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(aka Ivo Graham's Taskmaster Wiki)
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Build a tower of cans while naming different countries / Sabotage your team

Task types:
Team
Split
Filmed
Mental
Physical
Social
Objective
Multiple brief
Adapted

Task briefs

15 minutes before the start of the team task, Espen receives his own special sabotage sub-task from Olli, outside the caravan. The main task brief is laid on a small folding table at the top of the steps to the Kongen Befaler house. The briefs for the task are as follows:

To everyone:

Build the tallest tower of cans on this table.

You must, at all times, have half of the team's hands on half of the team's hips.

Before you can pick up a can, you have to say the name of a country to Olli.

You may not say the same country twice.

You have seven minutes.

Your time starts now.

To Espen:

Make your team lose.

If your team loses the task, you get five points.

If the team wins, you get zero points.

If someone suspects you of sabotaging on purpose, you get minus two points.

Task notes

  • The task takes place in the garden of the Kongen Befaler house.
  • A stack of large tin cans is located near the caravan.

Official task video

Task stats

Points
13
Disquals
2

Attempts

Here's a description of the contestants' attempts. Someone's probably working on collecting some images to add later!

  • Martha stands behind Henriette and holds both of her hips. In this formation, the team then fetches and stacks cans while naming Finland, Denmark, Spain, Uruguay, Paraguay, England, France, Germany, Icleand, and Andorra. The stack falls over early on, and has to be rebuilt. They then realise they can carry multiple cans as long as they name a country for each. Unfortunately, they try to carry too many, and have to pick some back up, and name new countries, after dropping them. At some point, while stacking, the pair reverse their positions so that Martha can take charge of the tower of cans. Their tower ends up being five cans (82cm) tall, meaning they win the team task. However, since Espen was awarded five points, the highest they were allowed to score was four points each.
  • Upon receiving his secret sabotage task, Espen seems genuinely excited about what he has to do. The team makes the decision that each of them should just keep one hand on their own hip, rather than forming a chain together. Espen gets started right away with his sabotage, trying to stall the team by questioning whether they know exactly where the hips are, and suggesting that they search online to make sure. He then chooses 'Japan' as his first country, copying Kristoffer, and ensuring that the pair of them both have to start again. He then uses 'Japan' again, pretending that he didn't know it couldn't be reused after a restart, and stands by the pile of cans, claiming that he can't think of any other countries. He then knocks over the table and all the cans on it, while stacking his first can, forcing the team to rebuild and name multiple new countries. He then distracts the team by making them help him drag over another table, and then attempt to lift the original table, with its can tower, on top of that. During this process, all of the cans, of course, get tipped off the smaller table again. The team quickly rebuild a small tower on top of both tables, but then Espen manages to knock it over again. They finally rebuild a two can tower on the larger table, in the final seconds. Kristoffer and Live seemed stunned by how incompetent he is throughout the task, with Kristoffer stating, at the end, that he'd thought he liked Espen Eckbo (thus coining the episode title). During the task, the team are observed to name Japan, China, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Mongolia, Mexico, Antigua and Barbuda, and France. Upon learning of his betrayal, in studio, Live seems devastated. Kristoffer, meanwhile, is relieved, giving Espen a hug and sharing with him that he'd been going around telling everyone what an idiot Espen was, based on his performance that day. Olli confirms that the team managed a tower of two cans, but points out that they were on the wrong table, so do not count. While Espen earns five points for his effective sabotage, his team-mates thus earn zero points.

(Source credit: Karl Craven)

Points

Notes on task scores

  • Only Espen is awarded 5 points, despite Henriette and Martha having also won the task by having the tallest tower. They have to settle for 4 points instead.