Reaction: Taskmaster, “Midnight picnic” | Series 19, Episode 4

It's gonna be known as Mosque-master from now on.

Taskmaster contestant Fatiha El-Ghorri shows off her sick swans after completing a particularly frustrating task in only seven minutes.

It’s week four with our Taskmaster series 19 contestants: Fatiha El-Ghorri, who’s full of zingers this week; Jason Mantzoukas, who leaves only minor carnage in his wake; Mathew Baynton, whose winning streak is at last broken; Rosie Ramsey, who I would not want to dress me; and Stevie Martin, who went foraging for mannequins in the bushes. 

This episode had for me the most forgettable tasks of the season so far—though with mostly strong tasks in the first three episodes, that’s not too grave an insult. But it also got the most laughs out of me, with all the contestants firing on all cylinders (especially El-Ghorri 🫶🏽—“Habibi, thank you. This place is gonna be known as Mosque-master from now on”). And as much as I enjoy watching Jason Mantzoukas be Jason Mantzoukas, the studio banter really sings when all five contestants are in on it. And it makes Mantzoukas even better, like after he told Ramsey, “I call it [front bum] because your mom calls it that,” and she shot back, “I’m just happy she’s getting laid.”

The Prize Task

This week’s prize task was the most convoluted we’ve gotten in a while: Bring the thing that least suits its name if you shout it loudly while we’re all looking at it on the screen. 

• I genuinely guffawed at Baynton’s “Mummy!” and was surprised it only earned three points.

• You could hear the glee in the live studio audience’s collective voice as they shouted, “Fanny!” at the album Mantzoukas brought in. (Fanny was an all-woman American rock band in the ’70s, with hits like “Butter Boy” and “Nowhere to Run.”)

• I have spent a long time thinking about this, and I have absolutely no idea what to say about El-Ghorri and her broom, except that I love her. 

The Other Tasks

• The first task: Put the most wetsuits on mannequins. I need to know if it read wetsuits or wet suits, because only the latter would have allowed for the lateral thinking that earned Ramsey the full five points.

  

  Contestants had to put their finger to their lips and say, “Shhh!” every 20 seconds during the first task.

• Baynton’s tiptoe position, which I can only describe as that of a prim little bunny, was bested only by Ramsey’s in-studio comment. “The toxic masculinity coming off you is disgusting.”

  

  Mathew Baynton gets ready to tiptoe.

• The second task was to convince the other team that the following things are opposite of what they are. Those things included a case that could be heavy or light, a travel mug that could contain hot or cold liquid, and a tube that could be filled with a paste either disgusting or delicious. Adding a studio aspect to this was clever—the chemistry between and among teams continues to be solid, so I appreciate the extra opportunities to watch it play out. Plus it gave us Martin and Mantzoukas’ children’s midnight picnic on the studio floor, flipping on their backs to gaze at the imaginary stars: “What’s going to happen when we graduate?”

• They also had to convince the other team that two of them had met the same famous person and that Little Alex Horne was behind a shower curtain. I was fully ready to believe that Mantzoukas had tested for a computer guy role in a Mission: Impossible movie.

  • Taskmaster Greg Davies’ quip about Martin and Mantzoukas having the energy of an educational theater group: “Let’s talk periods!” What do we have to do to make this happen, y’all? I will pay cold hard American dollars.

• The third task was to tell Alex why the light bulb turns on, and I’ll be honest, I found this one pretty frustrating. It reminded me of S1’s task of scoring 11 points in a squash court, in which contestants had to guess what scored a point. Everybody kept it entertaining enough, but man, these things make me want to scream (perhaps because I don’t think I would ever figure it out; I’d make Mantzoukas’ 52 minutes look good). Kudos to El-Ghorri for figuring it out in seven minutes, and for her sick swans. 

• Ramsey and Baynton both found the under-the-table task that Mantzoukas got last week. The instructions were the same: Read the letter aloud and in full, otherwise you’ll be disqualified. But Ramsey didn’t finish saying Davies’ name at the end! Either Little Alex Horne has gone soft, or it was just edited that way and she really did read the whole letter.

• What is it with Martin and raisins?! Or maybe I’d also be inclined to celebrate the end of such a frustrating task by spilling an entire plate of them down my maw. 

• The live task, a rousing game of front ham involving buckets and socks and bluffing, was so confusing that I’ve watched it twice and still can’t explain it. I’m just happy El-Ghorri won. 

  

  The contestants play front ham. You know, front ham.

Elsewhere in the Taskmaster Extended Universe

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Until next time: Davies called El-Ghorri the angriest Taskmaster contestant of all time, which is demonstrably untrue. Who’s the real angriest contestant across all 19 seasons? I can think of several strong contenders off the top of my head, but when Romesh Ranganathan yelled, “There was no box, mate,” in season 1, I couldn’t tell if he was still joking or if he’d well and truly lost it and I was deeply uncomfortable. Though for sheer volume of anger, Daisy May Cooper (season 10) was pretty formidable. Don’t mess with a pregnant person.