Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 6, 2026
If you don’t know who Jason Mantzoukas is, you clearly haven’t watched an American sitcom in the last 15 years. He’s in all of them. He’s the strangely handsome guy with the wild hair and the most chaotic energy in all of American television.
If you don’t know who Sam Campbell is, it probably means you either don’t watch Taskmaster, or you haven’t made it to season 16 yet. Fix that. Sam Campbell belongs in the conversation with James Acaster, Bob Mortimer, Romesh Ranganathan, Rose Matafeo, and — yes — Jason Mantzoukas as one of the all-time greatest contestants in Taskmaster history.
Unsurprisingly, Mantzoukas is also obsessed with Sam Campbell, as he shared with Hank Green on Green’s podcast a couple of months ago (yes, I’m very late to this). Mantzoukas spent a good ten minutes on his time on Taskmaster, which he described as the “best experience, creatively” he’s maybe ever had — even though he, as Kumail Nanjiani has also explained, probably lost money on the gig. The show pays its contestants very little, and Mantzoukas had to cover a lot of travel. He also noted that, going in, he hadn’t met any of his fellow contestants except Stevie Martin prior to the studio taping. And that’s where all the magic happens.
Mantzoukas also explained that he essentially built a character for his season: the American villain — a “brash, blustery, blowhard” in a way he very much is not off-camera. His whole persona was to hate Alex Horne as much as Greg Davies did, while simultaneously trying to wrestle control of the show away from Greg. The result was the incredible comedy soup that season 19 became.
He also admitted that his favorite seasons are 7 (because of James Acaster) and 5 (because of Bob Mortimer), but that his Campbell obsession runs deep — because, like many of us, he came to know Sam Campbell through Taskmaster first.
“Sam Campbell is some kind of genius,” Mantzoukas said. “He’s a once-in-a-generation talent. Somebody that, from the first time I saw him, I was like, ‘What’s this about?’” In fact, on his first day at the Taskmaster house, mid-geek-out, all he wanted to do was corner a producer and talk about Campbell. “I need to know everything there is to know about Sam Campbell. I’m absolutely obsessed with him.”
And, as Mantzoukas explains, Taskmaster really is — for most Americans — a “discovery engine” for comedians we’d never otherwise encounter. So many performers I’ve come to love through the show have since made other reality series — things like Last One Laughing or UK Traitors — so much more fun to watch (see, for instance, Sam Campbell in the second season of the British version of Last One Laughing).
Anyway, it’s a great listen if you want to hear two of America’s, uh, finest thinkers geek out on Taskmaster. Here’s that ten minutes, cued up for you.
And here are Campbell’s best Taskmaster moments.
Hat Tip: Reddit
