11 of the funniest Taskmaster challenges

With the final just weeks away, and the Taskmaster Christmas special scheduled for New Year's Day, it's worth looking back on some of the best moments from the show so far – from Bob Mortimer and Alex Horne spooning in a car boot together, to Noel Fielding curating an exotic sandwich.

Here's a list of some of the best tasks seen across all 10 series of the show so far.

Make the Best Upside-Down Film

Taskmaster's current series hasn't failed to disappoint on the tasks front so far, with many hilarious moments to choose from – however, one of the most creatively silly has to be a challenge in which the celebs were asked to make the best upside-down film.

While Johnny Vegas misremembering a classic hit of Lionel Richie's as 'Walking on the Ceiling' is funny enough to warrant the task's inclusion in this list, Katherine Parkinson's chin-based soap opera starring herself and Alex Horne makes the challenge.

Ed Gamble gets intimate with a chickpea

Over the years, Taskmaster has seen some of the most ridiculous challenges, but none have been wilder than series nine's chickpea challenge.

During episode 10, the comedians were presented with a singular chickpea, found in an engagement ring box, and asked to do "the most preposterous thing" with it in just 20 minutes.

While David Baddiel briefly contemplates shoving the chickpea "up [his] a**e", it's Ed Gamble who steals the show with his short film, in which he wines and dines his chickpea, takes it for a walk before tragically witnessing it getting hit by a car. Cut to the Taskmaster caravan, where Ed is seen in bed with the chickpea's remains, which are now a pot of humous. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Give Alex a special cuddle

During Taskmaster's fifth series, the comedians were asked to "give Alex a special cuddle" – a task which seemed widely open to interpretation.

Nish Kumar approached the 'special cuddle' by making it incredibly comfy for Alex, strapping several sofa cushions to himself and covering Alex with a blanket while they hugged.

However, it was Bob Mortimer who stole the show by inviting Alex into the boot of his car for an intensely claustrophobic – a creepy and unique interpretation that won him five points.

Running up that hill (with three balls)

In one of the more taxing tasks of series two, the comedians were challenged with placing three large yoga balls on the top of a grassy hill in as little time as possible.

Unsurprisingly, hilarity ensued, with Jon Richardson attempting to kick, throw and carry the bouncing balls up the mount, while Joe Wilkinson ends up rolling them up the hill one-by-one.

Rob Beckett surprises Alex

Comedian Rob Beckett emerged as the champion of Taskmaster's third series and after watching this clip, it's not hard to see why.

In this particular challenge, the comedians were tasked with surprising Alex when he emerges from a shed in one hour and while Sara Pascoe and Al Murray both initially contemplated kidnapping Alex's children from their school to present them in front of the shed, it was Rob Beckett's surprise that won all five points.

After an hour, Alex walked out of the shed to find Rob Beckett sat on a sofa, dressed as a granny before the comedian shouted, "Alex you've been a bad boy" and fired a water gun in his face.

Alex gets a soggy bottom

Series six winner Liza Tarbuck took one task to a whole different level during the series' last episode, to the point where Alex found himself sat in cake.

The comedians were challenged with declaring their love for the Taskmaster in the most meaningful way – which Liza did by using Alex as a proxy for Greg, and asking him to place his "bare a**e" in a custard-filled cake.

While Liza seemed to think this would be a pleasurable experience, Alex's face said otherwise while he squashed the cake and afterwards told Liza: "It felt like nothing I'd ever felt before. It was so in me."

Hide a pineapple on your person

Series two presented the comedians with what seemed like a relatively simple task that ultimately proved much harder than expected.

The contestants were asked to hide a full pineapple on their person and while some of the celebs were convinced that eating would be cheating, Doc Brown and Jon Richardson went about devouring the whole fruit and struggled to do so.

Meanwhile, Katherine Ryan, Joe Wilkinson and Richard Osman went about other ways of concealing the pineapple, from stuffing chopped up chunks into a corset, sticking it in shoes and shocks, and even cling filming it to their body.

Singing to a stranger

During series five, the comedians needed to access their inner maestro for one particular challenge, which involved writing and performing a song within 30 minutes about Rosalind – a complete stranger sat in front of them.

Split into two groups, the comedians had five minutes to get to know Rosalind, during which they learnt she was a Japanese translator from Southport with two sons and an athletic track judge in her spare time.

As a result, two magnificent songs were born – Nish Kumar and Mark Watson's indie rock banger I'm Always Seeing You (Do Cool Stuff), and Aisling Bea, Bob Mortimer and Sally Phillips' pop ballad Rosalind's a Nightmare.

Buy the best present for the Taskmaster

Taskmaster set a very high bar in its first series when it came down to task performance, mainly due to Josh Widdicombe's win in one particular challenge.

In the show's third episode, the comedians were asked to buy the best gift for Greg Davies with £20 within 10 weeks. While Frank Skinner, Roisin Conaty, Romesh Ranganathan and Tim Key went down a more conventional route, Josh Widdecombe opted to buy something both he and Greg would never forget – a tattoo of Greg's name on his ankle.

Make an exotic sandwich

Series four's collection of comedians were given a rather mouth-watering challenge in episode eight – they were asked to "make the most exotic sandwich", with 10 minutes to plan it and 10 minutes to construct it.

While Mel Giedroyc went down the sweet route, with Crunchies, Nutella, Chocolate Orange and Double Deckers, Noel Fielding enlisted the efforts of Alex to make his exotic sandwich. He tied several pieces of bread to Alex's head before making him perform a strip tease, all while Noel watched through his own hand-made bread peep show.

The joke was soon on Noel, when his second challenge involved eating the sandwich he'd made...

Impress a mayor

In one of the more bizarre challenges seen on Taskmaster, the series two celebs were told to impress the Mayor of Chesham at the time – Peter Hudson.

Doc Brown approached the task by singing a heartfelt ballad to the mayor, while Joe Wilkinson popped to the local corner shop and gave Hudson exactly 42 Calippo ice lollies and eight cans of strong lager.

Series 10 of Taskmaster begins on Channel 4 on Thursday 15th October. If you’re looking for something to watch, check out our TV Guide.