History Taskmaster / TropesGToQ

[[/folder]]

** Zigzagged. There has never been multiple contestants in the same series with the same first or last name. However, overall there have been:
*** Three Joes (Wilkinson, Lycett, and Thomas) and a Jo (Brand)

*** Two Johns (Hannah and Kearns), a Jon (Richardson), a Johnny (Vegas), and a Jonnie (Peacock)

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers:
** Occasionally, Alex will show four of the contestants' efforts together, meaning that whoever was singled out had approached the task in a different manner. Lampshades are often hung by Greg:
--->'''Greg:''' When we separate someone, it's for one of two reasons - 1: It's gone very well, or 2: it's gone ''very''...'''''very badly.'''''
** Deliberately done in "Lotta Soup", when what appeared to be a solo task was actually a special team task. Four of the contestants were working together, and [[spoiler:Phil]] was on his own.

* ThePointsMeanNothing: Played with, but usually averted. Unlike most British panel shows, the contestants on ''Taskmaster'' actually do compete for prizes -- the items brought in for the prize round at the beginning are taken home by the contestant who earns the most points in the episode[[note]]or at least, they ''can'' be -- according to Alex Horne, it is contractually stated that the winner of the episode is entitled to claim anything that is brought in as part of the prize round, but in practical terms the winner ultimately has the choice whether they claim it or not, meaning that they can decide to return it to the original owner or simply not bother taking it home with them[[/note]], and the series winner receives the coveted Taskmaster Trophy (a golden likeness of Greg Davies). However, this trope is often still present in spirit; the prize rounds often ask the contestants to bring in unusual or trivial items, and contestants frequently interpret this as humourously or strangely as possible -- so while the points mean something, the prizes those points win often ''don't''. For example, one episode sees the contestants competing over who wins a collection of vegetables signed by various celebrities, while another sees them battle for the right to take home various shoeboxes filled with heavy items like concrete, paving stones, [[DoubleMeaning a biography of Hitler and Stalin]] [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers and watermelon]]. As summed up by Greg in the latter episode ("The Dong and the Gong"):

** Ardal O'Hanlon in series 13 delights in poking holes in people's task attempts. While it's at least partly strategic -- Alex notes at one point that he's doing so prior to his own (subpar) attempts being shown -- there's plenty of occasions where it's also clearly done just to mess with everyone. For example, during the "best recreation of a historical event using two traffic cones" task, there's a lengthy discussion of the distinction between history and prehistory (essentially: the former is recorded, the latter is before recordings were made). Then, sometime later, after Sophie Duker's attempt at depicting the extinction of the dinosaurs, Ardal chimes in with this: