A "Seinfeld for hipsters", the first season of Flight of the Conchords has earned it a cult following. Here's what you should know.
You may have heard some of the buzz about Flight Of the Conchords, a new HBO series that recently finished its first season. It’s become a cult classic, a “Seinfeld for hipsters” if you will and a seriously musical comedy hit in the tradition of Spinal Tap.
Flight of the Conchords Compared to Seinfeld
Flight of the Conchords are Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, “the fourth most popular folk parody band in New Zealand”, who have moved to New York City to make it big. They attempt to get gigs and meet girls, but they're slackers and not a lot happens for them. The Seinfeld comparison comes from exactly this - the humour comes from the insignificant events and subtle ridiculousness of their daily lives. They are broke and hungry, have a hopelessly inept manager (Rhys Darby), one friend (Arj Barker) who tries to school them in American ways such as how to “flip someone the bird” and one fan (Kristen Schaal) whose behaviour borders on obsessive. At least two or three times in each 30-minute episode the duo break into song and it’s these music video moments especially that the show's brilliance is revealed.
Clement and McKenzie are real songwriters, singers and musicians with the added twist coming from their penchant for satire and comedy. They’ve released a self-titled EP featuring some of the songs from the series and have been featured in their own special with HBO’s One Night Stand. Their lyrics are absurd and hilarious ("She’s so hot, she’s making me sexist…" from the song She’s So Hot…BOOM!) and their music references all kinds of musical genres from hip hop (The Hiphopopotamus VS the Rhymenocerous) to folk (Albi the Racist Dragon). And as characters, they're instantly likable. McKenzie with his mop of curls and penchant for antlered-animal tee and sweatshirts is a baby-faced slacker and Clement with his ‘70s sideburns, western-style shirts and geeky glasses thinks he’s the “sexy one” but is really more like an “ogre who works in a library”.
Absurd Musical Interludes and Sly Humour
The absurdity of the musical interludes and overall slacker feel of the show undercuts the slyness of its humour. Rarely has self-deprecation and absurdity worked so well. In the “Drive By” episode, McKenzie and Clement try to deal with the discrimination of a local fruit vendor until he realizes that they are from New Zealand, not Australia. In the season finale, Bret (and later Jemaine) lets off some steam by doing some “angry dancing” and recreates Kevin Bacon’s famous dance sequence from Footloose.
Flight of the Conchords flows with such low-key slacker effortlessness, it’s easy to overlook that an enormous amount of attention must go into getting it looking and sounding just right. There is absolutely nothing about the series that seems forced, it’s in fact, subtle, loopy and straightforward and a perfect fit amongst HBO’s other unconventional programming. Overall Flight of the Conchords is a touch too cool in its humour and references to earn them sitcom-sized audiences or even The Sopranos-sized ratings. But McKenzie and Clement are used to it – they’re the fourth most popular folk parody act in New Zealand only because their own tribute band bumped them.
