Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 7: The Stats Round Up

Wow hang on no oh god stop it! This stats yadda yadda is filled with spoilers for Taskmaster Series 21 Episode 7 — do not go this picture of Jo Brand asking if she and David Baddiel should make some inappropriate noises unless you have seen this week’s episode of Taskmaster!

Armando Socks It To The Competition: another great episode for Armando Iannucci (22, 4.4PPT) sees him whizz himself into fourth place — while Kumail Nanjiani (19, 3.8PPT) is now just 3 points behind Joanna Page (15, 3.0PPT) at the top of the table!

Let’s make like Joel Dommett and cover our faces entirely with the sellotape of STATS!

• Armando becomes the first contestant to score 21+ points in two episodes this series, after scoring 24 points in Episode 5. Armando continues a slightly strange quirk of the series so far — every episode has been won with a score of 20 points or more, and no contestant has scored 20 points or more and not won the episode. This is the first time this has happened after seven episodes in a series, making the show fairly unique — episodes are being won by high scores and large margins…
• But if it’s not close in the episodes, it’s certainly close in the series. After a rather topsy-turvy episode, the gap between the contestants has narrowed even further — there are now just 11 points between Joanna in first place and Armando in fourth. There have been just four times it’s been closer at this stage between first and fourth (6 points in Series 9, 10 points in Series 10, 3 points in Series 12 and 6 points in Series 18). Could Armando pull off one of the greatest shocks of all time and win this whole thing? In a word — no. No contestant has ever been 11 points behind at this stage and gone on to win, nor has a contestant been in fourth place at this stage and gone on to win. Armando could take inspiration from Richard Herring, who was 10 points back and in joint third at this stage before storming the final three episodes of Series 10 — but Richard had led the competition previously and his Episode 7 was more of a blip in a consistent series, compared to Armando’s rather chaotic swings from sublime to ridiculous. Similarly Armando could look to Andy Zaltzman, a contestant who looked down and out until the second half of Series 18 — he’s the only contestant to take the lead for the first time in the series after seven episodes, although again Andy was in second place by this stage in his series, and just 4 points back. If I were Armando, I’d focus less on where the trophy was going to sit on my mantelpiece and more on learning whether or not contact with someone’s bum counted as “touching”…

• The prize task (“best bumpy thing”) saw Kumail Nanjiani finally win his first prize task of the series — it’s the latest a contestant has won their first prize task since Series 19, when Fatiha El-Ghorri took until Episode 8 to win for her prayer mat (of course, Rosie Ramsey would go the entire series without winning a prize task). Meanwhile, Amy Gledhill, by bringing in a famously turbulent flight from London to Venice, became the third contestant to give an overseas flight as a prize task, after Tim Key brought in a flight to Cologne in Series 1, and Richard Herring gave a trip for two to Pompeii in Champions of Champions 2. Amy does become the first contestant to bring in a flight and score as low as 2 (as Tim and Richard scored 5 and 4 respectively) — it seems incomprehensible that it scores lower than Armando’s menu for an Indian restaurant, but here we are…
• Joanna, meanwhile, scored 1 for her horrific art project “Mr Bump” — it’s an example of a contestant bringing in a piece of art they made themselves and Greg scoring it badly, with previous examples including Katherine Parkinson’s clay masks in Series 10 and Sam Campbell’s creepy little baby figurine in Series 16. Joel brought in a picture of his acne-ridden teenage face — it’s the third time he’s mined his personal history in prize tasks, after bringing in his son’s umbilical cord in Episode 1 and his teenage diary in Episode 6. Overall things are tightening up a bit in prize tasks — there are now just 6 points between all of them, with top prize tasker Armando (26) three ahead of Joel (23), who is in turn three ahead of Joanna, Kumail and Amy (20). If things continue this way, this will be the second closest for prize tasks in a ten episode series, with only Series 8 featuring a tighter range of prize taskers. Armando needs a perfect run in the final three episodes to equal Maisie Adam’s record of prize tasks points (41)— and again, given that he’s brought in a menu for an Indian restaurant, it doesn’t look good.

• Task one (“turn on the TV”) was judged based on the fewest number of button presses. In this sense it was similar to Series 18’s “Pick the Taskmaster’s locket from its pocket”, Series 18’s “Ring the bell” and Series 14’s “Find the back of your hand”, where time was not the primary issue — it’s more about being deliberate with one’s decisions and concocting a plan rather than jumping straight in and pressing as many buttons as possible (hint hint, Amy and Joanna). This is illustrated by the way that Armando took the longest timewise but still came second. The task also featured the secret compartment in the study (which one of the remotes opened) — it’s the first time this series that the secret compartment has featured, having previously been the location of the “magic moustache” task in Series 19. Joel was unfortunately knocked down into last place due to his bum touching the TV (which does count, Armando) — it’s the second time this series that a contestant has fallen victim to Alex’s “I do have something to show you” technique in the studio (where Alex shows a piece of footage which undermines a contestant’s effort), after Kumail’s effort in the alphabet task in Episode 3. Kumail won this task — amazingly, he’s won six of the last eight tasks, having won three of the previous twenty four (two of which were team tasks).

• Task Two (“Have serious fun in the lab without smiling”/“completely revoice this footage”) is the second time a task has required teams of contestants to re-record the audio of footage, after Series 9’s “supply the sound for the film” in Episode 8. It’s also the second time contestants have recorded a first part of a task without knowing that they would have to add an extra layer on top of it in the second part, after Series 12’s “Play the most brilliant minute of socially-distanced sport”/“Provide the most iconic and memorable commentary for this brilliant minute of socially distanced sport”, as well as the second time teams have had to have fun in the first part of a task without realising there would be a second part of the task (after Series 6’s “have the most fun/recreate your fun”). Adding sound to recorded footage has also been done in Taskmaster Australia, when Josh Thomas had to record the sound effects for a short film in Series 2 (receiving 5 points for his efforts). For more Taskmaster Australia and Taskmaster New Zealand facts, subscribe to Morgan Leshniowsky’s Taskmaster Australia and New Zealand stats here!
• A few of the items which the contestants were given to have fun with have been seen in previous series — the gold envelope was previously in the “push the envelope” task in Series 18, while the big briefcase of dice was used in the New Years’ Treat 2026 (although it’s worth saying that confusingly this series was likely filmed long before that New Years’ Treat, so it’s actually the New Years’ Treat task which is using a prop previously seen in an unseen episode of Taskmaster oh god my head hurts). Meanwhile Amy Gledhill unconsciously echoed a previous Taskmaster moment when she tried to hula and failed immediately, much like James Acaster in Series 7. It was a tricky task as the contestants also had to voice each other (which led to the second occasion of the series where Joel has wondered if he could do Kumail’s accent and the social consequences of doing do) — ultimately the Team of Three lost out, and that means that the Team of Two are in the lead for the first time since the first episode (19 points to 18). If the Team of Two are able to hang on, they’ll match the achievements of Maisie Adam and Reece Shearsmith last series, and it’ll be the first time the Team of Two has won in successive series since Lee Mack and Mike Wozniak in Series 11, following on from Daisy May Cooper and Richard Herring in Series 10.

• Task three (“make the most socks stand up”) is the first filmed task to involve Alex and Greg’s delightful coloured socks since Series 14, when the contestants had to sort the ducks into buckets. Armando triumphed here with a wonderful piece of lateral thinking (switching the camera angle so that the floor became the wall and the socks were, in effect, standing up). It’s a clever bit of simple camera trickery, and perhaps the most ingenious since Series 10, when Mawaan Rizwan made Linda the cow “disappear” (by using a smaller cow which was closer to the camera lens). Amy also tried a less literal route (getting the socks to perform sock-based stand-up, and having the socks stand up for the worryingly vague “rights for everybody”), while Kumail made the decision to stuff the socks into a jumpsuit which he then hoisted into an upright position — this paid off, scoring 4 points. Indeed, both Joanna and Joel went down a more prosaic route (just putting socks on stuff) and scored 2 and 1 respectively — it’s only the third time all series that Joanna has scored 2 or fewer in a filmed objective task, and may be a sign that her usual tactic of just getting on with the task without much grander tactics is starting to fail her…

(A previous version of this article called the cow Daisy, not Linda. My deepest apologies to Linda the Cow, and to Rylan Clark whose mother gave the name to the cow, and my thanks to reddit user JRSalinas for calling me up on this grievous error.)

• The live task (“snort, raspberry or whistle in the order the Taskmaster desires”) was similar to last series’ incredibly tense “wibble-bibble-bam” task in the final episode (which ultimately would lead to the three-way tie at the end). “Snort, raspberry and whistle” is a sequence which we’ve seen before on Taskmaster — in Series 14 there was a task where contestants had to snort, raspberry and whistle for as many times in a minute as possible. This was originally meant to be a tiebreaker, but Fern Brady had such a remarkable breakdown doing it that it made the main show (similar to David Baddiel’s lasso based breakdown in Series 9). It was Armando who was victorious here, and it continues a strange trend which Connor Ruse pointed out on Bluesky last week: in six out of seven of the episodes this series, the person who won the live task has gone on to win the episode, with Armando’s 4 points in Episode 5 the only outlier…

All Time Leaderboard

• She’s still ahead in the series but only just — Joanna Page’s 15 (3.0PPT) means that she falls out of the all-time top ten, putting her level with Ed Gamble and Guz Khan in 11th with a series PPT of 3.34. Indeed it was the team task (where she and Armando bagged 5) which kept this week’s episode respectable for Joanna — she averaged just 2.5PPT in solo tasks this week, including another 1 in prize tasks. She’s now scored 1 point in three prize tasks — no other contestant has had more than one 1 point there (with Armando not scoring fewer than 2). It’s a familiar story for Joanna — she’s still the worst in the series at subjective tasks (3.00PPT, 70th on the all time list, alongside Series 3 champ Rob Beckett), but still the best at objective tasks (3.55PPT, 5th on the all time list). Joanna still just about has her nose ahead in solo filmed tasks, with a PPT of 3.47 (just ahead of Kumail and Amy on 3.35) — this remains the best indicator of who will win the series. Since the show moved to ten episodes, the contestant with the best solo filmed task score has gone on to win the series nine out of fifteen times. There are notable exceptions (Maisie Adam just last year and Andy Zaltzman in Series 18), but the good news for Joanna is that no-one is really knocking it out of the park in prize tasks or live tasks — while Armando and Kumail have scored more than Joanna in the studio, it’s not, so far, enough to eat into her solo filmed task score. Although if she keeps mashing buttons on remotes and piling socks onto her legs, that might not last long…

• There’s a new contestant in second place — Kumail Nanjiani had another great episode (19, 3.8PPT) and thus shoots ahead of Amy, into joint 14th on the all time chart alongside Kerry Godliman with a series PPT of 3.26. Kumail has hit a rich vein of form, scoring 39 points in the past two episodes — only two contestants have managed a better return in two successive episodes (Joanna Page in Episode 1 and 2 scored 41, Amy Gledhill in Episodes 2 and 3 scored 42). Unlike Joanna, Kumail is a bit of an all-rounder — he’s second in objective tasks (3.32PPT, behind Joanna), third in subjective tasks (3.15PPT, behind Armando and Joel) and second in studio tasks (3.15PPT, behind Armando). Kumail’s sudden upturn in form has been remarkable — at the end of Episode 5, he had won just two solo tasks all series, but two episodes later he’s on seven, overtaking Joel and Amy in the process. It remains to be seen whether this is a Phil Ellis-esque journey (IE, a slow start hiding a fierce competitor who comes within a whisker of winning the whole thing) or a Kiell Smith Bynoe-like purple patch (IE, a decent run that comes far too late and ends up reverting to their shoddy early-series form by the end), but for now it’s just exciting to be on the (somewhat bumpy) ride…

• A poor episode for Amy Gledhill (10, 2.0PPT) sees her crash out of the all-time top 10 and into 28th place on the all-time chart, between Richard Herring and Katy Wix. This was Amy’s lowest score of the series, and the second time she has failed to score higher than a 3 in a task (after Episode 5) — strangely, Kumail Nanjiani (currently in second place) is the only other contestant to have had an episode where they scored at least a 4 (his was all the way back in Episode 1). This is the first time all series that Amy has been out of the top two in the series score at the end of an episode — somewhat remarkably she’s now closer to Armando in fourth (5 points ahead) than Joanna in first (6 points behind). Amy is currently in fourth place in the series in subjective tasks (3.08PPT, only ahead of Joanna Page), but given the high ratio of objective tasks in the series (over 62% of the tasks this series have been objective tasks, currently the highest proportion since Series 1), that’s actually having less of an effect as one might expect. She’s not doing great in objective tasks either, averaging 3.23PPT (third behind Joanna and Kumail). She’s the only contestant not to win a “fastest wins” task this series, and she’s also the lowest scoring contestant in the studio alongside Joel Dommett, averaging 2.93PPT in studio tasks (which, in fairness, isn’t a dreadful return historically, putting her in joint 54th place on the all-time chart). Amy can come back — 6 points is not an impossible deficit to make up in the final three episodes (last series Maisie came back from 9 points behind at this stage, while in Series 10 Richard Herring was 10 points back after Episode 7). However, her tactic of aiming for the middle rather than winning tasks (she’s won the second fewest number of solo tasks but also lost the fewest) means she’s probably reliant on Joanna and Kumail imploding rather than being able to rack up points herself. Her lack of recent points in the prize task (she hasn’t scored more than a 3 in a prize task since Episode 2) also makes it hard to build up points in an episode. At least she’s more likely to win Taskmaster than she is to headline Live at the Apollo with her sock gags…

• Leaping up into fourth it’s Armando Iannucci — his episode win puts him in 49th place on the all-time chart with a PPT of 3.03, his highest of the series so far. Like Joanna, Armando’s success is down to one type of task — in his case, the subjectively judged ones, where he’s averaging 3.62PPT, currently the 12th best score of all time (just behind Dara Ó Briain and fellow Scot Fern Brady). He’s faring worse in objective tasks — although better than he was previously, as he’s now averaging 2.68PPT (71st on the all-time chart) and above Joel Dommett for the first time this series. Indeed, his sock stand-up achievement was only his second objective filmed task win of the series, after “get the ball in the glass” in Episode 5. Filmed tasks are not Armando’s strong suit — he’s averaging just 2.59PPT there, the joint 20th worst score ever, although he is also shoring up points there now and has pulled well clear of the Baddiel Zone as a result. Armando is the most inconsistent player of the series currently — he’s come first in seven solo tasks and last in seven solo tasks, meaning that he’s been either top or bottom in 47.47% of all solo tasks this series. He still has some way to go to match the inconsistencies of other contestants though — Bridget Christie still reigns supreme there, coming first or last in twenty nine solo tasks in Series 13 (65.20% of all solo tasks). If nothing else, Armando will have a great career as a duck interviewer in the future…

• Finally bringing up the rear is Joel Dommett, whose disappointing 10 (2.0PPT) means that he falls to the back of the series score, and down to 81st in the all-time chart with a series PPT of 2.80 (between Fatiha El-Ghorri and Doc Brown). Joel is currently on 98 points for the series — he therefore joins a select group of twenty contestants to fail to reach three figures after seven episodes of the series. He’s still a good few points clear of the record low score after seven episodes — that belongs to Charlotte Ritchie, who had just 78 points at this stage (so in comparison, Old Eggboy is smashing it). While Joel may be at the bottom, he’s not actually doing too badly — he’s second best at prize tasks (3.29PPT), second best at subjective tasks (3.38PPT) and joint top of subjective tasks excluding prize tasks (3.50PPT). However, he’s had some bad luck with objective tasks — he has won just two objectively judged solo filmed tasks all series, the last of which came in Episode 4, and he’s now averaging just 2.45PPT in that metric, 87th on the all-time chart, behind Paul Chowdhry and Lucy Beaumont. Joel also isn’t great at live tasks — another 2 points here hasn’t helped his average of 2.57PPT, the worst in the series. Joel is not going to win (sorry) but he can take some solace from previous series in his chances of rising up the table— he has a higher PPT score currently than Jason Mantzoukas and Stevie Martin (both 2.57PPT) after seven episodes, who both stormed the final three to finish third and second respectively in Series 19, while he’s also doing better than Iain Stirling after seven episodes (2.66PPT), who would, in the end, finish second in Series 8. Go on, you weird tape-faced man, you can do it!

If you want more stats, simply get Joanna Page to syringe jelly beans into your ear so that they spurt out your mouth. Or click here for the Terrifying Spreadsheet!

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And don’t forget to listen to Taskmaster The People’s Podcast this week, where Jenny and I discuss bubble smoke machines, whether sock stand-up is going to catch on, and if it’s ever OK to joke about venereal diseases!