Book info

• Title Taskmaster: 220 Extraordinary Tasks for Ordinary People
• Author Alex Horne
• Year 2018
• Genres Non-fiction, Humour

In the TV show and on my marriage certificate, my job description is Taskmaster’s Assistant. That’s what I do and it’s an honour. I like Taskmaster a lot. And, of course, I love The Taskmaster. He’s mountainous. If you feel in any way the same as me then you should enjoy this book. There are tasks for you, your friends and your family. There are secret things and sneaky tricks. And there is one swear word. So it’s almost exactly like being on the show. Good luck. Make good choices. Let’s do Him proud.

Review

My obsession with Taskmaster meant I was always going to eventually read this book, but it wasn’t until creator Alex Horne was tweeting about the picnic meet-up that I was properly invested.

So backing up a little - the book is really just a list of tasks that you can take part in yourself, either as a solo project or as a group endeavour. They’re fun tasks but of course the real comedy and enjoyment comes from how you interpret them.

Every now and then, there are some facts and snippets, behind-the-scenes information from the TV show and glimpses at what the celebrities did when they were tasked with the same or similar projects. If I’m honest, I would have liked more of this because I didn’t have much of an intention of doing the tasks so could skim-read a lot of that.

One of the tasks told readers to gather at a certain longitude and latitude and meet for a picnic. Alex Horne was expecting a handful and planned a few things for them to do. In the end, about 1,800 people turned up so that they had to curtail their plans and stick with the picnicking. What a great and beloved thing Taskmaster has turned into from what is essentially some guy thinking up weird ways to embarrass his comedian friends.

Back to the book, all there is to say is that if you’re a Taskmaster fan, it’s worth a look, but if you’re not bothered about actually reading or doing the tasks, it’s probably not going to have enough in there to satisfy.

Rating: 3 / 5