Tara Ward watches the return of Taskmaster NZ and experiences an unexpected surge of patriotic pride.
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Ben Hurley is standing barefoot on the grass, about to make sporting history. Half a world away, the nation’s most elite athletes are fighting for sporting glory at the Paris Olympics, but this New Zealand comedian is about to remind us that not all heroes wear lycra.
Midway through a Taskmaster NZ challenge, Hurley is tasked with pushing a single block of wood out of a tall, shaky Jenga-style tower from a distance of at least two metres. If he knocks the tower down, the challenge is over, but Hurley knows that fortune favours the brave. Against all common sense and logic, Hurley decides to launch a tennis ball at the tower, in the hope of pushing out one tiny block.
It’s a wild choice. It’s extremely reckless. “Imagine if it just flies out,” Hurley jokes to Taskmaster assistant Paul Williams, as he launches the ball into the air. The ball floats towards the tower and quickly bounces off. Before our very eyes, a single yellow block slides smoothly out of the tower, and falls silently onto the grass below.
It’s one of the most impressive moments in Taskmaster history, and a stellar way to launch the fifth New Zealand season of the popular comedy panel show. Taskmaster NZ returned to TVNZ this week, bringing with it five new comedians willing to put themselves through a series of pointless and perplexing tasks in the hope of impressing Taskmaster Jeremy Wells.
This season has a cracking cast, with Abby Howells, Ben Hurley, Hayley Sproull, Tofiga Fepulea’i and Tom Sainsbury bringing energy and creativity to each task. With Fepulea’i unable to attend the in-studio recordings (a true shame, as I’d have loved to see his extremely chill approach to Taskmaster play out in the live studio segments), several Taskmaster NZ fan favourites will step in to defend his honour over the next ten episodes. Madeleine Sami subbed in seamlessly for in episodes one and two.
Hurley, Sproull and Sainsbury are seasoned performers, Howells is delightful and full of surprises, while nothing seems to phase Fepulea’i. The challenges are intriguing and quirky, but the show is always strongest when it captures the unique ways that five people approach the same task.
I loved the completely ridiculous “who can throw their shoes the closest together” challenge at the end of episode one (more incredible athleticism, this time from Howells), as well as the “celebrate the best goal” challenge that saw Fepulea’i fire up the barbecue and snack on some (probably still pink) chicken nibbles. “That’s genius,” Sami said when she saw the post-goal sausage sizzle. “That made me so happy.”
That’s what Taskmaster NZ is all about: finding joy in the most unexpected, ridiculous moments. It must be a challenge to keep a well-known show like Taskmaster feeling fresh, but season five feels vibrant and confident. The cast is having a great time, the Taskmaster’s banter feels more relaxed, and visually, it has moments that look like a work of art. Hang this in the Louvre, or at the very least, the Taskmaster NZ caravan:
Perhaps they can hang it next to that photo of Hurley on what was surely the proudest day of his life. “One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen,” Williams declared, while Wells called it “the greatest thing that’s ever happened in the history of New Zealand”. A gold medal-worthy performance indeed, even if the Taskmaster didn’t even give Hurley maximum points for pulling it off. That didn’t make any sense, but then again, nothing on Taskmaster ever does – and that’s exactly what makes it work.
Taskmaster streams on TVNZ+ and screens on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7.30pm on TVNZ2.