Taskmaster The Podcast - Ep 77. Sophie Duker - S13 Ep.2

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

To carry on the Series 13 chat Ed is joined by Comedian and current TM contestant - Sophie Duker! Ed and Sophie go through the Ep task by task and discuss her love of a very cool dog, the first team task plus she explains her tears at the maypole. Enjoy! Watch Taskmaster every Thursday at 9pm on Channel 4.Watch all of Taskmaster on All 4www.channel4.com/programmes/taskmaster Visit the Taskmaster Store for all your TM goodies!taskmasterstore.com Visit the Taskmaster YouTube Channelyoutube.com/taskmaster Get in touch with Ed and future guests:[e-mail] 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. It's me, Ed Gamble. I'm here every week, but we have a new special guest every week to talk through an episode of Taskmaster. And of course, there is currently a new series of Taskmaster being shown on Channel 4 every Thursday at 9pm. It's series 13. What a brilliant new lineup. It's only episode 2 that we're talking about today. How exciting to be this early on in a series. So much more to come and yet so much has happened already. Today we

will be talking about series 13 episode 2 with the brilliant Sophie Duker who is in series 13. So who better to talk to series 13 about about Sophie or indeed any of the other contestants who will hopefully be coming on later on in the series as well but very excited to have Sophie on it was a very good episode of course it was they've both been excellent episodes so far very excited to talk to her but I must remind you that there is another Taskmaster podcast in our midst Taskmaster podcast the people's podcast which celebrates the super fans the true super fans of taskmaster who let the show into their lives and do all of these amazing things it's hosted by lou sanders and she'll be talking to the super fans and they'll share how the show

has taken over their lives she'll be joined by a new person every week and she's also joined by jack bernhardt who will be going head-to-head in a Taskmaster themed quiz called Ask Master. Behind the scenes news, interviews with the crew and a chance for fans to get in touch and share their favourite Taskmaster moments. It'll be available every week from wherever you get your podcasts so go and check it out. But enough about the new kid on the block, this old man wants to crack on with his creaky knees so let's hear from Sophie Duker about Taskmaster Series 13, Episode 2. Welcome Sophie Duker to the Taskmaster podcast. Hello, Ed. Sorry, I think my mental process is like, you've put on a stupid voice, so I'm going to put on a stupid'm gonna it's my performative podcast voice i like it it's also not

it's not i've i've i've made a terrible first impression look i love we've met many times before i i love the voice you popped on there um good luck maintaining it is what i'd say because even i've dropped the voice that i put on for the intro yeah i think i can keep doing it it's perky it's it's good oh i hate it yeah no drop it drop it um because look we're here to talk about great stuff we're here to talk about taskmaster series 13 episode 2 which you're which you're in you're in a series of taskmaster sophie i can't believe it i, now it is feeling like it is a certainty because you know, it's been recorded. Right up until the point it was recorded

or started to go out, were you worried that you wouldn't be in this series? I thought it was just some sort of elaborate prank. And I was like, I got mic'd up and just before I went into the room for the first task, I just turned to the sound guard and I went I'm on Taskmaster. But that's good.

That's the sort of enthusiasm you need, I think. And I think they're very good at picking people who will be enthusiastic about it, or at least take it in the right way and treat the whole thing with the spirit it deserves. Yeah, like the most important, most significant moment of your life. Well, exactly.

And that's the way you treat it. And I absolutely respect that. Whereas I think Ardell is there for very different reasons. Yes. Yes. But I think, I really, I adore Ardell. But sometimes when he gets rewarded with points and he's got those little eyes of twinkling,

I'm just like, does he have like a master criminal like in his little adorable face? I just sometimes think he's just delighted with other people's downfall. Oh, he definitely is. I mean, you see that definitely in this episode. I never thought Ardell would be the one chipping away at other people's efforts

because he will try and take down what other people have done before it's even got to his effort even though he knows his was terrible yeah he always says it like it's a reasonable suggestion like he insults he said the breed of my dog was wrong yeah exactly yeah and then everyone went oh and everyone starts to go oh is it is it that's a good point and then you know it gets to and i mean we'll get to that point we'll get to that i know that's a task specific right yeah i think the the the technique i mean this is what i used to do i don't know if you found the same thing if i knew mine was coming up and i knew it was terrible i'd big everyone else's up

i'd go oh that's that's really good the way you've done that i'd pick on things that they'd done that i think i've done and go well of course that deserves points. That's really good. That's because you're a horrible little arse-licker, aren't you? Yes. I think that is a good tactic. I think you've got to... I think that's a good tactic. I don't think it's one I necessarily employed.

I think you're just sort of all round, certainly in this episode, very good. I think you're very good. Oh, thank you. The technique you employ is by very good. I think you're very good. Oh, thank you. And I think the technique you employ is by being good. Thank you. That was my strategy, be good.

It's a good strategy. You and Chris in particular, I think, in this episode, very, very good. Chris, yeah. Had you seen, I mean, you said you were very excited to do Taskmaster. Had you seen a lot of Taskmaster before filming it? Yeah, I think I got asked this before about whether I was a Taskmaster fan.

And I said, no, because Taskmaster fans are, I would say, a different breed. Like, they're so keen on Taskmaster. Like, it's not something that you can really be like a champagne socialist Taskmaster. You can't just drop it in because people will be like series six episode. But so I was just like, oh, no, I've got like a healthy interest in Taskmaster. Yeah. But yeah, I definitely knew what the show was, which obviously some people do not seem to. Yeah, you knew what it was going in. You knew what it was, watched some eps, but basically had like a cool respectful love of the format perfect i think

that's sort of what you need i mean i was um obviously obsessed with it going in and there's some people who absolutely didn't what didn't watch it like you say and uh either of those i think are a bad or a bad thing to go in with i think you need to have an idea of what it is but not be so panicked about doing it the right way that it screws it up yeah I mean I when I knew I was doing it I deliberately didn't re-watch actually that's a lie I watched a little bit of series 11 yeah because I was like I gotta I gotta sweat up somehow but I didn't want to pour through everything and I wish I had because so you're so the vibe I'm getting from you Sophie is that you're a reviser yeah so. So in an exam situation, you love to revise,

but you're trying to hold that back. I was trying to hold that back. I was like, be cool, be chill. Don't look under the desk. Just feel it out, vibe it out. And then I got over there and I was like, why didn't I revise? It was, yeah, infuriating. Flip the desk.

Flip the desk. So the prize task today for episode two was the object you would most like to show to an alien. I think it's a good category. Here's what I'll say at the top before we even get into the individual prizes. I think Greg was in a bad mood for this. I think he scored it very harshly. was extremely fucking harsh can i swear yeah yeah please yeah hey it was a cuntingly hard probably can't say that but it was yeah it was unfair yeah i think i think it was unfair to give to give four people two points let's let's go through them so Bridget uh brought in the film E.T. um I love I love this from Bridget had you um had you gigged a lot with

Bridget before I think Bridget was the only person I knew oh really yeah well new yeah new person I don't know I've met anyone else in the flesh and blood so Bridget is fantastic uh and a unique a unique persona and i think she's very good at nailing her unique persona and i think the film et is just per is the perfect thing i think it's perfect i think it should have won the task it was really i mean anything that elicits phrases from bridget like get some treats in uh or or saying that the alien needs to be sacked i think surely but her natural style i think is so it's so improvisational and the way she says things is so so she just follows a line of thought until it trails off that it doesn't sell itself for prize for prize tusk because greg just doesn't believe in what she's doing yeah yeah i i mean i believed in the charm and whimsy of it but it was it fundamentally lacked

i would say similar to mine a great end goal for the alien yeah i think i think you needed logic in this you needed to like ardle did uh with his mirror you've got it you've got to say i've got this because this is the way I see this going. And I think you nearly had that, Sophie. Yeah. I think you nearly had that because you had the aliens as the enemies. So you had this picture of you and your housemates

in the style of a Dutch militia. As everyone does. As everyone does, exactly. It's a classic household item. So there was a logic because there's an element to that photo where you're like, you're stood there, you're holding these things and you're like, come bring it on aliens yeah yeah so i thought

that's the way you were going with it and then you brought in the element of time travel yeah confused yeah i just wanted to raise the stakes somehow i was like obviously this is not us in the current timeline we'd be wearing yeah but i think if you say current timeline then you're using a whole new concept and you can't confuse Greg. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially with things like time travel. He's not a sci-fi guy, you know? Yeah.

I think if you said, we look hard, we could beat the shit out of the aliens. And then he would have understood that. That is your regret. Well, I still thought it was a wonderful picture. Thank you. Where did you get it done? It was a birthday present for one of us.

And I just was like, can you draw a picture of me and my housemates? And the guy I asked said, can it be in the style of a Dutch militia? That's all I can do. Yeah. And I said, sure. We have no personal connection to the Dutch militia. Just seem to make him happy. Yeah.

Perfect. Imagine being that specific an artist. Well, it was two points for that as well, as well as for Bridget's E.T. film. I really, I think both of them deserved at least one more. As you say, I think maybe Bridget deserved four. Judy, look i i think over the next few weeks people are going to absolutely fall in love with judy um i mean

just such beauty queens of foo-foo by her proper title queens of foo-foo with the ruby cooby um just out outstanding and i i think this deserved four or five points just for the pure bullshit she can come out with. I mean, it's absolutely, it's poetry. Yeah, and you can see Greg has reduced the rubble every time Judy speaks. So I don't know why she wasn't getting more points there. Yeah, it felt, yeah, that felt arbitrary.

Yeah. To just give a mirror, which was shit, five points and give everyone else's... I don't think there was... I mean, maybe logic is what was needed. Maybe, as you say, logic is what was needed. I think Ardell had a clear point. So he had the mer.

What? The mer. The mer. The mer, which is the new, from Series 9, Rose Matafeya's Fush poster. So Murr is the new Fush. There will always be something in Taskmaster. Laughing at regional accents is fun.

And the Murr is, it's a good argument that he would hold it up and it would scare them, their own tentacles and stuff. He'd thought it through. Yeah. Yeah, but it's shit, you're right. It was a bit also like anti-alien. Like, why don't they regard themselves as beautiful?

Yeah. Why aren't they just like super hot beings? See, look, there's another logic there. If you'd brought the mirror in, you could have said, you know, you show the aliens and they're scared of themselves and then you teach them to love themselves. Oh. See, that's nice, isn't it?

What, like literally? That's what a hand out of them to love themselves. Oh. See, that's nice, isn't it? What, like literally? That's what I hand out mirrors for. Yeah. See, you've confused it again there, Sophie. I gave you more logic. Sorry, sorry. Yeah. Just, I need to just be like, I wanted the aliens to wank.

In a different timeline. In a different timeline. In the current timeline, I wanted the aliens to get jig in a different timeline in a different timeline in the current timeline i wanted the aliens to get jiggy with themselves two points um chris bought in a robot lawnmower this is this is a very chris ramsey thing to bring in i've known chris for many years he's always had a very giddy boy energy like a gadgets and giddy boy energy um but now he's got kids that energy has perfectly translated into dad energy like he's such a dad the wrote the robot lawnmower thing i think you just wanted to show that off i think that could have been literally any week yeah and as soon as greg said

that's a lovely bit of kit he was like yeah i'm happy with that you saw that he was happy i think in studio the conversation about the lawnmower went on for about 25 minutes oh what just greg asking questions yeah just about the specifics of the lawnmower i just i could yeah it was a it was lovely lovely to be present for but also absolutely interminable and like a fever dream it seems to be taskmaster yeah lovely chaotic fun show about other things it became a sort of unboxing of a robot and then chris obviously lost his mind and went into full alien geordie language oh yeah outstanding um so look it was it was two points for you it was two points for you, it was two points for

Bridget, it was two points for Judy, it was two points for Chris and it was five points for the Murr I also think that Greg might have decided that Ardell is not going to do well in this series and is just chipping him some points whenever he can I think early doors if you're getting a stunning

five points for a Murr you're like wait am I not? Do I not have any good things coming up? Yeah. A pity point. Is that an established concept? It's a pity point. It's absolutely an established concept,

and they don't often get given out, episode two. I would show an alien a ruby cooby. That's what I call it, okay? Yeah, cool. I'd show them this because these aliens always going on like you know, they're so smart, they're smart and they're nice. I would be like fix that, innit? Do that

in ten seconds and then I know you're real. What if they had a, if you had a competition and they asked you to do it? I would say I am Queen Zafufu, and I do not take part in these things. And your Queen Zafufu is powerful of...? I made up in my head. No way. I thought you really were Queen Zafufu.

Task one, either tie a ribbon around the maypole or strike the maypole with a ping pong ball. You must be properly blindfolded at all times and must never step beyond the rope. Fastest wins. Your time starts when Alex gives you a thumbs up. And you had to spin around 10 times before he gave you the thumbs up. I mean, this is just chaos, this task. Oh boy. Also, it's, I would say, unnecessarily complicated. It's like, do this or a completely different thing. Yeah, absolutely right. I think it could have just been throw the ball, right? Yeah.

Or wrap the ribbon. But that's why Taskmaster's good. That's what confuses people that's what threw everyone for a loop i think yeah reader be where you choose the scare yeah love it yeah um bridget has a really unique physicality and you know what it reminds me of it reminds me of it's someone who's been in space for six months and then they're finally they're getting used to gravity again yeah i'm sort of sometimes go up and down like when you've been doing that thing with the ball and you're like my arms are so tight she makes like a pincer moment with it like she's doing ballet

she has sight taken away and she forgets where any of her limbs should go when she's walking it's absolutely incredible to watch and look she has an absolute nightmare ends up at the fence i don't know how she gets there um but there she is two fences two different because also once you found the fence you know where the hole is yeah totally and she's feeling it going what's this what's this like well you must have seen that when you walked up and you must know you're on completely the wrong side of the bit um just just incredible and the whole thing's chaos anyway because alex makes a spin around 12 times she can't even get the goggles on at the beginning properly and tells alex off for not role playing at home uh that's not something that i fully

believe alex doesn't do but no just No, just not with steampunk goggles. No, no. More medieval, I think, bent. Yes, I think so, yeah. Or like Roman Centurion. 11 minutes 30 seconds for Bridget, which is pitched as quite good, but that's before any of the other times have been announced.

Because Judy manages to do another incredible performance from Judy. Four minutes, 15 seconds. Even before the goggles go on, she calls cows moose. Yes.

Yes. Just the moose. Which is what they're known as now in my house. Just moose. Just moose. And good,

a good technique here. Picking up the rope and gathering the rope to make sure she didn't go beyond the rope. I like that a lot. Yeah, that was smart. I think she was actually quite elegant up until she absolutely wasn't.

I think you're right. I think there's an elegance to picking up the rope and getting there. And then it all falls apart right at the end. As Greg said, she ends up wheezing on all fours in front of the maypole. And there is a moment where she loses it, where Alex goes and touches her on the shoulder and says something and she goes, Alex, as if it could be anyone else.

No, I think she did do a smashing job. And look, she beat Bridget by like six minutes. So you can't really argue with that. Ardell, very proud of himself here. This is the deviance of Arvill, listening to the flap on the Maypole. And he's so proud of himself here this is the deviant survival listening to the flap on the maypole and he's so proud of himself in the studio to the extent that when you and chris do better he starts questioning your lack of technique oh my god i just think he feels he feels i mean we'll see in this uh i think he feels like he knows uh like the natural world, like a country. Yeah.

So he's just like, by following the flap on the mail bowl. Listening to the flap in the wind. Absolutely incredible. And he's so clearly proud of his performance in this task before it's even shown. So when he sees that two people have done better, he can't understand it.

Yeah. He's just, oh, oh, my heart while watching hardball yeah and then he was like i think also he's trying to be like he's he's trying to be so cheeky and like about he knows that this is a devious game so he's like unless that's you flapping alex yeah he's like i'm aware of the possibility that the flap i can hear is not the flap of the maple yeah see i think that's that's the danger of watching too much taskmaster before you do it because then you get in your own head with paranoia like imagining alex alex has stood somewhere else flapping his own maypole um which is you know he's not going to do that sort of thing um ardle great great performance in that task, but not good enough. Because you and Chris came storming through with two of the coolest completions of a task I've ever seen, I think.

Just throw the ball, ding, done. Ding, ding, ding. To be fair, it wasn't a shot in one like Chris Ramsey. No, but it's the times that matter. It's the times that matter. It was a shot in one for Chris, but he didn't play it. I think he could have played it cool cooler than he played it because he did it and he was just stood there and he could have just taken his goggles off and walked away and it would have been the coolest

thing in the world but instead he said don't pan down i've possibly got an erection um and said it was the best moment of his life you played it less cool from the beginning i'd say because yeah you burst into tears yeah i just sort of i saw all the balls i just i sometimes think being in taskmaster feels like living in a metaphor right carry on i was like don't end that sentence these i was like they've given me a papoose full of eggs to throw at a pole. I don't, like the birds and the bees never really got explained. So I was just like, basically,

as a childless woman having to act out. Yeah. Act out. Insemination? I don't know. And I just thought, I thought about all, I was just, I don't know. I just emotionally connected to the task.

Yeah. Well, I loved it. And I don't know I just emotionally connected to the task yeah I love well I loved it and I don't think people out there will understand that you were truly weeping at the I was what I was watching um this episode with Chloe Petz uh a mutual friend wonderful comedian and uh former Taskmaster podcast guest um and when you said oh I'm crying and you were talking about the eggs in the papoose I went oh well she's not actually crying is she and Chloe went yeah yeah she will be yeah

very good Chloe absolutely was crying but you absolutely nailed this you beat Chris but with none of the fanfare that he brought to the end of it although there was a stage sophie in the replay where i was worried that you went beyond the rope was that something was that something you were worried about when you were watching it back in

the studio i was terrified yeah about that i don't think it actually happened okay do you think it actually happened i'm not sure i'm not but i think what they if you had gone beyond the rope they would have loved to have shown that you'd gone beyond the rope so i'm hoping that that's that's what you did it didn't happen i also think that there might in going beyond the rope nests with the people that picked up the rope, I feel like it's ambiguous, but they might have stepped, you know, like stepped beyond where they were holding the rope. But they knew that the rope was in transit. Yeah, the rope was in transit.

That side of things, had it been looked at with any more detail, might become a contentious topic. Okay, okay. Well, all I'm saying is, the episode's just shown. Don't try and wreck you actively. Sully, my win. I think that there's going to be some, if you check your Twitter in a bit,

because the episode's gone out, that there will be some tweets about you going beyond the rope. All from me. You're like, Sophie, I'm just planning a smear campaign. I wanted to let you know

it was five points for you Sophie four points for Chris three points for the flap listener Ardal two points for Judy and one point

for Bridget at the fence oh no oh no I don't know where it is and stand on the rope, yeah? OK. All the information's on the task. Which I can't read.

I'll stop the clock. Not quite. Oh! BELL RINGS Yes, that's top of the top. Yeah! Have you ever felt cooler? It's the best thing that's ever happened in my entire life. Do not pan down and might have an erection.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE Thank you. 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.

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Join us at yorku.ca slash write the future. Task two, part one, reveal the coolest photo in your phone. You have five minutes. Task two, part two, recreate the coolest photo in your phone. Most accurate recreation wins. You have 15 minutes. Now, I have some questions did you suspect when you were looking for the photo that there would be a follow-up task um i would love to say i did yeah i think i was just yeah no i think i did know there would be a follow-up task but I didn't think it would be recreate it.

I thought there'd be a sort of, I just like to live in the moment. Sure, yeah. I wasn't picking tactically. I was just like, I thought he'd just say something and that would like trigger another, like, I thought it would just be like, I don't think, I think that's, I don't know.

I thought he'd make a judgment on it. Yeah, because I- For other criteria, I think. I think I just wasn't thinking that I'd have to do something more with the photo, think that's i don't know i thought he'd make a judgment on it yeah because i for other other criteria i think i think i i just wasn't thinking that i'd have to do something more with the photo but i thought the photo would come to bear on me in some way i i see what you mean because i like i would like to think that i would spot that because you know just finding a photo on your phone you're like well this isn't this isn't a task is it it's got to be something else um and i like to think I would think through

that I'd have to recreate it, but who knows? Because when you're in it, it's different, isn't it? When you're in it, it's different. And he does a lot of like weird chat to sort of stop you thinking. Yeah. Yeah, he's a weird guy. Like odd little snippets.

You picked a photo of a dog. Yeah. A dog that you of a dog. Yeah. A dog that you met in Ghana. Yeah. With wet teats. You're very specific about the wet teats as well. Yeah. I thought, I thought it was, I thought the dog was cool because she was a mother.

Because her teats were swollen and wet. Um, she also was quite like loose when I met her. Yeah. She's just sort of, I was like, I was staying by the beach. I went out towards the beach. I saw this dog and she was just like, I live here. And I was like, that's cool. I also love dogs.

So you picked that photo and thought it was cool because at the time when you saw the dog, you thought the dog was a lot cooler yeah it wasn't the photo right okay so it was more of the memory of taking the photo that was cool the memory of taking the photo was cool i think it's cool i think it's a cool dog anyway it's a cool dog um i was surprised that there weren't because it was two separate parts of the task but it was only scored on the recreation i felt like there should have been some points given to the coolest photo full stop yeah i still don't think mine would have scored very high

i think it still would have been two points possibly um judy might have got a few more though yeah a good recreation from you i thought in 15 minutes to turn alex into a dog i actually think you did you did a really good job thank you I thought so I spent ages on looking where the shadows of the teats fell I think possibly I fixated the wrong thing I think the teat maybe the teat shadows were were not the most integral part I mean maybe like you know the it was sort of like a goldeny dog wasn't it yeah it was a goldeny dog and like I had to get Alex in like, I had to get him to do like a Cardi B sort of like, to like, he embodied the dog.

Yeah, I thought you did a good job. It was mainly like, workshopping with Alex about the vibe. I thought it was the vibe. Yeah, the vibe,

I think you recreated the vibe perfectly, just not necessarily physically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Although, and I thought, you know, it's an opportunity to humiliate Alex and dress him up up i thought you would have got at least an extra point from greg for that uh ardle just awful uh picked a landscape pic uh of some sheep and a football um and this is the one where he watches everyone else's and chips in and says oh it's the wrong breed of dog he's you know laying into everyone else's and then it gets to his and you're like that's why you're being defensive because yours is dreadful absolutely shocking it's just so hard to see why anyone would pick that photo for anything

and like the materials that he chose he said something like oh at least i've tried to make sheep that he chose he said something like oh at least i've tried to make sheep but he hadn't he had a huge cow he had one huge cow and some bricks yeah i mean and just going their mountains by the way i mean he yeah the photo selection was dreadful because he has no idea clearly what a cool photo is and it was just a picture of a field um but there we go i tell you what my my instincts was when it when the first uh part of the task popped up coolest photo on the phone was to take a picture was to take a picture there oh of me and alex if i was there okay yeah and be like that's really cool or dressed alex up a bit and done something and then when it came to recreate it,

I would have absolutely lucked out, wouldn't I? That's absolutely outstanding. But no, we had to pick the landscape for our tour. We had to pick the landscape. It's a big field. Judy, go on. No, I was going to say, I feel like if you had done that though,

then Greg might have argued that any photo with Alex in it is not cool. Yeah, that's true. But there wasn't being judged on that. Yeah. There wasn't being judged on that. Judy picks a picture of herself performing at Wembley. Undoubtedly cool.

Very cool. What an achievement to have performed at Wembley Arena. And then somehow completely annihilates the cool level of that but by recreating in an absolutely dreadful way I thought I thought this was I thought this was bad I thought this deserved less than three points yeah this I mean also she I think Alex drew most of the faces yeah definitely yeah definitely she didn't even know there was a dog in there yeah she was like what so oh that's what i think she's been retroactively photoshopped it there is definitely that vibe with judy i'll be i'll be interested to see how the series progresses

she does have the vibe of someone who's going to ask alex to do stuff a lot yeah i think i think early signs point to yeah and will not and will not do anything that she doesn't want to. If she feels like it's too much or she can't be bothered, she'll just be like, no, I'm not doing that. I'll do it in my own way, which is great. And it's always good to have someone like that in the series. So no, not good. Chris is, I thought Chris was going to get the five points, you know,

because the baby factor, that perfect recreation of the photo. He's even got the stars on the T-shirt to make a little baby grow in 15 minutes. I thought he did an amazing job. That is impressive. It was quite a simple photo. Like it didn't have the moving parts of Bridget's. No, true.

And I mean, the message it's giving out. Chris Ramsey gives babies booze. Yes. Take away from that, and I don't think that should be rewarded with full marks. Yeah, maybe not. Also, Ardell was right. There were too many stars on his top.

All right, okay. And he was older than the baby. He was a bit... That wasn't a picture of the baby. It was him. It wasn't a picture of the baby. Yeah, Bridget's was pretty impressive. I mean, I think it was one of't a picture of the baby yeah Bridget's was pretty impressive I mean

I think it was one of the coolest photos anyway her on the rope suspended in midair but then it's a perfect recreation of it

right down to the sort of creepy Blair Witch Man in the corner yeah that was terrifying yeah really scary she said that she hadn't noticed

that he was there up until we were in the studio. But no, it was great. I thought she did it absolutely perfectly. So it was four points for Chris, three points to Judy, two points to you, Sophie, and one point to Ardal.

First of all, here's Chris's recreation of the cool photo. It's a nice photo, isn't it, Greg? Yeah. First of all, here's Chris's recreation of the cool photo. It's a nice photo, isn't it, Greg? Yeah. This was the original photo. LAUGHTER The future man. Oh! Oh, my God. You know I'm a qualified social worker, right? LAUGHTER

So, we can see the original and the recreation next to each other. You could have pissed in the bottle or something to make it yellow. There's a lot more stars on your... Task three, the first team task. Score a goal with each of the exercise balls. You may only move the exercise balls on the pitch when driving the buggy. Each person must score a goal using their own personal wheels to drive the buggy and no one may score two goals in a row fastest hat trick wins your time started when you broke the seal interesting team ups here's what i think you've already said that you only really knew bridget before the series started i feel like

this this uh there was no pre-established chemistry in this lineup so I feel like the teams are slightly more arbitrary which is weird because in the studio even though it's

episode two there's a huge amount of chemistry already I think Ardell and Chris are perfect together Greg describes it perfectly as two kids together because

two sweet boys there's no they're both children in their own way aren't they yeah there's no adult there which is great in their own way, aren't they? Yeah. There's no adult there, which is great. And they were so excited to do the little football driving a buggy task.

Yeah. You guys were less excited by it, I'd say. No, yeah. I felt like, I felt bad because I was like, if it's girls v boys, I don't want us to be shit at the football task. But we were. We really were. Well, actually, look, I think there were some good techniques at play in yours.

You were just too slow with it. So you found the buggy straight away. Judy spot something very good with the, if the ball's not on the pitch, they're allowed to touch it. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I thought that was great because Chris and Ardell, if they knocked off the pitch they were driving all the way back round but it says in

the task you only may only move the exercise balls on the pitch when driving the buggy so i thought that was smart and then bridget carries the ball in her legs which is very smart i mean you you didn't have any smart techniques i'll be honest no i think my buggy was unreasonably fast. It was unreasonably fast. Well, it was, as Judy realises in the studio, you can control the speed. It was very fast. And also, it was unreasonably badly aimed, I'd say as well. The moment where you just shoot past all of the balls

is absolutely hilarious. Yeah, I mean, I had to go first. No one had ever driven a buggy before this we didn't i think you can learn a lot from watching someone do it badly yeah about how you're going to do it sure see in many ways you're the most useful member of the team are the most useful i'm the lamb to the slaughter exactly literally um because that this is where the lamb the lamb scream came out the perfect description of it have you been told that you sound like a lad. Maybe it's a buggy specific scream or is that... It's so funny though. So, yeah, I mean, look, you guys, at least you got the goals.

You just took your time over everything. It was the pit stops, I think, that got you in the end. The girls got the goals. Yeah. Whereas Chris and Ardal were so excited to be doing it. Yeah. And of course chris has ridden one of those before because he was awesome yeah chris was like i'm weirdly confident with this and did it twice yeah just although i think ardle should have ardle was much better than chris

he was he got it yeah he was but i think ardle you can see why ardle was cast as doogle right because the when he puts the the helmet cam on and he's not even in the buggy and he's making vroom vroom sounds oh my god so adorable his little tongue sticking out of his mouth on any other man that would be just horrible level creepy but on him it's just like what a charming what a charming nice little a charming task. Nice little boy. Absolutely brilliant. They did very well. I mean, they really went for it.

Another helmet cam task. I mean, the discovery of the helmet cam must have been quite the day in the Taskmaster production office. I mean, it's... It's a delight. Yeah, it's always funny. I mean, it's brilliant for Ardell. Huge fan of Ardell in it.

I think top Ardell, Judy. I mean, yeah. always funny it's i mean it's brilliant for ardle huge fan of ardle in it uh he stands out top ardle judy i mean yeah judy judy with the helmet cam on is is something else isn't it just the the fixed grin the wide eyes of just when it's stuck when the buggy starts going you see it in the helmet cam you're like she must be going a thousand miles an hour her face looks like this g-force putting it back and then cut to the wide shot of her going one mile just exceptional so it was 15 minutes and two seconds uh for your team um but still got three points which i thought was very generous okay yeah i i think it was uh appropriate well you say even in the studio

all of you are surprised you got three points yeah well I was actually I was shocked I think ten of those fifteen minutes was probably Bridget making us re-read the task

she wouldn't even do anything until she'd read through the task yeah we read through it like three times then we did find the buggy straight away but it was just like

and I was like oh this is a fun dynamic that means that we will lose every task Chris and Arnold did it in 8 minutes 38 there is no doubt who won that

so it was the full 5 points for the little boys Sophie I hope this isn't offensive screamed like a lamb oh that's fine you can say that. I think that is valid. And yet, you employed full power.

So it was a confident lamb. Yeah, I was trying to go fast. You went fast, but for a long time. Yeah. Judy, I hope this isn't insulting. LAUGHTER Judy, I hope this isn't insulting. LAUGHTER Initially, I thought you had, um, the rictus grin of Davros from the Daleks. There was something about the stillness.

LAUGHTER I think there was something wrong with mine. It was really slow. It was going really slow. I thought that was you doing that on purpose. I thought you were being quite poised. Oh, was I? Can I control the speed? Bridget's ball technique, pretty sweet.

Didn't say I couldn't. No? Popped it on your lap? Popped it on my lap. Scored with yourself? Yep. It took them a long time to read the task, a long time to construct the machine, and their pit stops were also long. But what an entertaining team they are. Oh, they're lovely to watch.

The flair of the individuals. Yes, useless but fun. Yeah. Live task. Identify the object under your table and draw it on the canvas on the underside of your table. You must also write down three words to describe your object. Most accurate drawing wins.

You must also stare menacingly at the taskmaster at all times you have 100 seconds you bottled this one sophie i'm gonna say i'm angry about this one yeah are you angry about your performance or about the task itself i'm angry at the object i got given i'm angry about the object i got given it was not a pineapple it was like a it was made out of foam so it felt nothing like a pineapple okay okay and it was upside down yeah yeah everything else actually was the thing that it well it was but then also like the camel was wet the uh the vase was covered in jam so they all had aspects to them, which meant they were more difficult to recognize. Yeah.

But they were a thing that exists. Yeah, I guess with the other things you could feel that, you could feel what they were and you could feel their texture despite them being covered in something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereas yours, yes, was a squidgy pineapple. But this is where you should have watched more taskmaster so that's i know i know if in doubt guess pineapple i know i feel like that's what i was like i should

have revised yeah i shouldn't have just tried to to fuck it out this is this is this is where yeah this really upset me i was like if i just got pineapple why yeah and you just wrote difficult to see nice joke appreciated the joke but sometimes you've just gotta you gotta dispense with the joke and do the task in hand i just i just had i just hadn't seen enough pineapple related content prior to the task it's either a pineapple or a rubber duck that's all you need to guess if you don't know um so it was it was one point for you unfortunately sophie and. And one point for Ardell as well, which I thought was unfair. The drawing was terrible of Ardell's.

I think that's what cost it. But he put wet horse green and it was a wet camel. So he got wet and I think you can give him horse really as well. So that was a shame for Ardell. That's a shame. Chris got the shape of the vase. He said gunky slime vase um and he got the shape three points not bad at all that was fair judy i think should have got the full five because she wrote

sea crab lobster and it was a lobster it was a lobster is it will we be judging the picture or the i think a mix i think a mix the picture was awful from judy so fair enough maybe and bridget her picture was okay and she wrote birdie hand finger and it was a rubber glove with two fingers snapped off so perhaps perhaps i'm wrong perhaps it was it was all about bridget but i thought judy getting lobster bang on was was pretty impressive i don't know what birdie was about i've got absolutely no idea what birdie sometimes you just gotta let bridget get away with the odd thing it was birdie hand finger of course yeah um but it was five points for bridget four points for judy

three points for chris and then one point for you and one point for Ardell as well. Meaning the final scores of this episode two. You came bottom, Sophie, in this episode. Yeah. 13 points. You said I did quite good at the start. I was like, well, no. Yeah, but I think what I mean is you do keep quite a level head, I think. And I can see that you're going to be straight down the line with some of it

and you want it. So I feel like that's what going to be straight down the line with some of it and you want it so I feel like that's what I meant Judy got 14 points Ardell got 15 points Bridget got 16 points and Chris wins another episode with 18 points putting him way out in the lead in the series

but it's only episode 2 41 points for Chris and then yourself and Bridget. Bridget's on 32. You're on 31. 25 for Ardell and 24 for Judy. So it's still all to play for. It's episode two.

It's still early. We still don't know. You're all doing very well. Sophie, thank you so much for coming on the Taskmaster podcast. Thank you so much. Welcome back any time. We're going to be interviewing your fellow contestants during the series, hopefully as well. Do you have any trash talk for them that I can pass on?

Yeah. contestants uh during the series hopefully as well do you have any trash talk for them that i can pass on um yeah chris ramsey needs to learn that a lawnmower is not a personality i will i'll just uh just daisy the producer write that down please because i will pass that i will pass that on to chris thank you um we always ask our guests to rate their experience on the task master podcast between one and five points in the style of the Taskmaster. Could you do that for me now, please, Sophie? You're not getting five points. What? You're not getting five points. What?

You've basically trailed that you're going to abuse me on Twitter. Using various puppet accounts about going over the line. Yes, going beyond the say is a noble moment in taskmaster history that you're trying to tarnish yes you're why i can't have nice things so definitely not five points you did and this is uh not relevant to the content of the podcast but allow me to finish eating a wrap before we started recording yes so that's at least two points I would say because I think I don't want you to get cocky three

three okay bearing in mind they started by you saying that I'm trying to tarnish your reputation I actually think three is pretty generous I'll take that I'm a generous queen we're all used to generous three points because you got it in the team task you deserved one

you deserved one. You deserved one. Oh, my God! If only I could go back on the points I lost this year. No, they're locked in. Thank you very much, Sophie. Thank you! There we go thank you so much to sophie for coming on to the podcast wonderful guest and a wonderful taskmaster contestant good luck in the next eight weeks sophie email us taskmasterpodcast at gmail.com with general taskmaster questions we'd love to

hear from you anything you've seen so far please ask us we will answer thank you very much for listening this week we will be back next week with Chris Ramsey it'll be released at 10 p.m on Thursday straight after the main show which is on channel 4 at 9 p.m don't forget to check out the people's podcast as well make Taskmaster your whole life. See you next week. Bye-bye. 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.