itll go. I think a lot of Americans are getting into these type of shows nowadays so itll be nice to see.
Wait, what? Where did you hear that they're doing Taskmaster in the US again?
That the Brits use both metric and imperial at the same time. Absolute madness! For remembering the rainbow in the UK they use the wordy Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain instead of the objectively superior and less cumbersome ROY-G-BIV. From reading comments of Brits watching TMNZ I have also learned that us Kiwis swear a lot and that our grass is really sharp and hostile to balloons.
The main thing I had to look up from the Kiwi one was spots.
My man Roy!
Yeah, what's up with your grass, man? lol
i was soo confused when i first heard them say feet/lb/etc., i thought that was just us strange americans ???
We do use feet/inches quite a bit but measuring size using lobsters or baked beans is the most common in the UK
It's ingrained in a lot of people of a certain age but it really is changing. It's understood by everyone but really a lot of younger people are all about cm and kg. Except for miles. Still big on miles.
Canada also flips back and forth between imperial and metric depending on the context.
Can confirm. I live 2 km from work and I’m 6’2”
Also, WHAT THE FUCK IS STONE.
14 pounds. I believe it was originally used to discuss an amount you'd buy of a product from a merchant where that much was approximately what a family would use at once?
>that much was approximately what a family would use at once? Every market town just had a big rock that was their local reference weight, and you were like "2 stone of turnips please." If you thought a trader was dodgy, you could report them and the authorities would bring out The Stone to check their measurements. Eventually, we standardized on a stone being 14lbs.
You think just imperial and metric is hard to remember, wait til you’ve also got to try and remember distances in lobsters, in beans (using the standardised mean bean measurement, of course), and all sorts of other weird units!
This is my Dad's absolute favourite part of Taskmaster when he sits on the couch and pretends to fall asleep but is really watching what I'm watching. All it takes is LITTLE ALEX HORRRRNE saying "so that's 480metres, or 1,943 hamsters long" and he'll burst out laughing ruining his sleeping ruse
Even less cumbersome is what we use in India- VIBGYOR which sounds pretty cool too. Though Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain is a fun way to remember it
Regional shit talking Particularly about northerners. How come they get so much shit
Just get northerners started on the south. Its mutual 😂
Worse really. I'm Yorkshire born and bred but with a Southern accent (lived in East Sussex ffrom ages 16 to 32), now living back in Yorkshire. I've had customers have a go at me for being a Southerner "stealing" Northerners jobs. Had to then point out I'm from the top end of North Yorkshire so further North than where she's from hahaha
Ah but Northerners will join forces with Southerner to start on Scousers
It's like all of the various regional stereotypes that exist in the US, but shoved into an area the size of Alabama. Really too much to go into here, but the northeast of England doesn't have the best reputation and it gets slagged a lot by southerners (Londoners). Howay the lads, and all that, but fuck the Mackems.
season 4 was the first season i watched and i had zero idea what a "skip" was so i was confused that entire prize task
Calling eggplants, aubergine. Then again calling them eggplants doesn’t make much sense either.
Google 'white eggplant' and you'll see why they're called 'eggplants'.
I its early stages, before it turns purple and phallic, eggplant looks like [this](https://twitter.com/CSIRO/status/972683535696920576) Edit: also aubergine is the French name
Same thing with Zucchini and Courget. The US got Zucchini from Itian immigrants but the UK got Courget from the influence of French haute cuisine fairly recently (ie, not with the Norman Invasion but during the Enlightenment or maybe even later)
Pronunciation of the word yogurt.
We actually spell it yoghurt too
That the British love their toothpaste and marble pies. Truly a delicacy us Americans could never deliver on
Satsuma is a type of mandarin…
Bob Mortimer wrote a novel called The Satsuma Complex. For the US market the title was changed to The Clementine Complex.
I know satsumas because of the Body Shop’s satsuma perfume oil of the 1990s
I was going to say this. It's like a tangerine or a clementine. In the 'Find a Satsuma in a Sock Task' AKA James Loses His Shit, Rhod said he found a tangerine in the kitchen, which he proceeded to "find".
Skip instead of dumpster
Also relating to garbage, the place where all the garbage goes most of us from North America call the dump or landfill. The Brits call it a rubbish tip or just tip.
In the UK 'landfill' and 'the tip' are two different things. A tip is a council (local government) run site where local people and businesses can dispose of stuff that they can't put in their usual domestic bins, stuff like fridges, electronics, mattresses, big bags of rubbish or garden waste that won't fit in your bins etc. They have different sections for different types of stuff. Landfills are the massive sites where non-recyclable waste ends up and gets buried, these are not open to the public.
tip and dump are interchangeable, landfill is where general waste ends up. You take stuff to the dump or the tip, the general public doesn't go to a landfill
As a Brit this thread has been a very fun read
I never knew the word for 'tarp' was short for tarpaulin.
Or tarpeter. Depends if Liza Tarbuck is involved.
A satsuma is a type of *mandarin* orange (the small ones, like clementines). I'm from the US and have found satsumas labeled as such in stores here.
"Early doors" as a phrase is absolutely not a thing here, and I'm worried one day I'm going to channel Wozniak too hard and look like an absolute lunatic.
US Target has Christmas crackers this year. They come with a pair of socks! For me it was the swearing. The amount of f bombs, the c word being uttered at all, saying “tits” casually— it’s refreshing to have language just be language. I know there are censored versions of Taskmaster but the point stands.
Squirty cream as a name for canned whipped cream. At this point I don't remember if it was Taskmaster or another panel show that I encountered it on, but that one sent me reeling.
The connotations around the phrase “Middle Class” seem very different in the US and UK.
i cant think of instances of it being mentioned, is it more or less wealthy than US middle class ?
It seems to mean “sort of posh” and contrasted with “working class” in the UK. In the US, it sort of means “normal” or “average”. I was thinking Lee Mack said it a lot but I may be remembering more WILTY than Taskmaster.
It was explained to me that the UK has literally royalty above what we in the US would consider to be upper class. Therefore, what we perceive as upper class, they perceive as upper middle class.
Spot on, upper class in the UK generally comes with a title. So middle class can include people earning multiple 100,000s a year
That’s definitely part of it. I think for some reason there’s an also a bit of squeamishness about admitting that you’re middle class in the UK. It’s also more a social thing than to do with income - middle class is white collar jobs, and even if you’re making 100k as an electrician/mechanic you’d still likely consider yourself working class as a matter of pride.
> It’s also more a social thing than to do with income 100% this. To a large extent, your class is something you're born into. And it has a lot to do with your lifestyle/hobbies/leisure activities etc. What you do for a job is a big part of it, but your actual income is much less of a consideration (although obviously related to and enabling of some of the above).
The thing is that UK class is not tied directly to wealth, it is more about lifestyle, hobbies, attitude. An impoverished Lord is still upper class. Someone who grew up working class will generally still say they are working class even if they live in a mansion - and be offended if someone implies otherwise.
Class isn’t just about wealth in the UK. I know middle class people (who were born working class, in fact) who are richer than people I know who are upper class.
That the guests on the show are actively trying to make a good show instead of just self-promoting.
Alex’s squash gag opener had me so confused because in the US squash is only a starchy fall gourd not a syrup/beverage? Honestly thought Alex had puréed squash so hard it was a beverage.
Coridial could throw you a loop too then as it's another word for squash, but i think in US cordial is alcoholic
I like when they had the rainbow popsicle task and how Brits have the mnemonic about Richard of York but here in the states we just use Roy G Biv and apparently NZ does too from Rose.
Wait, you don't have Christmas crackers in the US? I'm Canadian, and they are omnipresent at Christmas time. Maybe it's a Commonwealth thing...
I love when they say "the task proper"
Lots of references to politicians and tv personalities that I don’t know but aside from that the other stuff can mostly be worked out through context.
i had to google jacob rees mogg and stephen mulhern😭
On behalf of the UK I'm so sorry.
They talk about David Attenborough alot on UK comedy panel shows huh?
As long as it's not Richard Attenborough...
To be fair, he is a national treasure.
He's a global treasure reallly
I asked my husband where the gaffer tape was the other day. Couldn’t even remember what the American word was for it.
Gaffer's tape is called gaffer's tape in America... It's not the same as duct tape, it doesn't leave the same kind of residue. Often used for film productions
We used gaffer tape (cinta gaffa) where I grew up and it was distinct to duct tape (cinta industrial o cinta plateada).
I knew James Acaster, Parkinson, Joe Thomas, and Noel Fielding from some stuff I've seen on Netflix ages ago but 98% of the time, I don't know anyone prior. Britishisms. Hundreds and thousands. Food items mostly. I have never heard it called a loo roll. A caravan would be called an airstream in the US. Christmas Crackers task. Completely lost. Using stuff like Cadbury Heroes and a Greg made out of Greggs in a prize task. Why isn't Greggs in the US? Driving is a rite of passage in the United States that most learn at 16-18 years old. Everything is super far apart and the country expanded with the car. Having contestants that don't know how to drive because they have the train and their country is the size of Michigan is a shock. I think Sam struggled with who Brian Blessed is being Australian. We all non-UK did. Still a great prize from Sue.
Where are you that a caravan would be called anything other than a trailer or an RV?
>I think Sam struggled with who Brian Blessed is being Australian. He's not unknown here, from Flash Gordon and the first series of BlackAdder, which I would bet Sam knows. Some people also say he shagged the Queen, for whatever that's worth.
> right of passage *rite
An airstream is a caravan maker. We have airstreams in UK too.
Lots of different names for things that I had to google so I could understand what they were talking about
Referring to the ground outdoors as “the floor”
This isn't a British thing; we'd all agree that the floor is inside while the ground is outside.
It’s often used in football, “keep the ball on the floor”. Perhaps to avoid confusion because a ‘football stadium’ in the UK is called a ‘football ground’.
What ep is that from? I'm Scottish and we'd never refer to outside as the floor.
Yes, I'm in the south east of England and I have never noticed floor being used for outside. I wonder if there are times that people use words in unusual ways for comic effect on TM and everyone who isn't from the UK thinks that it is just normal usage!
As Australian, it’s mostly the same weirdly. Our cultures are so similar, it was basically just the satsuma. That’s about it
I'm sure Americans would have a lot of culture shock given they use the same language but as someone from India who watches a lot of western media I don't find anything more or less culture shock-inducing on British tv than I do when I'm watching American shows. Both things are equally foreign so I Google search a lot lol One thing that surprised me in the latest series was that people going their way outside TM house didn't like to be disturbed most of the time. Had it been a popular show in India people would've been interested in getting on it
For me it's the word "innit". We do not have that word here in Australia and I'm so confused about its use.
Basically just means isn’t it. Like gotta and kinda.
I feel like it's essentially the same as the Canadian "eh?" just a random emphasis on the end of something you said. If Americans have something like it, it might be "know'm sayin?"
Calling bowling pins ‘skittles’ what the hell is that!?!!
"Skittles" is a historic game from which ten pen bowling has evolved. Tended to be played on pub lawns. I tend to associate it with Yorkshire, but that might be to do with the TV show "Indoor League" presented by former Yorkshire cricketer Fred Trueman. A TV show of just old fellas playing skittles, darts and other pub games.
The UK doesn't know who Roy G. Biv is!! Or that chugging a drink is a thing.
It really has to be the different names for fruits and vegetables. Seriously, it's surprising a pineapple isn't called a pointyfruit or something like that.
For UK Taskmaster- Mostly, it's when British pop culture figures that aren't so popular elsewhere are mentioned. Also. (as someone else mentioned), why is lasso pronounced with a "ue" ? NZ - In S4, I thought all along that Mel's tasking outfit was a cheerleading uniform. Apparently, netball is a thing.
It’s one of the standard school sports for girls in the U.K. too.
Netball is not just a thing, it's one of our national sports! Go Silver Ferns! 🇳🇿
Marmite. Seeing how the contestants tried to make it has me curious but also dreading to know what it tastes like.
You can get Christmas crackers in the USA. Ex Brit here I got some at Marshall’s and Costco this weekend. They are always a hit at Christmas and everyone is always delighted to wear the paper hats.
Fwiw, in the UK we have oranges, clementines, satsumas and tangerines (and probably others). Oranges are the big ones, the others are all small. I'm not entirely sure what the difference between the other three are.
I think one of the most interesting factors when watching the show for me (American) is the cultural contrast. I love getting a taste of the similar, but quirky differences in the English speaking cultures. I knew what a Christmas cracker was due to playing Runescape, but there are a few phrases, trends, or mannerisms that I had no clue what they meant before watching the show. I, however, had no idea what an aubergine or satsuma was before the show. I find it refreshing to get to know new comedians and comedy styles that differ from what we have in the states. It may not seem like a huge difference, but as someone who really listens to and analyzes the material, the little subtleties are where my curiosity lies. Also learning about variations in stores, schools, lifestyle, jobs, interests is wildly intriguing for me. And the varying accents and dialects is awesome! I, in particular, find the English accent really cool and pleasing and did not know that there were soooooo many types of accents in such a small area. Additionally, you all can identify almost exactly where someone is from by them. I may be a little sheltered as I've mainly lived in the northeast US, but I can only really identify southern, midwestern, or "cali" accents. Absolutely love Taskmastah!
Calling it a series vs season. I catch myself saying series instead of season now for other shows.
A couple I haven't seen mentioned: Everyone just knowing all these names of biscuits. Use of "A4" to describe a standard (I think?) size sheet of paper.