Solution: Lesser Labors
Answer: BENDER
Written by Mike Sylvia
Each line unscrambles into a task from the UK series Taskmaster. Each word has one extra letter; per line, these letters spell the name of a competitor who performed poorly at that task, scoring either 0 or 1 point.
| First name (extra letters) | Last name | Task (unscrambled line) |
|---|---|---|
| AISLING | Bea | EXTRACT THIS BALL FROM THIS LEAKY PIPE |
| AL | Murray | POP BALLOONS |
| ALAN | Davies | INTERCHANGE BOX AND PIPE |
| ALICE | Levine | OBTAIN FIVE POUNDS WITHOUT SPILLING |
| ARDAL | O’Hanlon | WAGGLE SOME BODY PART DECEPTIVELY |
| ASIM | Chaudhry | MAKE SQUIRTY CREAM ART |
| BOB | Mortimer | TRANSPORT COCONUTS UNIQUELY |
| BRIDGET | Christie | AVOID HIGH-FIVING ALEX EITHER FIRST OR LAST |
| CHARLOTTE | Ritchie | MAKE THIS HELIUM BALLOON HOVER IN PLACE WHILE SNEERING |
| CHRIS | Ramsey | LEARN SWEDISH IN FIFTEEN MINUTES |
| DAISY | May Cooper | DECIPHER BACKWARDS SPEECH FROM RICHARD |
| DARA | O’Briain | HOLD MILK OVER MICROWAVES |
| DAVE | Gorman | LAND PEA ON CARPET |
| DAVID | Baddiel | COMPLETE ALL SEVEN SMALLER TASKS |
| DESIREE | Burch | GET BALLS PAST INTERFERENCE INTO YOUR NET |
| DOC | Brown | ANONYMOUSLY COMMAND JON |
| ED | Gamble | SERIOUSLY, PICK1 |
| FERN | Brady | EXCAVATE GRAPES WEARING FLIPPERS |
| FRANK | Skinner | GET THIS EGG UP HIGH |
| GUZ | Khan | IDENTIFY BAGGED SLUDGES |
| HUGH | Dennis | BEAUTIFULLY DESTROY THIS CAKE |
| IAIN | Sterling | TRAVEL WHILE VOCALISING CONSTANTLY |
| JAMALI | Maddix | MAKE AN OUTFIT FOR THIS BEE |
| JAMES | Acaster | FILL THIS FLOATING MONEY BOWL |
| JESSICA | Knappet | HIT THIS DRUM AT A PRECISE TIME |
| JO | Brand | IDENTIFY BIN |
| JOE | Lycett | SEAL THIS BATHTUB |
| JOE | Thomas | DETERMINE ALEX’S COSTUME |
| JOE | Wilkinson | CONCEAL THIS PINEAPPLE |
| JOHN | Kearns | RECOGNISE YOUR OWN HAND |
| JOHNNY | Vegas | COUNT ALL BALLS IN THIS BASKET |
| JON | Richardson | IMPRESS THIS MAYOR |
| JOSH | Widdicombe | MAXIMISE TEABAG THROWING DISTANCE |
| JUDI | Love | ACTIVATE EVERY ITEM SIMULTANEOUSLY |
| KATHERINE | Parkinson | PUT THESE WELLIES ON THE FEET OF THE SPIDER |
| KATHERINE | Ryan | BUILD THE TALLEST BRIDGE THAT CAN SUPPORT THIS POTATO |
| KATY | Wix | ARRANGE LOLLIES BY COLOR |
| KERRY | Godliman | DETERMINE WHICH EGG IS BOILED |
| LEE | Mack | CLINGFILM YOUR LEGS |
| LIZA | Tarbuck | KEEP WATER OFF ALEX |
| LOLLY | Adefope | DELIVER ALEX’S DINNER WHILE HOPPING |
| LOU | Sanders | DEVISE DELICIOUS DUST |
| MARK | Watson | TEXT GREG EVERY DAY |
| MAWAAN | Rizwan | LAND SOME EGG IN THE PAN |
| MEL | Giedroyc | HIDE THIS BALL |
| MIKE | Wozniak | BREAK WIND ON COMMAND |
| MORGANA | Robinson | USE LIMITED WORDS TO HELP ARTISTS DRAW |
| MUNYA | Chawawa | GET THIS BUBBLE MACHINE RUNNING |
| NISH | Kumar | RETRACE YOUR BLINDFOLDED STEPS |
| NOEL | Fielding | EAT YOUR EXOTIC SANDWICH |
| PAUL | Chowdhry | ENJOY THIS BOUNCY CASTLE |
| PAUL | Sinha | SCORE IN ONE KICK |
| PHIL | Wang | FIND THE HIDDEN SATSUMA |
| RHOD | Gilbert | POSE WEARING THIS FEZ |
| RICHARD | Herring | MAKE THE BEST UPSIDE DOWN SHORT FILM |
| RICHARD | Osman | PLACE THIS PIZZA ORDER UNDER VERBAL CONSTRAINTS |
| ROB | Beckett | PREPARE EDIBLE FLAG |
| ROISIN | Conaty | PAINT ONE HORSE WHILE RIDING ANOTHER |
| ROMESH | Ranganathan | FIND SOMEONE FIFTY-FIVE AND HIGH-FIVE THEM |
| ROSE | Matafeo | ELEVATE MELON USING BREADSTICKS |
| RUSSELL | Howard | SPEAK WITHOUT REVEALING WHERE YOUR GRAPE IS |
| SALLY | Phillips | SHOOT BASKET WITHOUT HANDLING BALL |
| SARA | Pascoe | BUY SOMETHING FOR GREG |
| SARAH | Kendall | ARRANGE OBJECTS BY SIDE COUNT |
| SARAH | Millican | GET PAINT TO THE BULLSEYE |
| SIAN | Gibson | UNCOVER APPLES NOT EGGS |
| SOPHIE | Duker | GIVE THIS CEMENT MIXER NEW PURPOSE |
| TIM | Key | DISAPPEAR THIS ICE |
| TIM | Vine | LOAD THIS BAG |
| VICTORIA | Coren Mitchell | GIVE YOURSELF GENUINE GOOSEBUMPS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE |
This comprises all seventy competitors from the first 14 series of the show. Solvers will have likely noticed that the list is alphabetized by competitors’ first name—this is a canonical ordering on the show as well, with the five competitors always sitting in this order left-to-right. Re-sorting the scores per series thus gives a sequence of five-bit binary that converts to GO SUBMIT BENDER.
| Series # | Competitors & Numbers | Extracted Letter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank 0, Josh 0, Roisin 1, Romesh 1, Tim 1 | G |
| 2 | Doc 0, Joe 1, Jon 1, Katherine 1, Richard 1 | O |
| 3 | Al 1, Dave 0, Paul 0, Rob 1, Sara 1 | S |
| 4 | Hugh 1, Joe 0, Lolly 1, Mel 0, Noel 1 | U |
| 5 | Aisling 0, Bob 0, Mark 0, Nish 1, Sally 0 | B |
| 6 | Alice 0, Asim 1, Liza 1, Russell 0, Tim 1 | M |
| 7 | James 0, Jessica 1, Kerry 0, Phil 0, Rhod 1 | I |
| 8 | Iain 1, Joe 0, Lou 1, Paul 0, Sian 0 | T |
| 9 | David 0, Ed 0, Jo 0, Katy 1, Rose 0 | B |
| 10 | Daisy 0, Johnny 0, Katherine 1, Mawaan 0, Richard 1 | E |
| 11 | Charlotte 0, Jamali 1, Lee 1, Mike 1, Sarah 0 | N |
| 12 | Alan 0, Desiree 0, Guz 1, Morgana 0, Victoria 0 | D |
| 13 | Ardal 0, Bridget 0, Chris 1, Judi 0, Sophie 1 | E |
| 14 | Dara 1, Fern 0, John 0, Munya 1, Sarah 0 | R |
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When Ed responded to the pre-task "Say a letter of the alphabet" by literally saying "A letter of the alphabet", Alex revealed an additional task envelope that read, "Ha ha ha. You must now pick a letter of the alphabet and say that letter out loud." This was worth 0 points. ↩