Taskmaster fans ‘optimistic’ about awkward contestant after first look at new series

Fans have been sharing their thoughts on the new crop of comedians set to amuse and annoy the tyrannical Greg Davies on the latest series of Taskmaster.

Chloe Petts, Isy Suttie, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti and Richard Ayoade are the unfortunate souls condemned to dance to Greg’s merry tune this time around.

And yesterday, Channel 4 and Little Alex Horne, the Taskmaster’s assistant and secret brains behind the show, gave us our first look at the 22nd series.

The trailer was the usual mix of over-the-top shenanigans, comedians having mental breakdowns, and plenty of tasking action.

Most importantly, however, the trailer helped put some concerned fans at ease, who’d been worried about one contestant.

A section of the Taskmaster fanbase had been concerned that Richard Ayoade’s deadpan persona wouldn’t necessarily lend itself to the show’s more cuddly format.

Thankfully, after getting a brief glimpse of Richard in action, those fears have evaporated like a puddle on a hot day.

‘It’s a tiny clip, but Richard Ayoade being confused and smiling makes me optimistic he’ll engage with the game rather than being his aloof and above-it-all comedy persona,’ wrote Hairy_Dirt3361 on Reddit.

‘I’m particularly here for Richard,’ added SaltPomegranate4.

Turbulent_Natural43 meanwhile pointed out the concerns about Richard were a bit blown.

‘I think people were too concerned about that happening tbh,’ they wrote.

‘He only really does that persona heavily on things like Big Fat Quiz or Cats Does Countdown where the game doesn’t actually matter.

‘He’s much more up for playing along on shows like Last One Laughing. And he’s been doing sketch comedy type stuff for years; he’s not always that aloof.’

Richard wasn’t the only contestant who excited fans, though.

DoctorWhofan789eywim wrote that they think Isy Suttie is ‘going to be an all-time contestant’ after watching the trailer, while NateExpectations claimed: ‘Chloe looks like she’s going to give 110% effort to get 10% of the benefits’.

Still, the star of the show was undoubtedly Patatas the cat.

For those not in the know, Patatas is a stuffed cat toy who’s been a fixture of Taskmaster since the second series.

Last we saw Patatas, Kumail Nanjani had chopped off some of his fur while attempting to fill an egg cup with lint (it makes sense in context, I promise), so fans are happy to see him return.

‘I can’t believe after all this time, they finally got him on the show,’ joked @stevematthews8028 on YouTube.’Patatas returns!’

‘Finally they acknowledged the real star of the show,’ agreed @xdami4nx. ‘God save Patatas’.

The new cast of Taskmaster has proved surprisingly controversial, with some even saying they’ll boycott the new series.

Richard has been criticised in recent years after he endorsed gender critical writer Graham Linehan’s memoir.

Critics saw the move as an endorsement of Linehan’s anti-trans positions.

Meanwhile, others have criticised the decision to cast Matt Lucas, citing his history of blackface and jokes about the LGBTQ+ community as reasons he should be disqualified from taking part.

Lucas, for his part, has apologised for his past behaviour.

‘If I could go back and do Little Britain again, I wouldn’t make those jokes about transvestites. I wouldn’t play black characters. Basically, I wouldn’t make that show now. It would upset people. We made a more cruel kind of comedy than I’d do now,’ he told Big Issue in 2017.

Taskmaster series 22 begins on September 3.