tv: Flight of the Conchords

[cakehead]

i love the show but dont like the songs that much

 

[Infinite Jest]

is this an example of "new zeland" humour?

PS, I love the kiwis I know, but I was amused to no end when colbert called the country "diet australia" last night.

I don't think they're particularly typical of NZ humour - I don't think there's a particular style - we've got comedians who do regular stand-up - observational humour or puns or wisecracks, scatological songs, parody, political sketch shows, sitcoms, etc - the same as anywhere else, really. (Most of it isn't very good, but given the population base, that's not surprising).

I'd say that the self-deprecating thing could be an NZ thing, but I'm sure people will think of examples from other countries.

Anyhoo: FoTC is a live comedy duo. You need to see them live. The show is pretty good, but it's not (IMO) what they really do. The show (certainly the first series) was basically designed to give them a way to sing their songs, which is why you have random plot elements like David Bowie appearing in a dream, or the boys watching TV so that they can sing Albi the Racist Dragon.

Live, you basically get the songs plus lots of rambling banter which is pretty damn funny. And they can swear and stuff. Try to track down 'Folk the World' (their self-released CD from about 2002-3) for an example.

 

[StarOceanHouse]

If you don't skip "foux de fa fa", You deserve to have your music listeners license revoked. I didn't mean to say that the songs suck... I still like some of them:

lmao. I thought that was their best song in the series. The music had this brazilian bossa nova feel to it. The lyrics are quite funny too.

I really wish they would bring this show back. It was one of the funniest shows on HBO.

I don't think I would enjoy their live shows though. I'm not really a fan of songs for comedic value. If the songs are good as well as funny then I could appreciate it. Most of the songs in flight of the conchords I didn't care for.

 

[Rated E]

...
You skip the songs? I'm shocked.

The songs are far and away the best part of the show...apart from that the quality of the plot and dialogue is hardly good enough to sustain a 30 minute tv episode...it's all about the music.

I've always thought differently. I do like a lot of the songs. But I enjoy the show more for the bits in between the songs. I love the deadpan interaction between Bret and Jermaine. And Murray is just BRILLIANT (I also like Rhys Darby's stand up).

Arj Barker's character doesn't seem to have many great lines, but I like his character nevertheless. I like the way he's sort of a king-of-the-nerds who gets looked up to by Jermaine and Bret, but he's still a tad clueless himself (not to mention he still lives with his mum).

I don't think they're particularly typical of NZ humour - I don't think there's a particular style - we've got comedians who do regular stand-up - observational humour or puns or wisecracks, scatological songs, parody, political sketch shows, sitcoms, etc - the same as anywhere else, really. (Most of it isn't very good, but given the population base, that's not surprising).

I think of New Zealand humour as a bit deadpan. With lots of self-depreciative jibes at how small the country is (eg. in the Rhys Darby vid I posted earlier in this post he makes a couple of jokes about this. Like towards the start when asks if anyone's ever been to New Zealand, and when he's talking about their 'one fun park'.). Well actually, since most of footage of New Zealand comics I've seen has been of them performing in either England or Australia, I think that's more a common topic when they aren't actually performing in New Zealand.

There is a sort of rivalry between Australia and New Zealand though. I love the episodes in FotC where they come across the Australians from the Australian embassy. The Australians are kind of arrogant and always cracking jokes about them. While Jermaine, Bret and Murray are uptight and don't know how to take the jokes. In the real world, New Zealanders would probably make jokes about Australians being stupid and lazy. While Australians would make jokes about New Zealanders loving sheep, and being a small country, or something.

This is kind of interesting and can probably shine more light on it than me.