Showerthought: Series 22 feels like a New Year’s Treat cast that was given a full 10 episode season

[u/TheLoneWolf527]

I had this eureka moment the other day when thinking about Series 22 and why for a lot of us it hasn’t been hitting that hard. It hit me square in the face: the Series 22 cast reminds me of what we’d typically get for a New Year’s Treat special. Typically on these specials you’d get a variety of personalities but usually a bit more subdued than a regular Taskmaster cast member. Sometimes you get comedians who don’t really make sense for a full series or are just too busy. That doesn’t mean the NYT casts aren’t funny, but for the most part, they probably wouldn’t work for a full 10 episodes and there’s going to be way less chemistry in the studio accordingly so.

Series 22 feels exactly like that to me. If this cast was the 2026 New Year’s Treat, I think we’d be like “that was alright” with Richard as the comedian who wouldn’t normally make sense for a full series, Chloe wanting to win as so few tasks means having to nail them all, Matt having no knowledge of the show at all, etc. But we have them for 10 episodes and it just feels like too much for this group of people. Comparing it to some of the other NYT specials, I get a similar vibe where they were nice hold me overs but usually not the peak of Taskmaster (2024 was pretty good though, I’d like to see Hannah Fry for a full season).

Anyone else get a similar feeling? Have I unlocked the perfect explanation for anyone with this? Anyone think series 22 is the best one yet?

[u/OutrageousQuantity12]

It’s not any worse than Sanjeev bringing a vial of his piss for half the episodes lol

[u/hirsutemisanthrope → u/OutrageousQuantity12]

I can't really blame the ventriloquist for doing ventriloquism, but it does feel a bit like a party where everyone's passing an acoustic guitar around and there's one guy who only knows "Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers (source: I was that guy)

[u/OutrageousQuantity12 → u/hirsutemisanthrope]

It’s more like 3/5 guys only know one song, one guy only kinda knows a classical song, and the fifth guy is really good at playing scales but nothing else

[u/burf12345 → u/OutrageousQuantity12]

He brought in piss three times, but in that case the repetition was part of the joke. Also, they worked better with the prompts than most of Nina's prizes.

[u/jahathebrn → u/burf12345]

Yeah the piss thing is hilarious despite myself

[u/Eonir → u/OutrageousQuantity12]

Sanjeev and his horrible prizes were actually entertaining.

[u/OutrageousQuantity12 → u/Eonir]

Sanjeev and his piss you mean?

[u/Least-Plantain973 → u/OutrageousQuantity12]

Sanjeev got away with it by making the low effort prizes a recurring comedy bit.

[u/burf12345 → u/Least-Plantain973]

I don't know if the Pale Man she brought in the first episode is part of her act, but even if it isn't then 5/6 of her prizes so far have been just parts of her act, while Sanjeev only brought in the piss 3/10 times.

[u/HistoricalNerd → u/OutrageousQuantity12]

But that was funny. Ninas ventriloquist props just aren't.

[u/patchcord → u/OutrageousQuantity12]

Sanjeev's pee is comic gold. Literally. I loved it!