Jason Mantzoukas is having a ton of fun on Taskmaster. “It’s so cool to be inside of a thing that you love, to be able to be given the opportunity to walk in the door,” the actor and comedian recently told The A.V. Clubin an interview that mostly consisted of him gushing about the wildly popular British comedy panel show. “So all of those firsts, that first opening of the task, all those things, it’s so wild to be like, ‘Oh, I’m inside the show.’ It’s cool as hell,” he continued.
Don’t believe him? Just look at how giddy he is to be in a wig and a dress, “learning” how to ride a bike for the very first time. The A.V. Club can exclusively premiere a clip from this week’s episode in which contestants are tasked with creating a “classic family home video moment” where one teammate poses as the other’s parent. Mantzoukas and fellow comedian Stevie Martin’s contribution may (hopefully!) not be what most families would consider “classic,” but it’s certainly memorable. You can watch it below:
Mantzoukas is a contestant on season 19 of the Alex Horne-created phenomenon, in which comedians compete across a series of ridiculous “tasks” such as the one assigned above. The Percy Jackson And The Olympiansactor is one of the first American contestants on the original version of the series, which he pitched himself for after binge-watching pretty much all of it on YouTube. “One of the things that I said to them, very, you know, forthright at the beginning, was, ‘I’m coming on to be the villain. I want to be the ugly American. Please let that be a source of friction and difficulty,'” he recalled to The A.V. Club. “I take great joy in episodes… I don’t want to run roughshod over the show, but I want to be disadvantaged in a way that allows me to be really mad. Which was perfect.”
Taskmaster season 19 is currently streaming on Channel 4’s website. Us ugly Americans can also find new episodes uploaded weekly on Taskmaster‘s YouTube channel.
