Top 10 Taskmaster Contestants Who Tried to be Funny and Failed

Ah, the water cooler moment. It remains one of the most legendary tasks in the show’s history, coming all the way back in series 5. But while Sally Phillips was easily the most memorable, Mark Watson’s was an abject failure. He went high concept and tried to pass the water cooler around the country, with the idea that it would go on a journey and that everybody who took it would write their names and something nice. Unfortunately, nobody else was as invested in Mark Watson winning “Taskmaster” as Mark Watson, and basically gave up as soon as they had the water cooler in their possession. It was one of his most uninspired tasks, especially after the highs of the text message saga.

Baroness Warsi made yet another television appearance by competing in “Taskmaster’s” New Year Treat, as one of the only members of the House of Lords to have degraded themselves for Greg Davies’ pleasure. Perhaps Warsi is funny for a politician, but that’s still miles away from the professional entertainers that “Taskmaster” usually gets. From bringing a Christmas tree to a New Year’s episode and trying to insist that it was “beguiling” to Greg, to sucking up an egg with a hoover, she couldn’t compare to the unfettered chaos that Adrian Chiles and Claudia Winkleman brought to this special episode.

Most series of “Taskmaster” have a token non-comedian among the group to add some flavour, and in this series, it was actress Charlotte Ritchie. Her affable nature and approach to the tasks earned her a reputation as a children’s TV presenter or a primary school teacher, which Greg brought up throughout the series. Despite not being able to deliver one-liners with the ruthlessness of fellow contestant Lee Mack, she was still a joy to watch as long as she wasn’t TRYING to be funny in the moment. Her abysmal prize tasks were easily some of the worst we’ve ever seen, too.

Rather than trying to be funny during the tasks, Iain Stirling often let rage get the better of him. He was definitely one of the angriest “Taskmaster” contestants ever, even compared to Ed Gamble and Paul Chowdry. But the most memorable instance where Stirling lost his temper was during the hammock task where he and Lou Sanders locked horns while a helpless Paul Sinha looked on. It was more upsetting to watch than anything, as neither of them listened to each other, but Iain definitely came off worse. Even he was horrified when he had to watch it back afterwards, apologising for his behaviour.

In this inaugural edition of New Year Treat, TV personality and former “X Factor” contestant Rylan Clark was on. Greg Davies was anticipating that Rylan was going to be misbehaving the most, though this turned out to be inaccurate when “Strictly’s” Shirley Ballas started talking. But while Rylan was as unhinged as all good “Taskmaster” contestants, his costume fell a bit flat. He showed up to the studio dressed as Greg, but during the tasks, was wearing an elaborate outfit designed to look like Greg was giving him a piggyback. Unfortunately, it looked like something else entirely. But at least he’d throw a better party than Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

One of the first non-comedians on the show was series 6’s Alice Levine, best known for being a radio DJ at the BBC. Though she and Russell Howard triumphed in many of their team tasks – notably the one with the shower – she wasn’t the most consistently entertaining. Infamously, when asked to bring in some interesting footwear, Levine produced an absolutely repulsive pair of verruca socks. It was just one in a long line of terrible Levine prizes, and it’s no wonder that she only managed to win one episode. Even that was surprising after we had to see her rate Tim Vine’s foot.

Professional poker player and presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell has many, MANY talents, but being funny under pressure perhaps isn’t one of them. She went on the record as hating practical jokes and misunderstood Alan Davies’ football team allegiance, apparently unaware that getting him, an Arsenal supporter, tickets to Manchester United, was a BAD gift. She had plenty of legendary moments too, though, like solving the team riddle task almost singlehandedly and adding up the scores quicker than Greg and Alex could manage with their pens, paper, and calculators. But who could forget her pitiful impression of a scary monster, the only one Greg managed to guess in the final round?

Like Victoria, Paul Sinha isn’t known for being funny but for being clever, as one of ITV’s notorious Chasers. While the others floundered in the challenge where they had to remember the playing cards, struggling to find a pen, Sinha just got down to it and memorised the whole deck. But there’s just not a lot of entertainment in watching someone be too good at something on “Taskmaster”. He’s excellent on “The Chase” when his wealth of knowledge is being called on, but definitely isn’t as exciting when trying to complete tasks. Then again, he did have the bold idea to move the finishing line during the ball task.

Like Nish Kumar before him, Kearns was notable because of how bad he was at basically everything he was asked to do. It was fitting, then, that Kearns was given the secret task of sabotaging one of his team tasks with Fern Brady and Dara O’Briain. He could be so relied on to fail that it was no wonder Fern and Dara didn’t realise he wasn’t just an idiot and was making problems on purpose. But it was during the prize tasks where he shone – or rather, didn’t shine, because he was another contestant with a knack for picking the worst prizes possible, chief among them a silly little sailor’s hat. Greg was deeply unimpressed.

From repeatedly bragging about what a hit “Three Lions” was in the 1990s to constantly getting on Ed Gamble’s nerves, David Baddiel proved to be a nightmare of a contestant. He was another who was bad at the tasks and constantly needed things explaining to him – usually by Gamble, who just got angrier and angrier – but he also wasn’t a gracious loser. In full view of everyone he tried to cheat in one of the live tasks by jumping up and down to make his rubber egg go further, which was very unsportsmanlike. Losing on “Taskmaster” is a far cry from performing at Wembley. Let us know in the comments which “Taskmaster” contestants you think shouldn’t have been on the show.