Taskmaster UK S13 E6 – My New Favourite Taskmaster Episode

I promise this is now a Taskmaster blog, despite 3 of my last 6 posts bringing it up, however I have been thinking about this for the last 2 weeks or so and I finally feel confident with it. I've previously talked about why Series 8 Episode 5 was my favourite Taskmaster episode, but since writing that I've watched a new episode that I can now safely call my favourite: The 75th Question. (S13 E6)

Obvious Spoiler Warning: If you haven't watched the episode and do not wish to be spoiled, please go watch it and return to this post when you want. It is free on YouTube, as is every episode of the show.

Like I've said before I don't know what the general opinion is of most of the series, and I seriously do not have any idea of what the common consensus is for Series 13, but it is definitely one of my favourite series and casts that I've seen so far. Everybody in it is extremely silly in their own way, and they really balance out their silliness and actual competitiveness extremely well.

(Also I think it's helped by being the first series to have the live studio audience back after the pandemic, and it does have a beautiful Day of the Dead theme, but those aren't relevant to this post.)

As for Episode 6 specifically, after the standard banter with Alex, the prize task was to bring in the most calming item "that makes them the most relaxed and floppy", and this ended up being an amazing start. Chris Ramsey brought in an aquarium in potentiâ, and Judi Love brought in a small water fountain and proceeded to make a very silly impression of what it sounded like. Bridget Christie brought in a voucher to a cat café, and she immediately clocked how Ardal O'Hanlon was gonna try to argue against it and mocked him for it. This continued the trend of Ardal going on the offensive when his item/result isn't the most impressive, as he just brought in a tea towel, but he did sell it extremely well and he won the task (LOL). And, of course, Sophie Duker bringing in an "all-access personal massager" was insane and yet totally in character. It was a really good way to kick the episode off with a bang.

The first regular task was a very silly one, which was to make the best use of a cement mixer aside from mixing cement. To start the timer Alex tried to do an impression of each contestant (and I really emphasize tried) which was a pretty fun moment by itself.

As for the actual performances, Sophie used it to mix up some ice breakers she made for Alex, which ended up being pretty existential and not that fun icebreakers, but absolutely hilarious to watch. Ardal tried to make a hair salon and wash a mannequin's hair with it, Bridget used it to make a slam poetry-type song about the environment, and Judi used it to make cocktails for her and Alex which were all funny in their very own way. However, the real star of this task was Chris Ramsey, who used it to create the game of "Sausage Arena", where Alex and he had to take a bite out of their sausage as it was spun around by the cement mixer. It ended up going much faster than either of them anticipated, and it was amazing to watch, especially as I somehow actually got invested into who would win. This is definitely one of the silliest tasks ever.

The next task is probably one of the most famous of the series, where they had to record the highest number in a pedometer they were given. The actual performances were (mostly) pretty standard, but what really made this task so notable was all the banter it caused.

Judi and Ardal did relatively poorly, at first trying to get the number up by using a wooden boot and remote-controlled rat respectively, but Ardal did end up getting over 1,000 steps in the end. Sophie tied hers to a drill and spun it around and it kept flying off super quickly, and Chris kept shaking it in his hand throughout the entire thing (which tired him a lot, leading to a kind moment from Alex), and they got the highest number of steps on it. However, Bridget ended up being the winner of that task, as after walking weirdly and just getting 139 steps in, she sat on the pedometer and recorded an audio of her saying "11 trillion gazillion" on her phone.

What is really memorable about this task — like I said previously — is all the banter. Bridget's super silly walk kept being referenced throughout the rest of the series, including in the celebration at the very end, and Judi kept getting more and more exasperated with the others, eventually leading to the famous line of her saying that she "lost to somebody recording a number on their phone", to which Chris corrected that she lost to everybody.

Pretty much a perfect task, and one of the best examples of the personalities of this series's competitors.

The last of the regular tasks was another creative one (as in a task where they have to create something), being that they had to have a meeting amongst eight of themselves. Everybody in this one had some really creative results!

Chris had a sketch where somebody stole some chocolate and they found out who it was, and it was just extremely silly, especially with Pointy Carl who they referenced a few more times that episode. Bridget did a genuinely sentimental sketch where she confronted some of her own personality traits, that I did find pretty touching, but it did get ranked the lowest. Sophie had a very funny sketch where she did impressions of Greg and all the other contestants trying to solve the mystery of who killed Alex, with it being revealed that Bridget had killed him because he was annoying, and so she became the new assistant.

The two best ones were definitely Ardal's and Judi's. Ardal did a sketch that was very silly but tried too hard to be dramatic that it ended up working, with it being a tennis club meeting where a member left after realizing it wasn't a golf club meeting, another left to move the car that was blocking the leader's Bentley, but then in the end one of them is revealed to be a undercover police officer who arrested the leader for murder and — most importantly — embezzlement. And then Judi's was absolutely the best, coming straight out of reality TV, with a character named Billy being revealed to have cheated on his wife.

This probably ended up being the least memorable part of the episode, and yet I had this much to say about it, so it was definitely still very good.

And lastly, there was the live task, which is probably my favourite I've watched so far. The five contestants simply had to guess somebody's name by asking one question at a time, and they couldn't take more than 10 seconds to ask their question.

It took 75 questions for somebody to get it. A lot of the questions were pretty much useless, and a lot of the guesses were very absurd like Pimpernickel, Tiger, Barack, and Obama (yes, really), and even after narrowing it down to the letter Q they still had silly guesses like Quasimodo, Quantus, and Quiz. By pure coincidence Judy got very close when she guessed the absurd name Quantum, but ultimately Sophie got it when she guessed Quentin. There was also a very silly moment where Ardal panicked during the question and didn't end up asking it within the time limit.

If there's one task that exemplifies how silly this series's cast is in the best way possible, it's definitely this one.

With Sophie getting 5 points in the live task that resulted in a tie with Chris, and to break it they had to say "I've won" in their lowest possible voice, and "this tiebreak" in their highest possible voice, with whoever had the best range between their pitches winning. Sophie ended up winning it, and so she won the whole episode!

I noticed that in this episode everybody won exactly 1 task (excluding the tiebreaker), so it ended up being a very balanced episode! It does have that attribute that made me like S8 E5 so much, where none of the tasks are overwhelmingly memorable, meaning that there isn't just one moment that overshadows the rest, but multiple ones which make the entire episode memorable.

Because of all the silliness within the cast, the memorable moments, and also that every single task just seems extremely fun to do, I can say without a doubt that 'The 75th Question' is my new favourite Taskmaster episode.