Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 55. Richard Herring - S12 Ep.9

Episode Date: November 18, 2021

On the podcast this week Ed is joined by comedian, writer, podcaster, S10 Champion and friend of the podcast - Richard Herring. The pair discuss the penultimate episode of Series 12 and make their predictions. They also chat through their 40 items on a towel idea and why they hope the talking clock is still a thing. Watch Series 12 of Taskmaster every Thursday on Channel 4 at 9pm. Download the Taskmaster App at Taskmaster.tv Watch all of the Taskmaster on All 4https://www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmaster Order Bring me the head of the Taskmaster https://taskmasterstore.com/products/bring-me-the-head-of-the-taskmaster Get in touch with Ed and future guests:[e-mail]  Visit the Taskmaster Youtube channelwww.youtube.com/taskmaster  Taskmaster the Podcast is Produced by Daisy Knight for AvalonTelevision  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated

category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Hello and welcome to the Taskmaster podcast. Ed Gamble here, your host for the Taskmaster podcast. You know what we do by now. I'm not even going to explain it.

All right, go on then, I will. We are going to talk about a specific episode of Taskmaster, break it down task by task, chat through who we think should have got more points, who we think should have got less points, and generally talk about the whole blooming show. We're currently talking about Series 12. We are on Episode 9.

It's getting exciting. It's getting tense. It's very close. Who is going to win Series 12? Well, you'll find out next week, the grand finale, Thursday, 9pm, Channel 4, just as Taskmaster is always on Thursday, 9pm, Channel 4. series 12 well you'll find out next week the grand finale thursday 9 p.m channel 4 justice taskmaster is always on a thursday 9 p.m channel 4 if you miss any episodes or you need to catch up to get yourself through to the final go on to all four all the episodes are available there

you can of course ask us questions here on the taskmaster podcast taskmaster podcast at gmail.com we will have the winner on next week's episode. So get in contact. You know, I'd say ask questions for everyone. And then we'll pick the one for the relevant person. Because it is very close. Very exciting. Taskmaster has been nominated for three National Comedy Awards.

You can vote for Taskmaster in all of those categories mike wozniak has been nominated for best male entertainment personality i don't know the exact title of it daisy may cooper's been nominated for her performance on taskmaster and the show has been nominated for best show or something like that go on to the national comedy awards.com to vote now and also while're there, why not vote for off menu in the best podcast category? Taskmaster podcast, not nominated because too many people voted for it the first time round. So let's crack on with the Taskmaster podcast

with our special guest this week, series 10 winner and pathetic competitor in champion of champions. It's Richard Herring talking about series 12, episode nine. Let's hear you, Richard. and pathetic competitor in Champion of Champions. It's Richard Herring talking about Series 12, Episode 9. Let's hear you, Richard. Welcome back, Richard, to the Taskmaster podcast. Stop fiddling with your headphones and your hair.

My hair's in the way. It's not a visual medium. It's okay if your hair looks floppy. I think it looks very dapper. You'll be filming it and you'll put it out and make me look stupid. I know what you're doing. No way. You don't need any help looking stupid, Richard. Thank you so much for coming back on the podcast.

My pleasure. It's lovely to have you back to talk about Series 12 Episode 9. Have you been keeping up to date with Series 12, please, Richard? I've done pretty well. I record my stupid puppet-based tropical show on Thursday nights, so I usually finish and miss the first five or ten minutes. So I haven't seen many of the prize tasks.

Yes. I've seen most of the episodes, I would say, but not all. Well, that's fair enough. I think we've all found ourselves in the situation where we can't watch a TV show week to week because we're recording our puppet based internet television shows. Yeah. So, yes, that's that's a typical, typical issue. What do you think of that? What do you think of the lineup? How do you feel about the lineup for Series 12?

I think it's very strong. I like it very much. I think everyone plays their part. Yeah. You know, it's I was I know, I really like Morgana. I wasn't sure I was going to like Morgana as much as I did, but I really like her. I think she's terrific. She's really shining in this. Guz is just great to have that kind of undermining, I don't care, Taskmaster things energy, which Guz has.

It's great to have someone super smart who does quite badly. So Victoria is perfect. Yeah, absolutely perfect. Desiree is awesome. I love the relationship between Desiree and Morgana. Yeah. See, you know, it's sizzling, I think. Do you think it's sizzling?

I think it's sizzling. I think they always look at each other so lovingly and applaud each other so much. I don't know if there's ever been two Taskmaster contestants who've made out after the recording, but I like to think that Desiree and Morgana are, and Alan Davies is already Yeah, yeah He's very much the Richard Herring That's a real shame that you said you don't think there's ever

been two Taskmaster contestants who've made out after the recording, because there's been a lot of rumours about you and Johnny Before, we were in there before, which is why two Taskmaster contestants who've made out after the recording because there's been a lot of rumours about you and Johnny. Yeah, well, before, we were in there before, which is why

there was a weird tension between us. Do you have any particular highlights from the series so far of all of the, apart from the first ten minutes of every show,

obviously, you don't have any highlights from that good question i do and i sort of i think um there was there was some ones i really wanted to do i kind of really fancied to go at the one of making the balloon pop with the darts and stuff making the thing go yeah kind of i'd love to had a go at that and whether i would have pulled the lever i I think Victoria learning to ride a bike during a task was pretty unusual to see someone in their 40s in real time learn how to ride a bike and work out how they've got to that age without having ridden a bike.

Her excuse was living in London, right? She lived in central London, so there was no need to ever ride a bike. I don't think that's a good excuse for not learning how to ride a bike I think a lot of people in London ride bikes it's quite a good way to get around London it is it's the best way to get around

so that was very good I mean it was very funny and then I was really laughing at the fact she couldn't ride a bike and she was learning how to ride a bike on the TV and then I felt really bad for laughing because if she doesn't know how to ride a bike and she was learning how to ride a bike on the tv and then i felt really bad for laughing because if she doesn't know how to ride a bike that's fine and then it was a joyous moment where she finally conquered it and i'd like to think she's now just riding on a bike everywhere

i'm not sure she is because she probably lives in london it's an it is an excellent lineup uh and i correct alan davis is there as well and he's alright. He's just very chilled out. That's what I like about Alan. Things regularly go wrong for Alan and he just laughs it off. So when you say he's fulfilling the Richard Herring role, I'm not sure that's necessarily true. I don't remember you laughing things off quite as much

when you were there. Maybe, that's maybe true. I was a little bit more competitive. I think Morgana's quite competitive. I noticed in this episode her saying that's maybe true i was a little bit more competitive i think morgana's quite corporate competitive i've noticed in this episode her saying that's that's two that rounds in a row at one point in fact she didn't have one point the second time she was obviously oh my lead is going and that's the kind of i would definitely remember feeling that that and as the as the end came closer that if you had a bad show, you'd go, oh, no. So, yeah, he's just in that he's a man in his 50s with greying hair.

Prize task. Here we go. It's been some very strong prize tasks. Categories, this series. Right. Not a lot of strong prizes, I'd say. There's been some absolutely awful prizes. Yeah.

Especially from Victoria. And it's no different in this one. Prize task this week. The best same 40 things that fit on a towel. Ask this week the best same 40 things that fit on a towel. It's lovely this because it gives you the two choices of the things and then also the towel. And the size of the towel. I mean, it doesn't even specify. I mean, you could have a towel that's a mile long.

Exactly. And have 40 cars on it. So, I mean, I immediately know that's what you'd try and do. You'd try and get a towel that was a mile long and put 40 cars on it so that i mean i immediately know that's what you try and do you try and get a towel that was a mile long and put 40 cars on it where would you get this towel from richard and then also where would you get the 40 cars from it would be expensive i'd have to have it crafted if you did it if you did it if you made it greg's face on the towel then you've won anyway so that doesn't matter what size it is yeah uh and uh and you know you can buy 40 cart you probably get a discount that would probably only cost

you know half a million pounds and you would definitely get five points there's not enough eccentric billionaires on Taskmaster who could really take advantage of this first round well that's it I think maybe not for the full series maybe for the next

New Year's treat special, they should get Elon Musk. Just, we've not had enough people really spending over 100 grand on the price test, have we? So that's, yeah, that's good. For five points, you're willing to spend, you know, 100 grand a point. That'd be fine.

Mile long towel, 40 cars. Yeah, I think so. My problem was a lot of the people didn't have the things weren't exactly the 40 things weren't the same 40 chips are not the same they're all a chip but they're not they're not exactly the same they're all yeah i mean that was that was a terrible one anyway but yes but um yeah i don't it's about whether you think do i want something associated with the towel is there some connection with the towel?

Or do I have a disparity between the two things? Yeah. I mean, there's so many ways you can go with this. It's sort of crazy. There are. It's quite difficult in that way. Morgana and Victoria were the ones who picked the things that aren't really the same.

Like you say, the French fries, there's no way you're going to find two French fries that are exactly the same, let alone 40. And they weren really the same like you say that the french fries there's no way you're going to find two french fries that are exactly the same you know let alone 40 and they weren't the same and then the cherry liqueurs are always going to be slightly different shapes as well so they're not the same technically but they are this it says the same 40 things you know they don't yeah they are the same thing you wouldn't hold up one for a short french fry exactly this didn't say 40 no it just says the best same 40 things. Okay.

All right, well, I'll allow it then. Because a french fry is a french fry, right? Regardless of size or shape. You wouldn't go, well, that's a long french fry. Yeah. But luckily, there was no need for that argument because they were the worst ones anyway. They were.

Despite Morgana's assertion that chips are dope, they are. I guess they are nice. Do you like chips, Richard? I do like chips, but I think Daisy chose chips, didn't she, for one of her prize tasks, or certainly something along those lines. Yeah, that makes sense.

And got very short shrift. So any knowledge of the show would go, don't just buy chips. But basically a basic food stuff is not going to swing. But you say that. I mean in also in other prize tasks people have brought food-based things and that's exactly the right way to go with greg i think you just need to make sure he's hungry yeah because i i want i brought in a uh

it was a mannequin and the stomach was full of mini eggs right um and it was the mini eggs that tipped it for him yeah but it's a there needs to be more it does it feels if it feels like you've just arrived at the studio without anything and then gone yeah and picked up some stuff he's not going to be happy uh i mean i think you know the the at that prize round which i didn't spend enough time on when i did uh the certainly my series um is that, you know, can make all the difference, especially when it's tight like it is now. It makes all the difference.

And I really regret not working harder. Like one of the things I could have done for this was when there was a best collection in mind and a friend of mine said, why don't you bring in that collection of signed photos of Christopher South, the Radio Norfolk DJ that you've got people to send in from Fist of Fun. When you did Fist of Fun, we got everyone to write to Christopher South, the Radio Norfolk DJ that you'd got people to send in from Fister Farm. When we did Fister Farm, we got everyone to write to Christopher South,

a kind of obscure Norwich-based DJ, and send a signed photo of himself. And we got all of them, and we got hundreds of them. So if I could find those, I could have 40 of those on a towel of the 1990s Norwich-based DJ, and that's the kind of thing that would do well. But you're playing with fire there, because the joke of that is it's a rubbish person to have a signed photo from. Greg could just go that's rubbish one point. I mean to have 40 of them he would love that he would he would love the story of it and just the fact that that man for a week or two in the night is suddenly was

deluged with autograph requests because we noticed they noticed they all had their... We'd been to Radio Norwich and they all had postcards up in the lobby that you could take. And we'd taken one of him because we thought he was funny. I think he's still going, hello, Christopher South. Good idea for a character, that.

Yeah. Radio Norwich DJ. Yeah. Write that down, Richard. Okay. So French fries did not do well. Cherry liqueurs didn't do well. And quite frankly, I think that should be minus points

because chocolate and booze can absolutely do one as far as I'm concerned. Well, I like them both, but I've given them both up, so I agree with that. My favourite thing about Victoria was it ended up about a literary criticism of Ulysses. Which is, you know, that you don't get that on many TV shows where they conve veer from

someone having chips on a towel to discussing when ulysses goes off the boil chapter 17 chapter 17 yeah i love that absolutely love that um so no i mean after i think it was a high point for victoria last week uh with the prize task where she brought in the same prize as she'd brought in for an earlier prize task because it had been ridiculed and it was the most ridiculous thin thing and she brought it in again because it had been ridiculed earlier in the series, which was a masterful stroke and a well-deserved five points.

It's nice to see her straight back down to the bottom again this week. I've often thought, I've thought if you could think of one thing that was the answer to all 10 prize tasks and bring in every single week. I mean, it would either be a disaster or a stroke of genius. If you just kept bringing back the same thing and it applied to all 10, they'd have to give you some credit for that. I think they would. But I think, honestly, it would be quite disappointing. It would just probably work out as average.

You'd probably get five some weeks and one other week and it would just all come out as a flat three points across the whole series um guz brought in 40 tennis balls on a massive towel um i mean when you read it when it's down on paper 40 tennis balls on a massive towel not good but his patter his way of describing these prizes and selling these prizes just masterful that should have been one point but he got three because he went on a massive riff about rolling the ball to your nan if she's got osteoporosis yeah it was good and that's that's his strength and i suppose that's if you can if you can sell the thing then you can sort of get away with anything yeah i've i've a feeling he just thought of that in the moment as well. I don't think that was a planned response.

I think he just went, oh, God, this isn't good enough, and then... Yeah. He's got a real Daisy May Cooper style of prize tasking. Yeah. So he brought in a chair one week from the dressing room. He brought in all his coats another week. Like, he's very last-minute slapdash with the prizes.

But he can sell them. That's the key. I always used to get really nervous trying to sell the prize to us, even though I put loads of work into them and thought about them and done a lot of research. So I knew they were good, and that would almost make me more nervous trying to sell them to Greg. Desiree, 40 tiny trophies, each with a pound coin in.

Yeah. I like it. I think the money might have, you know, again, I think put your money where your mouth is, 40, 50 pound notes. Yeah. Was that 2,000 pounds? It's not. 40, 50 pound notes just laid out on a towel made of gold.

On a towel made of 50 pound notes. That's how you got do it yeah 40 50 quids on a towel made of 50 pound notes there you go again richard i think you're really really thinking about what you would have done in your series now you've suddenly got all this money knocking around yeah my cast master millions yeah get musk involved um i think it was a lovely i like the idea of tiny trophies who doesn't who doesn't like a trophy who doesn't like tiny things and then just a classic last minute prize task panic of like i'll stick a quid in everyone that'll tip it i'll just put a quid in all of them yeah but you'd like to win that you know most is i think

like what's lost a lot of the time and certainly you know my series including me is to give things that actually would be impressive to win which i think those are you know that you feel like oh this was worth winning and i'm going to take this home rather than let the people throw it in the bin which most of the prizes i won just i don't want to take that home a bit of dirt off the floor like a thing that's been in the wan's mouth i don't want to take that there's all sorts of horrendous stuff so you know it's uh yeah so i think uh money is you know 40 pounds would be a nice little bonus for the yeah and in coins you don't don't see coins enough now and it's nice to have a load of coins i've found yeah um this is a this thing this is amazing richard you seem to be learning quite a lot of lessons from've found. This is amazing, Richard. You seem to be learning

quite a lot of lessons from these series. Obviously, there's another chance for people to see you compete in Taskmaster and Champion of Champions. Will Richard have learnt his lessons? No clues will be given,

but let's see. Let's see. It's all filmed, so I know if he did or not. Did he? I don't know. I've forgotten forgotten I can't I can't wait to see it again

My memory's going very badly now, I'm an old man So Alan brought, this was good from Alan I think, a commemorative towel from WEM with 40 glasses of blue nun, so WEM of course the town where Greg grew up

and Alan went out of his way to find a WEM towel. One of the only ones who exploited the towel angle, a different towel, really, apart from the massive towel, but a good towel. What did you think about this, Richard? Well, it's always a good idea to go for the kind of flattering

Greg and going for his ego and showing that kind of... Just as Google, isn't it, to find out where he's from. I knew he was from WEM. So that's, you know, I think it was a good idea to think about the towel as well as everything. In a way, he didn't really think about what was on the towel, but it didn't really matter what was on the towel

because the towel was good enough. But so, you know, I think that there was real scope. But it's an intimidating task because there's too much scope. Because it's not that difficult to find 40 things that fit on a towel. That's most things, especially if you have a really big towel. So, you know, you could play around with it. You could have a sanitary towel, couldn't you? That wouldn't win.

You could play around with the idea of a towel. But there isn't much you can do with it so I think yeah it's always a good idea if you can link it into Greg somehow unless he thinks you're unless he sees through your roofs and realises you're doing it to get in with it but usually he's blinded by his own ego

and rarely notices he's being played by people doing that What 40 things would you put on a sanitary towel, Richard? They'd have to be quite small. They would be, yeah. I'd put 40 tampons on a sanitary towel. You could pile them up. I mean, that's also...

You could pile 40 things... On top of each other, yeah. On top of each other, yeah. So anything fits on a towel. There needs to be some parameters in this task. The look on Alex and Greg's face if you'd brought in 40 tampons piled on top of each other on a sanitary towel.

Lost his mind. It's like an art installation. Yeah. What's it saying? I don't know. Alan, of course, not the first to exploit the WEM angle in Taskmaster. Dave Gorman, I believe, when he had to buy a prize for Greg,

brought a WEM-based prize. Okay. It's good stuff. And yeah, it deserved the five points he thought outside the box. So it's five points to Alan, four points for Desiree's trophies, three points for Guz's tennis balls, two points for Victoria's cherry liqueurs,

and one point for Morgana's French fries, despite chips being dope. Carbohydrates, they're the building blocks of society. You're a very charming woman, but good luck. Are you serious? Deadly. Chips are dope! Anytime.

Hot, cold, sunny, Riviera, Skegness. Oh, my God, I think McCain are ringing. Chips are dope any time. Yeah. Task one, have the longest telephone conversation without the other person knowing you are trying to have the longest telephone conversation. During the call, you must not mention television or Taskmaster.

Every minute, you must reveal and carry out an action from the board. If the person you call says any of the key words, you must hang up immediately. You must call someone within two minutes from now. Great task. Yeah, but a lot of luck. I mean, there was a lot of luck in a lot of these tasks this week. A lot of them are just chance rather than anything

you can particularly think about. The only thing i thought which alan claimed came close to was like ringing like a business yeah you might you know i thought ringing the talking clock there's no there was no saying it has to be a person if you ring the speaking clock then as long as the speaking clock one of the words isn't at the time then then you know you would be able to do anything you wanted i mean it would be less fun than what they did. But I think... Good way of doing the task, though. Is the talking clock still a thing?

I think it can still do it. And also, I like the idea of Taskmaster having to spend the money to call a premium rate. So you'd actually be getting a bit of revenge on the Taskmaster as well. There are other premium rate lines they could have called, of course. Yes, there are.

But I don't, because it didn't specify you had to talk to a human or what would happen if the person didn't pick up or you know, or if you got put on hold, because if you got put on hold you could do anything. So like ringing the water board as Alan threatened to do, I think you were very likely to just be immediately put on hold for half an hour

and then you can do whatever you want. Does that count as a conversation though? If it's just... I don't know, did it say, just say you have to call someone and say the stuff? No, the longest telephone conversation. Yeah, it's not really in the spirit of it, but it's not your fault.

Worth a try. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I think it's a good, you've got to think outside the box. I mean, they all call people they know. I think I would have just called my mum because the amount of shit she puts up with from me anyway, if I started doing all this weird stuff

she'd just be like, oh he's just doing weird stuff she wouldn't think of it as too bizarre she wouldn't go, are you on television are you doing Taskmaster she'd just sort of go, oh Ed it'd be fine who would you call Richard, who was your first thought apart from the speaking clock

or a naughty sex line well you know I think yeah it is I think someone close enough to you I mean I would

I'd be tempted to ring my wife except that if she was busy she would give me short shrift yeah she probably would be busy because I'd be recording Taskmaster

so she'd be looking after the kids she'd go what are you doing stop wasting my time and she probably wouldn't even think oh this is probably he's at Taskmaster this is probably a Taskmaster that's the ultimate insult She'd go, what are you doing? Stop wasting my time. And she probably wouldn't even think, oh, this is probably, he's at Taskmaster's.

That's the ultimate insult, is you go to work, make her look after the kids, and then you disturb her by calling her from Taskmaster. You have to sort of think of someone, I mean, the problem was, I think the minute the rainbow one came up, I think people were bound to say rainbow, so it was a bad, and that

nearly everyone stopped on the rainbow one, because you go, have you seen a rainbow? A rainbow? You're almost bound to say rainbow so it was a bit and that nearly everyone stopped on the rainbow one because you go have you seen a rainbow a rainbow you're almost bound to say rainbow unless you can plow through and just not let them answer the question i think that's the technique isn't it you're just going to say the thing and then just talk over them when when they come to answer which desiree was great but that's what i believe that was the rainbow question that was finally did for her and it you know because i think you can't really answer this and the last time i saw a rainbow was you were you're going to say rainbow in the answer yeah um so it's a bit of luck about which who which one you pick out and whether you've got someone who'll just repeat stuff it's maybe finding someone who you know is in awe of you a little bit so probably not my wife

but who would it be someone who would who would put up with crap but things like the yawning you can yawn for 10 minutes with 10 seconds without making a noise. You know what I mean? Yes. So, you know, you don't necessarily have to let the other person know you're yawning. That was very funny when Desiree started yawning and the person she called just started yawning back.

It was great. And Greg said, that's what I knew was going to be fine because it's just someone yes-anding everything she did. But some of them were like running on the spot and that's not going to cause any problems you know that's you can do that without being detected um so yeah it's it's it's really difficult to know i think yeah mom my mom my mom my dad would stay but i might get my dad if i rang my mom my dad would stay on i think but i think he would definitely repeat everything i said immediately he would repeat the question so i'd have to ask the question and if you you know because you'd you'd try and i think i'd have tried to think of a clever way around the rainbow thing and i go

what's that thing in the sky with all the different colors in it and they go a rainbow you almost have to do it as a rhetorical thing you go and i was just thinking when was the last time i saw a rainbow and then just uh or when was the last time I saw a rainbow? Or when was the last time you saw a rainbow? And then just carry on talking, I think, is the only way to do it. Yeah, or just, you know, or whatever. You could go, when was the last time I saw a rainbow? Or what are the other weird things

you haven't seen for a long time? You know, so like that might be the way to do it. But to think of that in the moment would be... Yeah, it's very tricky. It's very hard. And I think there was so much going on in that and I think they didn't, some of them didn't even realise

the key words were on the thing, I think. I think they'd already forgot about not repeating the words. So I think there was just so much luck in how you did, though Desiree was the best at it. She was so good. I mean, there was moments where she just went on full monologues, completely improvised, obviously, and she was speaking for ages. And the thing is, she was just trying to fill time,

but it was never boring. I wanted to hear more of it. I'd go go to desiree's show if she was like i'm just going to try and fill time for as long as possible i'd go and watch that she was amazing um let's talk about victoria uh quickly i think victoria's performance in this and how upset she was about the task it might be one of her series highlights because the monster noise is one of the funniest, sweetest things I've ever seen on Taskmaster, just so reluctantly being a monster. It's so interesting that she's done the show

because, I mean, A, I had David Mitchell on my podcast and I knew Victoria was going to be on, so I asked him whether he would ever do Taskmaster. And he's obviously been asked. And he said he wouldn't do it because he's perceived as being clever and the only way the only thing that can happen from being on it is people's perceptions drop of his intellect and so it's really interesting victoria's done it because she's so she doesn't want to be embarrassed and she was just she wasn't embarrassed about she was

embarrassed about embarrassing herself in front of someone she knew rather than the on the tv she didn't want to do it because she didn't want to have to play a prank on someone, basically. And she found that kind of... I can understand, but you'd think there must be someone. Again, I think she could have... I feel if she'd rung David, she would have got an interesting conversation.

It didn't explain who they were ringing a lot of the time. Who was she? I didn't catch who she was actually ringing. No, I liked who she was ringing, though. I liked him very much. He was great. I watched it quite a few times over and over again because I enjoyed it so much. She goes, you're in a very giggly mood today.

Have you been day drinking? I like that. She just called someone from the past. I imagine whoever she called was on a big rotary telephone. It felt like if you had to ring someone at random from your from your own phone this sort of michael mcintyre thing isn't it when he does on his show where he texts everyone in your phone books and then you see what they respond but if it had to be someone at random that would have been quite i that i would not have like that just that would have been terrifying an old girlfriend or someone you hadn't spoken to

for years or had a beef with having to call them up and do an impression of a monster absolutely awful such a sweet monster she picked as well I loved it Guz Victoria was impressive because she was so awkward

about it and she actually managed to do it you get the impression with Guz that uh, I mean, you just get, Victoria was impressive because she was so awkward about it and she actually managed to do it. You get the impression with Guz that this is how he has telephone conversations all the time. Like you get a call from Guz, you pick it up and he just goes on, he just goes on a two minute rant and just all this stuff comes up. He's doing,

he's yeah. This is just Guz on the phone. That guy was in a, with a call, was on a call with someone else it's going like I've got a guys at work I think was nearly with you on a work call and then cuz he might that's what you need to find somebody who would be prepared to stay on regardless regardless of what's going on yeah it's great no very

entertaining Morgana unlucky here here, 53 seconds. She got caught up in the keyword situation as well. Because I would have thought she'd be brilliant at this, Morgana. I thought this would be her strength. But that's why I think there is just a bit of luck in it about which order they come up and whether the person is the kind of person who repeats stuff, which is not predictable, I think, either, you know,

especially because you don't even know what's coming up before you've started the phone call, so you don't even know what you're going to have to do. I liked it when she suggested bringing in her dog and realised her dog didn't have a phone. It's quite a good thought. It's a shame. It's good to learn the dog doesn't have a phone.

Yeah, because I think out of any of the contestants on this year's lineup i would have thought morgana would be the one whose dog has a phone i wouldn't have been surprised if her dog had a little phone just around his collar alan i mean this is perfect this is the best person this could have happened to it was absolutely ideal it was you couldn't have written it any better immediately 20 seconds they said the word alex goes you gotta hang up he looked so surprised that he had to hang up but he was fine with it he just went all right back to his dressing room to eat his cream eggs but again he'd chosen someone he hadn't spoken to for ages i don't understand what the process was going oh i'll ring some i maybe think if I ring someone I haven't spoken to,

there'll be lots to talk about. I guess if you don't know, but that just seems crazy to ring someone who we don't know who it was and what relationship they were in. Yeah, what are they going to think? You ring up for the first time in ages and start banging on about rainbows

and doing monster noises. They're going to think you've just woken up from an operation. It was one point for Alan. I mean, it was absolutely amazing. Two points for Morgana. Three points for Guz. Four points for Victoria.

Well done, because she was so uncomfortable about it. And five points for Desiree. Not a great episode for Morgana, which is, you know, she felt like she was running away with it a bit, but this is Taskmaster. She's lagging behind this episode. Desiree, who did you ring? Was it a friend, but this is Taskmaster. She's lagging behind this episode. That's right. Who did you ring? Was it a friend? Yes, it was my best friend, Dave. So, yeah,

he will accept me in any condition. I knew it was going to be a long one when you opened by yawning at Dave and he simply yawned back. It just seemed like two friends who were really comfortable in each other's company.

You played the right game, you avoided the words beautifully. But then after a certain point, you just sounded like you were both stung. Yes! Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company

markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. We can wait for clean water solutions. Or we can engineer access to clean water. We can acknowledge Indigenous cultures. Or we can learn from Indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth.

Or we can demand more indigenous voices. We can demand more from the earth. Or we can demand more from ourselves. At York University, we work together to create positive change for a better tomorrow. Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Task two, strike the soldier with your throwing paint. The soldier will say your name every five seconds. You may not remove or tamper with your helmet. Fastest wins, your time starts when you're correctly wearing your helmet. Not a simple task. No, and again, I'm not surprised it bamboozled so many people.

I mean, walking backwards just seemed the obvious thing to do, and I don't understand why everyone didn't walk backwards. But I guess you're just so disorientated. I mean, I think the thing with a lot of these tasks, you're absolutely thrown into them. You're already quite nervous. And then just something that throws reality that far can just, you know, I can imagine in this one,

me just shutting down and panicking and not doing anything. And especially given the voices coming from a walkie-talkie anyway to begin with, so it's so confusing. There is nothing I would have liked more than to have seen you do this task. You would have been baffled, and then you would have ended up with a bleeding nose. I would have definitely got hurt. I mean, again, I think there was a bit of luck in it.

I mean, obviously Morgana had a big slice of luck in it. But if you found the string or if you just happened to walk past the door at the right time, then you had a chance of kind of beating the system. But I could absolutely see me walking around those corridors for days before even thinking, even before knowing there was an outsider. I suppose you would have seen wherever they were before you went in there. And you might know there's a courtyard but it's so i found the whole certain that you

know the series especially once you haven't ever done it before um it was so i found it so disorientating the whole thing and i thought i'll be in and i'll be sharp and i'll be i'll be ready to go but everything just make oh and you just leap in and do the first thing you can think of yeah so yeah whether you would think, I think I would think I've got to walk backwards. I think that's all I would definitely do. But I'm not convinced that that would help. And I think it would still be.

I mean, this one is literally disorientating, isn't it? So I would find this very frustrating. I've done something similar for a TV show before um where we went to this it was sort of like a virtual reality place but the idea was we were in a maze and we had goggles on but the goggles showed us a screen of us being filmed from a camera above us right right so we could only see what what we were doing from a distance which is the weirdest feeling and i actually found it quite frustrating i was like no i just can't do it every time i move my arm goes in the wrong direction it's really bizarre so i think i would have had an absolute tantrum in this one well i did one

where there was it was in a mirror you had to do everything looking in the mirror and i found that impossible i'm really bad i'm bad at reversing my car i don't understand even when i'm my lad even when i've got eyes in the front of my head yeah i find it really confusing going backwards in the car even when even when you've got eyes in the front of your head which is a lot of the time i'd say it is all the time so i think i might find that i might find reversing the car easier with a periscope system that i could see what's happening but uh you know i've i'm really i've got no i've got none of that sort of spatial awareness and i'm not good at well i can't imagine i'm not i have aphantasia so i can't imagine

anything in my head so i can't sort of shift things images in my head around i can't see anything in my head so i think if this had been me i genuinely think i'd have been in there unless i've got very very lucky for for you know. I think there could have been days inside there. And there's a chance that you could miss the soldier. They were still largely throwing paint at that soldier blind, weren't they? They all managed to hit him because they were close enough. Yeah, you'd have to walk backwards all the way up to him. So you're basically sat on his lap and then do a 180 and throw the paint.

I mean, you say Morgana had a bit of luck. I mean, it wasn't luck. She cheated, right? Well, she did. I mean, that's interesting because if she'd actually been discounted from this, if she'd been disqualified, that would have made a massive impact, wouldn't it, because she did really well. And should she have been disqualified?

It was nice that she admitted it. I don't know if she admitted it because it was clear she'd gone too, it had been too good so she had to admit it um but yeah i don't know because it as you say the rules say once their helmet is your time starts once the helmet is properly fitted yeah and it definitely wasn't if the helmet wasn't properly fitted then she should at least have to start again i mean this she sort of can't really do it because she knows what's going to happen. I sort of, I felt she was lucky not to be disqualified.

I admired her for her honesty. I'm glad she admitted it because I think the only way it works in Taskmaster is you can't cheat and get away with it. It's either you cheat and they find out and then they show it in some sort of replay that she was cheating.

Or you admit it like that and I think that's probably why she got the points was the fact that she admitted it although I don't think the excuse of having bulgy eyes in everyone holds water really they don't bulge all the way out the bottom of some goggles it was a good effort from Desiree. Again, she's very competent, Desiree, most of the time.

Obviously, in the first episode, we had the balloon dart issue where she had a full meltdown and ended up throwing everything at the balloon. But everywhere else, she's been pretty straightforward and pretty confident and competent. Yes. She deserves to be up there and deserves to, I think, you know, maybe overall deserves to win it.

But who knows? Yes. She is, she's very good, but has come across great in it as well. And, you know, in some ways, Ed, winning is not as important as looking like a good person who might get other work. No way. It's all about winning Taskmaster.

That's it. I watched Daisy May Cooper on Buzzcocks getting nominated for awards, but I've got that Greg Davis head sat on top of the telly. Who is the real winner? I feel like Daisy May Cooper might have been on that track already, maybe with BAFTAs and stuff like that,

before she did Taskmaster, Richard. Don't start worrying that your performance on Taskmaster cost you a place as a captain on Buzzcut. Guz was a lot slower than Desiree. 12 minutes, 54 seconds. He's in no rush, Guz, ever, I don't think. Well, you know, it's good not to care about it and just to take it as it comes.

And, you know, often that can lead to victory. But in this case, I think it was, yeah, it was just confusing. It was a confusing, impossible... It's not something you can train for, is it? It's not something you can anticipate. No. And, you know, even if you were good at walking backwards and looking through that thing, there's still a lot of things to overcome. Yes.

So I think it was, it's just one of those ones that you go, God, I can just imagine this going on all day and and just the rising humiliation of knowing that you're fucking something up that badly you're still walking around and around the corridors yeah um but again i would watch guz in any situation i just throw anything at guz it made me laugh so much when he called a cheeky man when he put it on he's like you're a cheeky man alex i love that um uh victoria i mean as expected didn't do great at this absolutely baffled by the whole thing um constantly asking why she could hear her name being said even though it was on the task so that's where the soldier is victoria why is why

is he saying my name? What's going on? Is it a door? Is that a window? Just perfect. Absolutely perfect reaction to everything. It's just really interesting to see someone you really think is competent and together just showing that they can't really do anything outside

of their own expertise. Which is fine, isn't it? It is reassuring. She seems so... really do anything outside of their own expertise, which is fine, isn't it? It's reassuring, isn't it? It is reassuring. And she seems so... I mean, her persona is so calm and competent that she's just the perfect person to have on this show for the reason that she's the opposite

of what you would sort of expect. You could have imagined her coming into this and just blowing everyone away and being fantastic and using her incredible brain, you know, problem solving brain to yeah come up with amazing answers and she can't ride a bicycle well she can't she can't ride a bicycle so she's not going to be able to walk backwards with a camera on her head is she and the thing is she's tried the logic and the arguments and like she redefines things a lot she redefined what a cake was and things like that.

But Greg's not falling for that. You can't use logic in Taskmaster because there's nothing logical about any of this. No, or you've got... I mean, Richard Osman was pretty good at interpreting the tasks to his own advantage, wasn't he? But then they've become slightly more rock solid as a result of what he's been doing. Exactly, he broke the show.

So they've had to like rebuild the walls and turn it into a logic fortress so it is now very hard to get out of stuff in that way but yeah I sort of just would like to I'd love to watch the conversation where she agreed to do it and what she was

thinking when she agreed to do it and what she was expecting from it because it's you know i mean she she's absolutely great on it and i love her and she's and she's come out off of it very well but it does it does sort of show these chasms in her in that sort of knowledge that uh we wouldn't be aware of there is a year there's it hasn't happened for her but there is a danger i think you know it's interesting david mitch saying that stuff, that it could actually, if you went on Taskmaster and it was that bad, it could actually destroy your persona

and lose you all your work, just as the moat falls from people's eyes and they go, oh, David Mitchell isn't clever at all. He's an idiot. The thing that David said on your podcast about the best thing that can happen is people think you're as intelligent as you were beforehand.

They're never going to think you're cleverer, but the higher likelihood it is, they'll think you're way stupider. Do you think that's something he said to her when she was offered the job? Do you think he was like, here's what I've been thinking, Victoria, about why potentially we shouldn't do this?

Or do you think he just kept quiet and then she agreed to do it? And then when he said that on your podcast, she must have been livid. I feel they don't communicate. I think they're maybe not communicating. I imagine they live in different wings of a massive house and come together. They're still in love with each other, but they come together at breakfast

and they're at the end of a very long table. And maybe he tried to dissuade and she didn't hear because of the distance. Because of the table, the big table. And maybe their servants, the butler, was making some noise at that point. But I think they're probably both so busy that the time she probably agreed to do it and then she came back and then what can you say? You can't go off, Victoria. You shouldn't have signed that contract.

So, yeah, I don't know. Or maybe he just wanted her to. Maybe, oh, Victoria, you shouldn't have signed that contract. So yeah, I don't know. Or maybe he just wanted her to, maybe he said, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. I think it's a really good idea. I'll do it next series, promise. Alan, of course, I mean, I think this is what you were worried about

if you did it. 19 minutes, 20 seconds, one point. I mean, he looked like he was having a meltdown in a haunted old people's home. Like just walking around, just his name being called over and over again. And they use, you know it's going to be bad when they use the old person music.

That sort of like picked guitar, like the... Just poor guy. But again, not bothered by it at all, was he? No, no. No, and then that's the thing. It would have been enjoyable for the audience to see me in this one because it would have been a meltdown.

I'd really have wanted to do it, and I'd have been really upset and embarrassed and frustrated by my failure. So that is where the difference is. It's not as fun to watch someone fail who doesn't care if they fail. But if someone really wants to win, I mean, you know, that was my value in the series.

I really wanted to win. So when it didn't go my way, that was at least entertaining for people who also didn't want me to win. At least we got an existential crisis, basically. And that's what you want. That's Taskmaster. Guys, you went for a slightly different technique.

LAUGHTER You went for walking forwards and occasionally taking up an aggressive ninja stance. LAUGHTER The thing is, he's not the best person to be with if impending danger is round the corner, yeah? You could have stopped that sentence way earlier. LAUGHTER impending danger is round the corner, yeah? You could have stopped that sentence way earlier.

He was late on it, and I could see him in that camera, innit? And he had a little smile on his face when I was about to bump into something, and he'd just tell you at the last second, oh, be careful, you know what I mean? Task three, get goosebumps. Your goosebumps must be revealed in the lab. Fastest wins, Your time starts now. A great task.

Sometimes they just bring in a simple one this late on, you know, Series 12, and you think, how have they not done this yet? It's a really clean, simple, lovely idea for a task. Straight away, did you have any idea? What gives you goosebumps, Richard? I don't think I even get goosebumps. I really don't think I could do it. I can't remember a time i've ever literally seen that really i don't think so you know may i mean i think what i there was a part of me thought well maybe you

know but this is impossible i would have maybe tried to get a goose and give it the bumps like it was his birthday if there was any way saying, can you go and buy me a goose? It is fastest wins, Richard. So that wouldn't have worked. Or if I could find something, like finding the chicken was, you know, that Alan did was sort of in the area. I think I would have really panicked.

I'd have thought, I don't think I can get goose bumps. And then I think I would have gone outside and taken all my clothes off. Yeah. Which is what Morgana obviously did. I mean, I think that was the only way I could think to get properly freezing cold. You did that for all the tasks though, right? Yeah, I did.

I got in the bush. So I think I would have thought that, but I think it's so easy to say it when you're watching, isn't it, what you would do? I think I would have panicked and go, I don't think I can get goosebumps. And so, you know, maybe I would have done ice on my my arms or but there's no way you can will it to happen you know it can only happen um you know i think the only if i got really really cold maybe but i can't remember i can't i generally can't remember ever noticing myself having goosebumps see i get it i get goosebumps when i like i i'd have a pot of coffee

i'd slam a pot of coffee and then i'd listen to a song i really like that does it for me not particularly entertaining but i always get goosebumps from stuff like that all the time i mean i get like imaginary goosebumps from stuff like that but i don't i don't actually get goosebumps i mean i get you know i get that feeling you get a tingle yeah let me see if i can do i think next next time you Richard straining straining out some goosebumps but you know but also like something like the you know they that they mentioned that they're getting getting uh getting the film goosebumps on your phone would have counted and stuff like that or whatever getting and so you could I could have got a picture of a goose

and given that the bump so you know that's why I never thought I never thought like that when I was doing one that you could you were allowed to use your phone, you know. But obviously people have done that in the past. I should have remembered that that was a possibility. But if you can get up a picture and do something, then I might have thought of that. But I think I would have, you know, I was so straight down the line with everything,

I think I would have, I don't think I'd have gone too tangential with it. I'd have tried to get goosebumps and I could only have done that by working out if being freezing cold gave me goosebumps, which it probably would. Even the idea of you, the idea of you getting a picture of,

a picture of a goose and giving it the birthday bumps, that gives me goosebumps. That's how excited I'd be to see that. And that's what Taskmaster leads you to sometimes. Even just in that moment, you've just thought of that.

Yeah. And you would have been in a scenario where you're on television giving a picture of a goose birthday bumps no one else would have done that um morgana uh she put ice down her jumpsuit which is the second time she's done that this series um in the coolest way to spread jam she covered herself in ice um goes outside got naked hugged the dome um i just feel richard if you or i had done that we would have found out there was the gopro running in the dome or something for the footage of us all smushed up against the outside of the dome naked bodies um uh but it was good it worked

for a two minutes 49 seconds um now alan this this is this is a controversial thing from alan i think because he put his hand in a bowl of ice sat outside in his t-shirt um so he really beat himself up and then got raw chicken thighs from the fridge and held them up and said this is goosebumps but they're not it's not a goose richard but they are good because that's why they're called goose bumps. I wonder if he'd put that skin on his own, if he'd wrapped it around in Hannibal Lecter. Yeah.

It's chicken skin. Yeah, but you can still say, look, those are goose bumps on a chicken. You can still have goose bumps on a human. They're not a goose's bumps, are they? So it's like they're still goose bumps. The things are still goose bumps and you've given yourself goose bumps they're not the same thing goose bumps are something that humans get when they get all tingly right the chicken they didn't make the chicken tingle and then kill it so it had permanent goose bumps those are just part of a chicken's skin and if you're going

literal with it and taking it from the figurative human goose bumps into literal into the world of literal geese it needs to be a goose i think so he should have gone to the golf course shot a goose yes given it the bumps it should wrap the skin around his own skin wrap the skin around his own skin exactly it would have been messy but it would have been correct um yeah i't was I didn't feel it was good to you though it was the good impetus again the kind of thing I would have forgotten to do just to check the fridge and make sure there wasn't some goose in the fridge which I could absolutely imagine them doing they often just put something you know so putting

goose the books goose bump in the caravan they knew obviously no one had done it because he mentioned it right at the top but it was too the chances of anyone going to the caravan to look for something were tiny in this I guess you just hope that someone spots it earlier in the day or something and then suddenly remembers it but yeah tricky

Desiree asked Alex to blow on her neck which obviously made her very uncomfortable she uses ice as well. 24 minutes 30. This is a long time to be doing that task. But she did it. She went through

with it and she actually managed it and got three points. Yeah, see, blowing on the neck, is that not something that will give you goosebumps? A little blow in the ear or something? I like it, but it doesn't give me an erection. it doesn't give me... Could that count? That's another task they've not done.

If I said there's some bumps on my penis, I mean, they're genital warts rather than... You know very well, Richard, that you'd have to get a goose's penis. You know I would not... I think, well, yeah, get an erection, it'll probably be in the next series. Next time, yeah.

Yeah. Guz went with Ice as well. Again, Guz really couldn't be bothered with this one. Asked Alex to shock him. I enjoyed that. Alex tried to be surprising, jumping out at Guz. And then he really gave up on this one. Hides an apple on a chicken

and said the chicken's got goosebumps. It wasn't a goose and it wasn't a bump. It was an apple on a chicken. Yeah, chicken's got goosebumps it wasn't a goose and it wasn't a bump it was an apple on a chicken yeah that was bad there were some bad ones but again i think in this whole episode i might have scored zero points so i'm not gonna i'm not gonna knock any of it because i think they were all i think i got one for the talking to the phone yeah and uh uh you know i might have done I might have done alright in the prize round who knows and it was

naught points for Victoria as well she's done similar stuff to this before her welly boot film she did drawings for as well she just thinks she can scribble things down and get away with it, she draws goosebumps on her arm which don't look like goosebumps but seems to get into a situation where she said that greg had to give her points if she retrospectively becomes known

as old goosebump arm yeah which is definitely gonna happen isn't it yeah it is so that she needs some points so whatever i mean i don't think she's really challenging for the lead, but it could bring her closer to the lead if she gets some points retrospectively. So until that has happened, we can't really close this series. No. I don't know at what point we decide. Imagine if for some reason that's what she wins it,

based on people retrospectively calling her old goosebump. What would she have to do, though, to be known as old goosebump? Now, I guess maybe change her name on Twitter, Deedpole. She could change it, but I think people will just start calling her, and that's all it requires. And so because it's been on the show,

the minute that's been out, that's going to happen on Twitter. If you look at her Twitter feed now, it will be full of people calling her that. Old Goosebump Palm, yeah. And that might stick. And then she might just might stick and then she might just she might just accept it and go with it and say right you know she's already changed

the name once hasn't she from victoria corinne to victorian corinne mitchell it's only a short step just making it old goosebump it's only a short step only connect with the old goosebump victoria corinne mitchell old goosebump. Yeah, because she did it in 58 seconds, so that would be five points to her. Wow. Well, she came to that very much quicker than I'd clocked, actually. So she hadn't really tried very hard to do it. I mean, it's one of those things that could work,

but again, it's not enough. It's not inventive enough and it's too much of a cheat. So she should have realised that it wasn't. I think I would have tried something first before eventually resorting after 45 minutes to ripping the skin off Alex Horne and wrapping it around. Oh, Richard, I really wanted to see you on this episode now. Now you've told me you might have got zero.

It would have been the end for me this episode, I really wanted to see you on this episode now. Now you've told me you might have got zero. Yeah, it would have been in the end for me, this episode, I'm pretty sure. So it's nought points for Victoria, nought points for Guz, three points for Desiree, four points for Alan and five points for Naked Morgana. It's absolutely rough. Well, it's up to you. Did these guys get goosebumps?

Victoria did. Wait, had someone gone to the caravan and got the books called Goosebumps and brought them in, would you have accepted that? Yes, or shown us a clip on YouTube of the movie Goosebumps, that would have counted. So it didn't have to be literal goosebumps. Figurative goosebumps were acceptable? Yes. Therefore, ones created by Arts and Crafts, acceptable? Yeah, if they look like goosebumps.

I think that is the problem. Yours were not bumps or goosey. Did the books, the Goosebumps, look like Goosebumps? No, but they're called Goosebumps. I call them Goosebumps. You do, but you're not known nationally as Old Goosebump Arm, are you? I wasn't. So you can't just... So, studio task.

Another fun one. Get the highest score by sliding your ducks. Each team will slide a pair of ducks three times. The duck slider must smirk at the taskmaster while sliding your ducks each team will slide a pair of ducks three times the duck slider must smirk at the taskmaster while sliding the ducks the winning team will receive five points per person the losing team will get zero another fun one i like that utilizing the overhead camera technology yeah it was good but again i'll just cut more or less complete luck i know there's a lot of luck in these final tasks. I mean, so exciting. The end of it's so exciting

and so close to completely turning it around. So I love that random element of it, but just in a show that was, in an episode that was just entirely quite random luck things involved in quite a lot of them, this was an extra element of luck. And I think it's quite interesting, the teams, I saw someone tweeted today

that three of the contestants are in the highest score, top 10 highest scorers ever, I think. Yes. Something like that. But it's because, I think, isn't it, that the team of three is so much superior to the team of two. So they keep getting five points each, whereas the team of two keep on getting zero points.

There's a lot of that. And also, so that was Jack Bernhardt, who's been on this podcast a couple of times. Jack is sort of our resident statistician. Is that how you say that? Yeah, I would say it without getting it wrong first. Statsman? He's our statsman.

No, I would get it wrong first. I know I was wrong. Statistician. Statistician. Yeah. And he keeps a running total. He's got a whole algorithm to calculate the top, the order of the Taskmaster contestants

across all the series. He's included series 12 on his spreadsheet now. So Morgana, Guz and Alan are all in the all-time top 10 going by points per task. So top 10 going by points per task. So it's the average points per task. And if Morgana scores a combined score of 36 over the next two episodes, so including this one,

she'll overhaul me, Ed Gamble, at the top of the all-time chart. And Gus and Alan will overtake me if they score 37. So it's pretty tense for me, these last two episodes as well yeah because it's perfectly possible you see that Desiree Desiree got 21 this episode so it's not outside the realms of possibility that they can score uh 36 or 37 across two episodes uh and at the bottom

Victoria Coren Mitchell is just above Nish Kumar in 54th place uh on the Taskmaster all-time table. If she scores 24 or less over the next two episodes, Nish will overtake her. So it's nail-biting stuff for Nish there as well. Yeah, so I think there's certain elements of the team thing, like you say, and also someone else said that Greg has been noticeably more generous this series. I don't know if that's true.

Or whether there's been more points available as well. But there we are. It feels like quite a lot of fives are going out. Quite a lot of times people are getting 5-5-5 and 3-3-3 in the team tasks. So it feels like the team tasks there's quite a lot of polarising ones. There's a lot of disqualifications in our series.

So I think that came into account. That whole system depends on the... That whole system depends on who you are playing against as well, as well as whether Greg... Whether it is Greg consistent. If you've got four very strong contestants in the same series, then obviously they're going to score a lower score

if it's fairly even. Though, you know, this series is very close. Very close. So it's so you know that that's interesting in itself but yeah who knows i don't know and of course of course what we've got to remember richard is it doesn't matter uh at all it doesn't if if all those people overtake me then it doesn't matter and if they don't it matters um it was a it was a great prize task

yeah of course the team of three won because they're just so much they're so much better especially in the team scenario they win with 16 points so they got 5 points each Alan and Victoria, I thought Alan was going to do it at the last second I thought

that would have been so much better if the duck had landed on the swapping of the scores. It was so close. But another really exciting game for the studio task that I would like to play as a sport. I would happily play that. It could be a show on its own, definitely that. Because I think it's, you know, I think just that,

the swapping points, the division, it's really nice. And being so close, he should have got it really, because he should have known the exact, having pushed one so close, he should have been able to push the, just up. I guess it just takes practice, doesn't it? If you're a bit more practiced, you'd have to get one of those in your home on your own, just really get the... Like people do for Ninja Warrior.

Get to know the weight of the ducks and you know just push them just far enough to get on the and you know tactically that's it isn't it swap points on the very last go that's how you take it unless you're winning yeah

yeah I mean the other thing is Alan really couldn't care less could he so it's just push the duck and then go home I really want that i would play that in a bar like i want there to be like a taskmaster pub where you can play all the different games i'd like a great idea i'd go there every night um so yeah victory for the team of three uh final scores massive 21 points for desiree uh morgana 18 points she really pulled that back after a rough start to the episode

Guz 14 points which is pretty good for someone who just sort of wanders through all the tasks Alan 11 points and Victoria taking up her traditional place at the bottom with 8 points so the series scores Richard

it's very close I can't remember how close your series was towards the end. It was pretty close. It was pretty close. It went right down to the end. And I think on the penultimate one, it might have been similar. I think Daisy might have been just...

I think it might have been a point or two in the penultimate one. I'm not 100% sure about that. I think she was ahead. I needed to win the last one to win. But it's interesting, isn't it? Morgana had been disqualified from the hide and seek. She would be now, she'd be equal and she'd be five points less. So she's five points ahead.

So it's very small decisions that can really affect the ultimate score. And it's pretty nail-biting. I mean, it's Morgana on 150, then Guz is 145, Alan's 142 and Desiree's 140 and Victoria's there so it's tricky it's tricky because I think any of them

could win at this point in the top four couldn't they depending if someone has a really good episode and someone else has a terrible episode in the final it can absolutely happen

and you know again depends on whether that final task is sort of all or nothing as well sometimes the final task is five clear points from everyone. The winner gets five and everyone else gets nothing. Yeah, it's exciting.

So that could make a huge difference. So it depends on the task. I wouldn't really like to call it. I would quite like Desiree to come through and win it. I think she sort of might. She might be the most deserving one. But I am a bigger fan of Morgana than I thought I would be. There's something very likeable, and she's still fairly modest

within the fact she's doing very well as well. She sort of seems surprised by everything. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Any of them, to be honest, there's nobody you think, oh, that would be awful if they won, which is nice. No, of course not. And, yes, and, you know, it would be interesting if Gus could do it and to have the...

I suppose Jo Brand did... Did Jo Brand do well? She was sort of very... She did OK. She was sort of mid-table for a lot of it and then occasionally popped up second, I think. But, yeah, she was pretty... Mainly because of Horse or Laminator though which

was the task where she revealed herself to be a genuine psychic. That's right, I think that's why I remember her doing well because that seemed impossible but yeah to see the kind of person, someone who doesn't care winning which is a good chance because Alan is that

person as well, to see them actually triumph would be an amazing thing. I don't know if that has really happened before. Do you think Lou Sanders wanted to win? Yes, more than anything. It's the thing she wanted most in the world. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, so it would be great.

And I think Morgana is competitive underneath that cool veneer she has. Totally. Well, look, I think you're right. I think any of them winning would be great. That's definitely going to happen. One of them's going to win, so that's... One of them's going to win, so that's great. That's great.

I mean, the dream, of course, is somehow everyone else getting nought points in the next episode and Victoria getting 43. Richard, of course, at the end of the Taskmaster podcast, we always ask our guests to rate their experience on the Taskmaster podcast between one and five points in the end of the Taskmaster podcast, we always ask our guests to rate their experience on the Taskmaster podcast between one and five points in the style of the Taskmaster. I'd love to hear how many points you would give your experience

on the Taskmaster podcast this time, which I believe is your third time. I didn't know how many times I was coming on because I really should have... I think I've given you at least four or five every time. Yeah, I think so. And that means that gives us nowhere really to go. So I'll give it two so that if i come on again fair enough and it can go up a bit that makes sense well we'll definitely we'll definitely have you back on um look eventually we're going to

get back around to series 10 uh and we'll do that again oh wow great we basically just keep going in perpetuity so uh we'll get you back on to rediscuss episodes we've already talked about fantastic thank you very much richard thank you love to see you you too bye well thank you very much to richard for coming on the taskmaster podcast again we will see you sometime soon richard i'd imagine that will not be the last time he's on the podcast always good value uh thank you very much for listening getting tense isn't it we'll be back next week to talk about the finale with the winner so get in contact taskmasterpodcast at gmail.com any question relating to anything from this series of Taskmaster previous series of Taskmaster general Taskmaster questions taskmasterpodcast at g.com. The finale will be on next week, Thursday, 9pm, Channel 4.

Catch up on all four. We will see you next week on the Taskmaster Podcast. Goodbye. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed,

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