Jack creates a horse from New York

When Alex wishes Jack luck, before he reads the task brief, Jack sarcastically responds that “I shall do my best. You know me.”

After he’s read the task brief, he takes a long time to answer Alex’s question about whether he’s ever worked with a puppet before, as he looks around the room, distracted, and then leaves the room.

In the studio, Greg shares his suspicion that perhaps Jack was leaving the show altogether at that point. Jack responds that it was “just one of those days when you didn’t wanna do anything”, before acknowledging that that’s “not a good approach to Taskmaster”.

Jack’s puppet sidekick takes the form of a plastic horse’s head wearing a small straw hat, which Jack operates from behind a hay bale barrier, while speaking with a thick New York accent.

In their children’s TV show, ‘Horney and Horsey’, Alex reveals that he’s been teaching his sidekick Horsey the alphabet, and Horsey shares that he’s remembering the letters by thinking of words that begin with each letter.

Alex begins by announcing that “A is for Apple”, then Horsey follows up with “B is for Best Friend”. Horsey then tells Horney that he needs to come up with a word beginning with ‘C’ that describes him. Alex appears to struggle for a minute, before coming up with “Charismatic”.

In the studio, when Greg points out that Jack’s “equine American counterpart” is “full of life, and energetic”, Jack responds that it’s probably because he was having a lie down behind the barrier. Jack also gives credit to Alex for really getting into the character of “a twat”.

Greg suggests to Alex that he didn’t even like alluding to “the C-word”, and Alex confirms that he was thinking it, but wouldn’t say it. Greg tries to push Alex to say the word that Alex claims is “going round and round” in his head, stating that he’ll only continue the show if Alex whispers it to him. Alex initially tries to whisper the word to Greg while hiding his mouth behind his tablet, but then Greg pushes the tablet down, forcing Alex to move closer to his ear, at which point Greg kisses him on the face.

Greg ultimately awards Jack 4 points for Horsey.

(Written by Karl Craven and proofread by M3 / Andres Sanchez)

(Illustrations collected and adjusted by: David Fuller)