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Obsessively documenting the international Taskmaster franchise. Warning: This site is lousy with spoilers!

Musical Simon Says

Task types:
Solo
Filmed
Mental
Objective
Single brief
Original
Bonus points?
Yes

Task brief

The brief for the task is as follows:

Play the instrument indicated by the light.

Each time you play an instrument correctly, another will be added to the sequence until you make a mistake.

longest sequence wins.

There is a bonus point for the person who sounds the least worst.

Your time starts when the first light goes on.

Task notes

  • The task takes place in an industrial room at Frogmore Paper Mill in Apsley, Hertfordshire.
  • The contestants arrive in the room wearing a helmet-mounted camera and a variety of instruments: a guitar, a harmonica, a horn strapped to their left foot, some bells around their right ankle, a drum and cymbal strapped to their back, and a drum-stick strapped to their right elbow.
  • Around the room, there are crudely-drawn representations of the guitar, harmonica, horn, bells, and drum, which are backlit in turn to indicate the sequence to be followed.

Task stats

Points
18
Disquals
0

Attempts

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

  • Ivo only manages to get the sequence of five sounds correct. After acknowledging that he's made a mistake in the sequence of six (hitting his drum instead of blowing his harmonica), he says "I put all this clobber on, and I've become overwhelmed by the occasion." Ivo ultimately places joint fourth, along with Kiell.
  • Jenny is quick to point out how badly drawn the illustrations of the instruments are, and suggests that the drawing of the harmonica looks more like a sofa. She manages to successfully complete the sequence of six, but makes a mistake on the sequence of seven by omitting a blow on her harmonica. As she walks, dejected, out of the room, her horn honks sadly with every other step. In the studio, Greg refers to her as "Old Honkfoot Eclair", thus coining the title of the episode. Jenny ultimately comes in third place in the task.
  • Before Frankie even gets into the room, the horn and bells have already fallen off of his feet. He manages to complete the sequence of nine correctly, but then starts making mistakes near the end of the sequence of ten. Frankie therefore earns joint first place, along with Mae.
  • Mae enters the room playing a couple of jaunty chords in time with their honks. At the start of their attempt, Mae says that they feel like Dick Van Dyke (a reference to the fact that this actor played the character Bert the Chimney Sweep in the film Mary Poppins, opening the film with a scene of him performing as a one man band in a park). In response, Alex says that they also look like him, but this doesn't seem to go down very well. They manage to complete the sequence of nine correctly, but then start making mistakes near the end of the sequence of ten. Mae therefore earns joint first place, along with Frankie.
  • The footage initially shown of Kiell's attempt shows him apparently doing very well at the task although, at one point, he seems to lose the ability to blow on his harmonica. He appears to complete the sequence of fifteen sounds, and make a mistake towards the end of the sequence of sixteen. However, then Alex reveals that there were "two Kiell clips", and he'd 'accidentally' played them in the wrong order. The second clip reveals that Kiell had initially only completed the sequence of five sounds, and had then made a mistake on the sequence of six, before asking if he could have another go. Alex reveals that they'd subsequently given him "quite a few other goes" over a period of 45 minutes. Kiell is scored based upon his first attempt, though, and comes joing fourth, along with Ivo. However, Greg awards him the bonus point for his "cheeky head wiggle" and "nerve", and to give him "a break".

(Source credit: Karl Craven)