vires in notitia

Series 21, Episode 8: Redaction in Action

Posted on May 31, 2026

Your Task

Provide the most intriguing and suspenseful commentary 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!

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 Northern lass won her third episode 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 disgrace that Amy was only awarded 1 point more than the rest of the cast in the redaction/censorship task.
    • Armando’s was clearly the worst out of all the attempts, something that I’m sure he agrees with.
    • Joel’s attempt 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

Series Scoreboard Tracker

It’s a bloody outrage that an American outrage is surpassing the British talent 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’s 3rd episode win for the series, she is still only 3rd place in the series.
  • If Joanna wins this series by the skin of her teeth (less than 5 points), we can all glance with absolute disgust at Little Alex Horne and the UK Taskmaster crew.
    • An automatic 5 point lead was pratically handed to Joanna from Episode 1’s live task which was winner takes all. It quite clearly, provided an unfair advantage.
  • 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.

Left: Scatter! A graphical visualisation of Contestants Episode Performance and their Volatility. <br> Right: The similar neighbours of the cast of Series 21.Left: Scatter! A graphical visualisation of Contestants Episode Performance and their Volatility. <br> 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).

Series Ranking Distribution: Using Data up to Episode 7 (left), and up to Episode 8 (right).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 perked up a bit for our Amy.
  • Hopefully our Amy can kick Kumail’s fat Hollywood arse back into 3rd place.
  • Whilst Amy’s at it, Joanna also deserves taking down a peg or two.

The Ever Changing Series Distributions

Figure 6: Animation and evolution of the series ranking distributions as the series progresses.

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).

Joint Distribution of Cast Series Ranking: Using Data up to Episode 7 (left), and up to Episode 8 (right).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 probable outcome.
    • This is not the biggest surprise given that the series rankings have remained the same as last episode.
  • However, I’m still not entirely happy that the first combination in which Amy wins is the 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!

All this <code style='color : black; background-color: black'>censorship</code> and <code style='color : black; background-color: black'>redaction</code> is making me so <code style='color : black; background-color: black'>hot</code>!

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 ashamed of themselves if Joanna wins the series with anything less than a 5 point lead.
  • The author of The Median Duck is trying out a new publishing strategy in which the main graphs and tables are posted first, and then the written commentary is added later.
    • I have a feeling that no one really reads the written commentary, and everyone mainly just looks at the graphs.
    • This may even reduce my stress and anxiety.

Figure 9: All these redactions require no explanation…

All these redactions require no explanation...

Moderated Honks from The Flock