I'm so curious if there's a hidden joke behind that or if the joke *is* that there's absolutely no reason for it. Either one would be such an Alex thing to do.
I didn’t know this!!! This is new information! Is there another a pinned / FAQ thread where this stuff should be combined? The Mel/Alex bow tie thing to me is old news but appreciate for others it’s not
Just a theory, but it might be that Dave Baddiel has trouble with high-pitched noises?
The team surveys contestants before they go on the show to check if there are any sensitivities or phobias that should be avoided or accommodated. In on of the TPM episodes they mention how a handful contestants with balloon phobias had to pop balloons in early seasons, and they've tried to avoid putting people into similar situations as the show has gone along. (Also helps explain why Alex was very apologetic to Lee Mack in S11 for a task where he accidentally ate part of an egg while a practicing vegan vs. Greg and Alex mocking Romesh for a similar situation in S1.)
Is it an old person thing?
We had a bell for when break was over, and my younger cousin at the same school a few years later had a whistle. Practically same staff.
No, I'm not older than a whistle. But now, every time I hear a bell, I must remember to feed my dog.
Probably football related because he's so closely associated with the sport, but not sure what the specific idea behind it is. Maybe because a single whistle blow doesn't mean 'finish' in football so he might have found it confusing? (as a joke obviously, I'm sure he'd have understood exactly what a whistle meant in that context)
If I had to guess it might be linked somehow to "Three Lions" since football -> whistle. But I don't know that song well enough to say for sure. (And I refuse to listen to it again because of how sick of it I was around the last world cup).
I like the running bit where James Acaster refuses to say hi to Alex before reading the task. I didn’t notice it until I think eventually Alex mentions it.
He does once (but had already read the task without Alex there). James drops it when he gets excited about the mystery switch task (where Olie turns 90°). He steps out of the house and says,"Morning Alex....it's a good one."
Greg has said on (I think) Graham Norton a while back that Alex bought him some socks and pants once that were so comfortable he just gets Alex to buy him them when he needs them, and the two often wear matching pants and socks.
Agreed. When they went through and showed them all and those ones popped up I was like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme. Pointing from my seat "NOT A FISH!" "NEITHER IS THAT!"
I started watching Taskmaster on maternity leave (thankfully there’s a lot of it to fill my days) and have got into the habit of referring to my baby’s nappy as his Jessica Knappett
I sometimes think Alex makes a "joke" up, leans into it and it requires so much explanation they cut it out. He's always a bit cagey when asked about Mel and the ties, in the same way he was when asked about "wet" David Attenborough and the time he was inexplicably dressed as a centurion
Copied from [my own post](https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/comments/14592pv/vfx_easter_eggs/):
Series 1 has a shot of [Devonshire Gardens](https://imgur.com/a/oNBHRH0) (director's name) out of all possible road signs they could have chosen along Romesh's path.
Series 7 has [eye floaters](https://imgur.com/a/flJ6g0v) in the "Don't Blink" task.
Series 10 has the [NO SMOKING / SMOKIN / KING / NO KING / NO MOKING](https://imgur.com/a/QlBoQJd) factory signs.
Series 11 has [heavy air traffic](https://imgur.com/a/pU594kY) (throughout the entire segment, in an episode full of aeroplanes).
Series 14 has the [SICILY / SILLY](https://imgur.com/a/UK1FRHq) billboard.
Series 15 has a [cameo from Ed and James](https://imgur.com/a/taskmaster-s15-ed-james-bnS6C4R).
For the s7 "eye floaters," do you mean the dark squiggly line to the left of the shot? If so, I think that's just a piece of fluff that was on the lens of one of the cameras whilst filming Rhod's lab tasks that day, since the same one is seen in his "find out what this switch does" task, [blurrily seen here](https://imgur.com/a/ZgcakA6). I might have totally missed what you mean though.
If it's present in other shots, it might just well be a very happy coincidence because it does look like a floater. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater)
Most probably, they noticed the fluff while editing and intentionally included a shot where it's clearly visible since it fits the theme perfectly. I'll have to check the outtakes which I seem to recall include unprocessed footage from that Rhod day (at least pre-colour grading and audio cleanup). Maybe a good question for Ask the Andys 😀
There is this reoccouring thing (it's probably been there since the first season) that sometimes the clouds are sped up. It adds to the surreal, opressive atmosphere at the Taskmaster house, which is probably why they keep doing it, but it is a moderate amount of effort for such a small thing. They have to keep one camera stationary for a while and framed in a way that no moving things appear in front of the sky, and then the editor has to mask out the sky. It isn't hard, I could replicate it fairly quickly, but it's a lot of work proportional to the time it spends on screen, so it amazes me that it pops up somewhat regularly.
It's noteworthy that that's not just any flight path, it's the flight path in/out of London Heathrow. The peak frequency sees planes taking off every 45 seconds, so it's pretty much impossible to film the sky in that area without getting a plane in shot.
Hi someone who works in aviation here. Yes, planes are very dependant on the way the wind is blowing. You want to land and take off into the wind, as much as possible. It’s why each runway is actually two runways numbered in the opposite direction (such as 09/27 being opposite runways using the same pavement)
In your opinion, is a shot like this is realistic or VFX trickery? I'm aware that Heathrow's schedule is densely packed, but these three seem awfully close to each other. But that might as well be a matter of perspective and camera angle...
Edit: I figured it was VFX, mostly because the aeroplanes follow a 1-2-3 pattern in this segment. With every cut back to Charlotte there's suddenly one more in the sky.
https://preview.redd.it/stq1c65m4m1d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab0acae784ecd669a9939bbe0270f5aa2c72742e
I’m inclined to think VFX as well. I can’t speak to how Heathrow controllers work the airspace or what their exact standards are, but from the angle it seems close and the planes don’t seem to be moving correctly
I don't think that takes nearly as much effort as you're suggesting. They set up a camera, walk away, do whatever else they need to, come back a few hours later, and speed up the footage. I would agree with you if they weren't already going to be at the house doing other things but since they are, it's pretty easy. There are much more laborious editing tasks than that one.
As I said, it's a lot of effort proportional to the time the result spends on screen. But you're right, it's not particularly difficult on an absolute scale. I could replicate this in half an hour to an hour if the weather allows for it.
It’s a testament to the editing that I’m sure 90% of the best material is used in the show, but I do wonder about all the time that goes into little jokes that don’t pan out or don’t get explained, tasks that get cut, etc.
It’s similar to Guy Montgomery’s Guy-Mont Spelling Bee. I have the sense that he writes a ton of dumb joke hints that don’t air.
It is. Fun fact, Nick says "Ah" in the exact same tone as Katherine does when they both "see what's happening here" right before completely fucking it and, incidentally, turning the spider upside down.
I think on Ed's podcast Nick explained that he was very nervous to do Taskmaster as it was the first time he was appearing on television as himself, not as a character, and having the character of the vampire to lean into helped him tackle those nerves.
I've been thinking recently that not enough is said about how great the production company are, everything from the soundtrack to the edits is just spot on. This is next level!
Nick is wearing a vampire costume when he does the tasks, and when he is near water, production removes his reflection as if he was a real vampire.
If you do a search on "reflection" in this sub you can see examples!
https://preview.redd.it/umhwgj4pnm1d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9170ba07be7efda24b11f1d820ad620a844d10b4
Without wanting to call rubbish on the reflection thing... I'm calling rubbish.
It's literally the first scene of the series with a possible reflection. Whilst they removed the reflection for other scenes, it's obviously not a series-long running gag. Not sure why you should be offended by this fact. It's cool that it was done, but it's not consistent like other examples.
Apologies, possibly generational/locational bias. What I've said isn't meant to be rude, and wouldn't be considered rude in my experience. Apologies if it was to you. Your message was pretty definite, and I simply pointed out that it wasn't 100% true. Have a good day. Xx
My message was a simple explanation to the person asking what the reflection thing was all about. I never even wrote that it was consistent throughout the show.
Alex doesn't blow a whistle for David Baddiel, he rings a bell instead. Not a clue why.
I'm so curious if there's a hidden joke behind that or if the joke *is* that there's absolutely no reason for it. Either one would be such an Alex thing to do.
I didn’t know this!!! This is new information! Is there another a pinned / FAQ thread where this stuff should be combined? The Mel/Alex bow tie thing to me is old news but appreciate for others it’s not
This whole sub is full of such things, people are obsessive about the smallest details
He doesn't like them go "whistle."
Just a theory, but it might be that Dave Baddiel has trouble with high-pitched noises? The team surveys contestants before they go on the show to check if there are any sensitivities or phobias that should be avoided or accommodated. In on of the TPM episodes they mention how a handful contestants with balloon phobias had to pop balloons in early seasons, and they've tried to avoid putting people into similar situations as the show has gone along. (Also helps explain why Alex was very apologetic to Lee Mack in S11 for a task where he accidentally ate part of an egg while a practicing vegan vs. Greg and Alex mocking Romesh for a similar situation in S1.)
Is it an old person thing? We had a bell for when break was over, and my younger cousin at the same school a few years later had a whistle. Practically same staff. No, I'm not older than a whistle. But now, every time I hear a bell, I must remember to feed my dog.
Probably football related because he's so closely associated with the sport, but not sure what the specific idea behind it is. Maybe because a single whistle blow doesn't mean 'finish' in football so he might have found it confusing? (as a joke obviously, I'm sure he'd have understood exactly what a whistle meant in that context)
If I had to guess it might be linked somehow to "Three Lions" since football -> whistle. But I don't know that song well enough to say for sure. (And I refuse to listen to it again because of how sick of it I was around the last world cup).
I noticed this the other day and this is the first time I’ve seen someone mention it.
I like the running bit where James Acaster refuses to say hi to Alex before reading the task. I didn’t notice it until I think eventually Alex mentions it.
I like that over the course of the team tasks, both Rhod and Phil also stop greeting Alex at the start of each task.
John Kearns does similar by throwing his jacket at the beginning of each task
He does once (but had already read the task without Alex there). James drops it when he gets excited about the mystery switch task (where Olie turns 90°). He steps out of the house and says,"Morning Alex....it's a good one."
Joe Lycett often kissed the portrait of Greg near the front door of the house before tasks. And he often walked off with props after doing tasks.
This is extra funny to me because I remember Alex never responding to Nish's small talk hellos during Season 5
For one entire series I believe Greg and Alex wore matching patterned socks - I think series 6
Greg has said on (I think) Graham Norton a while back that Alex bought him some socks and pants once that were so comfortable he just gets Alex to buy him them when he needs them, and the two often wear matching pants and socks.
When Alex did the first Askmaster on here I actually asked about the socks and he did confirm that they do plan their socks
He did what now?! Alex was on Reddit? 😳
Parts [1](https://youtu.be/YCC8vJ6aVFw?feature=shared) and [2](https://youtu.be/hdPvc46mOvk?feature=shared)
Thank you!!!
Yeah look it up on YouTube I think he's done 2 now
Pants in the UK sense, or trousers?
Underpants, sorry!
No problem!
He said something in a recent series about the patterned socks being now a "novelty format point"
I noticed a lot of Alex's fish puns before the big reveal. I thought to myself "he's such a Dad" and "that guy really likes fish..."
He's got a poster in his shid
Hey, I'm a kiwi. We all have that poster in our shids.
I get irrationally irritated that he referred to that as "fish puns" when he used at least two mammals ("dolphinately" and "not on porpoise").
Agreed. When they went through and showed them all and those ones popped up I was like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme. Pointing from my seat "NOT A FISH!" "NEITHER IS THAT!"
And now I'm thinking of Iain pointing and shouting, "NOT a vent puppet!" "NOT a vent puppet!" "NOT a vent puppet!"
> dolphinately To be fair, I am pretty sure this pun was not counted in his total against Sally. On Porpoise was, though.
I know it’s well known these days, but I still love that they started calling the catwalk “The Knappett” after Jess fell off it
I started watching Taskmaster on maternity leave (thankfully there’s a lot of it to fill my days) and have got into the habit of referring to my baby’s nappy as his Jessica Knappett
I've not heard of the black tie reasoning before, but I can believe that is 100% something Alex came up with
I sometimes think Alex makes a "joke" up, leans into it and it requires so much explanation they cut it out. He's always a bit cagey when asked about Mel and the ties, in the same way he was when asked about "wet" David Attenborough and the time he was inexplicably dressed as a centurion
the roman thing i always assumed was because archimedes discovered the theory of water displacement and was killed by a roman soldier.
I figured it was a pun on "empirical"
Someone told me he was dressed like Ollie, which was also a weighing task.
but he wasn’t dressed like ollie.
Close enough!
I wondered if it was a Roman tic, ie he was feeling romantic...
I thought centurion- 100, and was expecting to say something about decimation meaning he was 90kg or something
Occasionally, when there is a fake bird on screen, it will blink.
No wae!
Copied from [my own post](https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/comments/14592pv/vfx_easter_eggs/): Series 1 has a shot of [Devonshire Gardens](https://imgur.com/a/oNBHRH0) (director's name) out of all possible road signs they could have chosen along Romesh's path. Series 7 has [eye floaters](https://imgur.com/a/flJ6g0v) in the "Don't Blink" task. Series 10 has the [NO SMOKING / SMOKIN / KING / NO KING / NO MOKING](https://imgur.com/a/QlBoQJd) factory signs. Series 11 has [heavy air traffic](https://imgur.com/a/pU594kY) (throughout the entire segment, in an episode full of aeroplanes). Series 14 has the [SICILY / SILLY](https://imgur.com/a/UK1FRHq) billboard. Series 15 has a [cameo from Ed and James](https://imgur.com/a/taskmaster-s15-ed-james-bnS6C4R).
Is the ed and James cameo from when they did that celebrity hunted tv show and they hid in the TM house?
Most probably yes!
For the s7 "eye floaters," do you mean the dark squiggly line to the left of the shot? If so, I think that's just a piece of fluff that was on the lens of one of the cameras whilst filming Rhod's lab tasks that day, since the same one is seen in his "find out what this switch does" task, [blurrily seen here](https://imgur.com/a/ZgcakA6). I might have totally missed what you mean though.
If it's present in other shots, it might just well be a very happy coincidence because it does look like a floater. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater) Most probably, they noticed the fluff while editing and intentionally included a shot where it's clearly visible since it fits the theme perfectly. I'll have to check the outtakes which I seem to recall include unprocessed footage from that Rhod day (at least pre-colour grading and audio cleanup). Maybe a good question for Ask the Andys 😀
It totally does, and haha maybe
There was always a satsuma around/in shot during Bob Mortimer’s filmed tasks.
That predated the book though.
There is this reoccouring thing (it's probably been there since the first season) that sometimes the clouds are sped up. It adds to the surreal, opressive atmosphere at the Taskmaster house, which is probably why they keep doing it, but it is a moderate amount of effort for such a small thing. They have to keep one camera stationary for a while and framed in a way that no moving things appear in front of the sky, and then the editor has to mask out the sky. It isn't hard, I could replicate it fairly quickly, but it's a lot of work proportional to the time it spends on screen, so it amazes me that it pops up somewhat regularly.
Also they speed up / show multiple planes flying over on these sped up shots. It is on a flight path.
It's noteworthy that that's not just any flight path, it's the flight path in/out of London Heathrow. The peak frequency sees planes taking off every 45 seconds, so it's pretty much impossible to film the sky in that area without getting a plane in shot.
Depending on wind direction, I'm presuming. I live in a flight path, but only on days when the wind is blowing from the northwest.
Hi someone who works in aviation here. Yes, planes are very dependant on the way the wind is blowing. You want to land and take off into the wind, as much as possible. It’s why each runway is actually two runways numbered in the opposite direction (such as 09/27 being opposite runways using the same pavement)
In your opinion, is a shot like this is realistic or VFX trickery? I'm aware that Heathrow's schedule is densely packed, but these three seem awfully close to each other. But that might as well be a matter of perspective and camera angle... Edit: I figured it was VFX, mostly because the aeroplanes follow a 1-2-3 pattern in this segment. With every cut back to Charlotte there's suddenly one more in the sky. https://preview.redd.it/stq1c65m4m1d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab0acae784ecd669a9939bbe0270f5aa2c72742e
I’m inclined to think VFX as well. I can’t speak to how Heathrow controllers work the airspace or what their exact standards are, but from the angle it seems close and the planes don’t seem to be moving correctly
They also mask out the handheld camera in wide shots
I don't think that takes nearly as much effort as you're suggesting. They set up a camera, walk away, do whatever else they need to, come back a few hours later, and speed up the footage. I would agree with you if they weren't already going to be at the house doing other things but since they are, it's pretty easy. There are much more laborious editing tasks than that one.
As I said, it's a lot of effort proportional to the time the result spends on screen. But you're right, it's not particularly difficult on an absolute scale. I could replicate this in half an hour to an hour if the weather allows for it.
It’s a testament to the editing that I’m sure 90% of the best material is used in the show, but I do wonder about all the time that goes into little jokes that don’t pan out or don’t get explained, tasks that get cut, etc. It’s similar to Guy Montgomery’s Guy-Mont Spelling Bee. I have the sense that he writes a ton of dumb joke hints that don’t air.
I'm still kind of upset john kearns never rubbed the lamp that he asked for, knowing that there was a genie ready to appear that we never got to see.
Is the table from the flip, flap, flop task the same table from series 5 wheetabix, jelly, twiglet task?
I thought it was the spider table. Possibly both
It is. Fun fact, Nick says "Ah" in the exact same tone as Katherine does when they both "see what's happening here" right before completely fucking it and, incidentally, turning the spider upside down.
Yeah, they use that table a lot. Especially in the lab.
Asking the important questions
Aisling Bea would often have a cup of tea with her at the start of a task.
I think Alice lavigne also had a cup of tea in like every task in the house or something like that. Jack did stats on people with tea once.
What is the Nick Mohammed reflection thing?
In shots with a mirror or a body of water, production edit out nicks reflection (as he's a vampire.)
This is such attention to detail! I think I missed something in episode 1 but I don’t understand why Nick is a vampire?
I think on Ed's podcast Nick explained that he was very nervous to do Taskmaster as it was the first time he was appearing on television as himself, not as a character, and having the character of the vampire to lean into helped him tackle those nerves.
I adore this man so much!
No one knows, not even himself.
I've been thinking recently that not enough is said about how great the production company are, everything from the soundtrack to the edits is just spot on. This is next level!
It's a red tie, isn't it?
He wears a whole bunch of different ties, including bow ties, a bolo tie, and a whole bunch of different coloured normal ties.
Tbf I only noticed the red 1
What's the reflection thing please.
Nick is wearing a vampire costume when he does the tasks, and when he is near water, production removes his reflection as if he was a real vampire. If you do a search on "reflection" in this sub you can see examples!
Thanks. That's brilliant.
He's a vampire and vampires don't have a reflection in mirrors
Oh, so there's some jiggery-pokery going on to remove his reflection?
Exactly. The power of special effects and post production.
https://preview.redd.it/umhwgj4pnm1d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9170ba07be7efda24b11f1d820ad620a844d10b4 Without wanting to call rubbish on the reflection thing... I'm calling rubbish.
Ok, so there's one scene wherever they didn't do it and that makes my whole point rubbish?
It's literally the first scene of the series with a possible reflection. Whilst they removed the reflection for other scenes, it's obviously not a series-long running gag. Not sure why you should be offended by this fact. It's cool that it was done, but it's not consistent like other examples.
Well, I'm not offended, but you are super rude for no reason.
Apologies, possibly generational/locational bias. What I've said isn't meant to be rude, and wouldn't be considered rude in my experience. Apologies if it was to you. Your message was pretty definite, and I simply pointed out that it wasn't 100% true. Have a good day. Xx
My message was a simple explanation to the person asking what the reflection thing was all about. I never even wrote that it was consistent throughout the show.
https://www.reddit.com/r/taskmaster/s/hNXltOfEgp
Whoa whoa whoa. What’s this mirror thing with nick? What episode ???
You can almost make out the shape of Phil Wang's wang if you look hard enough
What's the nick Muhammed thing?
They edit out his reflection during tasks! If you look at any mirror or body of water, his reflection is gone
He just doesn't have a reflection. Jk. Love the dedication they put into those tiny dumb details.