How Taskmaster can inspire your family to celebrate God-given creativity

If you’re anything like me and have discovered the joy of watching Taskmaster, you won’t need much convincing that this is a brilliant TV show. However, if you’ve never watched or even heard of Taskmaster, let me wax lyrical about the show and tell you why I think it’s a perfect family gathering point that can help all of us explore our God given gift of creativity and embrace our unique places in the body of Christ.

What is Taskmaster?

Taskmaster began as an Edinburgh Fringe show in which comedian Alex Horne challenged his friends to do different tasks over the year before revealing the results in front of a live audience. The success of the show led to DAVE commissioning a full series, but this time Greg Davies would play the role of the Taskmaster and Alex Horne would be his assistant.

The result is an incredibly innovative and simple show in which comedians and celebrities compete in meaningless tasks that test the very limits of physical ability, mental capacity and overall sanity. Tasks have included writing a song about a stranger, rescuing a cat from a tree and seeing how much watermelon you can eat in one minute. Taskmaster is now on its 20^th series, airing on Channel 4 and previous contestants have included Tim Vine, James Acaster, Liza Tarbuck, Daisy May Cooper, Lee Mack and many more!

Why should we watch it?

Taskmaster is perfect for families with older kids (from Series 10 onwards there is a version of the show called Taskmaster Bleeped which has all the naughty words bleeped out for younger audiences). It’s rare to find a show nowadays that has broad appeal and where all the family can sit and laugh together.

Seeing the comedians approach the same task in such different ways to one another is fascinating and, more importantly, hilarious. Finding loop holes, arguing passionately about why the prize they’ve brought in is far better than another contestants, and watching them lose their minds over the simplest of things brings a much needed joy in a world that can otherwise feel quite dark.

What can we take away from the show?

Ultimately, the show is about creativity. Not just when it comes to the tasks, although I would love to be in the room where they come up with them – there are some great ideas for activities to do with youth groups - but also in the way that the comedians tackle them.

We often talk about God’s creativity in church, how he created the universe and everything in it and how that same creativity lives in us. But our first thoughts when it comes to creativity is to think about art, drama and music (all of which are incredible and important creative skills). However, problem solving and critical thinking are also examples of creativity. Coming up with a solution that isn’t obvious, finding ways around a task that save you having to get your hands dirty or looking like you’ve lost your mind, or even arguing why the piece of rubbish you’ve brought in to show the Taskmaster is better than it actually is are all ways of being creative. We often find ourselves discussing as a family how we’d approach the tasks or what prize we would bring in to fit the theme - even sharing the same genes doesn’t mean we share the same solutions!

What I love is seeing the different responses to a task as it reminds me how uniquely made we are. It’s the beauty of the body of Christ that we are all made in God’s image but are also all made unique

Jesus was incredibly inventive in his arguments with the Pharisees and Sadducees of his day. His parables are a creative way of getting his point across – can you imagine a world where we didn’t get to read The Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan?! And yet, he didn’t write them as a book, he verbally spoke them in direct response to being challenged by people who wanted to prove him wrong.

The miracles Jesus performed were also brilliantly creative. We’re told three different accounts of Jesus healing blind people and in all of them, the way he heals them are different. One has mud put on his eyes, the other has Jesus’ spit put on his eyes and the last is asked what he wants Jesus to do for him before being healed (I know which one I’d prefer out of the three…). Jesus didn’t ever perform the same miracle twice in the same way.

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What I love is seeing the different responses to a task as it reminds me how uniquely made we are. It’s the beauty of the body of Christ that we are all made in God’s image but are also all made unique. We bring different strengths that add to the overall strength of the Church and life would certainly be boring if we all had the same thought processes and behaved in unison.

If you’re looking for ideas for a family night in, you could even do your own Taskmaster evening. Get your kids to come up with their own tasks or set them yours, taking it in turns to be the Taskmaster. How creative can you be?

Biblical characters I would love to see in Taskmaster

• Peter – The ‘rock’ would constantly do well, before tripping up on his own self-confidence and ultimately making us feel better about ourselves.
• Naomi – Bitter and frustrated at being forced to do the show, Naomi grumbles her way through but, when the opportunity arises, a quick phone call to her best mate Ruth gives her the lead in the task.
• Moses – Whilst the other contestants rummage around in the shed to find a suitable tool for the task, Moses wields his staff, which doubles for a snake and comes in handy for the get-these-items-to-the-other-side-of-the-river task.
• Martha – Very good at the individual tasks, working hard to please the Taskmaster, but fails miserably in the team task, too preoccupied with the wording of the task resulting in missing the point.
• Elisha – The older contestant of the group would have a great time until he is mocked by the Taskmaster for his baldness and chaos ensues as bears enter the studio…