Television series

Taskmaster

Name: Taskmaster
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2015
Cast: Greg Davies, Alex Horne

Five comedians, some prizes worth less than the tape used to wrap them, and one enormous man in a shed judging everything with biblical severity. Taskmaster turns absurd, deliberately unclear tasks into pure comic chaos — you watch for the ingenuity, the cheating, and the slow reveal of who someone actually is under pressure. Endlessly rewatchable, weirdly moreish, good for literally anyone who has ever argued about the rules of a board game.

TVMaze rating

8.1

If you liked this

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Daily, cheap, and stuffed with the same bickering-celebrity energy — four contestants doing silly trivia and physical challenges for a mug with their own face on it, hosted with lovely dry menace.

But It's a much smaller, quieter machine than Taskmaster — no props budget, no sets, just a studio and a clock.

Hypothetical2019no page yet

Two comedians per team answer bizarre what-if questions for points nobody can quite explain the value of — same panel-show DNA, same delight in watching clever people flounder on purpose.

But Less visual invention than Taskmaster since there's no physical task-doing, just talking — it lives or dies on the guests.

The Great British Bake Off2010

Swap comedians for amateur bakers and tasks for showstoppers and you've got the same trick: ordinary people under a ticking clock, judged kindly, occasionally weeping into a collapsed sponge.

But Gentler and much less anarchic — nobody's trying to cheat their way to victory with a garden hose.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The General1926

Taskmaster's real engine is a person alone with a stupid problem, improvising a solution in real time. Keaton invented that comedy of ingenious desperation before television existed, and did his own stunts to prove it.

Buster Keaton, silent, solving an escalating series of ridiculous physical problems with nothing but a train and sheer stubborn ingenuity — it's a task episode a century early, and still funnier than most sitcoms.

But Silent and black-and-white — if that's a hard no for you regardless of quality, this won't change your mind.

Would I Lie to You?2007no page yet

Pure comedian-versus-comedian wit with almost no format to speak of — panellists tell increasingly implausible true stories and their opponents try to spot the lie. Endlessly quotable.

But No tasks, no props, no Alex Horne wandering about looking anxious — just two sofas and some very fast talkers.

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Stephen Fry (then Sandi Toksvig, then Sandi's successors) rewarding interesting wrongness over correct dullness — the same generous, slightly chaotic spirit of celebrating effort over actual success.

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Comedians let loose on a numbers-and-letters format, derailing it constantly and gleefully — that same sense of talented people actively sabotaging a simple task for laughs.

But Jimmy Carr's comic timing is an acquired taste, and the actual Countdown puzzles can feel like padding between jokes.

Mock the Week2005no page yet

Stand-ups competing directly against each other for laughs in short punchy games — sharper-edged and faster than Taskmaster, with the same underlying competitive-comedian bloodsport.

But Topical and quite masculine in its energy compared to Taskmaster's gentler chaos — it can feel a bit shouty in long doses.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?1988no page yet

Improv comedians handed absurd constraints and told to make something funny happen right now — the ancestor of every task-under-pressure format that followed, including this one.

But No ongoing rivalry or points that matter — it's a series of disconnected sketches rather than a season-long story.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks1996no page yet

Old-school British panel show meanness and music trivia, for the completist who wants to see where the modern comedian-panel format came from before it got this polished.

But Very much of its era — the humour is spikier and more dated than Taskmaster's, and the music-quiz bits require nostalgia to land.

Old Enough!2022

Same basic shape as Taskmaster — someone given an unclear task, watched by hidden cameras, judged on how they cope — with the irony and prizes stripped away entirely.

Japanese documentary series following toddlers sent out alone to complete small errands, filmed by hidden crews who let them fail and figure it out — deeply tense, deeply lovely, over in twenty minutes.

But Zero comedy or competition — it's sincere, gentle, and occasionally makes grown adults cry over a three-year-old buying tofu.

Takeshi's Castle1986

Same DNA as Taskmaster's absurd-task format and mocking authority figure, but with all the cleverness sanded off in favour of pure, trashy physical carnage.

A Japanese game show where hundreds of contestants attempt gloriously stupid physical obstacles while a feudal lord in a castle mocks their failures — chaotic, cheap, and completely uninterested in dignity.

But There's no wit here, just spectacle — people falling into mud repeatedly, with commentary dubbed over the top for laughs.