What haven’t we learned about people through film and television: In China they eat dogs, white boys don’t cut it, Japanese are better lovers – and British comedy is in most cases superior to comedy from Germany, unless it involves Loriot .
Humor from the UK is no longer just about Monty Python and Rowan Atkinson. If you want to experience the country’s current comedy scene, don’t come here
TV sensation called Taskmaster, which can also be streamed legally for free in Germany, over. Fans of LOL: Last One Laughing in particular should take a look across the English Channel.
Find out more about the British LOL alternative Taskmaster! Your time starts now.
Admittedly, Great Britain has had its own problems, not just since Brexit, but comedy is demonstrably not one of them. It hardly has to be subtle or even witty to be charming, fast-paced and funny, like the one that has been running since 2015 Comedy panel show with fluffy, light entertainment proves.
Stand-up giant Greg Davies, who is known from series such as Man Down, Cuckoo and the British version of The Crime Scene Cleaner, leads the way suspicious task giver by the format. The strict show daddy sets five celebrities per season a series of silly, sometimes impossible, but mostly creative tasks, the solutions to which they have to justify in front of a live audience in the studio. For the most successful completion of the presented problem, there are up to 5 points from the taskmaster. So far so good.
Channel 4
Cast of the 5th season Taskmaster
The range of tasks ranges from “Fill as many tears as possible into this egg cup in 20 minutes!” about “Write and perform the best song about this strange woman!” to “Destroy this cake in the most beautiful way!” Thinking outside the box is usually rewarded, but it’s often not fair. That’s exactly what they are capricious, subjective judgments of the taskmasterwhich make the show so unpredictable.
As a bonus task, there is the prize task at the beginning of the show, in which the participants have to bring a motto gift that is as relevant as possible according to the instructions. And at the end there is a mostly very physical studio task that was recorded not weeks before in the Taskmaster house outside London. That’s where most of the show’s segments are created, thanks to clever editing milking every bit of comedy gold juice from the material.
It’s not what it sounds like… (okay, a little bit)
At first it sounds like a relatively ordinary game show in which celebrities embarrass themselves a bit for us. And that’s true with Taskmaster to a certain extent, However, that is not the heart of the show …which also applies to LOL. The 17th season is currently running and it is becoming increasingly clear who is competent in completing the tasks, who turns out to be completely overwhelmed, and who is the most entertaining to watch.
Channel 4
Scene from Taskmaster
Above all Interesting dynamics arise in group tasks and in the face of God-Host-Greg. Above all, you notice that Davis and his “little” assistant Little Alex Horne (actually the brilliant series creator of the format and 1.88 tall himself) have created a pleasant environment in which the talents are happy to take part, despite the inevitable embarrassments. You hear this again and again from ex-candidates in the podcast for the show.
Who’s on Taskmaster?
Of course we’re talking about that here comic crème de la crème of the British stand-up scene, entertainment industry and beyond: people like baking show goth Noel Fielding, who is also known from The IT Crowd, Feel Good star Mae Martin or current Ted Lasso audience favorite Nick Mohammed, to name just a few. But don’t worry: the whole thing works perfectly without first being familiar with the charming candidates.
Just maybe don’t necessarily start with season 1, where the format wasn’t completely found yet. Season 4 or Season 7, for example, are big highlights that are ideal for checking out. However, you should start at the beginning of a season, as there is a certain dramaturgy in the development of the respective cast throughout the episodes.
Enlightening explanatory video on the topic of Taskmaster:
Taskmaster: Weird game show from the UK
Where can you stream Taskmaster from Germany?
Taskmaster used to air on BBC channel Dave and is now at home on British competitor Channel 4. The episodes are also uploaded to the show’s official YouTube channel, where you can have the English subtitles translated automatically if you want.
In addition to 17 editions of the original British series, there are several seasons with international spin-offs from Norway, Denmark, New Zealand and Australia. Fortunately, the German spin-off with Atze Schröder as Taskmaster never came out via a pilot that was never shown. So maybe it’s a good thing that we have LOL instead.