Episode 5: Having a little chuckle

Episode synopsis

In this episode, the contestants must bring in the most surprising thing from their wardrobes, make a key difficult to retrieve, high-five Alex, raise the water level in a fish tank, answer a phone call from Alex, and then pop balls out of their holes.

Title context

'Having a little chuckle' was what Ardal O'Hanlon said he was doing, after the 'Pop balls out of your hole' task.

Alternate Titles

• On Finland's MTV Katsomo streaming platform, this episode is titled 'Vähän hykerryttää', which translates as 'Having a little chuckle'. [Translator credit: zador]
• On Sweden's SVT Play streaming platform, this episode is titled 'Trea med en femma inom tio', which translates as 'Third with a five within ten'. This is presumably a reference to the 'High-five Alex' task (i.e. being the third person to give a high five within 10 minutes). [Translator credit: DANI]
• On Norway's Discovery+ Norge streaming platform, this episode is titled 'Ler litt', which translates as 'Laugh a little'. Note: this Norwegian translation of the title only appears in the subtitles for the episode, whereas the episode title listed on the platform is the original English title. [Translator credit: Jan Harald]

Taskmaster Intro

Hello! I'm Greg Davies, and this is Taskmaster. At its heart, Taskmaster is a warm show which shines a playful light on the strengths and weaknesses of our comedian friends. Ultimately it's just feel-good fun that celebrates what it is to be human, what it is to be fallible. That's the introduction that Channel 4 signed off. This is what I was gonna go with: Come and laugh at the stupid clowns! They can't do anything! Laugh at them! Make them feel sorry for being bad at things! Drive them from their homes! Form an angry mob and drive them from their actual homes! Here they are now.

Assistant Intro

And next to me, a man who bravely confided in me recently that he doesn't think the NHS is very good, and that some nurses 'are lazy'. It's little Alex Horne!

Taskmaster's Sign-off

So, what have we learnt today? We've learnt that life can be brutal. But no matter who's upset you, how crushed you are by disappointment, what hurdles you have to try and overcome, things could always be worse [footage of Bridget Christie lying on the ground, banging a pot]. That is half of this series done. Well done, you. But well done mainly to tonight's winner... Ardal O'Hanlon!