Series / Taskmaster Australia

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For all those seeking entertainment, you've come to the right place. For those sickos amongst you who specifically take joy in seeing comedians humiliating themselves while earnestly trying their best, all while trying to win a golden replica of my large head - good news! That's kind of our whole thing!

The Taskmaster, Tom Gleeson

Taskmaster Australia is an Australian edition of the UK program, premiering on Network Ten in 2023.

Featuring Tom Gleeson as the Taskmaster, and Tom Cashman as the Taskmaster's Assistant, here five comedians^note and the occasional children's television presenter trying to reinvent himself as a bad boy battle it out to see who can win a golden trophy in the shape of Tom Gleeson's head, via winning various tasks in and around the Taskmaster Retreat^note filmed the same location as Taskmaster New Zealand's 'Taskmaster Ranch', but referred to differently. The first English-language adaptation to localise its title and second antipodean edition.

This adaptation provides examples of:

• And Zoidberg:
  • Jimmy Rees is not a professional comedian, and so the series one cast are once introduced along the lines of:
    Four comedians, and one children's television presenter trying to reinvent himself as a bad boy!
  • In episode 6 of series one, Tom Cashman refers to the cast as "four Millennial comedians and Julia Morris".
  • In episode 2 of series four, Tom Gleeson refers to four comedians and Lisa McCune, wait three comedians and Lisa McCune and Tommy Little, wait four humans and Dave Hughes.
• Bait-and-Switch: At the end of the Series 3 premiere, Tom G announces that episode winner Aaron Chen gets to take home "a plague on humanity... and as well as the podcasters, [the winner] gets some leprosy!"
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: In "The Moment of Divorce Is Recorded", Anne and Josh produce a video for the team task in which Manipulative Editing is used to slander a public figure, and Tom describes it as "some of the best journalism I've seen on Channel Ten".
• The Bogan: As in much of his comedy career, Brett Blake plays into the stereotype in his Season 5 appearance, trying to incorporate fishing, stunt-driving, and/or explosions into many of his task attempts. The fact that his tertiary education was at a TAFE (technical college/vocational education) is a Running Gag throughout the series. (Fortunately, however, he is about as far removed as possible from the nastier, bigoted side of the stereotype.)
• The Bus Came Back:
  • "Roger," the Lesser Tom stand-in who cheerily greets the Season 1 case with a "buongiorno" during the pizza-carrying task, returns in Season 4 to be a decoy Lesser Tom again in the walkie-talkie task.
  • Across Taskmaster as a whole, Urzila Carlson, who'd previously competed in Taskmaster New Zealand Season 2, returns as a contestant in Season 6 of this version.
• Buried Alive: in episode 3's "thing you'd want to be buried with" prize task, Jimmy Rees and Luke McGregor both anticipate this, and so bring their phone and a shovel, respectively.
• Call-Back:
  • Danielle's claim in the "age or de-age yourself" task that she's 300 years old is accepted by Tom Gleeson as a call-back to her life montage in the first episode showing her dying at 410 years of age.
  • Nina's $50 bet with Tom Cashman that she'd win the whole season is referred to multiple times throughout the season as it becomes abundantly clear that she has no chance of winning the bet, and she brings in the $50 in the final episode for Tom.
  • During the "sink the bowling ball" task, Danielle makes a call-back to Luke's assertion in an earlier task that he didn't want to jump in the lake because bacteria might get into his butthole by saying that she fell into the lake off-screen while retrieving the bowling ball and "my asshole is in heaps of trouble now".
  • Luke says during the live task of "Lucky With a Sausage" that the medal he drew on his monster for the "make your monster more prestigious" part is one for sex, which Tom Gleeson recognizes as a call-back to Luke's montage in the first episode claiming that he won the Sex Grand Final.
• Call-Forward: The silent disco task in "Don't Slip On The Chips Old Man" was meant to be a call back to Mel and Concetta's night club in "Sorry About The Fingers." But because seasons 2 and 3 where released in the reverse order from when they where filmed, the former comes before the later.
• Celebrity Cameo:
  • In the Season 3 episode "A Bit of a Pickle," one of the tasks calls for getting a recording of a non-contestant with a "heavenly voice" to say the phrase "how now brown cow" and introducing it in an annoying voice. Most of the contestants are able to wrangle famous figures of varying degrees of celebrity — Rowan Dix from The Meeting Tree Podcast (Aaron), comedian and Season 2 champion Lloyd Langford (Mel), and Alex Horne (Concetta), the creator of the Taskmaster universe, himself. The most surprising and unexpected celebrity appearance is from Cate Blanchett (Rhys). They are all beaten by Peter's heavenly voice, which happens to be provided by Tom Gleeson's wife.
  • In the first task of the Season 5 episode "A Flaccid Paintbrush", the dog is played by Paul Williams, the Taskmaster New Zealand Assistant.
• Continuity Cavalcade:
  • The "Throw Something at Tom" task from "Fun Sexy Wrestle" took place over an entire day of filming for each contestant, and so clips are shown from a bunch of different tasks throughout the series.
  • Tommy's "Eureka!" Moment in the "Summon Tom to the Caravan" task from "The Beepie Beepies" is punctuated by the editing team with various moments of his from throughout the series, most prominently his upside-down face from "You Can Have Tomorrow Off School" flicking its tongue.
• Disqualification-Induced Victory: "A Hotly Contested Auction" has a task where contestants need to get all the balls (tennis balls, bouncy balls, and ping pong balls) from "this" container into "that" container without touching them with their hands. "This" container, however, does not have a bottom so anyone who tries to lift it would see several balls bounce away. Wil and Lloyd don't complete the task particularly quickly, but it transpires that Jenny, Anne, and Josh all touch the balls several times and get disqualified. Jenny decides that this will not stop her from getting the task done anyway while Anne and Josh immediately quit. While this decision to complete the task anyway does not earn Jenny any favour from Greater Tom or save her from disqualification, Anne and Josh are punished with negative points for setting a bad example.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Series 4 contestant Dave Hughes appears via phone call in Series 3 for Peter Helliar's attempt to fulfil his horoscope.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Tom Gleeson goes out of his way to give the teams different nicknames. In Season 1, however, only the team of three are given an official nickname ("The Bad Improv Troupe").
• Earpiece Conversation: The team task in Season 4 episode "You've Unleashed the Dragon" is to feed lines to two singles on their first and second dates. The team which generates the greatest amount of chemistry between the two wins.
• Epic Fail: In "Having a Menty B," Joel fails to unlock and free Lesser Tom from the box in that task, believing that he must have planted a speaker in his actual hiding location underneath the outdoor plinth. Because he decides to take the loss, this means that Joel spends the rest of the filming day completing his task without the supervision of Lesser Tom. Lesser Tom instead remains hidden in his spot underneath the plinth.
• Face Plant:
  • In "Don't Slip On The Chips Old Man," Lesser Tom slips on some sauce while trying to retrieve some hot chips at the end of Wil's attempt at the "collect the most hot chips" task. He falls face first and his iPad even slides quite a distance away. Wil has absolutely no sympathy because Tom had been referencing his age during the task. Contestants who filmed this task afterward have been provided a safety mat.
  • In "Burying A Backpacker," there is a task to hide 10 witches hats around the Taskmaster Retreat property and then Lesser Tom would have to search for them. When Aaron's clip is shown, Tom has just broken out of the shed and is running around the property frantically. Unfortunately, the ground is very wet and he slips on a patch of mud and falls on his face.
• Fan Disservice:
  • A task in "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM" is to completely cover the best thing with "generic" yeast spread, and the second part is to completely clean that item off. Julia Morris decides to cover herself in the yeast spread and takes a shower as part of the cleaning.
  • "You Can Have Tomorrow Off School" has a task to make the most pleasurable sound while being the most unpleasurable to look at. Dave dons a crazy wig and rolls up the bottom of his shirt to expose his midriff. He then turns around to reveal his Plumber's Crack. He does the same thing later in the studio when he tries to appeal his score.
• Frankenstein's Monster: Played with in "Nerd on Jock Action", a task is to dress up as Frankenstein. Only Dave Hughes recalls that Frankenstein is the doctor^note technically, the character isn't actually a doctor, but close enough and dresses in a suit and hat instead of makeup and bolts.
• Full-Name Basis: In the first episode, Gleeson makes a point of always addressing and referring to Cashman in full as "Tom Cashman", as if to say that there's room for only one "Tom" on the show and he's got dibs.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": Waka's prize entry in "What Is Life?" is a piercing on his wenis^note the flap of skin at the elbow joint. Greater Tom is initially surprised by the term. Emma asks if he knows what "wenis" means. He repeats that he doesn't, and Emma chuckles because she is able to prompt him to say the word "wenis" again.
• "I Can't Look!" Gesture: Season 4 finale "Yucky, Yucky, Yucky, That's You" has a task to do something outside of one's comfort zone (within reason — contestants are not allowed to harm themselves or others in the process). Emma settles on reciting a "wet monologue," which she performs while being doused by a hose. In the studio, Emma is unable to watch her own performance back and has to cover her eyes — she explains afterwards that it is the sincerity with which she recites the monologue which makes her cringe the most.
• In-Series Nickname: In later episodes, Gleeson settles on referring to Cashman as "Lesser Tom".
• Insistent Terminology: Lesser Tom is quite insistent about the Bland-Name Product in tasks, including "Generic Yeast Spread"^note Vegemite, "Generic Mints"^note a bowl of Lifesavers, and "Generic Orange Drink"^note Fanta.
• It Makes Sense in Context: Because Joel decides to forfeit the "free Lesser Tom from the box" task in "Having a Menty B," this means that he spends the rest of that filming day completing tasks without Lesser Tom supervising him. These tasks show up in episodes that are broadcast afterwards. In episode 9 of the season, Greater Tom lampshades this trope if viewers are tuning in to the episode and are confused why Lesser Tom is underground in Joel's attempt, but refuses to provide context and tells these viewers that they should have watched the previous episodes.
• Know When to Fold Them:
  • In Season 2, this attitude backfires on Anne and Josh in "A Hotly Contested Auction" — one of the rules in a task is that the contestants' hands cannot touch any balls, and they are disqualified at approximately 14 and 4 minutes into the tasks, respectively. When these contestants notice their errors, they immediately decide to stop and give up because they reason that there is no point in continuing with the task if they already won't earn any points. Jenny also breaks this rule several times, but still perseveres and gathers all of the balls from "this" container into "that" container with the slowest time of anyone. However, while Greater Tom doesn't reward this contestant for their persistence and they still receive 0 points, he decides that he needs to set an example of punishing people who give up straight away and "awards" Anne and Josh with -1 points each.
  • Using the precedent that he set in Season 2, Greater Tom continues to come down on contestants who give up on tasks in Season 5. Brett receives a minus point in "Jesus Would've Nailed This" when he becomes frustrated with the box and letter task and walks away from the task. Two episodes later in "Having a Menty B", Joel is unable to work out the solution to the task to unlock Tom from the box despite taking well over an hour, having a snack break, and walking past Tom's hiding location several times. He decides to forego the task and move on to the next one, during which Lesser Tom hilariously remains hidden in his box. Greater Tom punishes Joel with a minus point.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Don't Slip on the Chips Old Man," the first recorded task is to get as many hot chips in the fryer basket as possible. The contestants have been provided a helmet with a seagull figure attached on top and a needle in the seagull's beak and balloons filled with hot chips and non-hot chips (like microchips, poker chips, and woodchips) have been suspended above their heads within reaching height. Wil Anderson, the oldest member of the cast expresses some worry about health and safety when he notices that the floor is starting to become slippery with sauces. Tom Cashman then spends the duration of Wil's attempt gleefully reminding him not to "slip on the chips, old man." After the time is up, Lesser Tom walks over to check Wil's basket... only then to stack it.
• Lethal Joke Item: One of the tasks in "I'm the Girl One" has the contestants having to choose items and travel the furthest without touching the ground. None of them are particularly suitable, but one, a loaf of bread, stands out as particularly poor. As it turns out, inside it is a voucher for a cab ride from Lesser Tom. Anisa discovers this and uses it, earning her the win.
• Literal Metaphor: A couple tasks are realisations of idiomatic or metaphorical phrases like "let the cat out of the bag" (idiomatic meaning: revealing a secret by mistake — the actual task is to retrieve the toy cat from one of many identical bags).
• LOL, 69: Played with at the end of "The Moment of Divorce Is Recorded", when Lesser Tom is giving the cumulative series scores. He notes that one contestant has a score of 68, which is one off from his favourite number — 67. That contestant is one behind another who does have 69 adding to the Bait-and-Switch.
• Loophole Abuse: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Mood Whiplash: A task in Season 3 episode "Burying a Backpacker" is to film the most emotional scene with a drone. In Rhys's attempt, their film starts out as a property advertisement with Lesser Tom showing off the Taskmaster Retreat in a cheerful manner — until Rhys pops out of nowhere and repeatedly stabs Lesser Tom. We then see them dragging and disposing Tom's body in the lake.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg:
  • Tom Gleeson refers to the season 1 contestants on one occasion as "four comedians and a children's entertainer trying to reinvent himself as a bad boy," referring to Jimmy Rees.
  • He refers to the season 4 contestants as "5 comedians — sorry, 4 comedians and Lisa McCune" (who's a musical actress), then "3 comedians, Lisa McCune, and Tommy Little," then revises his introduction to "5 humans— sorry, 4 humans and David Hughes."
• Obvious Rule Patch: In "Dingo Dongo", Anne wins the live task after realising that, although the instructions require each contestant to be standing on the mat marking their spot while performing the task, they don't specify that the mat can't be moved closer to the target first. In the following episode, the instructions for the live task include the addition, "You may not move your spot or [the target], especially you, Anne."
• One-Steve Limit: In a first for the franchise, both the Taskmaster and his Assistant share the same first name. They do distinguish themselves by referring to one another as "Greater Tom" (Gleeson, the Taskmaster) and "Lesser Tom" (Cashman, the Assistant).
  • This is played for comedy when Season 3 contestant Concetta trashes Lesser Tom for being named Tom in the Video Task, only coming to the realization that by insulting Lesser Tom's name, she's also insulting Greater Tom's name.
  • The Series 4 cast also includes contestant Tommy Little, which means there are three Toms in the studio for that season.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: One task in Season 1 episode "Cricketmaster" asks the contestants to make the most persuasive cricket appeal. Unfortunately, only half the contestants know what a cricket appeal even is.
• Running Gag: When Greater Tom introduces the Season 5 cast at the beginning of each episode, Rove McManus is described as "Perth's very own Rove McManus." Amusingly, two of Rove's other cast mates (Brett and Joel) also hail from Perth.
• Say Par Ate Ted Words Gag: In the "make this doctor look like a fool' task, Nina Oyama tells a series of knock-knock jokes where the setup ends with a P sound, so that the doctor sounds like he's saying "poo" when he asks who. He humours her by going along with all of them, and she earns 5 points for the task.
  Nina: Knock knock.
  Joel: Who's there?
  Nina: I ate up.
  Joel: I ate up who?
  Nina: You ate a poo? Gross!
• Separated by a Common Language: Takashi is so confused by what "sus"^note Long-term Australian slang, and more recently, global Gen Z slang, short for suspicious means that he is deemed to be the least "sus", and declares in studio after watching every attempt he still doesn't understand.
• Serious Business: In "Where the War Happened", Celia, Joel, and Rove all get outraged when Tom Cashman mispronounces Elphaba's name as "el-PHA-ba" (the correct pronunciation is "EL-pha-ba").
• Tempting Fate: Nina becomes so cocky about her performance in the "let the cat out of the bag" task that she makes a $50 bet with Tom Cashman that she not only will win this task but will also win the whole season. Not only does she not win the task (because Danielle did even better than her), but she comes in next to last in the overall season rankings with the majority of her task performances being defined by her inability to read or follow the task instructions properly.
• Theme Naming: Starting with Season 2, Greater Tom has given himself the responsibility of naming the teams when the first team task is shown. He will try to name them along the same theme:
  • Season 2: The team of three is christened the "Discount Wiggles" because two of them are wearing bright primary colours. The team of two are named the "Premium Economy Hooley Dooleys^note the Hooley Dooleys were seen as a 90s poor man's attempt at The Wiggles". Their namesakes are children's entertainers, but the descriptors have been added to show that the teams are at about a similar level.
  • The Season 3 teams are named "Ernie and Bert" (in that order) and "The Muppets". Both names are derived from children's entertainment shows which feature Muppet characters.
  • The Season 4 teams are named "The A^note Aged Team" and "The B^note Better Team" in reference to both the teams' age groups and their apparent abilities at completing the team tasks.
  • Greater Tom has taken inspiration from radio for the Season 5 team names. The team of two have been named "The Breakfast Show" because these types of shows are usually hosted by one veteran of the entertainment industry (Rove) and an unknown (Anisa) while the team of three have been christened "The Drive Show" because it has three very different personalities cobbled together (Brett, Celia, and Joel) who would otherwise never hang out together.
• Visual Pun: "Lucky With a Sausage" has a task where the contestants have to convincingly age or de-age themselves. The task is introduced lying among a pile of clothes buttons and a 100 dollar US banknote (i.e. a Benjamin). Luke questions the setup of the task and is able to conclude that it represents Benjamin Button, the literary character who is born physically elderly and becomes physically younger as he ages.
• You Say Tomato: Season 2 contestant Lloyd Langford is Welsh and a relatively recent transplant to Australia. He has a strong Welsh accent, too, which gets him some ribbing from the other contestants. The most pronounced example is in "Fun Sexy Wrestle" when he says the word "here"^note sounding more like "h-yer" in his accent repeatedly and is prompted by Tom to say it properly.