sam

Sort of! It's mostly been me puttering around Wikiepedia articles for the contestants I really like. Anyway you've just given me license to infodump so here we go.

Hypothetical - James Acaster (S7) & Josh Widdicombe (S1) host a show with four guests to talk about comedic hypothetical scenarios. I looked at the guest list and every episode bar one in the middle of Season 2 has someone else that's been on Taskmaster. I've watched the first couple of episodes and I think it's very good although there's some bits they adhere to because they're trying to "follow the format" that I don't think necessarily work. The "guess what this celebrity would pick" part at the end of the episode I think doesn't land for me primarily because I have no idea who these people are.

The Mighty Boosh - I feel like if you learn to love British Comedy you'll end up at the Boosh eventually. This was Noel Fielding's (S4) mid-2000's cultural phenomenon. I've actually known about it since like maybe 2008 or 2009.

This Country - Daisy May Cooper (S10) created a mockumentary with her brother about being delinquent 20-somethings out in the middle of nowhere rural Britain. I've seen three episodes and I'm not sure this is for me, some of the jokes are really funny but the overall tone & mockumentary concept makes it feel like The Office.

Drifters - This is Jessica Knappet's (S7) sitcom. The idea is Jessica comes home from a year abroad post-college to find out her parents have essentially kicked her out & arranged for her to move in with her ex boyfriend that has no idea he's been broken up (this part gets resolved by the end of episode 1) I've only seen one episode but I would probably watch more.

Would I Lie To You? - So I have seen some WILTY before, Lee Mack (S11) and David Mitchell are team captains, each one has two guests who pull out a card and read off something ridiculous that may or may not be true. That guest will then be asked questions by the other team and have to elaborate so they can figure out if it's a lie or not. Lots of taskmaster contestant overlap in the guests as well. Bob Mortimer (S5) is on very frequently. First episode had Frankie Boyle (S15)

Great British Bake-Off - OK so as someone that loves cooking, cooking shows, and in particular Hell's Kitchen, this one scratches multiple itches for me in a way it may not for you. Mel (S4) and Sue (S16) hosted this show before it moved to channel 4, Noel (S4) has been hosting it since. This is why I was so excited about Sue Perkins joining the cast of Taskmaster, I knew who she was. There's also Celebrity Bake-off for Stand Up To Cancer, which is as you can imagine a charity celebrity version of GBBO, which gave us the James Acaster meme "Started making it, had a breakdown, bon appetit"

Miracle Workers - OK so this is actually a US show that just so happens to have cast Daniel Radcliffe alongside Lolly Adefope (S4) to adapt some stories about angels trying to prevent the apocalypse I think? I have not watched this yet but my husband Zac was interested in it and it's on our list to get to eventually! I hear it's quite good! I think we may have even downloaded this before I heard about Taskmaster and got all special-interesty about it.

There's also of course the Big Fat Quiz series which has alot of contestant overlap with Taskmaster as well. My family always watches these as a New Years Eve tradition so I've seen quite a few of them.

I've also collected a bunch of stand-up specials and I'm always hunting for more. More than anything Taskmaster has sort of rekindled my love for Stand Up Comedy. I feel like we only hear about Netflix giving shitty comedians specials & sometimes forget that the world of stand-up comedy is varied and beautiful. I even managed to source a mostly-complete set of Comedy Central Presents (turns out Ardal O'Hanlon (S13) was on Comedy Central Presents in like 1995???)

• Bridget Christie- Stand Up For Her (2017)
• Ed Gamble- Blood Sugar (2019)
• Fern Brady- Male Comedienne (2017)
• Fern Brady- Power & Chaos (2021)
• Iain Sterling- Failing Upwards (2022)
• James Acaster- Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 (2020)
• Mae Martin- SAP (2023)
• Mark Watson- Search (2023)
• Mark Watson- The Infinite Show (2022)
• Nish Kumar- Ruminations on the Nature of Subjectivity (2015)
• Paul Sinha- Shout Out To My Ex (2018)
• Phil Wang- Philly Philly Wang Wang (2021)
• Rhod Gilbert- The Book Of John (2022)
• Richard Herring- Lord of the Dance Settee (2015)
• Rose Matafeo- Horndog (2020)
• Sarah Millican- Bobby Dazzler (2023)
• Sarah Millican- Control Enthusiast (2018)
• Sarah Millican- Outsider (2016)

These are just the ones I've been able to find. I've been trying to figure out how to find Lou Sanders specials, and there's an amazon prime video listing for "What's that Lady Doing?" but it doesn't seem to be available in any country. Also she just released a book with this name which has really made the search results more difficult to sift through.

Ghosts is a sitcom about a couple (Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe) who inherit an old mansion full of wacky ghosts (including Katy Wix and Lolly Adafope). Really funny, really sweet, and the cast of characters is phenomenal. Can't recommend it enough!

Stath Lets Flats is a sitcom about a letting agent who is terrible at his job and everything else. Two of his coworkers are Katy Wix and Kiell Smith-Bynoe. Katy Wix is funny on Ghosts but she really blew me away as Carole the try-hard realtor. A bit harder to recommend because the cringe comedy is not going to be for everyone but I just watched the entire show over the past week and loved it. Stath and his friends and family are so shit at everything but they love and support each other so much while everyone around them can't stand them. A truly bizarre combination of chemistry and anti-chemistry. Great stuff

Also throwing one more standup special into the mix: Sam Campbell's "Companion" is free on YouTube and I've been obsessed with it. That man has the weirdest brain on earth. It's like watching anecdotal comedy from another universe e.g. "you know when a mysterious stranger offers you an egg in a parking lot?" Only standup comedian I've ever seen with effects pedals. Galaxy brain. A++++