#(which in fairness alice isn't really in any position to do anything about)

[susandsnell]

my hot take on Lizzie: the Musical is that the love story becomes infinitely more compelling the more actors/the production lean into Alice's flaws and selfishness rather than presenting her as some fragile little flower who's the voice of reason (tag novel below)

[danglovely]

Regrading Taskmaster: S06E06 We met at mealtimes.

*Score changes noted in parenthesis.

Greg defaces Alex's tummy. Moving on.

Prize Task: The Best Thing You've Invented

This is the worst round one we've ever had.

Russell invents "cup cereal" and Alex/Greg both take him down for it already being invented. My problem is more fundamental in that my parents never set an arbitrary time where I had to stop eating cereal, thus requiring me to conceal my cereal-eating.

Asim 3D printed shoes. It looks like soap. I think this might be good, but Greg is so dismissive out of the gate that it never gets a chance. Tim legitimately invented a spade that you can pretend to dig with. It looks effective and I've never heard of such a thing before. Great effort.

Liza's cactus shoes are so confusing that I will absolutely forget them as soon as I stop writing this post. Any modicum of internal logic would elevate them above Russell, but there isn't any.

And heeeey, Alice didn't invent anything. She had an idea . . . but the category was best invention, not best idea. I think everyone else did successfully invent a thing.

Alice: 1 (0) Asim: 4 (+3) Liza: 2 (-1) Russell: 3 (+2) Tim: 5 (0)

VT 01: Make the best snow globe.

Awful Christmas Armageddon.

I'm not all that much of a stickler on what the requirements are for "being a snow globe." That being said, Alice doesn't make a snow globe. The "globe" part is missing. I've noticed more and more that Alice just doesn't do the task a lot in this series and it's not all that surprising that she comes in last. She also orders "face meat" which is how I learned such a thing exists.

Frankly, Liza's is gorgeous. Tim makes something closer to a smoothie than a snow globe. Asim puts two Jon Snows in a balloon?? He also creates a visual that will stick with me forever. It fits the definition of "snow globe" sufficiently.

Russell does get pretty close to the platonic ideal of a snow globe. I have to weigh it against whether I value Asim's creativity more. Liza is easily first and Alice is easily last. Tim getting two makes sense and I think Russell has to edge Asim because Asim largely didn't seem to know what he was going to do next.

Alice: 1 (-2) Asim: 3 (+2) Liza: 5 (+1) Russell: 4 (-1) Tim: 2 (-1)

Team Task: Knock over as many ducks as possible. You must all remain on the red carpet throughout the task.

I also don't remember the way we were positioned.

Alright, hear me out. This can be interpreted as only a part of one's body must remain on the red entirely (not sure why they didn't call it the "red green").

Russell does keep a foot on the red. There is a philosophy in law that it should be interpreted as close to what is colloquially understood to be the law and in this case, everyone in studio seems to think it's fair to DQ Team Funk. That's the feeling I get too and while I think there's an argument for them winning, I am okay with how it shook out.

Team Funk: DQ Asim, Liza, & Tim: 5

VT 03: Make an announcement. Biggest announcement to the most people wins.

But nobody listened.

We're gonna rate "biggest" one through five and "most" one through five and combined score will decide it. Thus, ties are possible. I really hate what Asim does. It had the kernel of a good idea, but it's so clumsy. That said, at least he tried.

Russell doesn't. I would say he makes his announcement to his mom and no one else. It's also the least big announcement, and yes, it is smaller than Alice announcing quattro formaggi pizza having four types of cheese. Her audience is approximately 400.

I love what Tim does. By my rules, he really only makes his announcement to under 50 people, but I'm giving him the title of "biggest" because he made himself a security threat.

Liza is in last, because I have no idea what she did. If I had to guess . . . she didn't do the task and then made up some bullshit about how she did the task.

So, Liza: last. Russell: smallest message and audience. Alice: second smallest message, second largest audience. Asim: second largest message and largest audience. Tim: largest message and third largest audience. So the scores shake out as such:

Alice: 3 (+1) Asim: 5 (0) Liza: DQ (-2) Russell: 2 (+1) Tim: 4 (0)

VT 04: Make the best parachute for this wooden spoon. Slowest and most dramatic fall wins.

At last.

I never really took the "most dramatic" requirement seriously. Some contestants also took the definition of "parachute" liberally. For some reason, Alex never announces the times on this one.

It feels like it should be Liza (5). Alice (4). Tim (3). Asim (2). Russell (1).

And that's just based on vibes.

Greg swaps Asim and Russell with his scores. I'm pretty confident Russell did the worst.

Alice: 4 (0) Asim: 2 (+1) Liza: 5 (0) Russell: 1 (-1) Tim: 3 (0)

Live Task: You will each be given a category. You will each have 10 seconds to say things that fall into that category. First you must each predict how many correct answers you will give. The person who has successfully predicted the highest number wins.

Eggs!

All of these were very easy categories and I bet I would have bet myself somewhere between ten and twenty. The only bad category is continents (because there's only seven). That said, I would have failed at "counties" unless U.S. counties are counted, and why wouldn't they be? It's a show about pedantry.

I am a little disappointed in Liza for not being able to name five continents. There's also a bit of discussion to be had about whether Alice repeated her crustaceans. I don't have strong feelings about it and I've been hard on her in scoring, so let it be.

Alice: 5 (0) Asim: 4 (0) Liza: DQ (-1) Russell: 3 (0) Tim: 3 (0)

F I N A L

Alice: 14 Asim: 23 Liza: 17 Russell: 13 Tim: 22

Here's an announcement: Hand it to Asim Chaudhry.