Taskmaster isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The delightful British comedy show, which features comedians performing absurd tasks for arbitrary points, is nearing the end of a stellar 16th season, and that's a number that may seem alarming. After 16 seasons, hosts Alex Horne and Greg Davies must be losing some steam, right? Luckily, wrong. According to them, they're in it for the long haul.
"We've always said that as soon as it stopped being fun we'd stop doing it," Davies told The Messenger. "And until it stops, you can rest assured that we're still chuckling away to ourselves and enjoying going to work."
Even after creating and executing more than 700 tasks over the course of the series, Horne – who is also the show creator and task mastermind – said he doesn't worry about running out of ideas. "There's certain bits which are trickier than others, you know, getting the right people," he said. "We're lucky in the UK that there are a lot of comedians, and there's still a lot of well known people who've not done it, and some brilliant new comedians who I can't wait to get on it. So I think the future is just… We carry on. We don't really have a five-year plan or even talk about it."
"But we do have an agreement that when the fun stops, it stops," Davies added. "And I don't feel that it's anywhere near feeling like the fun's over. I'm just delighted by it, each group that we have, and they always confound my expectations and they always surprise me and they always make me laugh, so we're happy."
Even if the fun were to stop in the U.K., the show has already become an international phenomenon.
While Davies and Horne lord over the original Taskmaster, the show has expanded all over the world. There are currently nine international versions, and four others have aired at least one season since 2016 (including the American iteration we don't talk about). If they wanted to, the Taskmasters could band together and rule over all the world's comedians, but fortunately they don't want to. Or at least Davies doesn't.
"I think that one of the joys of the show is that it's its own little universe," he said. "I think it's wonderful that it's formed other little universes, and they have sort of, within the confines of the rules, found their own little worlds. I think it's wonderful. But when we're doing our show, we just exist within that little universe, and it's quite intoxicating… It's like living an alternative existence for a while, and it's quite refreshing."
"It hasn't really changed things," Alex agreed. "But we did do a thing last year, which unfortunately Greg couldn't make, where lots of us got together in France and met up, and it was very funny to see everyone in their black suits. In one country, there's a female Greg, one country has a female me. Each country's got their own little spin on it, so I think that's probably the thing for me, seeing how Portuguese people do it or Swedish people do it, those subtle differences. But honestly, we just plow our own little furrow here and get on with it."
Eagle-eyed fans of other Taskmaster series will sometimes notice that the original has borrowed a few tasks, particularly from New Zealand. The general task will be the same, but there's usually a few changes, or "improvements," as Horne put it. But don't expect to see that happening much in the future.
"If I'm completely honest, when we have done it, there's some people on Twitter who say, 'Nah, I saw that on New Zealand,' and it makes me think we can't really do that anymore," Horne explained. "I think each one should be fresh, and I'm sort of proud of that. So yeah, it's a nice thing. I quite like it… I wouldn't just put one in wholesale, but if I see one of those and think that we could do that slightly better, then that's quite a good reason to do it."
"We steal, we improve," added Davies.
"We steal, we improve," Horne agreed. "That's always been our motto."
One of the few moments in Taskmaster history that could be called a failure is when Horne traveled to the U.S. to attempt an American season of the show. He played his usual role as the Taskmaster's assistant, but Reggie Watts starred as the Taskmaster. It aired one season in 2017, with contestants Freddie Highmore, Dillon Francis, Kate Berlant, Lisa Lampanelli, and Ron Funches. The main problem was that episodes were only half an hour, leaving little time for the banter and personality on display in the hour-long UK episodes.
Horne said that while another American season isn't really up to him, he has his thoughts on how to make an American season successful.
"Greg and I should host it, I would say," he said. "That would be really fun. That's what we would love to do, I think. Do it our way and make fewer concessions. I really love Reggie and he's a good friend, but I would love to have the two of us front it, if it ever happened again, but who knows."
"We'd love to get our teeth into some of those American comics," Davies said.
"It might be getting them over here (to the U.K.)," Horne added. "We'll bring them over here to do it in our little house. We definitely never say never, but that world is out of our control."
The Season 16 finale debuts in the U.S. on Friday at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on the show's YouTube channel, where all other seasons are also available to stream.