Taskmaster
| RPF Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name(s): | Taskmaster, TM |
| Scope/Focus: | |
| Date(s): | 28 July 2015 – present |
| See also: | British Comedian RPF |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Taskmaster is a British comedy panel show created by Alex Horne and starring Alex Horne and Greg Davies.
Canon
Taskmaster is a comedic game show, in which a group of five contestants, mostly comedians, compete against each other by completing tasks assigned to them. In each episode, contestants are shown tackling a series of tasks, supervised and sometimes assisted by Alex Horne; and Greg Davies then judges each contestant's performance in each task to determine how many points they receive (up to a maximum of five). The contestant with the highest score in each episode wins a collection of prizes submitted by the contestants themselves as one of the tasks; the one with the highest cumulative score at the end of a series wins a trophy. Each series has a different group of contestants.
Tasks given to contestants range from simple physical challenges, such as "eat as much watermelon as you can in one minute", to more complex or artistic tasks. Some tasks may be timed, consist of multiple stages, or both. In some cases, contestants conduct tasks as a team with one or two other contestants; in such cases all members of a team receive the same score.
During the show, Greg and Alex play the roles of "Taskmaster" and "Taskmaster's Assistant", respectively. As Taskmaster, Greg acts as an authority figure, in charge of Alex and deciding the fates of the contestants. Alex gives the contestants their tasks and is present while they complete them. In turn, the contestants often make use of Alex or subject him to humiliating or unpleasant things in the course of completing their tasks. The fact that Alex is frequently ordered around and humiliated in various ways is made more interesting by the fact that he is the creator of the show and most of the tasks.
There have also been several international versions of Taskmaster with their own hosts and contestants, such as Taskmaster NZ.
Fandom
The most popular pairing for the show is Alex Horne/Greg Davies. Due to the BDSM charged dynamic between them as Taskmaster and Taskmaster's Assistant, this is a very popular theme in fics shipping them. The fandom is a subset of and has lots of overlap with British Comedian RPF.
Fanfiction
Fanart
Fanvids
Meta
Communities & Resources
- Taskmaster works on AO3
- Taskmaster subreddit
- Taskmaster Podcast - A podcast hosted by Series 9 contestant Ed Gamble