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.

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.

Fourth-Wall Breaks

Many British comedians are aware of, and discuss, RPF. Alex Horne has taken this to such a level that it has led to the canonization of “Alex Horne Please Don't Read This (British Comedy RPF)” as an AO3 tag, along with its counterpart, “Alex Horne Can Read This (British Comedy RPF)”. More recently, Greg Davies has joined in with namedropping fics, and some have suggested the need for him to have his own version of these tags.

The effectiveness of the tags is debated within the fandom, as is whether Alex or Greg have fully read any fic apart from the one featured on The Horne Section Podcast (see below). However, overall, the fandom tends to respond to these fourth-wall breaks with a neutral-to-positive mindset, due to the good-humored way Alex and Greg approach this aspect of his fanbase.

One informal survey found Alex and Greg mentioning fic drove 12.2% of those who heard the mentions to seek out and read Taskmaster RPF.

All of the namedropped fics have been added to an AO3 collection, The Been Perceived Club.

The interactions of Alex, Greg, and fandom have been the subject of an academic article.

List of Containment Breeches

• On Sept 11, 2019, Greg appeared as a guest for season 3, episode 1 of The Horne Section Podcast, which Alex hosts, and the two of them sang the poem-fic Feast by Sashataakheru, each voicing their respective lines.
• During the prize task of series 15, episode 3 of Taskmaster, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 13 April 2023, Greg and Alex mentioned the “fair amount of fan fiction” online imagining them as lovers, and Alex read out a list of fic titles: I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship by PandaRoboto, Filthy Little Ferret by Knop_e, Tenderness by Knop_e, and Master of the Tasks by ineternity. Greg greatly enjoyed the title of Filthy Little Ferret, likely forgetting it originated as an insult he himself had previously called Alex on the show.
• During the taping of the third Champions of Champions special episode of Taskmaster, first broadcast on 14th January 2024, Alex again brought up the fan fiction and named A Big Boy Like You by unquietspirit as his “current favorite”. He provided a short description of its contents, though with a few inaccuracies, and mentioned receiving the AO3 adult content warning/opt-in. The latter detail allowed savvy fans to quickly deduce it was a real fic and where it could be found. While the discussion was cut from the episode, it was released as an outtake on social media. Unquietspirit responded by posting a screenshot of the fic’s tags (as of the date of publication), which included “Ageplay”, “Piss Play”, and “Diaper punishment”, and called Alex “insane”.
• On the January 22, 2025 episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Greg namedropped the fics Big Strong Hero by Trillion_G, Make Alex Finish: Your Time Starts Now by Pinkpoison, and Daddy’s Little Screamer by LottaSoup (which he called his favorite). He also namedropped and read excerpts from There's My Good Boy by suggsygirl and The Jester and the King by LadyJekyll to Alex, Seth, and the audience. This led to multiple people commenting on the fics saying they had been sent there by the clip.

Fanvids

• my body is your body by thingswithwings
• try your best by hartknyx
• Dear Rhod by keoghcassidy (TikTok), to a clip of Your Obedient Servant from Hamilton
• Blood in the Cut by findmeinthealps

Meta

• Thank You Daddy: The Psychosexual Intimacy of Taskmaster by Allegra Rosenberg
• Real Person Fanfiction and the Construction of the (Un)Ethical Fan by Lauren Nicole Balser

Communities & Resources

• Taskmaster works on AO3
• Taskmaster subreddit
• Taskmaster Podcast - A podcast hosted by Series 9 contestant Ed Gamble