She came all the way back to Aotearoa to appear on Taskmaster NZ – only to end up being chased by a maniacal mob of sheep.
Rose Matafeo was trudging through some long green grass on the edge of the Taskmaster NZ property when suddenly, her life was in danger. The award-winning comedian, writer and actor had spent the last 30 minutes in a fruitless and bewildering search for the correct red flag, and she’d had enough. She’d already found plenty of red flags – maybe 10, maybe 10,000 – but according to the Taskmaster’s assistant Paul Williams, none of those red flags were the correct red flag.
Then, Matafeo saw it – one last, lonely red flag, blowing in the breeze on the far side of the lake. As they made the long walk towards the flag, Williams realised they weren’t alone. There are sheep nearby, Williams told Matafeo, but his warning came too late. The sheep had already spied Matafeo, and started to trot towards her, picking up pace with each sheepy step. Turns out, sheep are surprisingly quick. “Stop, stop, stop!” Matafeo cried, and began to run for her life.
What happened next was one of the most New Zealand things in the history of Taskmaster NZ, or perhaps even the history of the world. Matafeo pulled off a world-first earlier this month by becoming the first person in the world to appear on three different versions of the comedy panel series that celebrates spontaneity and silliness. She hoped to put her significant Taskmaster experience to good use in Aotearoa by remembering to read each task carefully, and taking a moment to consider all her options. Now, she has broken another record, by becoming the first person to be chased by sheep on Taskmaster.
Episode six of Taskmaster NZ season seven began like any other, with a wacky prize task that saw the contestants bring in “the best spiky thing”. So far, so Taskmaster, but things then took a turn when Williams bought out the biggest task we’ve ever seen – a giant piece of folded paper that the contestants had to read from afar using binoculars. “Paul! That’s comically large!” Matafeo shouted from the balcony. “You look like Mike Teavee!”
Like all great Taskmaster tasks, there was a trick to it. While the contestants read the task instructions and scoured the property in search of “the correct red flag”, they’d overlooked the small print – ‘red’ was actually written as ‘bread’.
All the contestants had to do was wave the baguette and toast flag next to them, and the task would be over in seconds. But Matafeo didn’t do that. Instead, she committed to the cause, risking her life to find the correct red flag. She found red flags on the grass, by the trees, down the drive, and waved them all. She even tried waving two flags at once, but every time, Williams gave her the bad news. “I’ve not stopped the clock,” he said, over and over again. “Shit,” Matafeo replied.
Then, Matafeo saw that fateful red flag on the other side of the lake. It stood against a bucolic backdrop of water, bush and blue sky, with no hint of the horrors that lay ahead. Williams offered to accompany Matafeo, just in case “one of the sheep chases you”. He knew. “Be alert of sheep,” he warned again, as Matafeo climbed a fence and began to walk through the grass. “I can’t stress that enough.”
Do sheep like red? Do sheep like bread? Would they, could they, eat the Taskmaster’s head? Perhaps they were lured towards Matafeo by the scent of the two sauce bottles she brought to every task, or maybe sheep just really like flags. Either way, those fluffy little feckers were on the prowl. “They’ve seen us, Rose,” Williams shouted, as Matafeo began to run towards the red flag. At least five sheep began their chase. She must have felt their breath. I’m sure I heard them laugh.
But even that red flag still wasn’t the correct flag, and the sheep knew it. They continued their maniacal pursuit, not giving a single woolly shit about what Williams was up to, their rectangular pupils transfixed only on Matafeo. They gained so much ground that Matafeo ditched the flag in terror and made a sprint for it. “They’re running after you,” Williams said helpfully. Moments later, Matafeo reached the safety of the road, that famous no-sheep-allowed zone. “I was fighting for my life,” she cried.
New Zealand television and cinema has always appreciated the power of sheep. Shrek the Sheep was shorn live on the Holmes show, A Dog’s Show featured farmers putting different sheep in different pens, and we’ve even made horror films about them. Taskmaster NZ has now joined this fine sheepy tradition. This was another classic Taskmaster NZ moment that provided an outburst of unexpected joy in a world of chaos and calamity, a moment of TV magic – and those sheep don’t even know it. After Matafeo crossed into safe territory, the sheep stood and calmly sniffed that red flag, right where she dropped it. Their work was done. Perhaps it had been the correct red flag all along.
Taskmaster NZ streams on TVNZ+ and screens on Mondays and Tuesdays on TVNZ2 at 7.30pm.
