The secret of Taskmaster – the long-running comedy nonsense series that started life on Dave and now airs on Channel 4 in the UK – is that its contestants really want to win. The show’s comedians often feign insouciance and a take-it-or-leave-it approach to scoring points, but even its coolest customers secretly harbour a desire to land at the top of the league table.
Usually, that inner competitive fire is tamped down in true British style, only emerging in jets of eyeball-shooting flame when some unfairness or poor sportsmanship is detected in the studio. Not this time. This time there’s Jason Mantzoukas.
Mantzoukas, star of The League, Big Mouth, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place and more, is Taskmaster’s first bona fide US import. Previous seasons have welcomed ex-pats from America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand who live in the UK full time (your Desiree Burch, Katherine Ryan, Mae Martin, Sarah Kendall, Sam Campbell and Rose Matafeo), but Mantzoukas is the first US star to travel to Chiswick on purpose in order to fill a windsock with tangerines from the greatest distance, or whatever silliness the team have cooked up this time around. Who knows, he may also be the only US person to travel to Chiswick on purpose full stop.
And to judge by Mantzoukas’ introductory interview with creator and Taskmaster’s Assistant Little Alex Horne, the man is making his presence felt:
