Pete jumps the gun

Before Pete’s attempt at the task is shown, he prefaces it by explaining that it was one of the first tasks he had completed, and that he was just getting into the groove.

In his attempt, Pete makes Tom Cashman hold a snare drum while he uses the tennis racket to hit balls at it. Unfortunately, Pete has not carefully read the task brief, and has begun making his racket before his 10 minutes of preparation time are over. By the time Tom blows his whistle to signal that the racket should begin, Pete has already hit all of the tennis balls towards Tom and his drum, and has left the lab.

In the studio, Tom Gleeson says that he believes what Pete had said about it being one of his first tasks, noting that he had entirely missed the point. When Tom asks Tom Cashman if Pete had made any other sounds after the whistle was blown, Tom Cashman plays a quiet recording of Pete being offered tea outside the lab, and softly replying “Yeah, that’d be great… thank you.”

It is decided that Pete’s polite reply is the ‘racket’ upon which his attempt will be judged. Pete says that this is disappointing, since he normally screams into the face of production assistants. Pete’s noise registered at just 32 decibels, which earns him 1 point.

(Written by JoGo and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected and adjusted by: David Fuller)