Disclaimer:Doran Kennedy is the Editor for Weather Vane and Taskmaster assistant. Article author Aja Laun also participated in the inaugural EMU Taskmaster season.
Last year a first-year Honors student created EMU Taskmaster. It was a huge success and fun for not only participants but for spectators as well. Mary Kate Bomberger said she “never stopped laughing.” And Allie Hanson stated she “found the tasks very funny.” Positive responses like these prompted Kennedy to go ahead and do a season 2 for this year! EMU’s Taskmaster is based on the British TV show “Taskmaster” where participants compete to complete seemingly random tasks in order to be awarded points by the Taskmaster. What makes this show unique is that participants have no idea what the tasks are beforehand, and they compete separately. This means no one knows what is going on or how well they did until the actual show happens. The actual show takes place in front of a live audience where the competitors are awarded points by the taskmaster and get to see how well they did in each task compared to each other. After points are awarded for how well competitors completed their tasks, a final live task is announced that could change the odds of the people not in first place.
One of the Taskmaster contestants, master chef Emma Nord, stated that “it could be a really close game” and that “every contestant is either really good or really bad at varying tasks” so everything really appears to come down to the ruling of the EMU Taskmaster Canyon Penner. In one word, Emma Nord described her Taskmaster experience as “chaotic” and Taskmaster is as a whole as “a celebration of the absurd.” Emma Nord also said that Kennedy embodied the host of the real show so well she wanted to beat him up because he was being so annoying.
Another of the five contestants, Kay Pettus, described her experience as “thrilling” and that she was “very satisfied with the tasks because they felt very fair.” She also said that she “really likes the cast” and that she is very excited to see how everyone compares. Pettus stated that she was really nervous to see how she lined up against the other contestants since Season 1 involved lots of running from place to place.
In the Taskmaster Season 2 trailer, which is in an event email from Tyler Goss, reveals some of the funny things that go down while contestants complete their tasks: something involving cups around the EMU Fountain, taskmaster contestant Lleyton Stutzman jumping on what appears to be a banana, and another contestant Nate Lehman presenting a stuffed frog to the camera.
Last year had some very memorable tasks. The first that stands out is the prize task where Reah Clymer created a book of pictures of Doran which was very creepy, and I brought a creepy glass doll. The other task of making and eating a pancake was also a wild ride. This task yielded some creative results. Contestant Reah Clymer squashed some Swedish fish into a deformed circle and ate it. I put an ice cream cake in a pan, melted it and attempted to eat that monstrosity. Adam Hoover made a weird brownie crepe. For season 2 some of the contestants have been spotted eating something quite strange, so that leaves us wondering-what concoction will they be consuming this time?
