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Main Cast
The Taskmaster
Luke Peichel (The Taskmaster)
- Demoted to Extra: As Carter is appointed the new Taskmaster for season two, Luke steps down to become one of the cameramen and significantly reduces his screen time to next to nothing. However, you can still hear the occasional comment from him offscreen while recording the tasks.
- Game Show Host: He's The Taskmaster in this Minnesota college production of the main UK series and the second American-based one after Taskmaster (U.S.).
The Taskmaster's Assistant
David Ha (The Taskmaster's Assistant)
- Behind the Black: He isn't as prominent during the VTs as the live recordings because he was standing behind the cameras to film the contestants.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Took a page from Alex Horne's book by reminding contestants that "All the information's on the task" like any good Taskmaster's assistant should.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: David's hair is a lot shorter and neater in the live recordings because of Owen's go at the "Annoy David" task. Let's just say hand sanitizer is a lot harder to wash off your hair than your hands.
- Let Me Get This Straight...: Said by David shortly before Parker's ill-advised firework attempt.
David: Ok, so just to be clear, you're going to be holding a torch... while wearing paper... wrapped around your body?
Parker: When you put it like that... it sounds really cool, so yes.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Answered the contestants' questions in a deliberately unhelpful manner. Did this to some extent with all contestants, but particularly with Max.Max: Is there anything that really explodes?David: Fireworks?Parker: What's the Rubik's cube for?David: You could solve it to entertain yourself.Parker: It's already solved.David: Are you entertained?Parker: (sadly) No...
Contestants
Season 1
Ben Lilja
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Ben struggles to eat a single mini muffin in Episode 2 and is completely unable to drink a bowl of milk in Episode 5, almost choking on both food items. Yet, he strangely has no problem eating paper and cardboard.
- Cutting the Knot: Along with Carter, Max, and Owen, Ben realized the best way to move all the poker chips was to simply pick up the tablecloth that the chips were sitting on. Temporarily subverted when he moved them to the wrong table (but quickly realized his error and corrected it).
- Limited Wardrobe: Downplayed, Ben wears the same outfit for both individual and team tasks which take place on separate days.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Ben's firework attempt wasn't really THAT bad. The issue was it followed
Carter's superior explosion... and had the same dramatic music played over it for comedic effect.
Carter Greene
- Catchphrase: Decided "Grape That"note should be one, and every time Carter says it, a cartoon graphic appears bearing a grapevine and the catchphrase. However, it lasted for two episodes before Carter forgot about it.
- Cutting the Knot: Along with Ben, Max, and Owen, Carter realized the best way to move all the poker chips was to simply pick up the tablecloth that the chips were sitting on. Subverted when it was revealed that he touched a poker chip and was subsequently disqualified.
- Jaw Drop: Carter has a big one when he realizes his painting is about to come in second place in the "Paint David" task, when he had previously believed he had made one of the worst paintings.
Henry Spandel
- Cutting the Knot: Instead of using the terrible materials David had provided to move poker chips, Henry realized that the task itself was an item on the table and used that to transport the chips instead. Subverted when it was revealed that he touched a poker chip and was subsequently disqualified.
- Epic Fail: Henry's attempt at the firework attempt was so poor, David didn't even put together a video of his attempt— he just showed a picture of Henry's final product.
- Fan Disservice: Henry's attempt to make an unsexy lap dance was... successful, to say the least.
Max Barber
- Batman Gambit: During the painting task, Max correctly predicts that the worst attempt at the task will be Parker's.
- Butt-Monkey: Continues the Taskmaster tradition of being singled out to do their own task. Max was forced to pop 11 feet of bubble wrap, for which he gave a valiant effort before throwing in the towel after 22 minutes.
- Cutting the Knot: Along with Ben, Carter, and Owen, Max realized the best way to move all the poker chips was to simply pick up the tablecloth that the chips were sitting on.
- Epic Fail: Manages to miss hitting the grape with a pool noodle despite being right in front of him. What sells it is that he kept missing the grape multiple times in rapid succession and was punctuated with a "WHAP!" sound for every failed attempt.
- Face Palm: Often reacted with one of the double-handed variety during anyone's poor attempts, particularly his own.
- Genre Savvy: According to David, Max has the most exposure to Taskmaster so he knows and is the most exasperated when putting up with David's antics.
Owen Gage
- Crazy-Prepared: When the siren signaling the martial arts task went off, Owen pulled out a bandana that he had been carrying around the whole day in preparation for that task. The bandana can be seen sticking out of his pocket in several other tasks throughout the series.
- Cutting the Knot:
- Instead of reaching behind him to paint like every other contestant, Owen realizes he can simply stand up and walk behind the easel in order to have a much easier angle at the easel. Nothing in the task said that the contestants had to remain in their chairs.
- Along with Ben, Carter, and Max, Owen realized the best way to move all the poker chips was to simply pick up the tablecloth that the chips were sitting on. Subverted when it was revealed that he touched a poker chip and was subsequently disqualified.
- He later invokes this for the "find the magnet underneath the cup" task by stabbing all the cups open with scissors but was as unsuccessful as the previous example.
- Missed Him by That Much: In a heartbreaking moment, Owen failed to find the pool noodle while blindfolded in the team task from "A Beautiful Last Day". He walked past it with his arm extended, missing the noodle by mere millimeters. He then turns around and BARELY MISSES IT AGAIN with the extra tragedy that he was about to touch the pool noodle but retracted his arm at the crucial moment.
- Offscreen Crash: In the pool noodle task, Owen runs full speed into a wall with a loud WHAM! David was unable to capture this moment on camera, as he was standing directly in front of Owen and had to dodge out of the way. (He also could have warned Owen but chose not to.)
- Old Shame: He definitely would not like to remember the birthday song task.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: While demonstrating his martial arts skills by reenacting The Karate Kid, he forgot Daniel's last name and claims he doesn't have one (LaRusso) as well as remembering Wax On, Wax Off as "Wash the window, wash the window."
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Pulled a "Jon Richardson" and skedaddled out of the room before he had the chance to relive his and Ben's awful attempt at singing an original birthday song.
- Signature Laugh: Throughout the series, but most noticeably during the "Annoy David" task, when he was laughing maniacally nonstop, both in the recorded task and in the studio while watching it.
Parker Boisvert
- Butt-Monkey: Continues the Taskmaster tradition of being singled out to do their own task. Parker was tasked with creating the "least drip outfit" (Trashbag attire and cardboard box shoes), then was hit with a second surprise task where he had to wear his terrible outfit in the most embarrassing context possible (In this case, he wore his at the Minnesota pride festival).
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Uses several odd turns of phrase throughout the series ("Tinfoil: the wise man's bane") and generally has the most inscrutable thought processes. This comes to a head during the parfait task, where for reasons unbeknownst to all but himself, he makes and eats three parfaits using every ingredient provided except for yogurt.
Parker: Parfait had me actin up.
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: Despite being the only contestant who didn't move every poker chip during the poker chip task, Parker is bumped up to third place and scores 4 points instead of 1 when it's revealed that Henry, Carter, and Owen all touched poker chips in their attempts and were disqualified.
Max: Insane that Parker got third on that task.
Parker: Hard work pays dividends: take notes, boys.
- Fun T-Shirt: Wears quite an obscene one depicting a BDSM couple during his VTs. The t-shirt is a Shout-Out to the cover art on the Death Grips album "Money Store".
- Informed Ability: Despite being an illustration major, Parker's attempt at the painting task is by far the worst. At least Ben's had a face.
- Just Ignore It: When Parker drops a burning piece of wood on the grass during his fireworks display, he stomps on it a couple of times but then just runs off and doesn't even bother looking back.
- Persona Non Grata: In his attempt to do something unsexy, Parker posts several comments on political subreddits and gets banned almost immediately.
- Sleight of Handiness: Proves himself to be incredibly proficient at handling cards during the live task, as he easily finishes the task far before anyone else is even halfway done.
