It Seems For A Moment Like This Won't Be A Goes Wrong Entry, But Don't Fall For It.

[rionaleonhart]

Taskmaster is back, and I enjoyed the new episode a lot; it looks like it's shaping up to be a fun series! Here, in honour of the occasion, are a couple of Goes Wrong/Taskmaster questions I've been asked on Tumblr.


the-red-thread-that-strangles: If you could pick a lineup of contestants from The Goes Wrong Show to participate in Taskmaster, who would you pick, how would they do, and who do you think would win?

I’d love to see Annie, Chris, Dennis, Robert and Vanessa as a Taskmaster lineup!

I don’t imagine anyone’s surprised that I’ve chosen Robert. He’d throw himself into every task with great determination, but he’d swiftly get frustrated and start complaining. He’d argue passionately against every poor score he receives, no matter how obviously warranted.

Vanessa would approach every task with an air of brisk but slightly nervous competence and fall apart immediately.

Dennis would misunderstand more or less every task and do something completely different. His general air is ‘wandered onto the set by accident, confused and scared, doesn’t entirely know what Taskmaster is and seems to believe that something terrible will happen if he doesn’t complete these tasks’. Greg and Alex are increasingly baffled by him. Over the course of the series, Greg’s responses to Dennis’s task attempts go from making fun of him to 'you okay, mate?’

Annie would be having an incredible time; she’d have a blast with the tasks and would cheer the others on enthusiastically in the studio. She’d probably win the series.

Chris would consider the affair undignified and would sigh deeply after reading every task. He’d start out putting in a half-hearted effort, then get increasingly angry as his efforts fail and end up throwing his entire being into getting the task done.

The teams are Annie/Vanessa/Dennis, who muddle disastrously through tasks together but occasionally manage to do something surprisingly well, and Chris/Robert, who never get anything done because they’re so busy arguing about the correct approach.

Trevor, despite not being a contestant, is inexplicably there, running around in the background of tasks and putting out fires.


Anonymous: ok but who would win in a fight between robert grove and greg davies?

I think both Greg and Robert would shrink from a serious physical fight! If you forced them to battle, however, Robert is strong as hell and it’s hot; he unintentionally knocks Chris flat with a backhand in The Lodge, and he’s able to pick Annie and Dennis up with apparently very little effort. (This five-second clip in particular, where he grabs Dennis and zooms offstage, left me thinking a lot about Robert's capacity to throw people around.)

So my answer is that they’ll both try to run away from the fight. If a battle did take place, Robert would theoretically win. However, because he is a member of the Cornley Drama Society, he’s going to trip over and knock himself out in the first five seconds of the fight, and Greg will be left to claim slightly confused victory.

That or they’d make out, obviously.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Oh great!

And yeah, Robert would be great television, Vanessa would have plans that theoretically should work, Annie would be great at it, Robert would be impossible, and Dennis..."You okay, mate?" would be the response.

Robert is strong! He would demonstrate enough strength to terrify Greg, and then immediately take himself out.

[rionaleonhart]

I love that your list assessing the Taskmaster/Goes Wrong lineup omits Chris and lists Robert twice. Robert would approve.

He would demonstrate enough strength to terrify Greg, and then immediately take himself out.

This is both absolutely true and beautifully put.

[hamsterwoman]

Love your vision for the Goes Wrong gang on Taskmaster and wholeheartedly agree! Annie would have so much fun, it seems like very much her kind of show. Would watch Dennis do completely the wrong and usually inexplicable thing and yet somehow average a solid third because theoretically more competent people have fallen apart. Vanessa would have so many breakdowns! (She’s making me think of Katherine Parkinson in “am I the spider” mode). And Chris and Robert would make such a disastrous team! (I’m thinking they get a charades type live team task, or something else with both acting and time pressure - and the studio audience - and it becomes a disaster to completely eclipse Richard Herring and Daisy Mae Cooper’s Hippo-gate and Ed Gamble and David Baddiel’s drawing on backs task :D)

[rionaleonhart]

and yet somehow average a solid third because theoretically more competent people have fallen apart

I love this; it's exactly what would happen. Poor Vanessa is probably going to come last. You're right; she does have something of Katherine Parkinson about her!

(I’m thinking they get a charades type live team task, or something else with both acting and time pressure - and the studio audience - and it becomes a disaster to completely eclipse Richard Herring and Daisy Mae Cooper’s Hippo-gate and Ed Gamble and David Baddiel’s drawing on backs task :D)

This would be incredible, and I desperately want to see it play out.

[hamsterwoman]

Poor Vanessa is probably going to come last.

Yeah, I think so -- her problem with improvisation and really anything unexpected is the hardest thing to overcome when faced with Taskmaster tasks, I think. And she does just have the vibe of the smart, competent person in the normal world who does terribly in the framework of the show, like Katherine Parkinson or Victoria...

Annie would be my guess to win -- she's got that mixture of enthusiasm, flexibility, and not taking herself too seriously that serves Taskmaster people well. I actually think Robert would also do not too badly, because he's got about half of those covered -- he would certainly commit very hard and go very far (as long as he views TM tasks as a kind of performance, which I'm sure he would). He would probably clash with Greg, so I don't think that he's likely to win, but I'm seeing him in second place. Meanwhile, I think Greg would immediately realize how easy and entertaining it is to push Chris's buttons and do that all the time, consequently scoring him lower.

what a delightful premise -- I would love seeing an episode or a series with this bunch (+ random Trevor helping out backstage, as you say :D)

[apiphile]

That or they’d make out, obviously.

now there's a battle for dominance I'd like to see

[apiphile]

Also, no Max? Presumably no Jonathan because he'd never make it onto set, but no Max?

[rionaleonhart]

Max would really enjoy Taskmaster! Sorry for leaving you out, Max. But, if there can only be five contestants in a series, those are the five I'd like to see. Max keeps trying to sneak onto the set and illicitly do tasks.

[magistrate]

You know, it strikes me that "suddenly being obligated to do something bizarre because The Show Must Go On" is cradled at the center of a Venn diagram between Taskmaster, The Goes Wrong Show, and The Amazing Digital Circus. Do with that what you will.

[rionaleonhart]

This is an excellent and slightly unsettling observation! I'm now poking at other things they have in common, e.g. 'do not displease the man in charge' and 'the clearly unreliable person occasionally comes through'.

[magistrate]

"You may not agree with this person, like this person, or even be willing to tolerate this person under normal circumstances, but you're stuck with the persons you're stuck with."

I have not seen Squid Game. Have you seen Squid Game? I'm wondering if Squid Game fits somewhere in here.