Tim Key is a British comedian, actor, and poet, among other talents, and he was also a contestant on the very first season of the comedy panel show, Taskmaster. He finished in fourth place (out of five), and in every season of the show since, he’s one of the first names in the credits, listed as a “task consultant.”
In a virtual interview with hosts Greg Davies and Alex Horne, I asked them both what that actually means, for insight into what Key’s role is on the show these days. The explanation was so unexpected and hilarious, you can find it in full below:
Polygon: What’s Tim Key’s specific role now, behind the scenes?
Alex Horne: He has no role whatsoever. The truth is, what happened was he did the show, and then I talked to him a lot, because he is a good friend, about what would be a good contest, what would be a good task, and I kind of wanted to pay him for it. And it’s nice to have his name attached! The first few series, he did help, but he’s since bargained his way down. He’s argued that his payment should be smaller. So I think it was £500 a series, now it’s £50. If I want to get advice, I’ll call him, but I haven’t for about four years.
Greg Davies: So he’s getting £50 a year for literally doing nothing?
‘It was real cat wrangling’: Alex Horne and Greg Davies on Taskmaster’s ‘chaotic’ series 19
‘If we’d known Jason [Mantzoukas] before he arrived, we could have just had four sleepy people. He could power a city’
Horne: Yeah, but I think he would argue that the hassle of paying tax on that £50 and all that, he would rather not get the £50 a year.
Davies: Right… okay.
Polygon: It sounds like a pretty good gig for him!
Horne: No, he’s always there for us, and if you ask him, he will tell you that he comes up with every single task.
For those outside of the United Kingdom, you can watch the entirety of Taskmaster‘s season 21 on the official YouTube channel. Residents of the U.K. can watch it via Channel 4.