Series 21, Episode 8: Redaction in Action
Your Task
Provide the most
intriguing and suspensefulcommentary on Episode 8 of Series 21 UK Taskmaster.
The source of all intrigue can be found in the following Google Sheets File.
Figure 1: Enter challenger!
Episode Recap
Episode 8 Performance Report Card
Episode 8 Performance Grade is based on comparing the current episode performance, to the prior 7 episode(s) performance and where it lies in the distribution.
Figure 2: Episode 8 Performance Report Cards
Huzzah! Our favourite
Northernlass won herthirdepisode of the series.
As shown in Figure 2, our episode performance report card:
I’ll fill this in later.Hopefully the intelligent reader, yes that’s you, all get the joke.It also creates the desired suspense.- It’s an absolute
disgracethatAmywas only awarded 1 point more thanthe rest of the castin theredaction/censorship task.Armando’swas clearly the worst out of all the attempts, something that I’m sureheagrees with.Joel’sattempt was also far too obvious as to what it was (or was not) censoring, and there was no intrigue or mysterious.
- Our previous favourite (in terms of odds, she’ll always be my personal favourite), Amy, won her 3rd episode of the series. She accumulated 19 points, which is considered a very good episode performance.
- However, Joanna and Armando were very closely behind Amy in joint 2nd place. They accumulated 18 points each, which was considered very good and good for Joanna and Armando respectively.
- Being awarded 5 points for the live studio team task definitely helped this team duo jump up from their joint 3rd position prior to the task.
- Kumail scored 17 points and came in 4th for the episode.
- This is considered a bad episode for Kumail as it is in the lower half of his episode point distribution.
- Joel ended up in 5th place for the episode, being awarded a 13 points by the Taskmaster.
- Despite this bottom position, this was a good episode for Joel. He also got to use the other side of the hammer, and grope Alex’s bellend, which were likely life highlights for him.
Series Scoreboard Tracker
Figure 3: Series Scoreboard Tracker
It’s a
bloody outragethat anAmerican outrageis surpassing theBritishtalent on this show.
As seen in our series tracker (Figure 3):
Again, this whole bit is to a) be humorous (hopefully) b) give me time in writing proper commentary.- Despite
Amy’s3rd episode win for the series, she is still only3rdplace in the series. - If
Joannawins this series by the skin ofherteeth (less than 5 points), we can all glancewith absolute disgustatLittle Alex Horne and the UK Taskmaster crew.- An
automatic5 point lead was pratically handed toJoannafromEpisode 1’s live taskwhich waswinner takes all. It quite clearly, provided anunfair advantage.
- An
- There is no change in the series standings compared to those from Episode 7. Amy has closed the gap on Kumail and Joanna.
- Joanna is only 5 points ahead of Amy, a lead that could be easily lost in a single episode.
Neighbourhood Watch
Figure 4: Left: Scatter! A graphical visualisation of Contestants Episode Performance and their Volatility.
Right: The similar neighbours of the cast of Series 21.


Surprise! Thought you knew the structure of these posts right?
From Figure 4:
To keep you on your toes, I’ve reduced the real estate for these plots which may be a surprise for regular readers..I’ve yet to figure out how to incorporate these plots into the commentary, and whether they provide any real value..- Amy and Kumail are practically neighbours now!
- They share 4 out of 5 common neighbours: Series 13’s Chris Ramsey (2nd), Series 11’s Sarah Kendall (1st), Series 5’s Aisling Bea (4th) and Series 8’s Lou Sanders (1st).
- Amy is graced by the presence of Series 1’s Romesh Ranganathan who placed 2nd his series.
- Kumail has the bundle of joy that is Series 18’s Jack Dee, who placed 2nd in his series as well.
- Joanna now has a series champion in her neighbourhood! The original series champion, Series 1’s Josh Widdicombe, moved into Joanna’s neighbourhood, complete with his karate trophy (he famously didn’t get a Greg head for as the first series champion), and Greg’s headless body (from winning Champion of Champions I).
- Joel still lives in a neighbourhood that is predominantly filled with series losers. 3 out of 5 neighbours placed 5th in their series, and the remaining 2 neighbours placed 4th.
- Armando still has a mixed bag in his neighbourhood. Richard Herring still provdes
Gamble’s Gamble
End-of-Series Ranking Distributions
Figure 5: Series Ranking Distribution: Using Data up to Episode 7 (left), and up to Episode 8 (right).


None of the within episode distributions figures from now on as they don’t provide much value towards the end of the series.I could compare them with the empirical episode ranking we have observed as a useful, sanity check…
The series ranking distributions (Figure 5) show that:
- Things have
perkedup a bit forour Amy. - Hopefully
our AmycankickKumail’sfat Hollywood arseback into3rdplace. - Whilst
Amy’sat it,Joannaalso deservestaking down a peg or two.
The Ever Changing Series Distributions
Figure 6: Animation and evolution of the series ranking distributions as the series progresses.

Moving images! All because someone put the lime in the co-conker-nut…
Joint Cast Ranking Distributions
Figure 7: Joint Distribution of Cast Series Ranking: Using Data up to Episode 7 (left), and up to Episode 8 (right).


Not much change here.
In terms of the full cast ranking outcome (Figure 7):
- There’s not much change in the most
probableoutcome.- This is
not the biggest surprisegiven that theseries rankingshave remained the same aslast episode.
- This is
- However, I’m still not entirely
happythat thefirst combinationin whichAmywins isthe 5th most probable. I don’t know why exactly I am getting so stressed and anxious about Amy not being crowned champion. It’s not like I placed a huge monetary bet of Amy being crowned the Series 21 champion.I guess I might be getting stressed as I feel my statistical reputation is at stake, even though my reputation is non-existent these days.
Figure 8: All this censorship and redaction is making me so hot!
What Have We Learnt Today?
We’ve learnt that:
The author of The Median Duck has a sense of humour. Or at least he thinks he has.- Little Alex Horne and the crew of UK Taskmaster should be
ashamedof themselves ifJoannawins the series withanything less than a 5 point lead. The author of The Median Duckistrying out a newpublishing strategyin which the main graphs and tablesare posted first, and then thewritten commentaryis added later.- I have a feeling that
no one really reads the written commentary, and everyonemainly just looks at the graphs. - This may even
reduce my stress and anxiety.
- I have a feeling that
Figure 9: All these redactions require no explanation…
