Taskmaster UK Series 7 is peak entertainment

For years, I’ve been working on an ultimate Taskmaster Tier List. But they keep making more of them all around the world and I haven’t quite gotten to the finish line of writing about all of them yet. I think I’ve seen them all — not just the UK ones but all 13 different countries and a bunch of really well done fan editions as well. Hundreds of hours of peak fun.

If you’re not familiar with the show, Taskmaster is a masterpiece TV comedy game show that originated from the UK and has spread around the globe in various qualities. In the show, 5 comedians, actors or generally public figures complete tasks set to them by the Taskmaster and get judged by their performance.

I shouldn’t find Taskmaster so fun

Before I talk about why I love series 7 so freaking much, I need to talk about why I’m baffled by this format. On paper, it’s antithetical to what I find interesting. I’m a stickler to the rules and I hate any type of games or competitions that participants don’t take seriously or where the rules and scoring is not transparent and consistent.

Taskmaster is none of that. It’s completely arbitrary in scoring and pretty much every task has some kind of a carefully designed loophole solution and part of the fun of the show is trying to figure out how you would have completed them and seeing if any of the contestants find those loopholes.

Despite all of this being something I generally find uninteresting, this show has kept me audibly laughing for over a decade — even on multiple rewatches.

Alex Horne, the Taskmaster’s assistant and the mastermind behind the tasks for UK (and some other shows) is simply amazing. Greg Davies, the UK Taskmaster is so funny and has great chemistry with most of the guests throughout its already 20 seasons and many specials.

Series 7 of the UK show is the best

While I’ve been rewatching different series and writing my tier list, I keep bouncing between a couple of different series to nominate the best. New Zealand has 6 stellar seasons and gun to my head, I’m not sure I can decide whether I enjoy their second season or UK’s 7th the most.

Today, I’m calling UK Series 7 the best because I just rewatched it for the umpteenth time and want to talk about it.

The cast of the 7th series is

• James Acaster
• Jessica Knappett
• Kerry Godliman
• Phil Wang
• Rhod Gilbert

All five of them are funny as heck and as is so important in this show, their chemistry with each other is brilliant. It’s only rivaled by the wonderful five of the aforementioned NZ season 2’s cast.

James, Jessica, Kerry and Phil are the wild young kids and Rhod is the weird uncle and Greg is the disappointed dad. It’s even more funny because Rhod and Greg are real-life friends which comes up all the time as Rhod is sparing no shots as he heckles Greg throughout the series.

Each of the 10 episodes is pure fire. There are not a lot of comedy TV shows that I actually laugh at out loud when watching but with this series, I’m constantly laughing.

Episode 7 is also home to the best individual moment in all hundreds of episodes across all Taskmaster shows. It’s so monumental that the stage where final task of each episode takes place is called The Knappett these days and why I always come back to this series when I need a good feel moment. I won’t spoil it for you.

The outcome of a Taskmaster series is a result of multiple factors: the cast and their chemistry, the tasks, the team compositions (they have team tasks throughout the series and split teams to two and three people) and of course, how the contestants perform (+ the amazing editing that goes into the show). Sometimes even a strong group in paper can fall flat and sometimes another group surprises.

This one gets all of it so right. There’s a ton of interaction between the participants in the studio sections which really ties it together. You can see that they truly enjoyed being there together.

If you’re new to the show or haven’t seen the 7th yet, find it and take a look!