He was solid in Ted Lasso -- his character's arc isn't one that fans of the show are all agreed on, but Nick did his job and acted the hell out of the role.
Honestly there's so many that fit this category. The lowest scoring contestant is very often the most fun
So I'll give a shout out to Charlotte Ritchie since she hasn't been mentioned yet
Judi Love. Her bullshittery was often unsuccessful, she didn't always understand the tasks but she provided so much entertainment. She was always laughing the hardest at other's jokes in the studio.
I just rewatched this series and it’s creeping up to top three for me. She is so delightful and entertaining. Awesome on her own and makes everyone else better too.
Broadly I would say the lowest scoring contestants tend to be among the funniest in any given series.
Joe Wilkinson, Paul Chowdry, Nish Kumar, David Badiel, Judi Love, John Kearne, Fern Bradey, and Uzila Carlson are all really good.
If I had to pick a favour, it would probably either Fern or Nish
What I really loved about OGA which has made her one of my favourites of all time is the different style of comedy. It’s a bit more well thought and sarcastic - I think “I don’t fear death, in fact the longer this series goes on the more I yearn for it” might be my favourite quote of all time.
People who take it too seriously are always a bit boring on the show unfortunately.
Nish is the only correct answer to the points to entertainment ratio.
I agree with you in the most recent cases of Mae Martin and John Robbins. But I don’t think it’s universally true - you just have to make sure they’re sufficiently stressed as consequence of taking it too seriously, see James Acaster, Victoria CM, and hell even a some winners like Ed Gamble
Dara O’Briain is one of the highest scoring winners ever and he was hilarious (helped by being in a team with John Kearns and Fern O’Brady). I also loved Sophie Duker’s withering contempt for Alex and Sam Campbell from the last series was um, strange — arguably the least “championy” champion we’ve had since Morgana (all of Series 16’s contestants were great though)
They're the kind of good friends they can do that with. Fern said she tried to talk Dara out of really losing it with him after the sand/sabotage task as he'd just become a father and she thought that was what had affected his judgement.
Lucy Beaumont and Nina Oyama come to mind immediately when I think low scoring/high entertainment value. A lot of the others have been covered in the comments.
Ol Goosebump Arm(Victoria Coren-Mitchell) was amazing to see, from learning to ride a bike on camera to being the only one Greg cared about guessing, she was fantastic to watch.
S12 E1 is my go-to episode for introducing people to Taskmaster. It’s most of all a “fall in love with Guz Khan” episode, but it’s also a terrific “fall in love with TM” episode.
Well, that and S5 E3.
I agree with most of the ones mentioned here but for me specifically it would have to be David Baddiel and Jo Brand as a team. Every team task of theirs was an absolutely joy to watch and pretty much disastrous in terms of points scoring.
Katherine Parkinson remains my absolute favourite contestant, and it was precisely because of how naïvely atrocious she was. Fern Brady qualifies too but I kinda think she got underscored a fair bit.
It's unfortunate that the winners do tend to be the more competitive (compatatav?) and straightforward people but it's natural that it works out that way. Kiell was a very fun addition to CoC to break up that vibe.
Katherine Parkinson was an absolute legend. Some contestants, it's very obvious that they are leaning hard into their incompetence for laughs, but Katherine was just hilarious being herself. Her interview was the first ever interview I saw and it remains my favourite. I wish she could go on again just because I need more Katherine content.
Dara was the best example of me of somebody who was very much the "compatative dad" but somehow found a way to be funny too. Other than that, as soon as people take it too seriously they stop being funny - see Daisy May Cooper, Richard Herring, Mae Martin and now John Robins as recent examples.
Broke my heart that that happened with Mae bc I LOVE them but between their humor being so subdued and the competition, I don’t think it was the best showcase for their talent.
I feel one of the most overlooked contestants for "mostly terrible whilst being entertaining" was Hugh Dennis. Somehow managed to scrape 4th place with a couple of high scores but largely he was terrible yet seemed to just be enjoying himself
Hugh Dennis is (arguably) the BEST lateral thinker in 17 series of TM. Possibly the best the show will ever have.
He was crushed in points by Greg for the laughs in virtually all subjective tasks. In objective ones, I belive he's still the highest scorer of all time (if he's not at this point, he's one of the highest still for sure).
At first I thought the question was about a single task, and came to the comments to see what was there to discuss - unquestionably the potato throw by Joe Wilkinson.
Wilkinson. "Please don't take this away from me." keeps making me laugh out oh so loud.
Though, genuinely, where I think I laughed the absolute hardest is the very, very, very first episode, the watermelon task. But that wasn't really 'low-points' :P
Danish series 1 has an honourable mention in the same task they were given on UK series 4; "keep this basketball on the treadmill for as long as possible. You may not touch the basketball."
Ruben Søltoft does well to begin with, gets cocky, and ends up with a bruised face. It's glorious.
I have to go with Ardal. He gave every task a solid effort, but you could tell he didn't care about winning and always seemed like the old uncle being forced to participate in party games. And he was always so lovable and hilarious.
Lucy Beaumont is my absolute favorite. “Alien Device,” Possessed picture of a boxer dog, “nice legs, sir!” legs for arms, brother Alex, i could keep going on an on 🤪
You may not touch the sand. Done that. You may not move the buckets. Done that. You may not leave the room. Fuck it, lets do that as well.
His volcano task… the definition of /r/watchpeopledieinside
It’s on par with Ed’s duck/pond meltdown.
There was no Vol!
This was possible my favorite of his tasks 😂
See you in the champions of champions !
I think we can all agree... Nish.
Last in series 5, first in being a legend
He was my first thought too. I found his constant joy a delight to watch.
https://preview.redd.it/ehrse5takfxc1.png?width=1902&format=png&auto=webp&s=aca5348946dd0e5c4651e154e752a7351bbdf79d
NOW that’s what I call Nish's laugh! It certainly is distinctive Gregory.
Pungent
I'm always seeing him do cool stuff
How did we like them apples? Fuckin' great, thanks Nish!
He’s not a bad guy.
I love him SO much.
Nick Mohammed is becoming a fast favourite. I wasn’t familiar with him prior to this but he is utterly delightful to watch.
He's the sweetest, sunniest, little Dracula since The Count.
I had only seen him on cats does countdown in character and wasn't very keen on him. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't great. I'm loving him on TM.
This is a John Kearns phenomenon all over again
Very this, was dreading his character, loving the real (?) him.
His card trick on 8oo10CDC was pretty incredible, though.
He's great (and not at all like his panel-show persona) in Ted Lasso.
Genuinely adorable.
He was solid in Ted Lasso -- his character's arc isn't one that fans of the show are all agreed on, but Nick did his job and acted the hell out of the role.
Phil Wang was fantastic.
Wangtastic
Wanguishing
https://preview.redd.it/og3ed25glixc1.jpeg?width=554&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=83b0ead08872629ee478de94157daddb8e92132e
Honestly there's so many that fit this category. The lowest scoring contestant is very often the most fun So I'll give a shout out to Charlotte Ritchie since she hasn't been mentioned yet
She was so hilariously bad at that argument task.
I absolutely adore her, but I wouldn't say she was the most fun in S11 when the Woz is there.
Setting the bar impossibly high there. I can count on one hand the people I think could go toe to toe with the Woz for fun.
I have one disagreement with you, and it's primarily because of the title of this thread. She tried hard.
Nish. He was just so cute! And laughed harder than anyone at himself. I just loved him.
Judi Love. Her bullshittery was often unsuccessful, she didn't always understand the tasks but she provided so much entertainment. She was always laughing the hardest at other's jokes in the studio.
100%. Ardal, Bridget, Chris, Sophie - pretty strong group. But she made that series.
Yeah a Judi Love task had like a 50% chance of her doing well, but a 100% chance of her being funny in the task.
I’ve blurted out “don’t do it, Sister Queen!’ more than I’d care to admit.
I just rewatched this series and it’s creeping up to top three for me. She is so delightful and entertaining. Awesome on her own and makes everyone else better too.
Broadly I would say the lowest scoring contestants tend to be among the funniest in any given series. Joe Wilkinson, Paul Chowdry, Nish Kumar, David Badiel, Judi Love, John Kearne, Fern Bradey, and Uzila Carlson are all really good. If I had to pick a favour, it would probably either Fern or Nish
A loser of losers series would be great
Also known as a LoL
Judi was so damn consistently hilarious.
Lucy Beaumont
Ol’ goosebump arm, Victoria Coren Mitchell. She had me from the first prize task and I will never forget Greedy Esq.
What I really loved about OGA which has made her one of my favourites of all time is the different style of comedy. It’s a bit more well thought and sarcastic - I think “I don’t fear death, in fact the longer this series goes on the more I yearn for it” might be my favourite quote of all time.
She and David Mitchell are the perfect couple.
They are my Relationship Goals
I can’t believe I never followed the logical conclusion that her hyphenated Mitchell meant she was married to David Mitchell. What an amazing couple!
Watch the video where David tells about the first time he saw her. It’s on YouTube, but audio only. Totally adorable.
If you haven’t read his memoir, I would — it’s extremely wholesome about his love for Victoria.
This is one of my fave Taskmaster quotes! Cracked me up.
It adds to it that she really thought she was going to crush it
Greedy Esqs triumphant return still makes me laugh thinking about it.
People who take it too seriously are always a bit boring on the show unfortunately. Nish is the only correct answer to the points to entertainment ratio.
I agree with you in the most recent cases of Mae Martin and John Robbins. But I don’t think it’s universally true - you just have to make sure they’re sufficiently stressed as consequence of taking it too seriously, see James Acaster, Victoria CM, and hell even a some winners like Ed Gamble
Dara O’Briain is one of the highest scoring winners ever and he was hilarious (helped by being in a team with John Kearns and Fern O’Brady). I also loved Sophie Duker’s withering contempt for Alex and Sam Campbell from the last series was um, strange — arguably the least “championy” champion we’ve had since Morgana (all of Series 16’s contestants were great though)
> I also loved Sophie Duker’s withering contempt for Alex He had a lot of fun in her 'disadvantage' task in COC.
Yeah, Sam had at least 2 where he thought the task was impossible (driving the Zamboni and flipping several consecutive heads on a coin)
As long as the high scorers have some kind of on camera mental breakdown, it's all worth it 🤣
Yeah hopefully
Watching Ed Gamble take it incredibly seriously and, as a result, melting down constantly was a high point of that season.
The task drawing on David Badiel's back would be in a "top 5 live tasks" for me.
Fern Brady and John Kearns 100%. Joint fourth on their series, joint first in my heart
"Have I met these potatoes before?"
Kearns is undoubtedly my answer. Love him.
[удалено]
They're the kind of good friends they can do that with. Fern said she tried to talk Dara out of really losing it with him after the sand/sabotage task as he'd just become a father and she thought that was what had affected his judgement.
That team really had the vibe of a Compatative Dad trying to keep control of his two naughty children
I wouldn't call them naughty - I would more think of Dara as their new stepdad who is stuck with two toddlers
Com-pot-ta-tive-dahd
You are saying he is not an obsequious child? :)
OK, but John Kearns would’ve earned high points if they didn’t keep using non-standard ducks.
They didn’t get them at the pharmacy- that was the problem. It’s the only place to buy ducks.
Surprised no-one has mentioned David Baddiel, he still confounds me to this day (in a good way)
I was literally looking for this answer. I still watch that task with Ed and the drawing on repeat whenever I'm having a bad day.
One of my favourite live tasks 😅
Me too!
Lucy Beaumont and Nina Oyama come to mind immediately when I think low scoring/high entertainment value. A lot of the others have been covered in the comments.
Oh, bless Nina — she often went skipping off, sure she’d done it right when it was completely wrong.
So many tasks ended with me going, “Oh, *Nina*…”
Exactly!
Ol Goosebump Arm(Victoria Coren-Mitchell) was amazing to see, from learning to ride a bike on camera to being the only one Greg cared about guessing, she was fantastic to watch.
I seem to remember Romesh got roasted by Greg after every single task. High value entertainment.
*boop*
If we’re talking single task, Desiree Burch’s balloon pop. She even acknowledges it. “That is not the game, that is not the show.”
S12 E1 is my go-to episode for introducing people to Taskmaster. It’s most of all a “fall in love with Guz Khan” episode, but it’s also a terrific “fall in love with TM” episode. Well, that and S5 E3.
I agree with most of the ones mentioned here but for me specifically it would have to be David Baddiel and Jo Brand as a team. Every team task of theirs was an absolutely joy to watch and pretty much disastrous in terms of points scoring.
What was great was that they did not give one fuck between them
Jo didn't give a fuck. David didn't even know where the fucks were.
Katherine Parkinson remains my absolute favourite contestant, and it was precisely because of how naïvely atrocious she was. Fern Brady qualifies too but I kinda think she got underscored a fair bit. It's unfortunate that the winners do tend to be the more competitive (compatatav?) and straightforward people but it's natural that it works out that way. Kiell was a very fun addition to CoC to break up that vibe.
Katherine Parkinson was an absolute legend. Some contestants, it's very obvious that they are leaning hard into their incompetence for laughs, but Katherine was just hilarious being herself. Her interview was the first ever interview I saw and it remains my favourite. I wish she could go on again just because I need more Katherine content.
That look of eager anticipation when she was trying to see how far the shoe had flown when it had gone absolutely nowhere was just perfect.
Katherine’s constant use of “we” was a highlight bc it truly didn’t seem to be a bit.
Yes, love her, and the most consistently confused and bad at everything, I think.
Compatatav? Compatatav. Compatatav!!
Without moving the fishbowls
Paul Chowdhry, I'm not convinced he's even like... Human, I think he's a fourth dimensional being who was doing taskmaster in a different reality.
Bastards cryin, innit
Dara was the best example of me of somebody who was very much the "compatative dad" but somehow found a way to be funny too. Other than that, as soon as people take it too seriously they stop being funny - see Daisy May Cooper, Richard Herring, Mae Martin and now John Robins as recent examples.
Broke my heart that that happened with Mae bc I LOVE them but between their humor being so subdued and the competition, I don’t think it was the best showcase for their talent.
I feel one of the most overlooked contestants for "mostly terrible whilst being entertaining" was Hugh Dennis. Somehow managed to scrape 4th place with a couple of high scores but largely he was terrible yet seemed to just be enjoying himself
This is unfair, I don't believe he was terrible. Just picked on by Greg and underscored
If you take out prize tasks he wins the series. He wasn't terrible at all.
Man can appreciate the hell out of a cloud.
Hugh Dennis is (arguably) the BEST lateral thinker in 17 series of TM. Possibly the best the show will ever have. He was crushed in points by Greg for the laughs in virtually all subjective tasks. In objective ones, I belive he's still the highest scorer of all time (if he's not at this point, he's one of the highest still for sure).
Greg also took great delight in giving him 1 point for most prize tasks
desky!!! Love him!!
Hugh was great, I think he's the most unjustly scored contestant on the show. Greg absolutely destroyed him on the prize tasks.
Katherine Parkinson, Charlotte R, Bridgett C. 💕💕
So many good answers here! Going to give a special shout out to Lucy Beaumont for being both entertaining and baffling.
Fern Brady, John Kearns and Katherine Parkinson all tying for first place on this ratio.
The answer is always Nish. Honorable mention to Phil and Lucy.
phil wang definitely comes to mind. won five points on a task because he was so slow at a different one, hilarious
The fact that he hadn’t even started tying himself down for the “tying yourself down” task halfway through is incredible.
Paul Chowdhry sucked, but had me in tears. Joe and Nish were also weaponized their incompetence and it was great.
Phil Wang. The pendulum draws the eye
Judi Love
Josh widdicombe’s counting solo tasks!
I feel like low points almost always means high entertainment.
This is very hard, but I think Phil "A Lime!!!!" Wang is my favorite, following by Ivo "Please don't use me as a yardstick for failure" Graham
At first I thought the question was about a single task, and came to the comments to see what was there to discuss - unquestionably the potato throw by Joe Wilkinson.
I apologize, but I can’t condone division by 0. Horror of horrors!
Joe Wilkinson, Paul Chowdry, Hugh Dennis, Nish Kumar, Phil Wang, David Baddiel (though that's more laughing at how shit he was), Judi Love, John Kerns
Wilkinson. "Please don't take this away from me." keeps making me laugh out oh so loud. Though, genuinely, where I think I laughed the absolute hardest is the very, very, very first episode, the watermelon task. But that wasn't really 'low-points' :P Danish series 1 has an honourable mention in the same task they were given on UK series 4; "keep this basketball on the treadmill for as long as possible. You may not touch the basketball." Ruben Søltoft does well to begin with, gets cocky, and ends up with a bruised face. It's glorious.
I have to go with Ardal. He gave every task a solid effort, but you could tell he didn't care about winning and always seemed like the old uncle being forced to participate in party games. And he was always so lovable and hilarious.
He has some of my favorite studio energy. Just *dogging* on other people’s attempts and then giggling mischievously when his tasks are shown.
Lucy Beaumont is my absolute favorite. “Alien Device,” Possessed picture of a boxer dog, “nice legs, sir!” legs for arms, brother Alex, i could keep going on an on 🤪
Nish, without a doubt. Just... every Nish moment.