Follow the Taskmaster’s instructions

Task notes

• The contestants are lined up side-by-side on stage, each wearing overalls with pockets on the hips and chest.
• They are each stood behind a low table, upon which there are a small onion, a white ping pong ball, a rubber duck, a pencil, and a single car key on a keychain.
• The low height of the tables necessitate that the contestants must bend down to pick up the objects, which takes more time than it would with a taller table, and thus increases the odds that they will lose track of Jaakko’s instructions.
• Jaakko’s instructions are as follows: “Put the duck in the left side pocket”; “Put the onion in the right breast pocket”; “Take the pencil in your right hand”; “Put the ping pong ball in your left breast pocket”; “Put the key in the right side pocket”; “Change the places of the left side pocket item and the object in your right hand”; “Swap the items in the breast pockets”; “Return the item in the right side pocket to the table”; “Take the item from the left side pocket in your left hand”; “Spin around clockwise”; “Put the object in the left hand into your mouth”; “Put the item in the right side pocket into the left side pocket” (in fact, there should be nothing in this pocket at this point); “Switch the position of the yellowest and whitest objects” (the rubber duck and the ping pong ball); “Put the object in the mouth in the left side pocket and change the contents of the left pockets with the corresponding contents on the right side”.
• At the end of the task, it is stated that if the instructions were followed correctly: the ping pong ball should end up in the contestant’s right hand; the duck should end up in their left breast pocket; the onion should end up in their right breast pocket; the key should end up in their left hip pocket (incorrect – there should be nothing in this pocket, while the key should be on the table); and the pencil should end up in their right hip pocket.