00;00;00;05 - 00;00;19;27 Lewis Hello and welcome to the Transformative Taskmaster podcast. This week TK is chatting with me, editor Lewis about costuming and wardrobe on the show. Honestly, it's pretty much me talking at TK for the next hour about Alex's ever changing suit, but I do have a lot of thoughts on the matter. 00;00;19;29 - 00;00;25;19 TK Hello, not Alex Horne, and welcome to the Transformative Taskmaster podcast. 00;00;25;22 - 00;00;27;02 Lewis Hello! How are you? 00;00;27;04 - 00;00;34;00 TK I like that it's just. Are you not Alex Horne? That's what we're- That's what your name is. That's what your legal name is. I don't make the rules. 00;00;34;03 - 00;00;36;18 Lewis Yes, that's my government name. 00;00;36;21 - 00;01;06;06 TK I know, yeah. Good times. All right, so we are here today to talk about something that's very specific to Taskmaster, which is the costuming and the designs of the outfits that, that Greg and Alex wears. Now, we might touch a little bit on some of the contestants, because obviously there are some outstanding outfits that some of the contestants have worn on the show. 00;01;06;09 - 00;01;35;05 TK But for now, we're going to focus on Greg and Alex. So take us through... Let's let's just go chronologically, like series one. I know we're kind of getting our footing, we're trying on, you know, certain items of clothing as Greg and Alex, like, we we've got the Taskmaster, we've got his assistant. So, so tell me what the story is with the clothes that they're wearing and series one. 00;01;35;07 - 00;02;03;01 Lewis Okay. And there is very much a story to these outfits. And what sparked me going through the whole series with a fine tooth comb trying to look at what type of shoes everyone is wearing, was I was out here about 3:00 in the morning, high off my ass and just watching Taskmaster as YouTube served it to me, and all of a sudden I'm like, what in the fuck is Alex wearing? 00;02;03;03 - 00;02;31;16 Lewis Because he had this jacket on with contrast lapels and I'll get to those later. And I didn't remember seeing him wearing those at all before. And all of a sudden he's wearing this weird jacket. So I was like, I have to go back and see when he started wearing this. And then I noticed that his costume took several years for them to actually figure out what the hell he was supposed to be wearing. 00;02;31;16 - 00;02;32;13 TK Right. 00;02;32;15 - 00;02;47;24 Lewis And the costumes in season one are kind of funny, because aside from the fact that Greg's suit does not fit to the point that it's too big on him, which is weird. 00;02;49;13 - 00;02;52;03 Lewis Hoenstly, how did they find a suit that was too big on him? 00;02;52;03 - 00;02;53;02 TK Right? 00;02;53;04 - 00;03;22;07 Lewis And they pretty much nailed his right out of the gate. He's only gone through very small changes, but Alex's costume is all over the place for the first five series and in series one, we've got Greg with his just black suit, the black waistcoat, six buttons, basic points. It's your hollow type waistcoat. He's got his black cap toe derbies that he's always worn, his diving watches. 00;03;22;09 - 00;03;46;28 Lewis He's always worn those, except for recently when he's been wearing an apple watch. And I know people have actually been upset about this, and I'm not a watch guy. I don't know much about them, so I can't comment too much on those. But yeah, his costume, they pretty much nailed it. There's a few changes, like at the beginning, he's got a very bright white lining on the inside of his jacket. 00;03;47;01 - 00;04;33;26 Lewis He's got a pretty basic shirt. Just spread collar, barrel cuffs, the kind that you do up with buttons. And the jacket itself kind of tells a little bit of a story, because his lapel notches are really high. They line up with the top of the seam for the sleeve. And there are other people who could talk a bit more elegantly about these, some of these details, like I'm no Derek Guy for instance, but the high lapel notches, which I'm only half certain are as high as they seem to be because he's very stiff in the chair as well, in his throne. He doesn't know how to sit in it, he 00;04;33;26 - 00;04;48;10 Lewis doesn't know what he's doing, which- It really affects how the suit fits him. So he's sitting there, and the fact that even when he's all perfectly sat up straight the suit is still too big. That's very telling. 00;04;48;10 - 00;04;48;27 TK Yeah. 00;04;48;29 - 00;05;01;08 Lewis But he's very uncomfortable and stiff. But I think it's more to do with the show than with the costume, because his costume is great. It just needs to fit him better. 00;05;01;15 - 00;05;10;27 TK Yeah, there's- at that point, they're still breaking in the set, they're breaking in the chairs, you know, they're breaking in the whole personalities and the characters and everything. 00;05;11;00 - 00;05;35;07 Lewis Yeah. And it's not even a set. They filmed the first series at the Clapham Grand, which is a theater. And, for a long time, and this will come into play with Alex's costume a little bit because his suit doesn't match. And for ages, that was one of the things I did notice even before I noticed that he had a weird jacket in series three. 00;05;35;10 - 00;06;01;03 Lewis Was that in series one, the jacket doesn't match the trousers. The trousers are a much warmer shade of black, if that makes sense. But once you know it's there, it's really hard to unsee. Yeah, and for a while I was trying to work out; is it the lighting at the Clapham Grand? And then they moved to- I think they're on their fourth studio and they're going to be moving again. 00;06;01;06 - 00;06;02;26 TK Oh yeah. That's right. 00;06;02;28 - 00;06;36;19 Lewis Yeah. But I do think it is that because Alex's costume is not what you'd associate with little Alex Horne. Every part of it is wrong. And that's kind of the story that these costumes tell is that Greg comes out: absolutely perfect costume. They've nailed the look. It fits the personality of the Taskmaster. And then here comes Alex trying to seemingly find the right level of scruffy underling. 00;06;36;19 - 00;06;52;20 Lewis Yeah, because, on top of his suit just not matching, he's wearing black Oxford brogue for the first series, which, those aren't shoes that Alex wears. Those shoes are nice. 00;06;52;22 - 00;06;53;04 TK Yeah. 00;06;53;05 - 00;07;08;21 Lewis Everybody knows Alex wears crap shoes. And then he's wearing black and gray striped socks because they're both wearing dark socks in the first series. And gradually that becomes more apparent. 00;07;08;21 - 00;07;09;17 TK Yeah. 00;07;09;20 - 00;07;24;19 Lewis But what's really, really weird is that he's wearing two different jackets through the first series. He's got his studio jacket, which has a very high peak lapel, and then his task jacket, which is the notched lapel. 00;07;24;22 - 00;07;25;27 TK Interesting. 00;07;26;00 - 00;07;55;20 Lewis Yeah, I don't know why. And the peak lapel jacket, it's not necessarily more formal, but a notched lapel is definitely more casual, if that makes sense. Like there's no reason you can't wear a peaked lapel. There's a couple of episodes of would I Lie to You, where David Mitchell is wearing a peaked lapel, and it does not look good on him. 00;07;55;22 - 00;08;20;12 Lewis It doesn't work because that man was born to wear tweed. And so, he's got this. He's got his French-cuffed shirt. And it has also the spread collar. Mainly, I think, just because that's a more popular collar style in the UK. Over here, we really like point collars, which are kind of a deeper, sharper point. 00;08;21;17 - 00;08;27;17 Lewis It's just a very subtle difference that really only affects how a tie looks. 00;08;28;05 - 00;08;31;18 Lewis But since neither of them wear a necktie it doesn't really matter. 00;08;31;18 - 00;08;33;22 TK Right. 00;08;33;24 - 00;08;40;10 Lewis And another thing that's really interesting is he is known for his Casio watches. 00;08;40;15 - 00;08;41;10 TK Yeah. 00;08;41;13 - 00;09;03;17 Lewis He's got so many of them. And then in series one he's wearing a shiny silver thing, which I don't know if we ever identified that. There are people in our little writing club group who do watches. And we've identified collectively, quite a few of the watches that both Greg and Alex wear. 00;09;04;18 - 00;09;09;09 Lewis But I don't remember what it was and I didn't remember to look it up. 00;09;09;12 - 00;09;12;08 TK Now, was that the one that Greg gifted him? 00;09;12;11 - 00;09;14;29 Lewis No. That came in much later. 00;09;14;29 - 00;09;16;03 TK Okay. 00;09;16;05 - 00;09;32;29 Lewis I'm not sure when, but I think when Alex said "And he gave me a new watch" and he shows it off on the show, I do think that was fairly recent, in between Greg giving it to him and him showing it off, because it does also show up in No More Jockeys. 00;09;33;01 - 00;09;35;22 TK Oh, interesting. Okay. 00;09;35;25 - 00;09;44;06 Lewis So there's a good way to pinpoint when he was given that watch. And it was at some point after the pandemic. 00;09;44;09 - 00;09;44;29 TK Yeah. 00;09;45;04 - 00;09;46;05 Lewis I wanna say after, but it's whatever. 00;09;46;09 - 00;09;50;13 TK No, I know what you're talking about. 00;09;50;15 - 00;09;56;22 Lewis But another thing about his suit, which... 00;09;56;24 - 00;10;29;13 Lewis I'm not quite entirely sure the exact timeline, but there is a Guardian article where he talks about going and getting four identical suits from Marks and Spencers. And he wound up getting a- what was it- a 37 inch inside leg. And that's why his trousers from, I'm pretty sure from day one, because even in the first series they look absolutely stacked. 00;10;29;15 - 00;10;34;22 Lewis And you don't stack trousers, that's not right. You stack jeans. 00;10;34;29 - 00;10;36;23 TK Right. Yeah. 00;10;36;25 - 00;11;09;09 Lewis So I guess really in terms of his suit, his trousers are just too big. And it looks ridiculous. And that is pretty much in series one. The only part of his costume that he got right was that his trousers don't fit right. But it's one of the things that just absolutely personifies Like little Alex Horne in my mind, is just scruffy and I don't really want to say like gross or dirty, but unkempt in a way. 00;11;09;09 - 00;11;23;22 Lewis Yeah, little Alex Horne comes from the same school of design as whatever the hell Joe Wilkinson has going on. That's the way I see it. 00;11;23;23 - 00;11;57;03 TK Yeah. Now, you were talking earlier about how neither of them wear a tie, for the studio recording shows at least. Now, tell me if you think there's a difference, because I think there's a difference, but I am not eloquent enough to, like, I don't know what the words are that I'm looking for to say it. But, what's the difference between the fact that Greg has this kind of open, unbuttoned, top of his shirt type of thing? 00;11;57;10 - 00;12;25;14 TK And Alex also has that, but they look very different to me. Greg having the top bit of his shirt undone seems very light and casual, like easy breezy, and it looks very good on him. And then Alex, you look at Alex and he also has a couple buttons undone on his shirt but he just looks like a little raccoon lad that's tried to dress himself out of the garbage. 00;12;25;14 - 00;12;28;29 TK I mean, as horrible to- I mean, obviously- 00;12;29;01 - 00;12;40;25 Lewis No, but that's exactly what I think the image of little Alex Horne is. He's just a feral creature that got dressed in a skip- in the dark. 00;12;40;25 - 00;12;41;19 TK Yeah. 00;12;41;21 - 00;12;43;11 Lewis That's what he should look like. 00;12;43;17 - 00;12;57;17 TK Yeah. So do you think they're- from a fashion standpoint? Is there something that they're doing with the shirts that is making it look like that, or is it just because they're paired with the rest of their outfits? 00;12;57;20 - 00;13;09;08 Lewis It's partially to do with the pairing. Like one of the reasons Greg's color looks so different to Alex's, even though they're both the spread color is that Greg's wearing a waistcoat. 00;13;10;06 - 00;13;19;20 Lewis And waistcoats are again, they're not necessarily more formal, because plenty of people wear them casually. 00;13;19;20 - 00;13;20;09 TK Right. 00;13;20;12 - 00;13;48;20 Lewis But a waistcoat does signal certain things about the wearer. And you typically will only see a waistcoat with a tie. So having that waistcoat without the tie and the collar open kind of suggests that he is only partially dressed, even though he is fully clothed and it's the same kind of thing as the naked Victorians. 00;13;48;20 - 00;13;58;04 Lewis When, they're not naked at all, they're fully clothed, they've got their shirt on. It might be unbuttoned, but that's an unacceptable level of being clothed, to the point that it's naked. 00;13;58;06 - 00;13;58;23 TK Right. 00;13;58;25 - 00;14;13;21 Lewis And it kind of signals that same thing, because a waistcoat, especially one that matches the suit and it's all black and he's got the black shirt on underneath, you expect to see a tie there even if it's black. 00;14;13;22 - 00;14;14;13 TK Yeah. 00;14;14;15 - 00;14;43;29 Lewis Just because that's what we're trained to see when we see that kind of outfit. Whereas Alex, he does just look like he's been dragged through a hedge backwards and the open collar adds to that because his shirt never quite fits him right. He doesn't tuck it in, right. He doesn't wear any part of his suit correctly, which on one level, I hate. 00;14;44;01 - 00;14;49;14 Lewis And I would like to dress him. On another level, it's so perfect for the character. Absolutely knocks it out of the park. 00;14;49;14 - 00;14;52;05 TK Right, yeah, it's what makes sense. 00;14;52;07 - 00;14;52;18 Lewis Yeah. 00;14;52;18 - 00;15;14;01 TK Alright. So that's series one. So how much do things change going into series two now that they know that the show is greenlit for at least another series. Little do they know it's going to be, you know, 50 series later they're still doing it. 00;15;14;03 - 00;15;24;28 Lewis So there is a lot of change between series one and series two. And literally none of it is from Greg, except for he's now wearing bright socks. 00;15;26;03 - 00;15;54;27 Lewis Meanwhile, Alex has an entirely new outfit for series two, which is again, really weird because he's now got a- Well, for one, his suit matches, the jacket matches the trousers, and I still don't think they're the same trousers that he wears for tasks. I do think that there's always been two different suits. It's just more and more they've become very similar. 00;15;55;02 - 00;16;32;08 Lewis So in series two, he's got a notch lapel in the studio. It matches his task jacket. Occasionally in both series he'll wear cufflinks. Usually only about 2 or 3 episodes a series. But he is wearing cufflinks because he's wearing these French cuffs and one of the things that I find just baffling about the way that he wears them is he doesn't like to button them up or to put cufflinks in them, rather, he just will wear them open and loose and flopping about. 00;16;32;10 - 00;16;51;14 Lewis And I don't know how he does it without sleeve garters. And there's even some shots while they're doing tasks where his sleeves have very obviously become un-bunched from inside his jacket, and now he's got them rolled up over his jacket. 00;16;51;17 - 00;16;51;29 TK Yeah. 00;16;52;00 - 00;17;03;08 Lewis Because I mean, for anybody who's not familiar with French cuffs, they're insane. They're twice as long as a normal cuff because you bend them backwards and then you do that kind of thing. 00;17;04;13 - 00;17;36;09 Lewis So his decision to not wear French cuffs, or to not wear cufflinks rather. There's a lot going on there because it's so unwieldy, and I can understand not wanting to have sleeves that that are buttoned up, because that is I agree, that's very uncomfortable. And I've heard that's probably why he doesn't do it. So yeah, he's got this new, suit jacket, he's got bright socks like Greg. 00;17;36;09 - 00;17;37;14 Lewis The bright socks happened almost right away. 00;17;37;15 - 00;17;39;13 TK Yeah, that's pretty cool. 00;17;39;15 - 00;18;02;28 Lewis But what's more important is that he's finally found two elements of his costume that will stay, the black Casio watch that he wore forever and has only recently started switching out for other colors. And the plastic slip on shoes turn up this series. And on his footwear as well; I don't remember where I read this, 00;18;02;28 - 00;18;25;27 Lewis It might be in the Guardian issue that I referenced earlier. He had said somewhere that it's mandated that everybody wears slippers in that house, and that has been the rule for day one. The only exception was for the people doing the task, because they might need to be running in and out and doing everything, and it's too much hassle to change. 00;18;27;03 - 00;18;45;25 Lewis And by this point, he is the only one who still consistently wears slippers in the house. And I do think that's part of why he switched to the plastic slip on shoes. Because I've seen this man's footwear otherwise. He has nice shoes. 00;18;45;28 - 00;18;46;18 TK Yeah. 00;18;46;18 - 00;19;10;08 Lewis Plastic slip on shoes just happened to look a lot like the slippers he was wearing in the lab and in other places in the house in the first series. So it's less obvious now when he switches. And there's one recent series where he's wearing dress trainers, which are the worst form of footwear ever, for anybody who is under 70. 00;19;10;10 - 00;19;26;03 Lewis I hate those shoes. Like, I can understand the plastic slip on shoes. I hate dress trainers so much. But yeah. So at this point in series two Greg's, suit is still too big on him. 00;19;27;05 - 00;20;02;02 Lewis But there wasn't much they needed to change. Whereas Alex very much seems to be going through trying to find his character in his costume. And that's something that's happened to me. I used to do a lot of acting when I was a student, and it's something called a character click where all of a sudden, just one day, you find the character, and every time it happened to me, it was when I finally got my costume finished, because I didn't feel like I was in the character until I was wearing the character's skin. 00;20;02;02 - 00;20;02;21 Lewis Effectively. 00;20;02;26 - 00;20;03;04 TK Yeah. 00;20;03;04 - 00;20;33;04 Lewis And that's what really seems like it's going on here, because we get to series three now and again, no change with Greg's costume. It's still too big, but nothing has changed. He's still wearing his diving watches. He's still wearing his Derbys. The suit looks fine, otherwise. But now Alex comes in with that jacket I mentioned earlier that has a contrast lapel, and that is where you've got your lapel 00;20;33;04 - 00;20;58;19 Lewis And with the notch on it. Above the notch is one color and below is another. And this one's really subtle. It's a black brown contrast. The bottom of it is brown and, i'll throw a clip or a photo in here. But you can actually see that it's another one of those that doesn't look like it's- I don't even think it was intentional, honestly, because it's so weird. 00;20;58;22 - 00;21;05;05 Lewis I feel like it was a jacket that was grabbed as he's trying to find the right costume. 00;21;05;05 - 00;21;06;03 TK Yeah. 00;21;06;06 - 00;21;08;06 Lewis It stands out. It's such a weird one. 00;21;08;09 - 00;21;17;29 TK Yeah. At this point, he's kind of realizing that the character of the assistant needs to not have such a high budget for his clothing. 00;21;18;02 - 00;21;39;20 Lewis Yeah, it is starting to get there. And the thing is, contrast lapels can look really good. One example of, kind of a gaudy over the top one is the jacket that Jack Dee wears in the series whichever final- Was that 18? 00;21;39;23 - 00;21;40;23 TK Yeah, 18. 00;21;40;23 - 00;21;51;22 Lewis I think that was 18. Yeah. He's got this kind of burgundy velvety jacket with a burgundy and black contrast. And that one looks really good. 00;21;51;22 - 00;21;56;06 TK Yeah, I remember that being really pretty. 00;21;56;08 - 00;22;19;08 Lewis But I mean, aside from also the lapels on Alex's jacket kind of drifting down, almost to the middle of the seam, it's another thing that I think he was playing with that and just didn't notice the lapel. And the whole thing about the notches that they do absolutely nothing. You don't even need a notch in your lapel. 00;22;19;08 - 00;22;26;13 Lewis It's just decoration. And they kind of do the same thing that shoulder pads and power ties do. 00;22;26;13 - 00;22;27;12 TK Right. 00;22;27;12 - 00;22;39;24 Lewis Which is they change the way your shoulder looks without actually changing it. So the higher up it gets, the more it looks like you've rolled your shoulders back. 00;22;39;28 - 00;22;40;16 TK Right. 00;22;40;18 - 00;22;42;18 Lewis But then lower ones just look more relaxed and more casual. 00;22;42;27 - 00;22;50;10 Lewis But there's really no hard and fast rule for it. It's just kind of a thing. 00;22;51;06 - 00;22;59;25 Lewis So slowly his lapels have been drooping down now, ever since he started playing with his costume, basically. 00;22;59;28 - 00;23;24;20 TK Right. Which definitely kind of melds into the character even a little more. Because a lot of times, and especially when Greg will be, yelling at him for a lack of a better term, Alex will try to kind of scrunch into himself, turtle into himself a little bit. So I feel like that definitely helps with the the hiding away portion. 00;23;24;22 - 00;23;52;27 Lewis Greg claiming that he is five foot four, I think, did so much to inform the character. He needs to be smaller than Greg, right? And that's what I feel like he's trying to do metaphorically with his costume is that Greg has a really nice semi formal-look, whereas Alex does need to look like he's been dragged backwards through a hedge. 00;23;52;27 - 00;23;58;15 Lewis Yeah, because he needs to be below Greg. He needs to be other than Greg. 00;23;58;17 - 00;24;16;03 TK So that's series three done. Okay. So surely at some point though, then they get into a rut where they're like okay, this is what's going on, you know, this is our costumes. So does that happen in series four or are they still working through some stuff? 00;24;16;06 - 00;24;20;02 Lewis We're still working through some stuff. I mean, for one Greg's suit finally fits. 00;24;20;05 - 00;24;22;25 TK Yay! 00;24;22;27 - 00;24;40;23 Lewis And that's it. That's his entire change. He's got a new suit. It's identical to the previous one, except that it's somehow not too big for him anymore. Which I would love to know how they found a scene that is too big for Greg Davies. Who was that suit made for? 00;24;40;24 - 00;24;42;24 TK Yeah. That's interesting. 00;24;42;26 - 00;25;10;05 Lewis Meanwhile, Alex has gone through a whole litany of new changes. Again, he's wearing what looks like, again, two different jackets between the studio and the tasks. And the only thing that I have to go on is, I'm not entirely certain because obviously I can't get in there and really inspect them, and they're wearing black, which is the hardest color to see on a screen. 00;25;10;05 - 00;25;11;07 TK Right? 00;25;11;10 - 00;25;28;05 Lewis But it does seem like, again, his lapels are a different ratio. The notches don't look like they're in quite the same place, but that could just be because he's sat down in the studio and being chaced around and beaten up in the tasks. 00;25;28;25 - 00;25;54;02 Lewis So who knows. But Greg's lapels- also I don't know if the notches have gone down or if he's just become more comfortable because by series four and his brand new suit he occupies that throne. He's already leaning leaning in it sideways. And like draping his leg over the armrest and doing all sorts of, you know, just "I am the king. 00;25;54;02 - 00;26;09;13 Lewis This is my castle." Right? So he's already he's found his costume or his character, rather. And he's gone into why he had trouble with this character before. And just for him it was a matter of confidence. 00;26;09;13 - 00;26;09;28 TK Yeah. 00;26;10;00 - 00;26;34;21 Lewis He didn't want to be too hard. He didn't want to be too soft. And that was a line that he had to find himself. So Alex, he's got the new jacket. His suit matches completely. He goes completely off [unintelligable] again. And now he's wearing ties and his cufflinks from Mel Giedroyc. 00;26;34;21 - 00;26;35;09 TK Right. 00;26;35;12 - 00;26;59;10 Lewis Before, he only ever wore his cufflinks in studio if he chose to wear them. But now for series four, he's all dressed up nice for Mel, and he's got a couple of different eyes he rotates through. There's a bolo tie and a bow tie and a necktie and a couple of other weird ones, and I'm not sure... I wish I knew what the joke was. 00;26;59;13 - 00;27;04;09 Lewis I mean, other than she's Mel Giedroyc. Well, then why didn't you wear them for Sue Perkins? 00;27;04;09 - 00;27;04;19 TK Yeah. 00;27;04;19 - 00;27;19;27 Lewis There's a joke that only makes sense in his head there. But by series four, they're both wearing bright colored striped socks, so they're starting to match a little bit more in that regard. 00;27;20;25 - 00;27;53;07 Lewis And what I found particularly interesting is that series four is where Alex starts to have really found that character. And I, as I think another guest on this podcast mentioned, around series five and six is when they really start to gel. And I did find it interesting was that Greg had said to Alex at one point in series four that he's noticed a new confidence. And that kind of throws Alex for a loop. 00;27;53;07 - 00;28;20;04 Lewis And whether that was genuine or just Alex being Alex, who knows. But I do think that he's noticed the same thing that I've noticed, which is that he's finding his character through his costume, and he is almost there. And he's he's just about got it. There's just one thing that needs to change at this point, but it takes him until series six to notice what that is. 00;28;20;06 - 00;28;27;29 Lewis Because there's no change again in series five from either of them. And that's the first time neither of them have changed their costumes at all. 00;28;27;29 - 00;28;29;27 TK Yeah. 00;28;29;29 - 00;28;46;07 Lewis And then in series six they both get a very minor, but I think important, costume change which is that Greg starts wearing his glasses. And I think we all agree, the glasses complete the look. 00;28;46;07 - 00;28;47;08 TK Yes. 00;28;47;10 - 00;29;20;21 Lewis But also Alex has changed his shirt. He's no longer wearing French cuffs. He's now got a button-down collar and the shirt doesn't fit him, it's really awkwardly see through and it's just a really weird- it's a weird look, but it works for him. And I'm not personally a fan of button-down collars. But at the same time, Jeremy from Taskmaster New Zealand, he wears a button down collar and he makes it look good. 00;29;20;22 - 00;29;21;12 TK Yeah. 00;29;21;14 - 00;29;28;09 Lewis Alex wears the button down collar and it looks like it's only buttoned down so that it doesn't fly away. 00;29;28;11 - 00;29;31;26 TK It's like a trash bag just surrounding his torso. 00;29;31;28 - 00;29;37;02 Lewis And it's entirely just because it seems like a cheap, a cheaper made shirt. 00;29;37;02 - 00;29;43;14 TK Yeah. Now, can you tell me the difference between button ups and button downs? 00;29;43;17 - 00;30;15;09 Lewis Yes. So a button up is a shirt that buttons up, so this one would be. A button down collar is where you have the buttonholes on the collar itself, and they literally button down. And it's a way of keeping your collar tidy without having to deal with ironing or starches or any kind of interfacing that would be needed to keep your collar straight and flat. 00;30;16;01 - 00;30;22;01 Lewis And that's the thing about Jeromy Wells is that it looks like his collar does have interfacing. 00;30;22;07 - 00;30;22;16 TK Yeah. 00;30;22;16 - 00;30;43;08 Lewis But it's just buttoned down as a style choice. And that's what, weirdly that's when I think they look best is when they're not needed. Like I've got a couple that are like that as well. They don't need it. They've got the interface in there and I choose not to wear them button down, cause I kind of like the unkempt my collar might fly away look. 00;30;43;08 - 00;30;43;21 TK Right. 00;30;43;21 - 00;30;51;18 Lewis But with Alex it does seem like it's buttoned down for a reason. 00;30;51;21 - 00;30;56;25 TK Now, normally, would you say that a button down is more formal than a button up? 00;30;56;27 - 00;31;00;25 Lewis No. Actually the opposite use. 00;31;00;28 - 00;31;02;03 TK Oh okay. 00;31;02;05 - 00;31;06;29 Lewis Because a buttoned down collar is something that you'd wear in an office. 00;31;07;17 - 00;31;32;27 Lewis Again, like Jeremy's you can get nice ones, but the more formal collar is the spread or the cutaway which, I'm wearing the spread right now, I think it might be a cutaway. I'm not sure. I hardly ever wear it with a tie. But the more formal ones are actually the ones that show more of your tie. 00;31;33;00 - 00;31;34;21 TK Oh, that would make sense. 00;31;34;21 - 00;31;44;29 Lewis Whereas the buttoned down is meant to, you know, you've got your tie and then you're going to button it down and everything is going to stay in place, no matter how active and busy you are today. 00;31;45;00 - 00;31;45;27 TK Yeah. 00;31;46;00 - 00;31;47;25 Lewis So it's more of a utilitarian thing. 00;31;47;27 - 00;31;52;14 TK Okay. So he gets that new shirt, Alex does. 00;31;52;19 - 00;32;26;10 Lewis And that's when he becomes a little Alex Horne. Because this is series five, it's one of one of the more popular series. And it's the series where you start to really see Alex just being that weird little dickhead that he's really good at being. Just weaponized stupidity and incompetence, which I think is again something that really sums up Alex Horne on a character level. 00;32;26;10 - 00;32;30;00 TK Yeah. 00;32;30;03 - 00;32;42;16 Lewis And another weird thing is that, in series six, he's got another shiny watch, and I don't know if it's the one from the first series. 00;32;43;17 - 00;33;12;24 Lewis But he's got another shiny watch. And this is also series six, where they really start to, play with other ways that his wardrobe can be used, because this is the series where they have that task to keep Alex dry. And so he's wearing that kind of a nice brightish blue color suit, so that any water will show up. 00;33;12;27 - 00;33;19;26 Lewis It's been done a few times. And then they do it again in series 13 where he's got the pink suit. 00;33;19;26 - 00;33;25;21 TK I love the pink suit. I'm obsessed with the pink suit. It's so good. 00;33;25;23 - 00;33;39;26 Lewis It looks ridiculous. And if it's the one that he got in No More Jockeys. It doesn't even need to be ironed, he said. I don't know if it is that or the man just has multiple pink suits. 00;33;39;28 - 00;33;46;27 TK I wouldn't put it past him. Honestly, I think it looks really good on him. 00;33;46;29 - 00;34;06;15 Lewis And I don't know the exact dates, but I think it is somewhere around this time that he got his pineapple tattoo. And I can't remember, I think the first time I noticed it was series 7 when Rod Gilbert dressed him up in a bikini and then made him get naked. 00;34;06;17 - 00;34;08;08 TK Yep. 00;34;08;10 - 00;34;16;02 Lewis I think that was the first time I noticed it. But also he wasn't taking his shirt off that often before. 00;34;16;05 - 00;34;16;24 TK Right. 00;34;16;27 - 00;34;24;13 Lewis I can't really think of a time that he actually did. He's taken his trousers off before. 00;34;24;15 - 00;34;30;07 TK It would have been series five with Sally Phillips when she gave birth to him. 00;34;30;08 - 00;34;35;08 Lewis Oh, that's right. But I don't think we see much of him. 00;34;35;08 - 00;34;45;01 TK Yeah, because I think for one thing, he's covered in plastic wrap. And for another thing, the camera angle is very close to his face. 00;34;45;04 - 00;34;47;21 Lewis Yeah. But it would have been somewhere around that time. 00;34;47;22 - 00;34;48;03 TK Yeah. 00;34;48;10 - 00;35;14;19 Lewis And that's another thing about the tattoos is that you look at him and he doesn't look like somebody who would have tattoos. And then he's got this bizarre little 1990s lizard and the best pineapple I've ever seen. And then he takes his clothes off and oh, there's the weirdo. And of course he's got weird tattoos. 00;35;14;21 - 00;35;32;02 Lewis But then after that, we don't really see any kind of changes in their wardrobe again until series eight. And again, it's very small because that's when they both start wearing the patterned socks. 00;35;32;02 - 00;35;43;25 TK Wow. Is it really? I feel like the patterned socks have been around for so long. It's kind of surprising to hear that series eight is when they start, it feels like so late in the game. 00;35;43;27 - 00;35;48;02 Lewis Yeah, before that it seems to largely be solids and stripes. 00;35;49;08 - 00;36;01;00 Lewis And then, so they're both wearing their kind of not quite matching patterned socks. And also this surprised me because I thought it happened later. But series eight is where Greg starts wearing his cufflinks. 00;36;02;01 - 00;36;14;21 Lewis And they're so hard to spot. I don't even have any good screencaps of them. I might try to look. But he's got these silver "TM" cufflinks. 00;36;14;23 - 00;36;15;25 TK That's awesome. 00;36;15;27 - 00;36;27;10 Lewis Yeah. So at some point those have shown up. And it's series eight there where they're finally in their final suits and they haven't changed since then. 00;36;27;13 - 00;36;29;27 TK Nice. 00;36;30;00 - 00;36;39;20 Lewis But yeah, it does tell this sort of story there, where Greg was perfect as he is. 00;36;39;23 - 00;36;40;24 TK Yeah. 00;36;40;26 - 00;36;56;29 Lewis He came out with a single look and the only changes that were made to it were to just tweak it to make it look a little bit better, make sure it fits, give him a nicer shirt so he can wear these cufflinks. And that's all they needed to do. 00;36;57;00 - 00;36;58;05 TK Yeah. 00;36;58;08 - 00;37;05;26 Lewis Like, their sock guy. He does a lot of really fun work. I don't know, I doubt he's just for socks. 00;37;06;02 - 00;37;06;16 TK Right. 00;37;06;22 - 00;37;12;13 Lewis But I have to assume he's just part of the greater costume department. 00;37;12;13 - 00;37;13;20 TK Yeah. 00;37;13;23 - 00;37;24;17 Lewis But what I want to know ultimately is, if it were Alex who was doing all of this fiddling about with his suit or if it was the costume department? 00;37;24;18 - 00;37;25;15 TK 00;37;25;17 - 00;37;30;06 Lewis That's one question that I don't have the answer to. 00;37;30;07 - 00;37;31;05 TK Yeah. 00;37;31;07 - 00;37;36;01 Lewis But either way the costume definitely seems to have informed the character. 00;37;36;03 - 00;37;56;05 TK I feel like it could be a little bit of both, because I can definitely see Alex going up to the costume department and being like, "Okay, I feel like these shoes are too fancy," or "I feel like this fits too well," or something like that. It's like, I don't want to look too put together. 00;37;56;08 - 00;37;57;14 TK Yeah. 00;37;57;16 - 00;38;14;22 Lewis And there's this idea that goes around as well that I really, really hate. I actually hate this idea, for a few reasons, that Alex can't dress himself and that his wife dresses him for him. 00;38;15;27 - 00;38;29;12 Lewis And it's one of those things where I can kind of see where people might get this idea to begin with, but it doesn't fly. 00;38;29;28 - 00;39;06;12 Lewis The man has a very defined sense of style and he goes into something that's a kind of... kitsch/camp. It's this weird style that doesn't have a defined name or defined look. It's defined entirely by the shape of the shirt colors that he wears. So a camp shirt is exactly what it sounds like. It's a shirt that you would wear camping, i.e. as like a Cub Scout back in the 50s. 00;39;06;15 - 00;39;22;26 Lewis Yeah, they don't have a top button, they're meant to be worn open. The collars usually have minimal but some amount of interfacing to keep them nice and flat. They've got this second kind of flare on the bottom, so it's that two point collar. 00;39;23;20 - 00;39;34;17 Lewis And that defines the entire myriad of camp fashions. Is this is the specific collar on the shirt. But then after that it's anything goes. 00;39;34;22 - 00;39;35;16 TK Yeah. 00;39;35;19 - 00;39;52;04 Lewis And he leans very much into avant garde styling. And honestly if you took Alex Horne's wardrobe and you took Noel Fielding's wardrobe and you mix them together, I feel like you'd be hard pressed to separate them out. 00;39;52;11 - 00;39;54;15 TK Yeah, I can see that, honestly. Yeah. 00;39;54;15 - 00;40;16;10 Lewis The the main difference is that Noel goes more toward maximalism and bohemian patterns, where Alex is definitely kitsch. He likes mermaids, he likes bears, he likes weird, funky, not quite tropical prints. And for him, it's all down to color and prints and patterns. 00;40;17;15 - 00;40;34;12 Lewis And if you don't really understand that sort of fashion, it does look like the absolute nonsense. Yeah, but if you've ever watched No More Jockeys, I think that's where the theory completely falls apart, that it's Rachel Horne dressing him. 00;40;35;03 - 00;41;01;29 Lewis Because he has, in the first set of No More Jockeys, the best jacket I've seen in a while. It's got this really subtle piping down the lapels, there's two buttonholes in the lapels. He's wearing a bold blue shirt with convertible cuffs, which can be worn either out like this or wrapped around. They've got buttons on both sides, basically. 00;41;02;02 - 00;41;08;21 Lewis And then he's paired this with a really... kind of a powder pink tie with stripes. 00;41;09;19 - 00;41;27;25 Lewis And it's such a good look on him. And there's few episodes where he isn't wearing something that's very stylish and very put together. The exceptions are really the ones where he's intentionally dressed a bit like a twat, because that's what the episode is. 00;41;27;25 - 00;41;28;13 TK Right. 00;41;28;16 - 00;41;33;07 Lewis Like there's one where he's dressed like a minion. 00;41;33;10 - 00;41;38;24 TK You know who he reminds me of, is Mabel from Gravity Falls? 00;41;38;26 - 00;41;41;02 Lewis Yes. 00;41;41;04 - 00;41;51;17 TK Lots of colorful jumpers. Just like, doesn't give a shit about shying away from color or anything like that. Just so much fun. 00;41;51;19 - 00;42;03;03 Lewis And I will tell you, as a resident of Oregon, that is the most unbelievable part of the entire show, that this girl is wearing knit jumpers in the middle of Central Oregon in summer. 00;42;03;05 - 00;42;04;08 TK Yeah. That's real. 00;42;04;08 - 00;42;05;11 Lewis No, you will die. 00;42;05;15 - 00;42;08;28 TK Yep. 00;42;09;01 - 00;42;15;29 TK All right, so we're going to take a brief break to play a game. Lewis Oh boy. 00;42;16;02 - 00;42;26;22 TK Yes, you're going to be the first one to play the thing that's not fact or fanfic, because I ran out of those. 00;42;26;25 - 00;42;41;07 Lewis So, I mean, to be honest, I back myself as having seen every series of Taskmaster more than anyone else in our group. 00;42;42;09 - 00;43;02;21 Lewis Because, I mean, for those who don't know... any new readers out there, I had a bad year a couple of years ago. It's literally all I watched for about eight solid months. I would watch Taskmaster and then would occasionally break it up with, you know, Buzzcocks or whatever. TK Well that's probably good then, because the thing that we're gonna play is called "What's the Story." And so this is all about fanfic. Lewis Okay. TK Yeah, so I don't actually know what your fanfic reading looks like, I'm not sure if you're- Lewis Very minimal these days. TK Great, so this will be a perfect game for you. Lewis I used to read a lot and then something happened and I got out of the habit of it. TK I mean, that's real. I feel like theres definitely stints where I'm not in the mood to read, and then there will be stints where it's the only thing I can do ever. 00;43;02;24 - 00;43;42;02 TK Yes. So I am going to give you three titles of fanfics, and I am then going to give you three options. So it's going to be a multiple choice thing of like, what is this fic about? And you have to choose the correct answer. Okay. So I'm going to start you off with what I think is an easy one, but that's just because everybody in our group chat talks about it all the time, 00;43;42;04 - 00;43;51;02 TK Because it is, to me, a staple of the fandom. But this is Spaceship Greg by Iluminescence, so not sure if you've read it, but you should. 00;43;51;06 - 00;43;52;06 Lewis I haven't. 00;43;52;06 - 00;43;54;03 TK And everyone you're right. 00;43;54;04 - 00;43;55;18 Lewis It's talked about a lot. 00;43;55;19 - 00;44;32;18 TK It does because it is fantastic. It is a work of art. Okay, so your your options are so so again this is like what is what is the story here okay. Option one spaceship Greg is an alternate universe in which Greg runs a struggling amusement park. Alex, Mark and Tim work summer jobs. They're option two. It is an alternate universe in which Greg is a starship captain and Taskmaster alumni comprise his crew and Kenny. 00;44;32;23 - 00;44;39;21 TK Option three. It is an alternate universe in which Greg is a literal spaceship. 00;44;39;23 - 00;44;40;11 Lewis It's three. 00;44;40;17 - 00;44;42;22 TK It is three. 00;44;42;24 - 00;44;49;20 Lewis Because I saw this really good animation that someone did where the spaceship even had his glasses. 00;44;49;26 - 00;45;08;06 TK I know what you're tell you. I think, I think she commissioned an artist. To. Yeah. To do, like, a little. It's like a little GIF or something. It's gorgeous. There's there's, like Alex in the foreground, and he's standing looking at the ship, and, the ship is like, looking at it. 00;45;08;06 - 00;45;10;28 Lewis Oh, so that's up above him and just kind of. 00;45;11;02 - 00;45;11;26 TK Yeah, hovering. 00;45;12;00 - 00;45;13;14 Lewis Waving a little bit. 00;45;13;16 - 00;45;44;07 TK Yeah. It's so pretty. Okay, you got one, right. Good job. This next one is by me. This is an older one, so you might. And it's not. It hasn't really been talked about since I put it out originally. But this one is called Lust and Pride. Okay. So option number one, an alternate universe slow burn, in which Greg is a sex worker and Alex is a John who hires him. 00;45;44;09 - 00;46;10;14 TK Option number two, an alternate universe in which Alex has feelings for his tall, ivory haired professor who will not indulge in and. Option three, an alternate universe is set in Regency England in which Alex and his sisters Marc and Tim, navigates society in search of a good marriage. 00;46;10;16 - 00;46;24;25 Lewis So there was talk of a Pride and Prejudice, and you, someone was going to write in the even done all of the casting and everything. So I kind of want to say it was that number three. 00;46;25;02 - 00;46;50;01 TK It's not that it's number one sex worker. Not although that was a really good guess, because there has been talk of doing a Pride and Prejudice. At you. Not by me, because I don't. I'm sure I've watched the movie, but one my brain is like a sieve, and two, it's been a really long time since I watched it, and I remember nothing about it. 00;46;50;01 - 00;46;52;24 TK So it's not it's not going to be. 00;46;52;27 - 00;46;56;19 Lewis The honestly same. 00;46;56;22 - 00;47;15;26 TK Okay. Last one and this is, this is for your little trophy on the website. So okay. And so you gotta think real hard. But okay. So this one is called The Revenge of Blue Ted by a lot of hard. 00;47;15;28 - 00;47;38;06 TK Okay. Option one Greg's girlfriend left him after finding that he still regularly has relations with New Ted. He sees solace with Alex. Option two I know, so this option to Brad Gilbert helps Greg experience what Blue Ted might has felt. 00;47;38;08 - 00;47;40;20 Lewis Oh no. 00;47;40;23 - 00;47;55;06 TK Option. The three Greg and Alex are in an established relationship. Blue Ted has been left forgotten to time, and he is not happy with that. 00;47;55;08 - 00;47;56;17 Lewis What was the first one? 00;47;56;19 - 00;48;10;13 TK The first one is Greg's girlfriend left him after finding that he still regularly has relations with Blue Ted. He seeks solace with Alex. 00;48;10;16 - 00;48;13;12 Lewis Again, I'm leaning toward three. 00;48;13;14 - 00;48;22;24 TK It is three. The most unhinged answer is correct. 00;48;22;26 - 00;48;36;13 Lewis Yeah. See, I didn't think that it was Q because again, in that factor fanfic thing I've seen that played out for real because he does it at the end of You Magnificent Beast. 00;48;36;15 - 00;49;11;12 TK Yeah. Good times. All right. Excellent job. You go all trophy. Yay! Okay. All right, so let's let's continue the conversation and talk about, let's talk about contestants cost okay on Taskmaster because we've we've talked pretty in-depth about Greg and Alex. What are like your, your top, like, stand out costumes? From the contestants standpoint. 00;49;11;15 - 00;49;47;02 Lewis So one reason that I really became more obsessed with this show than I have with other panel shows is because it follows the same rules that, like comic books and animation do. And part of that is the, the format where we see the same people every day or every the same people every episode. But I love that they always have these costumes, even if it's a very subtle costume. 00;49;47;07 - 00;49;53;10 Lewis They wear it every single episode for every single task. Because I am remarkably faced blind. 00;49;53;13 - 00;49;54;08 TK 00;49;54;11 - 00;50;21;22 Lewis And like, it's this bad that during the second Champion of Champions, I got confused consistently because Gamble's hair was quite long during the task. And then was again cut very neatly through the studio, and I think it wasn't until my second watching that I realized they're the same person. 00;50;21;24 - 00;50;25;15 TK What a and what a person to get mixed up at. Gamble. Yeah. 00;50;25;17 - 00;50;55;13 Lewis It just wasn't clicking for me. Yeah. So I absolutely love these with the costumes. For the best ones. I do really like how and look that costume that he had for series nine, the denim tuxedo. Yeah. And then he elevated that for Champion of Champions and wore that horrible 70s outer blue one. 00;50;55;16 - 00;50;56;12 TK Denim on. 00;50;56;15 - 00;51;04;25 Lewis With. Yeah. What? Like Lou Sanders said, he was the best dressed loser I've ever seen. 00;51;04;27 - 00;51;06;13 TK We love to see it. 00;51;06;16 - 00;51;20;10 Lewis And I really like that Lou did the same thing as well. She had taken her costume and then retooled it for Champion of Champions. I always like those one. Yeah, Tara did the same thing. 00;51;20;10 - 00;51;20;29 TK Yeah. 00;51;21;02 - 00;51;29;02 Lewis And so like, even though except for Ed, for some reason, I knew who was who. 00;51;29;05 - 00;51;29;25 TK I'm. 00;51;29;27 - 00;51;43;11 Lewis Going in like I've been a fan of Dora's forever. I think if you know, he's one of those ones where if I don't recognize him, something is gone very wrong. Right? But I did like that it was the exact same costume, just with more patches. 00;51;43;11 - 00;51;54;10 TK Yeah. It's actually, it's funny because now that you mentioned Dora, I was his his series was 14. 00;51;54;13 - 00;51;54;26 Lewis Yes. 00;51;55;02 - 00;52;20;19 TK So for some reason, in my watch through of Taskmaster, the first time I was ever watching it, I completely skipped 14. And I have no clue why. Like, it was by accident because I was going through like from series one through, like, chronologically for some reason I skipped 14, watched Champion of Champions two, and I was like, who the fuck is this guy? 00;52;20;21 - 00;52;40;16 TK I'm like, and he. Because I watched like maybe ten minutes of the episode and I had to pause because, you know, like, he turns around and there's a big wait, what? And I was like, I don't understand, is that supposed to be like some kind of callback to something? And then I was like, I don't think I watched his series. 00;52;40;16 - 00;52;45;08 TK So then I had to go back and watch the series. I was like, oh, okay, I, I get this joke now. 00;52;45;10 - 00;52;59;01 Lewis I mean, that's no worse than what either myself or my husband did. I watched it backwards like a psycho. And then I learned that there were these champion of champions. So I went back and watched those. 00;52;59;01 - 00;53;00;04 TK Oh my gosh. 00;53;00;09 - 00;53;30;02 Lewis And then my husband. I had told him, rather foolishly early that that the odd number series for a long time were tended to be the more unhinged ones, and he interpreted that as only watch the odd number. And then, like, I'd be talking about things and he's like, oh, I didn't see that. I'm like, why not? Oh, well, it might have been in a series that you told me not to watch. 00;53;30;02 - 00;53;35;28 Lewis And like, I didn't tell you watch. So I just said the other ones are particularly good. 00;53;36;00 - 00;53;40;28 TK Oh my gosh. Imagine not watching 16. One of my favorites of all time. 00;53;40;28 - 00;53;41;29 Lewis Imagine not watching. 00;53;41;29 - 00;54;04;05 TK Six. Yeah, my my partner, he like I was talking on the on our group chat about something something and and he was like and he was like, what's the profile picture on your group chat? And I was like, It's Greg and Alex. Almost like right before the Lucas. And he's like, what curse? I'm like, what do you mean what kiss? 00;54;04;07 - 00;54;06;04 TK I had to I had to go back. 00;54;06;04 - 00;54;07;17 Lewis Yeah. What kiss? 00;54;07;21 - 00;54;18;13 TK And I had to go back and like, go back to series six and bring it up for him. And he's like, I straight up do not remember that. And I was like, oh my God. 00;54;18;15 - 00;54;43;17 Lewis My poor husband. The first eyes he ever laid on Taskmaster, I was back in the bedroom. This was right after the ordeal, which I won't go into here. Yeah, and I was watching series six, and he just happened to wander into the bedroom at the precise moment that Alex Horne set his bare ass on a cake, and he watched that happen. 00;54;43;19 - 00;54;54;27 Lewis And then he looked at me and he goes, what the fuck? Kind of weird porn are you watching? And it took me a month to convince him that this show is not porn. 00;54;54;29 - 00;54;59;18 TK That's like the best intro to Taskmaster. It is. 00;54;59;21 - 00;55;03;12 Lewis Like he was so shocked in. 00;55;03;14 - 00;55;04;08 TK That film. 00;55;04;08 - 00;55;08;12 Lewis Oh, what? What aren't you telling me? 00;55;08;14 - 00;55;09;21 TK Oh, like, cause. 00;55;09;28 - 00;55;12;26 Lewis I think it was just that he thought I was hiding things from. 00;55;12;26 - 00;55;14;23 TK Yeah. You know, like. 00;55;14;26 - 00;55;23;12 Lewis He needed to process this, and I'm like, no, I promise you, it's not always like it's. It is sometimes. 00;55;23;12 - 00;55;50;24 TK Sometimes, but not always. Oh, my gosh. Now there's, one thing that is like, my favorite thing that contestants don't always do, but when they do, do it. I'm so happy is during the final in-studio recording session for episode ten, when they coordinate their outfits. It's like, I love that so much. Like The Beatles, one. 00;55;50;27 - 00;55;51;22 Lewis And more off. 00;55;51;22 - 00;56;00;16 TK Me to this. Like the Beatles one was like top tier for me. It was so, so good. That was, I was series. What? 00;56;00;22 - 00;56;02;08 Lewis Yeah, that was 15. 00;56;02;08 - 00;56;08;16 TK 15. Yeah. And then, what was the one I think was. 00;56;08;17 - 00;56;09;28 Lewis Nine, where the tuxedo. 00;56;09;28 - 00;56;19;13 TK The tuxedos was really good. And then the I think they did something similar in Steve Pemberton's. So if I'm remembering. 00;56;19;13 - 00;56;29;17 Lewis Correctly, which is that 117. Yeah. Again, here in 18, what they've all done was dressed up really nice, and I like that as well. 00;56;29;23 - 00;56;46;25 TK Yeah. Well, the thing that I think they, if I'm remembering correctly in series 17, maybe I am misremembering this, but I think everyone wore a tux except or no, maybe I think I had. 00;56;46;25 - 00;56;53;16 Lewis Because Steve was wearing the tux because he was wearing that tuxedo jacket. Well, it was. 00;56;53;19 - 00;56;56;08 TK The shirt. Yeah, yeah. 00;56;56;10 - 00;56;59;08 Lewis And everyone else was just dressed nice. 00;56;59;10 - 00;57;17;02 TK Yeah. And I feel like there was. I can't remember what series it was, but I feel like there was someone that had been dressing really, really nice in the studio the whole time. And then in the last episode, he just comes in wearing, like, sweatpants and a t shirt. But I don't remember what. 00;57;17;04 - 00;57;20;01 Lewis That that's kind of the opposite of what Sam Campbell did. 00;57;20;03 - 00;57;25;13 TK Yeah. Sam, can I don't I was all feeling a bit gray. 00;57;25;15 - 00;57;27;18 Lewis I don't understand, Sam. 00;57;27;18 - 00;57;49;27 TK I don't know. What I really loved was Andy Saltzman. I love him coming in with all those outfits and just, like, no explanation. Just like none at all. Like, sometimes there was a little bit of an explanation, but like, not, we didn't get as much as I think we we should have. But I really liked his his outfits. 00;57;50;00 - 00;57;55;14 Lewis On the same vein. Bridget Christie. Yeah. Did something similar. 00;57;55;14 - 00;57;56;05 TK Yeah. 00;57;56;08 - 00;58;02;26 Lewis And what, what she had said she wanted to do because she's got that, black suit from what is a Fistful of Dollars. 00;58;02;26 - 00;58;05;18 TK Yeah, she was going to wear the white one, right? Yeah. 00;58;05;20 - 00;58;15;18 Lewis Yeah. And instead, what she wound up doing because, like, it wasn't done in time or something, is that she spent the entire studio record just wearing a vague Western motif. 00;58;15;19 - 00;58;17;12 TK Yeah. 00;58;17;14 - 00;58;24;24 Lewis And then someone else did something really nice and studio as well, and I can't remember what it was. 00;58;24;27 - 00;58;32;09 TK I'm trying to remember because. So much to remember, I know. Yeah, because we're an 18 series. I am at this point. 00;58;32;11 - 00;58;35;01 Lewis I am going to nitpick John Robbins a little bit. 00;58;35;01 - 00;58;35;18 TK Oh yeah. 00;58;35;25 - 00;58;44;02 Lewis So his trousers were the wrong color. Freddie wore white. Oh, Freddie wore white jeans. 00;58;44;04 - 00;58;44;06 TK At. 00;58;44;11 - 00;58;46;21 Lewis The Live Aid show with the yellow jacket. 00;58;46;21 - 00;58;56;03 TK Yeah. That's funny. I feel so bad for John because he was like, my outfit's going to be the best. And then Nick shows up and it's just like, got. 00;58;56;05 - 00;59;03;04 Lewis I love how completely Nick misunderstood the assignment. 00;59;03;04 - 00;59;06;02 TK I love him so much. 00;59;06;04 - 00;59;07;13 Lewis It was. 00;59;07;15 - 00;59;25;22 TK Yeah. It's one of my all time favorite things about Taskmaster, period, is how the editors edited out his reflection in like, everything that they could it. I was like, so I was like heart eyes emoji the entire time they did that. It was just so I. 00;59;25;25 - 00;59;31;14 Lewis I feel like every time I watch this show, I notice something else the editors have done. 00;59;31;14 - 00;59;32;12 TK Yeah. 00;59;32;14 - 00;59;42;15 Lewis There's just so much insanity going on. Yeah. And it's one of the reasons I love this show is that it is controlled chaos. 00;59;42;15 - 01;00;22;21 TK Yeah. I mean, the editors, they don't get nearly as much, you know, I don't know, screentime for lack of a better. But like, they are ultimate true heroes. Like they will create magic out of nothing. It's it's incredible. I remember when we were my partner and I were watching this latest series. We were trying to figure out whether Rosie Jones had a theme to her in studio outfits, because at first we thought that it was like a cat theme, aka like a pussy theme, because she had like a cat, like a leopard print thing. 01;00;22;21 - 01;00;34;26 TK And then she had like a cat on her shirt or something. I don't think it. I don't think it ended up being any. Yeah, but it was funny to just. 01;00;34;29 - 01;00;52;14 Lewis Sorry. No, I think she's just been taking cues from Joe Lysette. Mommy and daddy have started dressing similarly. Yeah, but know another one who I really liked was again in 16 films that had some wild studio outfits. 01;00;52;21 - 01;00;55;24 TK Oh, gorgeous. Yeah. Who? 01;00;55;26 - 01;00;59;16 Lewis All the best little costumes don't. 01;00;59;18 - 01;01;00;29 TK That was so he. 01;01;01;03 - 01;01;12;29 Lewis Had his pride jacket. That's. And fuck off on the inside. And then during the break she'd done that to her jacket purely in anticipation that Greg would pick her off. 01;01;12;29 - 01;01;35;07 TK Yeah, that was amazing. I loved that so much. And then, of course, I mean, not to not to like, go back to Greg and Alex, but to go back to Greg and Alex for a bit. Because Alex sometimes will have like these. Weird. I don't know if they're like, suits that he needs to like throw away at this point, but he'll be like, oh, I'm going to cut a triangle into the back of it. 01;01;35;07 - 01;01;43;12 TK Or like, I'm going to. Yeah, it's just like and like the ones with the pockets all over the place. I'm like, combat ripped. What is this? 01;01;43;14 - 01;01;47;11 Lewis And the one where he showed off his back. 01;01;47;11 - 01;01;59;20 TK Yeah. I want I personally want to know what happened with that lemur tail because, that say what you want, but that tail looks too good on that man. I will stand by that bit. 01;01;59;23 - 01;02;02;10 Lewis That tail looked professional. 01;02;02;10 - 01;02;04;06 TK It did. It really did. 01;02;04;08 - 01;02;07;10 Lewis Wasn't something that he went down and found at Tesco was. 01;02;07;10 - 01;02;15;21 TK No, absolutely not. I was huge, huge. I was like, Holy shit, what it was or sometimes you. 01;02;15;24 - 01;02;19;21 Lewis Yeah, it was sturdy and it looked like it had a bit of weight to it. 01;02;19;21 - 01;02;30;21 TK Yeah. That's like a convention tail. Like you show up to a convention in that tail. I love that tail. That was a gorgeous, delicate, gorgeous. 01;02;30;21 - 01;02;33;13 Lewis I love it when he does shit like that. 01;02;33;13 - 01;02;37;09 TK It's so funny that I. 01;02;37;11 - 01;02;51;22 Lewis I always get really sad when I see the series nine finale taken out of context, because they're just drowning in bronzer. Yeah, and unless you are paying attention at the very top of the show. 01;02;51;22 - 01;02;52;05 TK Yeah. 01;02;52;05 - 01;02;56;03 Lewis It looks like they've done something other than pretended to fall asleep at. 01;02;56;04 - 01;03;01;29 TK Ten. Yeah, that one was weird. 01;03;02;01 - 01;03;10;07 Lewis Yeah, like I, I missed that the first time around as well. I was just, you know, watching. And then all of a sudden, why are they orange? 01;03;10;10 - 01;03;11;16 TK So what's. 01;03;11;17 - 01;03;12;06 Lewis Going on. 01;03;12;06 - 01;03;33;26 TK Here? Yeah. And of course we've got, we've got Fern Fern Brady who has like, the most magnificent outfit I've ever seen in my life. Like, so gorgeous. That teal color. Oh, my gosh, that's like one of my that's one of my favorite colors of all time is like that specific teal. It's so pretty. 01;03;33;28 - 01;03;44;16 Lewis The revelation that she had that costume designed by someone who does like kinky costume. Yeah. Explained everything. 01;03;44;16 - 01;03;46;08 TK So good. 01;03;46;10 - 01;03;56;05 Lewis And I think she said that she even had trouble getting it cleared for television because it was too suggestive in some areas. 01;03;56;05 - 01;03;56;21 TK Right. 01;03;56;22 - 01;04;05;25 Lewis And it's like, yeah, like it's a gorgeous costume, but is that really what you're choosing to go with? Yeah. And on television. 01;04;05;25 - 01;04;20;04 TK Yeah. Not well, not only that, but like, I mean, I told you, I think before we started recording this episode is that I mostly just dress for comfort. These days, and I would I would hate my life if I had to get into that thing every day. 01;04;20;08 - 01;04;40;14 Lewis Yeah, yeah. Like, that's one of the costumes that it looks great, but at the same time it gives me that kind of visceral, like, I don't even know how to explain it. I just, I can mentally project myself into having to wear that. Yeah. And hating every. 01;04;40;14 - 01;04;53;09 TK Second. Yeah. I again, it's like a con outfit. Like something that you'd cosplay. Yeah, I was at a con and then like, you look great and you get so many compliments and then you go home at the end of the day and you're like, this fucking thing off of me. 01;04;53;12 - 01;05;06;29 Lewis I do love how it took a while for it to go from these, you know, this is just going to be my filming outfit, too. Oh, we're allowed to do something, man. 01;05;07;01 - 01;05;07;17 TK Yeah. 01;05;07;20 - 01;05;16;12 Lewis But in series one, Tim, he was dressed in that horribly fitting tracksuit. Yeah, with a shirt and tie underneath. 01;05;16;13 - 01;05;17;08 TK Right. 01;05;17;10 - 01;05;26;03 Lewis And then we go from there to a few series where there's nothing really to talk about. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, by series ten, we've got Achievement Woman. 01;05;26;07 - 01;05;27;21 TK Right. 01;05;27;23 - 01;05;30;03 Lewis I love Daisy's costume. 01;05;30;03 - 01;05;37;12 TK Her is. Yeah. Hers is so good. The the little cable. It's a long. Yeah girls. 01;05;37;16 - 01;05;40;14 Lewis Which I don't think were stickers, but that's what she called them. 01;05;40;15 - 01;06;01;09 TK Yeah. And then we've got. I don't know if you've seen this, but it's. Oh my gosh, I don't even remember if it's Australia, New Zealand. But who was that one girl that she the there was a in a studio to ask for. Like you have to. It was the one with Lee Hart and you have to come. I think it was New Zealand was it isn't it. 01;06;01;12 - 01;06;02;21 TK It was sort of I forget anyway. 01;06;02;21 - 01;06;07;09 Lewis I whatever it was New Zealand because I have not watched much of that. 01;06;07;09 - 01;06;07;24 TK Okay. 01;06;07;24 - 01;06;11;03 Lewis Because there's trouble gelling with New Zealand for some reason. 01;06;11;03 - 01;06;22;16 TK Yeah. Well if you get time go watch the episode. I don't remember. It's I know it's Lee Hart's, so it must be the first season because I. 01;06;22;18 - 01;06;26;03 Lewis Just, I think it's designed because I'm poking my way through. 01;06;26;04 - 01;06;27;07 TK Make. 01;06;27;09 - 01;06;28;13 Lewis Whatever it. 01;06;28;15 - 01;06;34;20 TK Is. The dude on the end. Like, he's like the bald. Yeah. He's bald. All. Okay, so it is. 01;06;34;20 - 01;06;37;09 Lewis The theories I've been poking my way through. 01;06;37;09 - 01;06;43;13 TK Okay, good. So eventually, eventually you'll get to. So I won't spoil it, but basically. 01;06;43;15 - 01;06;45;05 Lewis I've already seen it. I just don't. 01;06;45;05 - 01;07;06;11 TK Remember. Okay, it. Well, there's an episode where it's, like, in the studio where a costume under your studio outfit or whatever, and, I forget what her name is, but she she, like, gets out of her costume, and she's just like Smeagol from Lord of the rings. 01;07;06;16 - 01;07;15;19 Lewis It's look like I vaguely that I know that there's something that, What's his ass? Paul's brother. 01;07;15;26 - 01;07;16;02 TK Yeah. 01;07;16;06 - 01;07;19;07 Lewis So go in with, like, a photo of Paul on his shirt. 01;07;19;09 - 01;07;44;05 TK Oh, no, that's that's somebody else. That's the other guy. So Guy Montgomery comes in wearing a bunch of shirts with Paul, and then. But Guy Williams, who is his brother in the other series, he comes in and I think his outfit is that he's like taped fish to him. And so he like, it's I'm dressing like just a bunch of fits, like duct taped on. 01;07;44;07 - 01;07;58;15 TK Her I don't know, man. It's the Williams though. Williams lads. Although can we talk about how gorgeous Paul Williams looks in his little white tux thing? Because I'm obsessed with that outfit. 01;07;58;18 - 01;08;07;06 Lewis I'm going to be real. I don't understand him either. I he he just I think he's most of the reason why I have trouble with news. 01;08;07;11 - 01;08;11;01 TK No, don't say that. He's the best. He's my favorite. 01;08;11;04 - 01;08;13;22 Lewis I don't understand him. 01;08;13;25 - 01;08;16;03 TK Oh, my God, I love him so much. 01;08;16;05 - 01;08;18;29 Lewis He's like he's clearly people do well. 01;08;18;29 - 01;08;47;15 TK Yeah, well, he's the reason because like, I, I was going through New Zealand and what I had a problem with was, was Jeremy because his scoring system doesn't make any sense, as has been discussed so many times by like mostly at gamble but like a bunch of people. Yeah. But also like he like no offense to Jeremy. He is a gorgeous, gorgeous human being, but he is boring when he's on Taskmaster. 01;08;47;18 - 01;09;06;16 TK And Paul is like next to him and he's just like baby little puppy. Like, I love him some. And he's just so weird and like, I think I like that he's also a musician because he just keeps trying to do these musical episodes. And Jeremy just keeps shutting him down. I'm like, let the man do his goddamn musical episode. 01;09;06;16 - 01;09;09;16 TK I love him so much, I don't know, there's. 01;09;09;18 - 01;09;13;00 Lewis I need there to be about six more series of Australia. 01;09;13;03 - 01;09;16;27 TK Yeah, that's because we only have, what, three? Two. 01;09;16;29 - 01;09;18;07 Lewis I don't know. 01;09;18;10 - 01;09;28;25 TK There's at least two. I think there's only two because I think they're doing three and four next. But yeah Australia's Australia's really good to but yeah it is interesting to see. 01;09;28;28 - 01;09;31;04 Lewis The Toms are just so into their. 01;09;31;04 - 01;09;56;12 TK Job. Yeah. Yeah I think it's really interesting to see the way that the Taskmaster and their assistant dress in other non non-UK iteration is because like like Jeremy he's wearing a pretty suit like okay whatever. But then like I, I'm sorry I'm obsessed with Paul's outfit. Like his his little white talks with the bow tie and like is he's so cute. 01;09;56;14 - 01;10;10;10 TK And then Tom Cashman we've got wearing the, like not quite a tux, not quite Alex Horne outfit, but like, with the really, really long red, whistle. 01;10;10;12 - 01;10;12;09 Lewis I comment on that. I love the red line. 01;10;12;09 - 01;10;18;14 TK Yeah, yeah. And then I think greater Tom just wears like a nice navy. 01;10;18;16 - 01;10;42;07 Lewis Yeah. He wears a really nice suit. Yeah. And then on the UFO one, which nobody ever talks about, Reggie was dressed really nice as well. Reggie had an amazing costume, but because Alex was still wearing his perfume, they looked wrong next to one another. 01;10;42;07 - 01;10;43;03 TK Yeah. 01;10;43;05 - 01;11;13;10 Lewis And I mean, I've I've said this many times before that everything about the first hat or the US taskmaster, but we're, you know, had the potential to be so much better at it just been an hour long instead of cramming it down. If they gave it the amount of time that it needed, without the insane amount of ad breaks that Americans put on television, it would have been fine. 01;11;13;13 - 01;11;26;17 Lewis Like I do agree that Alex and Reggie didn't really click with their characters, and that might have happened over time, but Alex shouldn't have been his assistant in the first place. 01;11;26;19 - 01;11;32;04 TK Yeah. Hopefully eventually they'll Greg and Alex will come to the US and show us how it's really done. 01;11;32;06 - 01;11;36;16 Lewis Yeah, I'm really hoping that these, rumors turn out to be true. 01;11;36;17 - 01;12;00;04 TK Yeah, yeah. So before we wrap up, I just want to do one more shout out really quickly of a contestant outfit, which is going to be in this upcoming series 19. And I think I'm remembering it correctly, it's, Stevie. Now I forget what her last name is. 01;12;00;04 - 01;12;03;19 Lewis Oh, yeah. Stevie, I know who you're talking about. 01;12;03;22 - 01;12;05;05 TK It's Stevie. 01;12;05;07 - 01;12;07;18 Lewis I always want to call her Stevie Nicks, and that ain't right. 01;12;07;18 - 01;12;12;21 TK I know that's literally what my brain is like. It's like, it's not, it's not, it's it's. I seen. 01;12;12;21 - 01;12;13;18 Lewis Her in other. 01;12;13;18 - 01;12;14;27 TK Things. Yeah. 01;12;15;00 - 01;12;16;22 Lewis No, it's not. 01;12;16;24 - 01;12;45;05 TK Well, anyway, Stevie's outfit for series 19 is like this. Really classy, like full black, but with gold accents. And I am obsessed with it. It's like super classy. Like. And I love, I love a black and gold. Like, I'm obsessed with the with, like, black and gold anything. It's just like the ultimate, like, classy thing for me. So her outfit is just super gorgeous. 01;12;45;08 - 01;12;45;26 TK So one more. 01;12;45;26 - 01;12;57;15 Lewis That I want to, shout out as well is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum to all of this is Nish basically wearing the same thing that Greg does? 01;12;57;15 - 01;12;58;04 TK Oh yeah. 01;12;58;06 - 01;13;00;27 Lewis Because that's what he wears all the time. 01;13;00;27 - 01;13;18;24 TK Yeah. Was it, was it him? And he did like, it was a clothes swap. But they dressed up as I think it was him and Jason Mantzoukas dressed up as each other. One one year for a whole year. Yeah. And like, they didn't look any different from each other, except they just had, like, name tags. 01;13;18;27 - 01;13;23;04 Lewis And I understand he's done the same thing. He just came in with what he wears. 01;13;23;05 - 01;13;24;06 TK Yeah. 01;13;24;09 - 01;13;38;22 Lewis And yeah, like a few people have done that before and sometimes you don't even know it like yeah okay. That that's just a nice outfit. Like what Ross Sheen wore is definitely something that she just wears. 01;13;38;22 - 01;13;39;27 TK Yeah. 01;13;40;00 - 01;13;55;02 Lewis And then yeah, you get these people that go all the way out. There have been so many different boiler suits and I'm so straddled on the boiler suits. Yeah. Some of them look really nice. Yeah. And then some of them it's clear that these people can't even move in that right. 01;13;55;03 - 01;14;02;04 TK Yeah. Like Rosie's outfit was amazing all by yourself. 01;14;02;04 - 01;14;03;28 Lewis And the ones I think are the best. 01;14;03;28 - 01;14;05;11 TK Ones. Yeah. 01;14;05;13 - 01;14;06;25 Lewis As far as the boiler suits. 01;14;06;25 - 01;14;12;14 TK Go, yeah, yeah, I did, I did like Dara's for Champions of Champions once. 01;14;12;14 - 01;14;14;22 Lewis I technically his as a flight suit. 01;14;14;22 - 01;14;16;22 TK Oh okay I can. Oh, that makes sense. 01;14;16;22 - 01;14;17;23 Lewis Why I didn't include him. 01;14;17;26 - 01;14;36;15 TK That makes sense, because I didn't I didn't realize that he, that he was into, like, space stuff until I was flying, like, across the country to the New York near the New York premiere. And there was like, I was scrolling through what the plane had to offer, and I was like, oh, Dara talks about space stuff. 01;14;36;15 - 01;14;41;07 TK And I was like, oh, that's cool. So I watch a little bit of that. I was like, oh, this guy, it was it. 01;14;41;07 - 01;14;42;29 Lewis His, moon specialist. 01;14;43;04 - 01;14;48;04 TK Knows the solar eclipse thing. Okay. Yeah, it's pretty cool. 01;14;48;06 - 01;15;20;20 Lewis Yeah. He he was always really fun on Kiwi because he's one of the more intelligent contestants, who just becomes baffled when he gives a wrong answer. Like there's one where they retroactively took points away because he said that the that the zero or that the. Yeah, I guess the zero point of water or something was zero Celsius and it's no, it's actually 0.0, which looks like the same, but it's not the same. 01;15;20;20 - 01;15;25;09 Lewis So they retroactive he took points okay. So I mean wow. And he was beyond pissed. 01;15;25;09 - 01;15;50;22 TK Oh that's wild. That's really funny. Well all right so, thank you for coming on the podcast and talking about the costuming and the designs. Really. It's honestly like quite fascinating. And, we actually do have another guest that is going to come at some point that's going to also talk about, I think specifically, contest contestant. Yeah, contestant costume. 01;15;50;22 - 01;15;52;28 Lewis So that is why I didn't really prepare anything. 01;15;53;03 - 01;15;57;28 TK Yeah. No. You're good. I just, I just like riffing about, because there's just so many good ones to choose. 01;15;58;00 - 01;15;58;17 Lewis I mean. 01;15;58;18 - 01;16;00;02 TK I'm sure we left. I could. 01;16;00;07 - 01;16;05;01 Lewis Probably talk about their costumes, both Greg and Alex and contestants all day. 01;16;05;04 - 01;16;05;26 TK Right? Yeah. 01;16;06;00 - 01;16;07;26 Lewis There's so much that goes into them. 01;16;07;26 - 01;16;20;28 TK Yeah. And it's really cool to, like, see those those minutia of, you know, the things that that change very, very subtly that otherwise you wouldn't necessarily, you know, learn about, which is pretty cool. Yeah. 01;16;21;03 - 01;16;25;22 Lewis So like it took me being in a bad mood one. 01;16;25;24 - 01;16;44;28 TK Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So as we wrap up our podcast episode, are there any fan work recommendations you want to shout out? And also, is there anything that you want to plug, aka where can people find you if you want people to find you, etc.? 01;16;45;00 - 01;16;47;23 Lewis 01;16;47;26 - 01;16;58;20 Lewis I can't remember it was something an admin by called what is that title called? 01;16;58;22 - 01;17;03;05 TK Oh, I think I know what you're talking about. 01;17;03;05 - 01;17;12;14 Lewis Yeah, I can't remember. I'll put it down here, but that one by Toft, which is, an eye candy, an admin there. 01;17;12;19 - 01;17;14;22 TK Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So. 01;17;14;24 - 01;17;28;03 Lewis That's a really, really nice AEW. Set kind of, postwar Britain where Greg is an actor and he needs a new ballot. That's a really good one. 01;17;28;03 - 01;17;30;24 TK It is a good. 01;17;30;26 - 01;17;35;12 Lewis And Madam Q's, task markets. 01;17;35;15 - 01;17;35;24 TK Yeah. 01;17;35;24 - 01;17;43;26 Lewis That that is an amazing series. But yeah, it's nice to be on this side of the camera instead of on the other side. 01;17;43;26 - 01;17;45;13 TK Yeah. 01;17;45;15 - 01;17;46;08 Lewis Yeah, I don't know. 01;17;46;08 - 01;17;46;24 TK For the. 01;17;46;24 - 01;17;47;16 Lewis I'm the editor. 01;17;47;16 - 01;17;53;02 TK Yeah, for a listen for the listener. You know, it's all right, but, 01;17;53;04 - 01;18;08;02 Lewis You can find me at not Alex Horne. I'm around a few places. Kind of not very active. Mainly right now, because I've gone back to school, and that has all of my time. 01;18;08;05 - 01;18;10;22 TK Yeah, that's real school will do that. 01;18;10;24 - 01;18;12;15 Lewis It will. 01;18;12;17 - 01;18;22;04 TK All right, well, thanks for coming on the pod as a guest. Now get back to work. Yeah, I will do. 01;18;22;07 - 01;18;37;19 Lewis Okay. And once again, that was TK and myself talking a lot of ballocks about clothing choices on the show. Don't forget to subscribe to see more from us. And why not check out our Patreon while you're at it! Links for everything are down below in the description.